CPI Calls on Attorney General Barr to Suspend Funding for Unethical ‘Start By Believing’ Investigations

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Stewart: 513-479-3335

CPI Calls on Attorney General Barr to Suspend Funding for Unethical ‘Start By Believing’ Investigations

WASHINGTON / April 4, 2019 – The Center for Prosecutor Integrity is today calling on Attorney General William Barr to stop Department of Justice funding of the Start By Believing program. Start By Believing instructs investigators to bias their probe in order to “corroborate the victim’s account” and to slant the investigative report to make the complainant “appear more innocent.”

Since 2011, the DOJ has awarded millions of dollars for the Start By Believing program (1), which describes itself as a “global campaign transforming the way we respond to sexual assault.”

CPI’s six-page letter (2) and supplemental exhibits (3) summarize criticisms of Start By Believing issued by the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, a 2016 Expert Panel, an Arizona Governor’s Commission, an Open Letter signed by nearly 160 scholars, a Due Process Statement endorsed by 300 law professors and others, and dozens of editorials and commentaries.

In addition, an online petition titled “Stop sham ‘Start By Believing’ investigations” has been signed by over 1,200 persons. The petition features the case of Matt Rolph, who was expelled from his college based on the findings of a biased probe. In his case, the investigator failed to review exculpatory text messages sent by the accuser and did not resolve inconsistencies among witness statements.

The petition concludes, “DON’T LET ‘START BY BELIEVING’ HAPPEN TO YOU! TELL ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR TO STOP FUNDING CORRUPT ‘START BY BELIEVING’ PROGRAMS.” (4)

Ethics codes require investigators to conduct their work with impartiality, objectivity, and honesty (5). In contrast, Start By Believing instructs sexual assault investigators to begin the probe with “an initial presumption” of guilt. CPI’s White Paper, “’Believe the Victim:’ The Transformation of Justice” concludes Start By Believing concepts represent the “antithesis of the most rudimentary notions of justice.” (6)

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