Rape Kit Testing Backlog Thwarts Justice for Victims
Lawmakers Seek Rules and Funds for Faster DNA Testing After Sexual Assaults
By DEVIN DWYER and LISA JONES
WASHINGTON, May 20, 2010—
When Valerie Neumann woke up dazed and physically bruised the morning after her 21st birthday, the awful reality began to sink in that she had been raped. Neumann then made the difficult decision many sexual assault victims make -- to submit to the ordeal of a rape kit at her local hospital.
Testifying before a House panel today, Neumann described how for six hours, a specially trained nurse fleeced her body, pulling hairs, swabbing her thighs and vagina, and taking pictures of bruises and scratch marks on her back. The nurse placed the evidence in a series of sterile envelopes and sent the kit to law enforcement for DNA testing.
"Although I just wanted to pretend nothing happened, I knew what I needed to do," Neumann told the House panel. "It was very hard to go through. My only consolation was that this exam could be used to put my rapist behind bars."
But three years, five months and four days later, Neumann's kit remains untouched and her rapist uncharged after prosecutors told her they didn't have the funds or enough of a legal case to justify having her rape kit tested.
"I used to believe in our justice system," Neumann said. "But after my experience & I can honestly say that if I were raped again, I don't know that I would choose to go to the hospital and be put through a rape kit again."
Today, advocates for sexual assault victims called Neumann's testimony alarming and indicative of fallout from the broader national rape kit testing backlog. They pressed federal lawmakers to enact legislation to help fix the problem.
Neumann's untested rape kit is one of an estimated 180,000 kits completed each year whose potential evidence, which could validate a woman's claims, identify an attacker or exonerate a suspect, loiters on shelves and in warehouses.
"I get a lot of fan mail that says I wish the detective who handled my case was like you," said actress Mariska Hargitay, whose character on "Law & Order" takes on horrific sex crimes.
Hargitay, who has become an advocate for victims of domestic violence and also testified today, said she's received thousands of letters from rape victims about how isolated they feel after completed rape kits and police reports appear to fall on deaf ears.
"Yes, sexual assault is difficult to talk about. & But lives are ruined because of it. If New York City can do what it's done -- get rid of a backlog -- then we can do it elsewhere," said Hargitay.
Feds Help Fund Testing of Rape Kits
New York City, which had a 16,000 rape kit testing backlog more than a decade ago, has kept up to date on all completed rape kits, providing results within 30 to 60 days, according to a report from Human Rights Watch, which tracks the problem.
Los Angeles, another focal area in the backlog debate, has more than 2,000 rape kits in the pipeline awaiting testing, and struggles to complete results within a year after a request is made.
Nationwide, crime labs saw their DNA testing backlog double from the beginning to the end of 2005, the most recent year for which data is available, according to a 2008 report by the Census of Publicly Funded Crime Laboratories.
Experts said testing centers would need to increase their staffs by 73 percent to meet demand. Some law enforcement officials said they don't have the funds or testing infrastructure to meet demand.
"Because of limited capacities, laboratories are forced to prioritize their cases based upon court dates and whether or not a suspect has been identified," said Christian Hassell, assistant director of the FBI laboratory division. "This oftentimes leaves those cases for which there are no suspects ... unanalyzed in evidence or laboratory storage."
It costs between $900 and $1,000 to process and test a rape kit, according to Jeffrey Boschwitz, president of Orchid Cellmark, one of the largest providers of DNA testing.
The federal government helps cities and states foot the bill through grants to local law enforcement agencies through the Debbie Smith Act, but it does not require states to report or enforce efforts to prevent a backlog of rape kit testing. Some of the funds have also gone unspent, because the law stipulates they cannot be used to hire staff.
Lawmakers pledged today to enact revisions to the law.
"We don't know how many Valerie Neumans there are," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. "If you [states] want to get the help of the federal government to do law enforcement, then you have to come clean about the situation."
Weiner has proposed a law that would require grant recipients to collect DNA samples from all convicted felons in prisons and meet benchmarks for clearing rape kit backlogs. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., has introduced separate, similar legislation.
Rape Kits Can Provide the Evidence Juries Expect
Experts said the rape kit backlog could be exacerbated by the attitudes of local law enforcement toward sexual assault crimes.
