Sungate helps abused kids survive confusion and pain

Arapahoe center offers homey interview site

By Deborah Frazier
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

There are few happy children's stories told at Sungate, but the big yellow house with a white picket fence is a place of hope.

"Joy of Giving" is a Denver Rocky Mountain News monthlong campaign to make the holiday season a warm and joyful time for everyone. To donate to Sungate Children's Advocacy and Family Resources Center, mail checks to P.O. Box 24225, Denver, CO 80224. For information or to volunteer: (303) 368-1065.

The Sungate Children's Advocacy and Family Resources Center is a nonprofit center where children tell tales of beatings, sexual assault, hunger, cold and sadness that may go to court.

There's the story told by a 11-year-old girl about being left with her 2-year-old brother. When a man entered the house and locked the door, she fled to a bedroom and put a sign in the window.

It read: "Please Help Me."

No one saw the sign. The house had no phone. And the man raped her at knifepoint.

Then there was the 16-year-old girl who said her mom married a man with three sons when she was 8. For the next eight years, the stepfather and two oldest sons raped her.

One son told her sex between relatives was normal.

And there was the 3-year-old boy who witnessed a murder. Three hours later, he was at Sungate in pajamas with feet, clinging to everyone he encountered, yet able to describe the slaying in amazing detail.

"It's surprising how open the kids can be," said Ann Smith, a former Arapahoe County sheriff's investigator and now a Sungate interviewer. "It's surprising, but about 99 percent of the time, they want to talk."

A video camera and microphone are poised in a corner of the two interview rooms, where only the child and the interviewer go. Smith or Rima Perri, a former deputy district attorney, ask the child carefully crafted neutral questions.

In the next room is a video screen connected to the camera. Prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement agents and caseworkers hear and see the child tell their stories without crowding the interview room.

"It's amazing how the kids find the courage to tell someone outside the family," said Stella Bailey, a Sungate case manager. "They come in frightened, but they warm up."

As sad as the stories are, Executive Director Diana Goldberg and the staff see Sungate as a caring place when children can feel safe during the interviews. At Sungate, there are also supervised parental visits in some cases.

"This is a hopeful place," she said. "I worry much more about the people that will never come here."

The interviews would normally take place in a police or sheriff's station or district attorney's office. Former Arapahoe County District Attorney Bob Gallagher created Sungate as a non-hostile place for children's interviews.

Sungate's homelike furnishings comfort children, especially when they go through the door and see dozens of children's drawings hung on every wall, Goldberg said.

While the children are interviewed, Bailey talks with the parents, who often haven't had a chance to talk to anyone. She also refers both the birth and, in some cases, the foster parents for counseling, housing and clothing.

At Sungate, there are also supervised visits with the parents in the kitchen — which allows the family to bake cookies or make hot chocolate — and the living room, where there are couches, crafts and toys, but no television.

"We try to take care of the family as well," said Goldberg, describing meal coupons donated by restaurants and the clothing bank across the street.

About 90 percent of the children have reported sexual abuse and 5 percent have complained of other physical abuse or neglect, she said. And 5 percent have witnessed a violent crime, most often domestic abuse or murder.

"We do get cases where nothing happened. Usually it's a divorce case where a parent has coached the child," Goldberg said. "We are not out to make a sexual abuse case in every instance. We go after facts."

And telling the stories to people who care helps.

"I've never seen a child leave without a smile. Never," Smith said.

December 19, 2000