Unfortunately, a grand jury returned the first indictment one day after the 20-year statute of limitations had expired, which means the prosecution will not move forward. In that case, a rape kit from 1993 matched to Charles Steele, whose DNA profile was entered into the state’s database as a result of his incarceration for another rape case in Hamilton County. Detectives submitted the 1993 kit in July 2011 and did not receive the results until 17 months later. After receiving the results on December 25 of last year, they delayed in handing the case over to prosecutors to present to a grand jury. Two days after Steele was indicted, his DNA matched to yet another attack on a Cleveland woman that occurred eight months after the first Cleveland rape. Charges are pending in the later case.

The second indictment involved charges of rape, kidnapping, assault and attempted murder in another 1993 case against defendant Anthony Moore. This second indictment came just one day before the statute of limitations expired.

As more DNA results return from the lab, police will be working against the clock to investigate cases and turn them over to prosecutors for indictment before the statute of limitations expires. A Plain Dealer analysis conducted in February estimated approximately one-third of the kits sent to the lab could result in a DNA hit, if testing trends continue. That would mean more than 1,100 hits once the 3,000-plus kits in storage have been tested. Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath has said he plans to add up to two more detectives to the Sex Crimes & Child Abuse unit and to enlist the help of the FBI, if necessary.

Attorney General DeWine announced the backlog initiative in December 2011 and hired four new forensic scientists to focus exclusively on testing backlogged kits. Of the initiative, he said:

“More DNA hits mean more cold cases become open investigations for our local law enforcement agencies. My office is dedicated to helping our local authorities resolve as many of these cases as possible. I encourage any department with sexual assault kits that have not been tested, no matter how old the case is, to submit them now. We want them. We want to help bring justice to the victims. We want to solve more cases.”

Here are a few highlights of their progress:

Robbins, Illinois

CBS Chicago reports that police in Robbins, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, recently discovered 51 rape kits that had never been sent for testing. Some of the kits dated as far back as 1986. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office is now working to process this backlog because Robbins lacks the resources to do so.

According to the Robbins Police Department, they did not test the kits because the victims either recanted or declined to press charges. This is difficult to verify, however, because a flood in the basement of the Department destroyed the statements that would normally accompany the kits. That being the case, the Sheriff’s Office will process all 51 kits.

In a press conference, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said a rape kit examination “is incredibly difficult and traumatic for a woman to go through, and it’s rare someone would go through with it and not want to pursue a criminal case.” He added, “The victims should know they will have their cases heard, and they will be treated like they should have been treated. My goal is to bring justice to these folks.” Sheriff Dart’s office has been assisting Robbins with patrols and investigations in recent weeks, which led to the discovery of the untested kits.

As we reported previously, state officials made a similar discovery in Harvey, a neighboring suburb, in 2007. In a raid on the Harvey Police Department, officials uncovered 200 untested rape kits. In 2010, Illinois became the first state to pass legislation requiring the tracking and testing of all rape kits.

Houston, Texas

Houston’s Mayor Annise Parker has announced the city’s plan to eliminate its backlog of more than 6,600 untested rape kits within 14 months. The Houston Chronicle reports that it will cost Houston $4.4 million to outsource the kits to two private labs for testing. Funding will come from $2.2 million in federal grants and $2.2 million in the city’s current budget.

While it typically costs approximately $1,200 to outsource just one rape kit, the labs have offered a price of $400 per kit given the large volume of kits they will receive. With the backlogged kits, the city will also send 1,450 kits from active rape cases, 1,020 DNA samples from other crimes and an estimated 1,000 rape kits that will be collected over the next year, for a total of 10,130.

Texas was the second state to require that law enforcement agencies test every rape kit booked into evidence. Houston, which received a National Institute of Justice action-research grant, along with Detroit, to study the causes of its backlog, has its own policy of testing every kit. This policy came about because of the ability of rape kit evidence to link perpetrators to other crimes and to honor survivors’ courageous decision to undergo a rape kit exam and report the crime.