"Half the cops don't even treat the [rape] kits seriously," said Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich..
Prosecutor Kym Worthy of Wayne County, Michigan, said that when "we discovered the problem last September, I wrote a letter to the Chief of Police. He ignored me...for six months."
In her locality, Worthy said there are more than 12,000 unprocessed kits, and that the numbers are climbing. She said some of "these rape kits in the city of Detroit are over 10 years old, so they're victimized again."
But studies show that rape kits are effective in prosecuting crimes.
"Studies have shown that when a rape kit is collected, tested and contains offender DNA, it is significantly more likely that the case will be prosecuted than in cases where no rape kit is collected," said Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va.
"Without forensic evidence, juries question the case, they question the prosecution, even though it may exist. Juries never understand [in cases] where a rape kit has been performed, why it's not in the courtroom," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas. More tests will cost more money, he said, "but so what."
ABC News' Tom Shine contributed to this report.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sexual-assault-victims-congress-solve-rape-kit-backlog/story?id=10701295Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures
Law Addresses Rape Kit Backlog
by Roxann MtJoy
August 13, 2010 05:05 PM (PT) Topics
.I first told you about the appalling national rape kit backlog crisis in November 2009. At the time, Congress seemed to be poised to address the estimated 400,000 untested rape kits — a collection of any physical evidence the attacker may have left behind, including vaginal swabs, urine samples, blood tests, and fingernail scrapings — with the introduction of the Justice for Survivors of Sexual Assault Act of 2009. Maddeningly, no movement has been made on that bill since it was sent to committee on November 5, 2009.
Now Representatives Caroline Maloney (D-NY) and Ted Poe (R-TX) are ready to try again, this time by introducing the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Registry (SAFER) Act.
The SAFER Act, introduced into Congress last Tuesday, would provide funding for audits of untested rape kits all across the country. Further, it would create a national database of evidence arising from the kits. Victims would be able to track the progress of their case online, adding a much-needed layer of accountability for law enforcement and empowering victims to be more involved in their cases.
Make no mistake about it, this legislation is vital to public safety. Representative Maloney pointed out that while evidence for almost all other crimes is processed quickly, often within hours of collection, rape kits can sit gathering dust for over a decade, at which point the statute of limitations has been exceeded. If that is not insulting to every survivor of sexual assault, I don't know what is.
http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/new_law_address_rape_kit_backlog
.NEW YORK, Nov. 10, 2009
Untested Rape Kits Lead to More Crimes
CBS News Investigative Unit Examines Real-Life Consequences When Evidence Backs Up at Crime Labs
This story was written by CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian and Investigative Producer Laura Strickler.
A government report released Tuesday found that essential DNA evidence in rape cases is often never sent to crime labs for testing. But what our investigation also found is that even when police departments do send rape kits to crime labs, they can go untested for months -- even years -- while rapists go free.
A 24-year-old single mother from Enid, Okla. (who we will call "Cathy") told police she was raped in July by Kory Mitchell.
"I tried to crawl away and when I got to the door, he pushed me back down," Cathy said.
"Cathy" knew Mitchell through her ex-boyfriend. What she didn't know was that Mitchell had been accused of rape over a year ago.
"I didn't know I couldn't trust him," she said.
Mitchell, who denies the charges, was not arrested for the first alleged rape because police were waiting for the lab results from the rape kit. It took 14 months for the results tying Mitchell to the crime to arrive. Finally, the results showed up on July 8, exactly one day after "Cathy" says Mitchell raped her. He has been charged with both rapes.
"I don't want him to do it to somebody else," Cathy said.
Rape in America, Justice Denied
Rape Kit Data, By the Numbers
Now, a five-month CBS News investigation of 24 cities and states has found more than 6,000 rape kits from active investigations waiting months, even years to be tested.
On average, six months in Rhode Island, Alabama and Illinois. It can take nearly a year in Missouri. Up to three years in Anchorage, Alaska. One state, Louisiana, has rape kits dating as far back as 2001 waiting to be tested.
"It's absolutely astounding," said Sarah Tofte, Research Director at Human Rights Watch. "What's the point of sending a rape kit to a crime lab for testing if you can't get to it for say, eight years?"
"It worries me that this is not a high enough priority in some parts of the country in law enforcement," said Sen. Patrick Leahy.
