Law Office Management
Nov. 2, 2009
Not-So-Hot on the Trail
No solution appears imminent for the backlog of DNA evidence in California rape cases.
A growing backlog of unused DNA evidence in thousands of California sexual-assault cases is drawing the attention of both prosecutors and advocates for victims. But no solution appears imminent. "Thousands and thousands of rape kits are [being kept] in the freezer. For several years, the problem was outing the problem and getting an accurate assessment of [its] scope," says Gail Abarbanel, director of the Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica?UCLA Medical Center. "Now the problem is eliminating the backlog and keeping current with new kits that come in." Rape kits contain physical evidence?such as hairs, fibers, and body fluids?that an assailant leaves on a victim's body. Last year the Los Angeles city controller reported that more than 7,000 kits were sitting untouched. A Human Rights Watch report in March listed more than 12,000 untested kits throughout Los Angeles County. In May the Los Angeles City Council allocated $700,000 to address the backlog. Although the Los Angeles County sheriff subsequently ordered DNA testing for all the department's rape kits, a spokesperson says the department lacks enough funding to comply. A statewide effort to require police agencies to test all rape kits for DNA evidence has foundered this year because of the budget shortfall, says attorney Phil Horner, a staff member for Assemblymember Anthony Portantino of Pasadena who helped draft AB 1017, a legislative attempt to force action on "dormant" rape kits. Sponsors of the bill estimated it would cost $90 million to test the state's 30,000 unprocessed rape kits. "As a policy, I don't think anyone can argue against" testing the kits for DNA matches, says Horner. However, he adds that no one is eager to push for spending $90 million in the midst of a fiscal crisis. "There is a level of frustration on the part of prosecutors," says Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley. "And the frustration boils down to the level of resources allocated [for DNA testing] by counties and municipalities." But some argue not all rape kits are worth testing. "Sometimes a 'cold hit' can bog down an investigation, because the woman didn't give her real name" and can't be located later by investigators, says Rockne Harmon, a retired senior deputy district attorney in Alameda County. Also, investigators have discretion to not test rape kits when the victim and the alleged attacker know each other, or if the district attorney drops the case. Greg Thompson, a former chief deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County, says that Proposition 69, passed in 2004, gave the processing of rape kits a "broader value." That initiative provided funds to expand California's DNA database of convicted violent felons to include all felons, plus those arrested on felony charges. (See Cal. Penal Code § 295?300.2 and Cal. Gov. Code § 76104.6.) This means even more crime-solving opportunities when rape-kit evidence is matched against profiles in the database of offenders. "What DNA is teaching us is that those who commit sexual assault are not specialists," says Thompson, who now directs forensic services for San Diego County. "There was a time when we would focus on [an attacker's methods]. Now we've learned?by connecting cases that are pretty dissimilar?that the predator who rapes a stranger is also likely to molest a niece or assault a partner." San Diego County, for its part, hopes to eliminate its backlog of almost 200 kits. "We just want to get to 100 percent," says Thompson.
Kari Santos
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