Ohio

Law enforcement agencies from across the state of Ohio recently sent more than 2,300 untested rape kits to a state crime lab for analysis. Almost half of the untested kits came from the Cleveland Police. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, when all of the recently submitted kits are tested, law enforcement could have an estimated 850 cases resulting from DNA database matches.

While Ohio has not passed legislation requiring the testing of all rape kits, in late 2011, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine adopted a policy encouraging all law enforcement agencies to clear their backlogs. His office hired additional crime lab staff to handle the influx of evidence.

Cleveland alone discovered that it had more than 3,700 untested kits dating as far back as 1991. To date, the city has submitted 1,073 kits to the lab. The Toledo Police Department has sent 215 kits, and Akron has sent more than 300 kits, dating as far back as 1994. The crime lab is testing up to 100 kits per month, starting with the oldest first.

Of the kits tested so far, 103 contained useable DNA evidence, and 65 matched to DNA profiles in CODIS. Thirty-six of the cases with matches originated in Cleveland, and those matches have confirmed the identity of 11 suspects, identified potential suspects in 21 cases and identified a possible serial rapist.

Police officials in Cleveland, as well as Toledo and Akron, have expressed their commitment to following up on and investigating the leads that result from clearing their backlogs. Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath plans to add two more detectives to the Sex Crimes & Child Abuse unit and seek assistance from the FBI, if necessary. He said, “I wouldn’t send these kits if I wasn’t going to follow up on them.” Deputy Chief Ed Tomba added that their primary concern is locating survivors and responding to the varied reactions they will have upon learning of new leads in their cases.

In 2011, the Texas state legislature passed a bill requiring law enforcement agencies to count the untested kits in their evidence rooms and report their numbers to DPS. Despite an October 2011 deadline, few agencies complied with the reporting requirement.

To date, approximately 130 of more than 2,600 police agencies have submitted their backlog numbers, including many of the biggest agencies. Among the reporting agencies, there are 15,900 untested rape kits. Based on that number, DPS estimates there to be roughly 20,000 untested kits statewide.

To clear a backlog of that size, DPS believes it will cost between $7 million and $11 million. When the state legislature meets for its 2013 session, it will discuss how to pay for testing. State officials are hopeful that the U.S. Congress will pass the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Registry (SAFER) Act, which would create a national registry for rape kit evidence and amend current law to require a greater percentage of Debbie Smith Act grant funds be spent directly on analyzing untested DNA evidence. The U.S. Senate passed the SAFER Act on New Year’s Eve, but it failed to pass the House and will be re-introduced in the new session.

Some Texas law enforcement agencies are already seeing results from their efforts to clear the backlog. In Houston, where fees collected from strip-club patrons help to fund the processing of untested rape kits, testing led to the arrest of a man for a rape that occurred ten years ago.

Greater Denver Area, Colorado

On November 11, 2012, ABC CALL7 released the results of an investigation to determine the number of untested rape kits in the greater Denver area. The investigation uncovered hundreds of untested rape kits. Among the findings were that the Denver Police Department has tested only 56% of the 1,064 rape kits it has collected since 2008. The Fort Collins Police Department, about an hour north of Denver, has tested just 28%of the 243 kits it has collected since 2007. Jefferson County has tested only 36% of the 117 rape kits it has collected in the last five years.

Throughout the investigation, police officials reported that their departments believe it is unnecessary to test all rape kits. A commander with the Denver Police explained, “A lot of rape kits we end up doing are just to document the trauma and everything else that occurred.”  He went on to say, “No, we don’t test 100% of the cases. Some of those we don’t want to test or don’t need to test.”  While detectives decide whether to send kits for testing on a case-by-case basis, they rarely test in cases where the perpetrator is known.

ABC CALL7 spoke to one survivor impacted by the backlog in Colorado. Two years ago, Kelly Binder was drugged, physically restrained and raped by a man she met at a Denver bar. She reported the rape and went through a rape kit examination, which she described as so invasive it felt like a second assault. A few weeks later, the detective assigned to her case told Ms. Binder that it would be too hard to prove that she didn’t give consent and informed her that her kit would not be tested. Ms. Binder said:

“I was raped. This man raped me. And they did nothing, they did nothing at all.”