Sen. Patrick Leahy says it wasn't supposed to be this way. In 2003, he co-sponsored federal legislation allocating three-quarters of a billion dollars to clear the rape kit backlog. But still delays remain.
"If they don't catch the person on this rape, they are going to commit another one," Leahy said.
That's what David Lisak found. An expert on rape at the University of Massachusetts, he says research shows that 71 percent of rapists are repeat offenders.
"The number of assaults that they commit can be anywhere from, in non-stranger cases, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 3, 4, 5, 6 offenses at least per rapist," Lisak said.
Even with accused repeat offenders there are delays. Prosecutors had to wait 11 months for lab results before they could charge one man with three rapes in Missouri. And because of a backlog at the Louisiana crime lab, a sex offender was just charged with rape, from 2006. Both men deny the charges.
"We had a sense that there were perpetrators out there who were not being followed up on," said Steve Redding. He's a county attorney in Minneapolis, and started digging through old cases where the victim didn't know her attacker, and for one reason or another, the kits were never tested. He sent 35 kits to the lab. Patterns emerged. A case from 1998 matched DNA from a 2007 case.
"Do I think that the person has not committed any sexual assaults in between those nine years," Redding asked? "Not in my life as a prosecutor for 30 years.
In the end, Redding got DNA matches on eight of the 35 cases, charging all eight with rapes.
Further proof that justice can be found in these kits, if only they are tested, and tested in time.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/10/cbsnews_investigates/main5603492.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody
Date Rape Myths & Facts
Myth:
Rape is only committed by strangers in dark alleys and parking lots.
Fact:
As many as 84 percent of women are raped by someone they know, such as friends, family or an acquaintance.
Myth:
If a woman is raped, then she must have deserved it, especially if she agreed to go to the man's room or wore sexy clothing.
Fact:
No one deserves to be raped. Being in a man's room or wearing revealing clothing does not mean a woman has agreed to have sex.
Myth:
Women who don't physically fight back haven't been raped.
Fact:
If a woman did not or could not consent to having sex, it is considered rape. Forcing a woman to have sex against her will, whether she physically fights back or not, is rape, plain and simple.
Myth:
If there isn't a weapon involved, you haven't been raped.
Fact:
Whether the man uses a weapon, his fists, the weight of his body, verbal threats, drugs, alcohol, or takes advantage of a woman's diminished physical or mental state to force her to have sex, it is rape.
Myth:
It's not rape if the man is her boyfriend or husband or if they have had sex before.
Fact:
A woman has the right to decide what she does with her body at all times - if she does not want to have sex, it is her decision, even if she willingly had sex with the man before.
Myth:
If a woman lets a man buy her dinner or pay for a movie or drinks, she owes him sex.
Fact:
No one owes sex as a payment to anyone else, no matter how expensive the date.
Myth:
When a woman agrees to "make out" with a man, she is implying that will have intercourse with him, too.
Fact:
Everyone has the right to say "no" to sexual activity, regardless of what has preceded it, and to have that "no" respected.
Myth:
Women lie about being raped, especially when they accuse men they date or other acquaintances.
Fact:
Rape really happens -- to people you know, by people you know.
Myth:
When men are sexually aroused, they need to have sex or they will get "blue balls." Also, once they get turned on, men can't stop themselves from forcing sex on a woman.
Fact:
Men don't physically need to have sex after becoming aroused any more than women do. Moreover, men are still able to control themselves even after becoming sexually excited.
Myth:
Only women are raped.
Fact:
Ten percent of rape cases involve men as a victim.
Myth:
If both people are drunk at the time of the incident, no one can be accused of rape.
Fact:
Being drunk does not mean someone cannot be accused of and convicted of rape.
http://www.smartersex.org/date_rape/facts_myths.asp
Studies have shown that when a rape kit is collected, tested and contains offender DNA, it is significantly more likely that the case will be prosecuted than in cases where no rape kit is collected," said Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va.
said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas. More tests will cost more money, he said, "but so what."
kits have only been sent in when law enforcement thinks that an actual rape has happened and they need to prove who the offender was.
