Lori Brown: Forensic interviewer keys on helping the helpless in child abuse case

he 15-year-old girl has cerebral palsy and a seizure disorder. Unable to speak or walk, she was placed in a special education class that she appeared to enjoy. But then came a day she resisted going to her Mississippi school, and her parents were perplexed.

Authorities investigated and arrested her teacher on abuse charges. It was up to Lori Brown to find a way to talk to the girl about what happened.

“She had no ability to verbalize anything, so it was even strange for me to ask her questions and illicit the response,” said Brown. So, she made a picture packet representing various answers like “sad,” “nervous”, “tired” and “please repeat.”

The child, who could only nod her head yes or no, just needed to point to a picture to express herself as Brown sought a way into the mind of an abused girl.

Brown is a forensic interviewer who works with the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office and law enforcement in several circuits in North Georgia, interviewing children who have been victimized by abuse, especially children with developmental disabilities.

Abuse of these children is underreported, according to Brown.

“They are the perfect victims. They are the most vulnerable because a lot of them can’t speak. And can’t tell,” she said.

Brown is well known in law enforcement circles in Georgia. While she is not an employee of the Oconee sheriff’s office, she contracts with various agencies that need her expertise. She also takes part in national workshops teaching others to interview children. She spoke recently in Florida and is a key speaker at the National Child Abuse Symposium next month in Huntsville, Ala.

The workshops help train a wide array of professionals, from assistant district attorneys to sexual assault nurses and child advocates.

During January, for instance, she helped police with the abuse case in Mississippi and in the same month went to North Carolina to assist in a case in which a young child had been hit in the head and suffered brain damage.

Many law enforcement officers aren’t trained to deal with children with disabilities.

“A lot of people aren’t comfortable and haven’t been around people with disabilities,” said Brown, who has three sons, one with a disability. “And it’s not just physical disabilities or cognitive abilities. It could be a learning disability that affects a child’s ability to give an interview.”

“Are they on medications? If they are, then for the forensic interview I want them medicated the same way as if they were going to school,” she said.

And each of these children has his own way of communicating so she talks to the parents, the caretakers and others before the interview.

“The better they can communicate, the better I can communicate in the forensic interview,” she said.

Brown never interviews the suspect in the case.

“I interview the child, but I have nothing to do with the investigation,” she said. “We always want to put the child’s needs first. Not what law enforcement wants.”

Brown, who grew up in Reading, Pa., graduated with a degree in psychology from the University of Georgia, where she threw the javelin on the track team for two years. Later, she trained at a school in Atlanta to become a paralegal.

She then found a job with lawyers Gary Grindler and Athens native Nick Chilivis, whose Atlanta firm specialized in white collar criminal defense work, mostly tax and bank fraud. It was here she came to know Dick Berry, a former FBI agent who did work for the firm and was the father of Scott Berry, the Oconee sheriff.

In 2004, Sheriff Berry asked her to help interview children who were abuse victims and her new career began.

Today, she serves as an adviser for The Cottage Child Advocacy Center of Northeast Georgia and was appointed to a state panel which advises the State Board of Education on issues affecting children with special needs along with another panel in the Governor’s office dealing with abuse in schools.

She is also a consultant with the National Disability and Abuse Project based in Los Angeles, Calif., directed by Dr. Nora Baladerian, who brings in Brown for its national workshops.

“It is truly the rare person that can understand behavior as communication, that can be patient and learn to understand what a child is communicating and be able to translate that for other responders, who once she has pointed it out, can also easily see it for themselves,” said Baladerian, who has worked in the field for 38 years.

“I was impressed with her commitment to children and adults with disabilities,” Baladerian said.

Sharing this experience with others is important, Brown said.

“I’m trying to help professionals working these cases understand the children and families better so they can understand these families have a lot going on other than the circumstances of the case that we’re working,” she said.

“Doing this is rewarding because it’s helping vulnerable kids,” Brown said. “And it’s helping the family.”