Lake County Sexual Assault Response Team wrapped up the year with awards for outstanding service

Sexual Assault Response Team salutes members for outstanding service

Contributed By: The 411 News

So far in 2024, the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office has reviewed 340 cases alleging sexual assault of children and adults. A few of them have produced sensational headlines in newspapers and television reporting.

In the background of those sexual assault cases is the Lake County Sexual Assault Response Team (SART), a component of Indiana’s victim assistance programs.

SART members are the county prosecutors, law enforcement officers, medical personnel, advocacy groups, and Indiana State Police Laboratory personnel who have been trained to assist sexual assault victims and investigate allegations of abuse.

Its network includes hospitals in Lake County where victims of sexual abuse can obtain medical help. Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) are on staff at Methodist Hospitals’ Northlake Campus in Gary.

At SART’s 2024 Wrap-Up meeting on Thursday, outstanding service awards went to 3 response team members.

Infinity Westberg, a Lake County Deputy Prosecutor and supervisor of the department’s Sexual Victims Unit reminded SART members that they make significant impacts on peoples’ lives. “You went in the community. You helped your partners, you helped survivors, and you helped other people to feel safe, to be heard, to feel protected.”

Crown Point Police Detective Michael Smulski worked to prosecute Christopher ‘Kit’ Degenhart, a Crown Point High School theatre teacher who had seduced a female student in his program to engage in sexual acts.

”Due to Det. Smulski’s meticulous work with the school board, countless warrants, sifting through an absurd amount of electronic and social media, Dagenhart was left with no choice but to plead guilty to child seduction,” Westberg said, “which resulted in him registering as a sex offender, additionally losing his teaching license.”

Det. Smulski’s work brought multiple states charges against an adult male for creating child sexual abuse materials (CSAM). “He prepared and served half the search warrants to various social media and electronic companies in order to track the offender,” Westberg said.

The offender had over 577 transactions and totaled over $20,000 in several accounts, mostly from minors in Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. He threatened to expose their nude photographs if they didn't send more or give him money.

Gary Police Detective Sean Melendez worked the Oasia Barnes case, involving a young female and her father who had traveled from New York to visit the Michael Jackson house in August. Barnes kidnapped the family at the house and sexually assaulted the daughter.

“Aside from completing a full investigation, getting the entire police support on board to get this case done, Det. Melendez took time to build and report the victims, make them feel safe, make them feel like they were getting the assistance they needed,” Westberg said. “That meant getting hotels for them, making sure that they had services; going beyond just the run of the mill job as an investigator.”

Melendez was the first responder on a sexual assault case in 2019. “When the case came to trial 2-3 years later, the victim asked if Det. Melendez would be there,” Westberg said, “because she wanted to thank him for helping her on that day and finding her.” The victim had been kidnapped from the Gary Metro Center and raped multiple times by a man posing as a police officer.

Gary Detective Olivia Vasquez worked a pending case against Elijah Gray and Diane Chapman, in which the male impregnated his daughter and the mother also had sexually assaulted the children. “These children were given notes to read when they went to do their forensic interviews. Officer Vasquez figured that out; helped these kids, got them out of a bad situation,” Westberg said.

Vasquez also uncovered a human trafficking operation during a domestic violence case that resulted in both state and federal charges.

Westberg described Det. Vasquez as a person who makes victims feel safe and appreciated, no matter their circumstances.

Det. Vasquez said her connection with victims came from being a victim of child abuse. “I was raped and removed from my mother’s home because she couldn’t take care of me. They can relate to me. I tell them ‘if I did it, you can too.’”

At 16 she was pregnant. “I was lost, into drugs,” Vasquez said. “I had an epiphany when my daughter was born. I decided she wouldn’t grow up like me and took all the help that was available” She got a GED and a college degree.

The Fair Haven Rape Crisis Center is SART’s victim advocacy team member. Becca Hatfield, Fair Haven’s Client Services Director said the Center had 400 clients in 2024; twenty-five percent were under the age of 18.


Infinity Westberg, l-r, Det. Michael Smulski, Michelle Recendez, Det. Sean Melendez, Chris Matonovich, Det. Olivia Vasquez, and Kelly Vates

Story Posted:11/17/2024