HARVEY, La. — Jefferson Parish says it will take over the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners program for St. Tammany Parish.
A Cooperative Endeavor Agreement between the coroner's offices of the two parishes states that Jefferson will take over the exams after newly-elected St. Tammany Coroner, Dr. Christopher Tape, eliminated the program in March due to financial costs.
The Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office will add former STPCO SANE nurses to its staff so that its on-call team can provide SANE services to sexual assault victims in both Jefferson and St. Tammany and the other Region 9 parishes that the STPCO serviced under the Region 9 Sexual Assault Plan.
Region 9 consists of the following parishes: St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Washington, St. Helena and Livingston.
Those parishes have an agreement that was signed off on by the Louisiana Health Department to run a SANE program from February 2024 through February 2025.
Shortly after dropping the program, Tape issued the following statement via email:
"My decision was based on three factors: the cost to the people of St. Tammany, the liability to the agency I now lead, and legal factors regarding evidence collection. I understand that my decision has created a surprise hardship for the other four parishes in Region 9 of the State Health Department, including my fellow coroners, law enforcement, hospitals, and, most importantly, for potential survivors of sexual assault."
Three of the coroners are suing Tape to make him comply with the plan already agreed to by LDH.
This CEA, which will reduce costs for both JPCO and STPCO, will take effect on May 20.
“From the beginning, I have wanted the SANE program to continue, but my obligation to the taxpayers of St. Tammany Parish has also been paramount,” Tape said. “I’m very pleased with the execution of the CEA – for St. Tammany and the other Region 9 Parishes – and am committed to doing our part while responsibly overseeing the funds with which taxpayers entrust my office.”
The decision to end the service was a questionable move for the equally controversial Dr. Tape, who WWL Louisiana discovered had been previously charged in 2002 with six counts of child sexual assault in New Mexico – an indictment eventually thrown out before trial – and two years ago settled a sexual harassment claim in 2022 made by a female employee of at Louisiana Forensic Center.
The report by WWL's David Hammer sparked outrage and residents from St. Tammany Parish called for Tape to step down. Instead, his first act as coroner was to eliminate the SANE program from his office, laying off specially trained forensic exam nurses on his first day and turning the five-parish regional SANE program over to hospitals.
In April, St. Tammany Parish judges ordered Tape to resume the SANE program until the matter was tried in court.
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