Nurse's mistakes may mean child abusers were wrongly convicted

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/042...cal_nurse.html

By Laura Whitley
ABC13 Eyewitness News
(4/20/04 - HOUSTON) - Wrongly convicted -- that may be the case for dozens
of child abuse defendants. Potential problems were found in nearly 200
cases, and human error may be to blame.

Prosecutors rely on evidence as gathered at the Children's Assessment Center
to make strong cases. But now some of that evidence is being questioned.

It's known as a safe haven for sexually abused children. But Harris County
District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal wants medical assessments of potential
victims made by a nurse at the center's clinic reviewed.

"About 170 or so resulted in criminal charges being filed," said Rosenthal.
"So we then asked for a peer review in all of those cases."

Robin Howard of the Children's Assessment Center said, "We are very
concerned about what is going on here. And we're certainly here to provide
any information we can."

The problem was discovered when the DA's office asked a doctor to review the
nurse's findings while preparing a case for trial back in January.

Rosenthal said, "The doctor came back and said, 'I can't testify to those
facts. I think she made a mistake.' So that caused them to then go ahead and
check some more of her findings to see if there were, in fact, potential
errors that were spotted."

According to internal Assessment Center emails, more problems were found. A
memo from a clinic doctor in February said, "I have come across another of
_______'s charts that contains flaws that could potentially have
repercussions."

Howard explained, "She is not an employee of the Children's Assessment
Center. She was an employee of the University of Texas, who we contract with
to provide medical services."

The nurse worked in the clinic at the Children's Assessment Center for about
two years. In that time she handled hundreds of examinations.

Even though the nurse worked for UT, the spokesperson would only say the
university is still gathering information.

Meanwhile, defense attorneys are scrambling to figure out if any of their
clients could be affected.

The nurse stopped working at the clinic in November. And that's when
administration officials at CAC say they first became aware of the problem.
(Copyright © 2004, KTRK-TV)