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Jeffrey N. McAllister, 38, appears at his arraignment Thursday. He is accused of sexually assaulting patients in the emergency room at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland. One of his alleged victims is upset it took Portland police about four months to investigate her claims against McAllister.

(Brent Wojahn/The Oregonian)

Portland police Friday acknowledged there was a months-long delay in investigating Susan Graham's Jan. 17 complaint that she had been sexually assaulted by an ER nurse because the bureau's sex crime victim advocates were unable to contact Graham by phone or mail.

"Sex crimes unit victim advocates made multiple attempts to contact Susan by phone and eventually by mail with no result and no callback from the victim," wrote Portland police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson, in an e-mail Friday. "Ultimately detectives had to go to great lengths to track her down for an interview."

The bureau's handling of Graham's complaint was just what a city audit six years ago blasted as unacceptable. The audit in 2007 found that sex assault investigators were reluctant to leave the office to interview victims and that cases were often dropped when calls were not returned.

Graham told The Oregonian this week that she had gone to

on Jan. 17 for a forensic sexual assault exam and made a report to a Portland police officer, two days after her alleged assault at

by a registered nurse.

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Graham said Friday that if police had taken her allegations seriously, a detective could have tracked her down immediately through her probation officer, who has her up-to-date phone number and address. Graham has been on probation since 2012 convictions for first-degree burglary and driving under the influence of intoxicants.

when a detective left a business card on the door of her Portland apartment, requesting that she call her "ASAP." Graham, who said she spent months wondering why police had not pursued her complaint, said she called the detective back right away.

Her complaint to police wasn't pursued aggressively until April, after at least one other patient had come forward to report that she too had been allegedly sexually abused by the same ER nurse, Jeffrey N. McAllister.

this week to an 11-count indictment that accused him of raping Graham, and sexually abusing two other Legacy patients on Sept. 24 and Feb. 14.

"Obviously, they didn't take my police report seriously. I consider the other attack on them," said Graham, a self-described recovering opiate addict. "Hopefully I can be a catalyst for the police to change their response to sex assaults. I would not want anyone to have to wait months without knowing if police are investigating."

Simpson, the police spokesman, declined to answer further questions about the case Friday. He said Chief Mike Reese was on vacation and unavailable.

Simpson refused to say why sex assault detectives were not assigned to pursue Graham's complaint right away, or whether the bureau's victim advocates ever contacted Graham's probation officer to locate her.

He also wouldn't explain why the bureau stated in its press release announcing McAllister's arrest that their investigation began when a patient came forward in April, without acknowledging right away that one of the alleged victims had made a report as early as Jan. 17.

"I can't discuss any investigative details, including timelines or how the investigation unfolded because this is still a very active investigation," Simpson said in an e-mail Friday. "As I said, victim advocates made multiple attempts to contact Susan Graham and were not successful."

s urged the bureau to make sure investigators get out of the office, knock on doors and work to meet and interview victims in the neighborhoods where they live and in a timely manner.

"We found in our review of unsolved cases that investigators sometimes place the burden on the victim to keep the process going," the audit said. "Indeed, a common ending to the cases we reviewed was when the victim could not be reached by telephone, could not provide leads, or decided not to pursue a case after lengthy delays. If the victims did not return the calls or refused to come downtown, cases were typically set aside."

Meg Garvin, executive director of the National Crime Victim Law Institute at Lewis & Clark Law School, said she could not speak specifically about Graham's case, but said generally, "Sexual assaults are hard enough to report and law enforcement should be making extra efforts when someone makes a report to follow up."

The city's 2007 audit also urged the police not to make judgments about sex assault victims based on their backgrounds or lifestyles. Graham said she felt the officer who took her initial report in January was dismissive of her complaint because of her criminal record.

"When victims feel they are not believed, or otherwise do not trust that the system will work for them, they tend to drop out of the process," the city audit said. "This puts the community at risk to re-offenders."

Compounding Graham's case, she said she was disturbed to learn that she was initially denied state victims' compensation funds for sexual assault counseling because she owes the state court-ordered fees stemming from her own criminal convictions. Graham owes $717, court records show.

Under state law, Oregon's Department of Justice is directed not to process a crime victim's application for funding if the person owes money imposed as a result of a prior criminal conviction unless the department "finds good cause exists for the applicant's failure to satisfy a financial obligation or unless the interest of justice requires otherwise."

"If somebody was in a situation where they owed some money or court fees and then had fallen victim to a crime, there is some discretion for the department to take that into account. But there needs to be communication," said Jeff Manning, justice department spokesman.

Graham said she got notice on Friday that the declination would be reconsidered.

-- Maxine Bernstein