AEquitas Podcasts

AEquitas Senior Attorney Advisor Jon Kurland examines I May Destroy You, Michaela Cole’s unflinching portrayal of alcohol-facilitated sexual assault, involuntary intoxication, and rape. Drawing on Jon’s decades of prosecutorial experience, they break down how the law defines consent and how intoxication—voluntary or involuntary—impacts consent.   They explore the investigative challenges presented...

Assistant State Attorney and Intimate Partner Violence Specialist Kristina Mills joins to examine the Netflix series You and its portrayal of stalking behaviors, including surveillance, life invasion, intimidation, and interference. Using the first episode as a case study, they highlight why stalking behaviors are often minimized or dismissed as “romantic gestures”. Through You ’s depiction of Joe...

AEquitas Senior Attorney Advisor Patti Powers and Cuyahoga County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Dan Van examine two powerful productions— Unbelievable and I Am Evidence —and examine what they reveal about serial rapists, untested rape kits, and the consequences of delayed justice. Drawing from decades of prosecutorial and appellate experience, Patti and Dan break down the strategies needed to reo...

Jon Junig of the New York County District Attorney’s Office joins to examine the 2007 documentary Very Young Girls , which exposed the recruitment and extreme violence inflicted on sexually exploited women and girls in New York City and highlighted the critical, multidisciplinary support survivors need to heal and exit exploitation through the work of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS...

Longtime prosecutor and District Attorney Ric Hertel takes a deep look at Big Little Lies and its depiction of intimate partner sexual assault. Drawing from nearly three decades in the courtroom, Ric examines the realities behind marital rape, coercive control, strangulation, and the escalating violence portrayed in the series. Together, Jennifer and Ric explore why disclosures often unfold slowly...

AEquitas Senior Attorney Advisor Patti Powers discusses The Accused (1988), a film that exposed the reality of sexual violence and the way victims are often put on trial themselves. Drawing on nearly three decades as a prosecutor, Patti examines the real-world issues it reflects and what has—and hasn’t—changed since its release. They explore the challenges of prosecuting cases involving voluntaril...

AEquitas Attorney Advisor Kerri New joins to discuss the real-world crimes behind two powerful documentaries— Pamela, a Love Story and Another Body —to explore the evolving landscape of image-based sexual abuse. From stolen and released intimate tapes to AI-generated deepfakes, they unpack how these crimes occur, why victims so often face barriers when seeking justice, and how the trauma continues...

While crisis management and immediate support is often available for survivors, long-term support can be more difficult to secure. Dr. Stephanie Powell, nationally recognized expert and retired LAPD Sergeant, joins us to explain how trauma-informed system design can keep survivors engaged months and even years after initial contact. She highlights how to measure engagement quality rather than comp...

For many survivors, the most vulnerable moments come not during exploitation but during transitions, such as aging out of foster care, leaving shelters, or being discharged from programs. Advocate and survivor leader Bekah Charleston joins us to share her lived experience and explains how uncoordinated systems often fail to support survivors at these critical points. She highlights warning signs t...

Online sextortion, involving coercing a victim to send sensitive or intimate images online, is one of the fastest-growing forms of exploitation, often targeting teens through fake profiles and disappearing digital trails. Detective Dustin Stewart of the Weber County Sheriff’s Office joins us to discuss how online predators manipulate victims, why shame prevents reporting, and how investigations ar...

Expert Amy Fleischauer joins us to discuss how trauma-informed practitioners can apply consistent, transparent communication strategies to build trust, improve accuracy in assessment, and reduce the risk of retraumatization. This episode includes a discussion of how trauma can shape how survivors communicate, including causing them to respond in seemingly incongruous ways, such as laughter, silenc...

Closing a trafficking case in court doesn’t end a survivor’s journey. Many continue to face housing instability, employment barriers, and ongoing trauma long after prosecution. Denise Wyatt, Executive Director of the Family Healing Center in Fresno, shares how coordinated care, agency partnerships, and community involvement can provide survivors with the long-term support they need to make lasting...