Within a week of CALL7 breaking the story of the untested kits in the greater Denver area, the Fort Collins Police Department decided to change its policy on testing rape kits. Police Chief John Hutto said prior to the investigation, officers mistakenly assumed that the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would not test rape kits when the perpetrator was known and would not upload the DNA into CODIS. After speaking with a CBI representative, Hutto learned all kits are tested and all DNA profiles are uploaded into CODIS.

Going forward, the Department will send every rape kit to CBI for testing, regardless of whether the offender is known. They will also begin looking at older kits they currently have in evidence and send those that fit the criteria under their new policy.

Phoenix Metropolitan Area, Arizona

An ABC15 investigation has uncovered nearly 3,000 untested rape kits in police departments across the Phoenix metropolitan area and hundreds more waiting at crime labs to be tested.  Many rape kits are never sent to a crime lab for testing. Only one police department in the Phoenix area, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, has an official “test all kits” policy. The Mesa Police Department and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office also reported that they test all rape kits.

Most other police departments in the area do not follow a “test all” policy. The Phoenix Police Department accounts for half of the area’s untested kits. Sgt. Trent Crump stated that testing a kit is left to the discretion of the detective assigned to the case. He said the circumstances in which kits go untested include when a victim declines to prosecute, when a victim changes his or her story or recants, and when a suspect admits to the crime and is arrested.  He also said the Department generally does not test kits in cases where the victim knows the assailant. Sgt. Crump defended this position, saying that when identity is not at issue, testing the rape kit is unnecessary because consent is the issue.

Even when police departments send rape kits for testing, the process is slow and often incomplete. In the first step of the testing process, an analyst determines whether the rape kit contains DNA. If DNA is present, the kit proceeds to the second phase, where the DNA is analyzed and entered into CODIS to determine whether it matches to a known offender and/or other crime scenes. Arizona’s Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) Scientific Analysis Bureau estimates it takes 60 to 90 days just to complete step one, but in reality, it can take much longer.

ABC15 discovered that of the 2,546 rape kits reported as “tested” in the Phoenix metropolitan area over the past five years, many had not completed step two of the testing process. Most police departments in the area count a kit as “tested” when they turn it over to the crime lab, regardless of whether the lab has actually tested it.

In 2004, Hilary Peele, a rape victim-turned-advocate, was raped at knifepoint by a stranger who broke into her apartment in Tempe, Arizona. She reported the assault to police and underwent a rape kit examination. The detective assigned to her case told her the results would come back in two weeks. When Ms. Peele called the detective two weeks later, she was told it was going to be another two weeks. This went on with Ms. Peele calling every two weeks for eight months. She said:

“You start to lose hope. You start to lose faith that your kit will ever be tested. That your attacker will ever be caught.”

Finally, after eight months, Ms. Peele learned that the DNA evidence from her kit matched to a previous rape case, meaning the perpetrator had raped at least one other woman. She believes she would not have gotten the results as quickly had she not called every two weeks.

At Joyful Heart, we believe every rape kit booked into police evidence should be tested. In addition to establishing the identity of an unknown perpetrator, rape kit evidence can confirm a suspect’s contact with a victim, corroborate the victim’s account of the sexual assault, link a suspect to other crimes and exonerate innocent defendants. Not testing rape kits sends the message to survivors that their cases don’t matter. It also sends the message to perpetrators that they can escape punishment for rape. Testing kits demonstrates a commitment to survivors to do everything possible to help them find justice and healing.

The Plain Dealer reports that, “at least a third of reported sex offenses, including many involving children, have been classified by the police department as non-crimes with labels such as ‘miscellaneous’ or ‘departmental information.’”

The investigation began after police reported that a total of 26 sexual assaults were reported in the city over a three year period. Reporters questioned the statistics and eventually, the city produced 88 cases that had been reported in the years between 2008 and 2010. Many of the cases has been classified as unfounded, closed without changes or not labeled as rape or sexual offenses.

