This program equips criminal defense lawyers with a rigorous, defense-centered approach to crossing Sexual Assault Nurse/Forensic Examiners (SANE/SAFE) in cases involving post-pubertal alleged victims. It pulls back the curtain on what is often treated as neutral, medical testimony and reframes it as a form of “credibility theater” that can improperly bolster an accuser’s narrative. By examining how rape kits, clinical language, and forensic protocols create an aura of scientific certainty, the program shows how this testimony can mislead juries, invade the jury’s role, and obscure the absence of meaningful physical evidence.

Criminal defense lawyers who watch this program will gain concrete tools for preparing to interview and cross forensic medical providers effectively. The program walks through how to investigate the examiner’s actual training, certifications, experience, and ongoing competency, while exposing gaps between what providers claim to do and what protocols, research, and law actually support. It addresses critical distinctions between medical history-taking and forensic interviewing, highlights contamination and bias risks created by patient narratives, joint interviews, and selective documentation, and provides strategies for challenging improper “diagnoses,” “consistent with” opinions, and testimony that impermissibly vouches for credibility.

The program also delivers powerful litigation strategies grounded in evidence law and constitutional principles. Defense attorneys will learn how to challenge unreliable medical and testimonial hearsay, raise Confrontation Clause and due process objections, and force courts to confront the dual medical-forensic purpose of SANE exams. By teaching lawyers how to dissect protocols, expose bias, and educate judges and juries about what these exams can—and cannot—prove, this program strengthens motions practice, sharpens cross-examination, and restores the jury’s role as the ultimate arbiter of credibility in sexual assault cases.