Strangulation Preconference

– Survivor of Strangulation

Assaults involving the use of asphyxiation are particularly vulnerable to manipulation, misdirection, and misunderstanding. Although dangerous and sometimes deadly, victims of strangulation frequently lack obvious signs of external injury, while often leaving marks on the abuser as they fight for their life. But below the surface of the skin, survivors of strangulation experience dangerous physical and psychological trauma.

– Perpetrator of Strangulation

Survivors of strangulation often report being afraid they were going to die during the assault. However, when survivors fight back to protect their own lives, but are then criminalized for their own survival, they are put in an impossible situation. As practitioners, we can learn to apply the lens of survival and utilize our professional discretion to determine a just outcome.

– Survivor of Strangulation

Check-in, networking, etc.

Welcome, Introductions, Training Overview, Keynote

Case Introduction & Identifying Key Players & Identifying Challenges

Break

Legal Obstacles & Understanding the Gaps

The Susceptibility & Various Roles of Strangulation

Impact of Errors

Lunch (on your own)

Roles of Practitioners: Observations, Conversations, Interventions, & Documentation Tools & Tips

Beyond the Elements: Improving Identification of Self-Defense & Determining Predominant Aggressor

Ethical Considerations & Court Interventions

Break

Community Coordination: Case Review & Discussion

Putting the Pieces together: Lessons Learned

Questions, Closing, & Evaluations

Kelsey McKay trains and consults nationally to strengthen how communities collaborate, investigate, and prosecute strangulation, sexual violence, intimate partner abuse and other power-based abuse. As a former prosecutor, she handled thousands of strangulation cases and developed protocols to implement successful ways that improve how communities respond these difficult cases.  Over the last seven years, Ms. McKay has written curriculums, developed trainings, and consulted on asphyxiation cases across the world. As a victims-rights attorney, she has represented victims and consulted with attorneys in family court, civil court, Title IX and the criminal legal system. She has served as an attorney and consultant on multiple cases where a victim of intimate partner abuse is criminally charged for killing an abuser. In February 2023 a jury acquitted her client of murder, finding that she had acted in self-defense.

Consulting Website: https://www.mckaytrainingconsulting.com

RESPOND Website: https://www.respondagainstviolence.org

Dr. Scott Hampton has been working with batterers, sex offenders, victims and children exposed to violence for over 30 years. As the Director of Ending the Violence, he provides community and jail-based educational classes to perpetrators. Dr. Hampton is also the Project Coordinator of Strafford County’s Supervised Visitation Center, a past president of the National Supervised Visitation Network, a peer reviewer for the U.S. Dept. of Justice and is a founding member of New Hampshire’s Fatality Review Committee. Dr. Hampton is frequently called upon to provide expert witness testimony in court and writes and speaks frequently on issues related to interpersonal violence having provided over 500 trainings in North America, Asia and Europe. His 2010 book, “Tolerant oppression: How Tolerance Undermines Our Quest for Equality and What We Should Do Instead” addresses the intersection of domestic violence, sexual assault, racism and other forms of oppression.

Website: http://www.endingtheviolence.us/

David R Thomas is going on his 36th year of providing training and technical assistance to law enforcement at the state, local, national, and international levels. He is a retired police officer who taught at Johns Hopkins University, served the Air Force Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program as a Highly Qualified Expert, worked as a Program Manager II, International Association of Chiefs Police, before going out on his own to serve as a Senior Law Enforcement Consultant.

Dr. Khara Breeden has been involved in forensic nursing since 2012. While collaborating with community partners, Dr. Breeden was challenged to aid in closing the gap in medical forensic services for victims of violence and developed a collaborative approach through the creation of Texas Forensic Nurse Examiners: The Forensic Center of Excellence, where she serves as Chief Executive Officer. The Forensic Center launched as a community based forensic nursing program in 2019, but has expanded to include advocacy, counseling and an adult forensic nursing program that is one of the first of its kind. The Forensic Center has expanded services from its original location in the Houston, Texas area and now has satellite forensic nursing programs in the Rio Grande Valley and North Texas regions. The Forensic Center is a community-based victim service center that is continually seeking creative ways to improve outcomes for victims of violence.

Andrea Zaferes, a medicolegal death investigator, is familiar with the handling of aquatic and asphyxiation cases from the scene to the courtroom. She trains law enforcement, medical examiners/coroners, dive teams, domestic violence and trafficking crime workers, medical personnel, and jurisprudence members to recognize, document, and investigate homicide, death, assault, and abuse cases that involve drowning and other forms of asphyxiation. Ms. Zaferes assists in analyzing and building such cases in the U.S. and abroad, and has developed standards for their investigation. She has been teaching dive teams around the world for more than 30 years to recover submerged evidence and bodies, is an author, and frequent public speaker on aquatic forensics. Ms. Zaferes is a pro bono consultant for such organizations as NCMEC and the NYS DCJS Missing Person Cold Case Review Panel, and works with Lifeguard Systems, Dutchess County Medical Examiners’ Office, and Respond Against Violence.