The Plain Dealer also found that the city under-reported the number of “forcible rapes” to the FBI as well. Though the FBI’s definition is currently more narrow than the state law’s definition of sexual assault, almost two dozen cases should have been counted. Only three were reported from 2008 to 2010.

Despite having an new policy on how evidence, including evidence from rape kits, is collected, stored and tested, the department doesn’t have a written policy on how sexual assault cases should be investigated. Another recent article in The Plain Dealer also describes how most departments in Cuyahoga County, where the cities of Cleveland and Cleveland Heights are located, do not have specific policies detailing how to handle sexual assaults.

“It is the responsibility of police to define and classify these crimes properly, and to report the numbers accurately,” Cleveland Rape Crisis Center President & CEO Megan O’Bryan said. “Victims will continue to be silenced if their reports are not taken seriously, investigated thoroughly, and correctly reflected in crime statistics,” O’Bryan said. “We regularly hear stories, in the media and within the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, of sex crime reports not being taken seriously, victims not wanting to ‘cooperate’ with police investigations, and investigations gone awry due to lack of understanding of sexual assault, guidelines and policies,” O’Bryan said. “A stand-alone sexual assault policy is a step on a really steep ladder to changing this climate for rape victims, but a step in the right direction.”

Read more of our coverage of Ohio’s response to sexual assault here on the Backlog Blog.

So far, the department has tested about 300 of the kits, which have already yielded 12 DNA matches to profiles in the national DNA databank, CODIS. The NOPD has already made two arrests and expects to make many more as a result of the testing the backlogged rape kits.

“There are going to be a lot of individuals who are going to be arrested for sexual assaults that they thought they got away with,” said New Orleans Police Commander Paul Noel.

The department is working with the Louisiana State Police and Marshall University in West Virginia, which are contributing time and resources needed to test the hundreds of kits.

Nola.com reports that the NOPD is also working through another backlog: cases involving rape kits that yield DNA matches that were never investigated. When Noel took over as commander of the sex crimes division in July 2010, there were 400 such matches that were never properly investigated because police had downgraded the classification of the sexual assaults in reports to classifications like “miscellaneous incidents.”

Since then, detectives have investigated 200 of these cases. Nola.com reports that they have arrested or put out warrants for the arrest of suspects in 73 cases and continue to work on the rest of the backlog, according to Noel.

“Requiring even one rape victim to wait an unreasonable amount of time for a sexual assault kit to be reviewed is unacceptable–both to the victim and to the people of New Orleans,” said Superintendent Ronal Serpas. “These kits are no longer sitting idle in storage. Progress is being made and suspects are being identified.”

Read our previous coverage on New Orleans’s backlog here on the Backlog Blog.

The only type of sexual assault on which the UCR currently collects data is “forcible rape,” defined as “the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will.” That definition excludes a number of crimes, including rapes where the victim was drugged or under the influence of alcohol, and all male victims of sexual assault.

Given the definition’s exceedingly narrow scope, many sexual assaults are not counted as rapes in yearly federal reports that are used to track crime rates in the United States. This under-reporting misleads the public about the prevalence of rape and results in fewer resources for both preventing future sexual violence and supporting survivors.

In mid-September, members of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), including representatives of police agencies from various cities, met with FBI officials and survivors’ advocates to discuss making the definition more inclusive. The proposed change must now go through an FBI working group later this month and an FBI advisory group in December.

Campaigning by advocates and consensus among local law enforcement agencies created the impetus to change the UCR definition. A recent PERF study reported that 80% of 306 responding police agencies believe the FBI definition is inadequate. Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey has spearheaded the effort within PERF. He testified about the under-reporting of rape before the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs in September 2010.

We are hopeful that the FBI will take a big step toward bringing healing and justice to survivors of sexual violence and make this much-needed and long-awaited change to the UCR. Thank you to the advocates and law enforcement officials who have worked to make this change possible.

