SANEs are not DNA experts. SANEs collect swabs and samples from which a DNA laboratory determines whether DNA is present, and, if possible, to whom it belongs.

SANEs are not toxicologists. SANEs cannot say whether patients had drugs in their systems. When a drug-facilitated rape is suspected, the SANE takes blood and urine samples for a laboratory to analyze.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that only the crime lab technician who performed the analysis offered as evidence at trial can testify about the findings.¹ For sexual assault cases, this ruling applies to laboratory tests for DNA and for drugs administered in drug-facilitated rape.

The treating SANE may testify as to the aspects of the examination that led the SANE to suspect drug-facilitated rape. For example, the patient’s having no memory of the time between swallowing a drink handed to her at a party and waking up in a parking lot. The SANE may answer questions such as whether there are drugs that can cause memory loss. The SANE can explain the protocol for collecting samples for a toxicology screen in her jurisdiction.

The SANE’s perspective can provide objective evidence that is valuable for law enforcement’s and prosecutors’ evaluation of a case and for proving the case at trial. When the evidence from the examination is integrated into the victim’s full narrative of the assault, it can assist the judge and jury in reconstructing the events in question and deciding whether the evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that a sexual assault was committed, and that the person charged was the perpetrator.