David Weiss, Chief of the Human Trafficking Unit at the Brooklyn DA’s Office, joins us to discuss how evidence-based strategies can reduce reliance on victim testimony while protecting victim dignity in the courtroom. He also shares that, in doing so, prosecutors can build survivor-centered cases, whether or not survivors are able to participate. Trafficking prosecutions often collapse when surviv...

Survivor advocate Rafael Bautista joins us to explain how survivors are often mislabeled as “ghosting” services when, in fact, systems fail them first. This leaves victims more susceptible to the very vulnerabilities traffickers exploit. Rafael highlights how trauma responses are misinterpreted as resistance and why consistent, trauma-informed support is essential for recovery. Building stronger,...

Yiota Souras, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), joins to discuss the ever-evolving fight against child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and image-based sexual exploitation. We also discuss how investigators and prosecutors work to identify, prevent, and respond to the exploitation of child and adult victims. From the devasta...

Michelle Kaminsky, Chief of the Gender-Based Violence Division at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, talks about the evolution of domestic violence prosecution over her 30-year career. From trial strategy to a discussion about how to meet the justice and safety victims seek outside the courtroom, Michelle shares how she prepares prosecutors in her unit to handle these complex cases compa...

How have advances in DNA testing impacted the prosecution of sexual violence? What happens when testimony about powerful evidence unlocked by DNA testing is challenged as inadmissible under the US Constitution because the testing analyst isn’t available to testify at trial? In this episode, former sex crimes prosecutor and former Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez joins us to discuss the e...

Stalking is a serious crime that has life-altering consequences for victims. In this episode we explore how technology has transformed both the nature of stalking and the legal strategies used to confront it. We sit down with Deputy District Attorney Stephanie Fitts, Chair of the Colorado Domestic Violence Offender Management Board, who examines the growing threat of tech-facilitated stalking and...

Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney David Martin joins us to discuss the many ways abusers silence their victims through intimidation tactics that are so subtle they are often overlooked by law enforcement and prosecutors. He takes us through his and Professor Amy Bonomi’s groundbreaking efforts to analyze recorded jail calls to better understand how these tactics play out in domestic violence case...

Ron Eisenberg joins us to talk about the essential role of prosecutors as guardians, ensuring due process for defendants while balancing the fairness and rights owed to crime victims. We discuss the reasoning in Miranda v. Arizona and District Attorney v. Osborne, two U.S. Supreme Court cases that analyzed the Constitutional rights of defendants against self-incrimination and post-conviction acces...

Veteran homicide prosecutor Ed McCann joins to talk about prosecuting domestic violence homicides, especially those involving firearms. With decades of experience trying homicide cases, Ed shares his perspective on common legal challenges that arise in these cases—and how prosecutors can be the difference between life and death. We also unpack the decision in United States v. Rahimi, a Supreme Cou...

In this episode, Academy Award Nominee, Abigail Breslin, discusses her experience portraying Patricia “Trish” Weir, the victim, of serial rapist, Ernesto Miranda, whose story was recently told in the 2023 film Miranda’s Victim. In this film, Abbie portrays the victim’s experience of a sexual assault and the ensuring medical exam, law enforcement interview, trial, appeal, and retrial in one of the...

In this episode, Professor Deb Tuerkheimer, who is a law professor at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, describes the way in which her career as a prosecutor specialized in sexual assault and domestic violence crimes has informed her teaching and writing about the criminal law.    As a result of this episode, listeners will be better prepared to: -Recognize that unique impact the r...

In Episode 5, Nancy O’Malley describes her experience as the District Attorney of Alameda County, California and her work following her retirement to work on policy issues to improve the response to sexual violence, intimate partner violence, stalking, and human trafficking. She discusses how her prosecution-focused career provided her the opportunity to develop and implement — at the case, office...

In Episode 4, Dalia Racine describes her journey as a prosecutor handling special victims’ cases, an Attorney Advisor at AEquitas, providing training and expert assistance on sexual and gender-based violence, stalking, and violence against sexually exploited women, including forced criminality, as the District Attorney of Douglas County. She discusses how her prosecution-focused career provided he...