The victim submitted to a sexual assault evidence collection–or rape kit–exam in August of 1997 after reporting numerous instances of being sexual assaulted by her step-father, Robert Buchanan. Buchanan was questioned but never charged by the Harvey Police Department and went on to serve as a corrections officer in a local jail for over a decade.

This kit was one of 200 untested rape kits that the Cook County State’s Attorney office, the sheriff’s office and the Illinois State Police recovered in a 2007 raid, according to various news agencies, including NBC, CBS, ABC, the Chicago Tribune and The Huffington Post.

Under the 2010 Illinois Sexual Assault Evidence Submission Act, the first of two state-wide laws in the country that mandate law enforcement to track and test all rape kits, the Illinois State Police (ISP) was required to collect data on all untested rape kits throughout the state of Illinois. In March, 2011, the ISP released a report documenting 4,126 sexual assault cases in connection to untested rape kits in the state of Illinois.

It is estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits across the country.

As for the 200 untested rape kits recovered from the Harvey Police Department, the Illinois State’s Attorney’s office began an investigation into these cases in 2007. Since it has begun, charges have been brought against 14 defendants in 20 separate cases, State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said.

“The victims of these sexual assaults were denied justice when their attacks occurred but we have not forgotten about them,” she said.

We applaud those branches of the Illinois government that have taken action to bring healing and justice that survivors of sexual assault deserve. It should have been delivered years ago.

The state of the SMPD’s backlog of untested rape kits came to light in a 2009 report by Human Rights Watch entitled “Testing Justice: The Rape Kit Backlog in Los Angeles City and County.” The report focused on the backlog in police and crime lab storage facilities in Los Angeles City, Los Angeles County, and the 47 cities within the county, of which Santa Monica is one. It found that there were as many as 485 untested rape kits that had been collected since 1996 in the Santa Monica Police Department’s storage facility were not tested.

“We are pleased to say that we zeroed in, made sure all kits were sent out and now we are clear of any backlog,” SMPD Captain Wendy Shirley said.

Prior to 2009, the SMPD did not send every rape kit to the crime lab for testing. The new policy of the department is to send every kit booked into evidence to the crime lab within 72 of collection. The LA County crime lab has been struggling with a large backlog of its own, but as of April 1st, only 82 kits remained untested of the 4,763 rape kits that had been part of the backlog in its storage facility.

Many rape kits yield new profiles of offenders that can be uploaded into CODIS, the national DNA database, and some link to profiles already in the database. For example, evidence found in one of the kits that was part of Santa Monica’s backlog connected a suspect to a series of rapes in Los Angeles; the offender was sentenced to 149 years-to life in prison.

Gail Abarbanel, director of the Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, told the Daily Press that while this news in encouraging, progress must continue to get all kits tested sooner and make convictions happen faster in the future.

“All of this progress is great, but we need to get to a place where kits are done in a timely way and we’ll save a lot of people from being hurt,” Abarbanel said.

Joyful Heart was proud to sponsor the Lydia Martinez Celebration of Excellence, hosted by the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault (NYCAASA) on Monday.

Photography by: David Mattingly. From Left to Right: NYCAASA Executive Director Harriet Lessel with the Recipients of the 2011 Lydia Martinez Collaboration Awards Glenda Guzman, Eric Rosenbaum, Deesha Narichania, Maegan Corcoran and Richard Ortiz.

The Lydia Martinez Multi-Disciplinary Collaboration Awards were presented to five recipients in honor of the late First Grade Detective C. Lydia Martinez, a remarkable Special Victims Detective in New York City. I had the privilege of meeting Lydia and the strength, compassion and light that emanated from her were incredible. On Monday, her colleagues and friends, many of whom filled the room in which we were sitting, spoke about the indelible effect she had on their lives, the lives of the survivors she served and on the city’s collective response to sexual assault by law enforcement, prosecutors, advocates and medical personnel.

