Versailles, IN– Ripley County Prosecutor Ric Hertel testified virtually on April 14 to a Department of Justice Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice on the issues prosecutors around Indiana and the nation are seeing on domestic violence and sexual assault crimes. Hertel provided the commission with 10 recommendations he had on how to more successfully prosecute those kinds of crimes and took questions from the commission members as well.
Most of Hertel’s recommendations focused on additional training for prosecutors and law enforcement officers on how to respond to domestic violence situations, how to gather evidence more effectively, how to successfully pursue a case to secure a conviction and how to more effectively collect data to understand why these kinds of intimate cases are under-reported and undercharged nationwide. Hertel also advocated for more Federal guidelines and funding for prosecutors that would be specifically focused on sexual assault and domestic cases.
