Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head and Holly Comer, YWCA of Northwest Georgia CEO and Executive Director, presented the Pat Head Dignity Award to Phyllis Coker, a WellStar Health System nurse, at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s First Monday Breakfast in November. Coker received the award for her work to advocate for victims of sexual assault and providing critical evidence to prosecute these crimes.
The Award, which was created in March 2009, is named for District Attorney Pat Head’s dedicated service to Cobb County, the YWCA, and to efforts to serve the families and victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. The award honors a community member in law enforcement, victim services, the community or a legislator who exemplifies the standard of “Doing the Right Thing” when it comes to serving victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Coker is an 11-year veteran of WellStar Health System and is also employed by the YWCA as a specially-trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE). Comer said that Coker’s expertise has made a huge impact on the success of the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Program since its inception in Cobb County in 2005 and its expansion into Cherokee and Paulding Counties.
The SART program was a vision of District Attorney Head to have a coordinated response to sexual assault crimes in our community. The District Attorney’s office, law enforcement, WellStar and the YWCA now partner to provide services to victims of these crimes. “One of the most important components of the program is the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner who collects the forensics results from the crime. The nurse’s services are vital to any prosecution,” said Head.
Comer cited one example of Coker’s expertise: “A few years ago a woman woke up in her new townhome to find a man at the foot of her bed. He brutally raped her for two hours and thought he had protected himself from leaving any DNA during the attack.” She said that Coker was able to find one piece of DNA that was put into the state database. When he was arrested as a peeping Tom in Atlanta several months later, the DNA was matched to the sexual assault. Comer said that because of the evidence Coker had obtained during the SANE exam, the attacker plead guilty to the crime and the victim did not have to go through the ordeal of a trial.
Coker performed 68 sexual assault exams just last year as the lead SANE nurse for the collaborative partnership. She has also trained seven other nurses to be certified to collect the forensics necessary for prosecution of these cases.
The YWCA of Northwest Georgia’s vision today is a community free of domestic violence and sexual assault. Comer said that this is important since 1 in 4 women will be victims of domestic violence, and 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men will be victims of sexual assault. Children who witness domestic violence are 50% more likely to become abusers themselves.
Comer told the business leaders at the Cobb Chamber that the cost of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault to health care and mental health is over $5 billion per year. She also stressed that employees lose 8 million hours of work or the equivalent of 32,000 days of productivity annually.
Coker is married to Major Tony Coker with the Cobb County Police Department. They have two grown children, who are 22- and 25-years-old. Coker grew up in Acworth and attended North Cobb High School. She has been a nurse for more than 25 years, and previously served the community as an EMT and police officer.