We were there on Monday to remember her legacy and celebrate work of those who follow in her footsteps: volunteer advocate Maegan Corcoran, Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner and Coordinator Glenda Guzman, Wyckoff Heights Medical Center Violence Intervention and Treatment Program Coordinator Deesha Narichania, NYPD Special Victims Detective Richard Ortiz and Queens Assistant District Attorney Eric Rosenbaum. Each of the five honorees works in a different kind of response team, but all of them demonstrate that same unique kind of dedication and compassion that it takes to do this work well on a daily basis with the survivors they serve.

It wasn’t surprising, given the name of the award, that one of the central themes of the day was collaboration. Harriet Lessel, the Executive Director of the NYCAASA said it beautifully in her opening remarks, “Sexual violence can be prevented, but it will take a community to do it.”

I was deeply moved by the spirit of collaboration and togetherness that I felt in the room. There was a real awareness that to respond to sexual violence in the best way, we can’t only do what we know how. We must be creative and thoughtful, and we must work in partnership with our response community and the survivors whose lives we hope to better to go beyond. It was that spirit we were celebrating in the five recipients of the Lydia Martinez Collaboration Awards.

Photography by: David Mattingly

Those of us in attendance had the honor of hearing New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly speak about some incredible reforms his department is making in response to extensive collaboration with advocates and responders. Under the leadership of Chief Mike Osgood, about 25 advocacy groups have been meeting regularly with the Department. Recently, they presented the NYPD with recommendations for improving law enforcement’s response to sexual assault victims.

“My message today is a simple one,” Commissioner Kelly began in his keynote speech. “The NYPD is listening to your concerns and we are taking action.”

New York City has long been a leader in response to violence against women in our country and the City continues to demonstrate this leadership today. As a result of these collaborative efforts, Commissioner Kelly has ensured that every sex crime will be investigated by a detective in the Special Victims Unit and every officer dispatched to a hospital to respond to a sexual assault victim will be a member of the SVU. Uniformed patrol officers will be receiving additional training in sensitivity around being the first responders to sexual assault victims. And the Department is increasing staff in the Special Victims Unit by 50%, an outstanding commitment in a difficult economic climate.

“It is going to be a challenge, but we are committed to doing it,” Commissioner Kelly said.

Photography by: David Mattingly. Myself and Sarah Tofte pose with Commissioner Ray Kelly.

Sarah Tofte, Joyful Heart’s Director of Advocacy & Policy, followed Commissioner Kelly’s keynote with a moving and inspiring speech of her own, commending the NYPD on these reforms and highlighting the service the honorees are doing every day to respond to survivors compassionately and courageously.

“We are so lucky to live in a city that takes sexual violence seriously, holds offenders accountable and keeps survivors safe,” she said.

Joyful Heart is a strong advocate of ending the backlog of untested rape kits–the DNA evidence collected from a rape victim’s body–and we consistently cite the NYPD as an example of all the good that can come out of testing them. In 2003, New York City ended its backlog of untested kits and today, they commit to test every kit booked into evidence.

“Your successful efforts send a message that rape kit testing matters, that a victim’s case is important, that what she went through to report the crime and go through the exam was not in vain, and that the perpetrator will not get away with their crime,” Sarah said, speaking to Commissioner Kelly.

Though Mariska couldn’t be there, she sent her love and gratitude to the award recipients and the attendees in a letter included with the program. In it, she said:

You encounter darkness, and you respond to that darkness with your light. You serve people when they are at their most vulnerable, and it is in these situations–and in the entire spectrum of what you encounter on a given day–that your dedication, expertise, compassion and humanity are so remarkable. Through your work, your strengthen the possibility of healing for survivors because you hear them, respond to them and commit yourselves to doing something about the violence and injustice that they have experienced. That is why I am so moved by your work: because it has the power to heal.

I am reminded of the expression “it takes a village.” In our case, it takes a city. It takes a county, a world. We can’t possibly create a world free of violence and injustice alone.

In moments like these that we take time to recognize the strength and vision of those working collaboratively toward this world–Eric, Richard, Deesha, Glenda and Maegan–I think of our own vision statement: “to ignite and foster an open dialogue about how to collaboratively end the cycle of violence and abuse,” and I am proud and honored to be a part of this effort.

View NYCAASA’s video of the award recipients below.