Woman gains strength, support in effort to change Indiana rape law

Tentative only a few months ago, Hancock County rape survivor Jenny Wendt has embraced a role as an unofficial spokeswoman for sexual assault victims.

"This is all new to me," said Wendt, who stepped forward publicly after reading an Indianapolis Star story about how her attacker confessed to the crime but avoided prosecution because the state's statute of limitations had expired.

"I took speech at Purdue and had to give a couple speeches in nursing school," said Wendt, 36, "but I never dreamed I would be giving someone interviews, going on camera, giving a speech for a big group of people."

With time, she said, she is getting used to speaking about the horror she experienced.

"I decided to continue to tell my story to whoever wanted to listen so that I could reach out to as many people as possible," Wendt said. "That continued, each time I told it, to feel better, and it got easier, and I felt lighter and lighter every time."

At 11 a.m. Tuesday, she will speak to a crowd of people gathered on the south steps of the Indiana Statehouse for the start of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

The initial story in The Star was based on a police report that did not cite her name or the name of her attacker. But a detective had contacted her about the case, and when she read the February account in The Star about a man who walked into the Marion County Sheriff's Office in January and confessed to raping a woman in 2005, the details were frighteningly familiar.

After talking with her mother, Wendt decided to call the Star reporter and identify herself as the victim. She especially wanted to publicly identify her attacker, Bart Bareither, a former Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis teaching assistant who escaped any punishment because of the limitations of Indiana law.

Since The Star published a follow-up story and video about Wendt and the state's five-year statute of limitations on rape, she has been interviewed by at least seven other news organizations, Wendt said. She has spoken before lawmakers and started an online petition to change Indiana law.

After keeping her rape a secret for much of her life, Wendt said, she now considers it a lifelong mission to advocate for sexual assault victims and fight for tougher penalties against perpetrators. She regrets her decision not to report the rape at the time but said she feared a courtroom showdown pitting his word against hers.

Wendt will use Tuesday's venue to urge Indiana legislators to eliminate the state's five-year statute of limitations on rape. The Indiana Coalition Against Sexual Assault sponsors the event, an annual balloon release on the Statehouse steps.

Wendt's courage is inspiring to thousands of other survivors of sexual assault, said Anita Carpenter, CEO of the Indiana Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

"She's awesome," Carpenter said. "She represents for survivors a voice that has been silent for all these years. Many victims are silent and never come forward and report. For someone like Jenny to be so visible and so vocal, it really sends a strong message that you can come forward anytime. You can get help, and you will be believed."

Carpenter supports Wendt's determination to push the elimination of Indiana's statute of limitations on rape.

"We've just been having talks with the governor's office about that very thing," Carpenter said. "We are absolutely on the same page as Jenny on that."

Call Star reporter Bill McCleery at (317) 444-6083. Follow him on Twitter: @BillMcCleery01.