The New York City DNA lab has developed procedures to test every rape kit booked into evidence by the New York City Police Department. This DNA laboratory is equipped to test evidence 30 to 60 days from the time it receives the kit from the police. Testing every rape kit gives sexual assault survivors the peace of mind that their case is being pursued by law enforcement, and that there is a chance their attacker will be taken off the streets.
http://judiciary.house.gov/news/100520.html
Collecting a rape kit is time-intensive and, many say, invasive, but the evidence gathered can be very effective in leading to arrest and prosecution. In New York City, arrest rates for rape almost doubled after the police department began testing every rape kit, to 70 percent—more than triple the national average of 22 percent.
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/27/will-rape-kit-testing-laws-help-clear-cases.html
10.15.02
GOTCHA! NEW STUDY SHOWS DNA CATCHING RAPISTS AT RECORD RATES
CITY, FED FUNDS HELP SOLVE 154 COLD RAPE CASES, SOME UP TO 10 YEARS OLD
New York City - For years, rape crime scene evidence was collected but never tested for tell-tale DNA, re-victimizing rape survivors and letting sexual predators off the hook. By 1998 the problem was dire, with 16,000 evidence collection kits sitting untested in police warehouses, and hundreds of cases unsolved. But a new study conducted by Rep. Anthony Weiner’s Office (D-Queens & Brooklyn) shows that a rigorous testing program has resulted in more than 12,000 kits tested since 2000, 154 cold rape cases solved, and leads in over 200 more. Weiner, joined by Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan & Queens) and Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan), released the study today with rape victims and advocates.
In 1996, New York began storing DNA samples from convicted felons in data banks, and comparing them to samples taken from crime scenes: a match meant that investigators had their man. But for years "rape kits"–DNA collected during rape investigations–went untested, instead piling up in police warehouses by the thousands. The good news: by April, all 16,000 untested rape kits will have been tested, thanks to a multi-million dollar investment by the city and the first ever federal funding for rape kit testing, secured under Rep. Weiner’s DNA Backlog Elimination Act of 2000.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEINER DNA EVIDENCE STUDY:
Over the past two years, NYC has processed untested rape kits at a rate of 625 a month, cutting the number of untested kits from 16,000 to less than 4,000 in that time, a number that will drop to zero by the spring of 2003. This remarkable progress is the result of a $12 million investment by the city, plus almost $1 million authorized by Rep. Weiner’s DNA Backlog Elimination Act of 2000.
-more-
DNA testing of NYC’s rape kit back log has solved over 154 cold rape cases by cross matching DNA samples with those of known offenders.
DNA from backlogged rape kits have provided investigators with a genetic fingerprint of perps in 202 additional open rape cases--offenders whose DNA is already on file with state or federal authorities, but whose identities remain unknown.
Rape kit DNA has confirmed 149 rape convictions in cases where the kit was tested after prosecutors obtained guilty verdicts at trial.
Cutting the rape kit backlog is solving cases that are as much as 10 years old (see attached offender profiles), finally delivering justice to survivors who have waited far too long.
Last month, NYC received its first infusion of federal cash to fund rape kit testing, thanks to Rep. Weiner’s DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000, which makes $25 million a year available nationwide for back log testing. This Congress, Weiner introduced the DNA Sexual Assault Justice Act of 2002, which would make an additional $275 million available to analyze crime scene evidence. Rep. Weiner is also the author of a new law requiring DOJ to conduct a nationwide survey of every jurisdiction in the United States to ascertain the total number of untested rape kits that remain in the U.S., and to identify those places where the backlog is at its worst.
"The progress New York City has made in cutting the rape kit backlog is nothing short of remarkable, and I applaud the hard working men and women of the New York Police Department for their efforts," said Rep. Weiner. "But DNA evidence is our best tool for catching dangerous criminals, and we’ve got to do more to ensure that police have the resources they need to use it. Otherwise, victims and their families are left to wait for justice, while those who attacked them evade responsibility."
"DNA evidence is our best weapon to fight rapists, but it’s not being used effectively," said Rep. Maloney. "The failure to process DNA evidence quickly and correctly has left thousands of victims without justice."
"It is simply outrageous that there are so many untested DNA rape kits nationwide, sitting idle in the back of police stations," said Rep. Nadler. "Congress must appropriate all funds necessary to process these rape kits and give America’s police the tools they need to put those who harm women behind bars."
###
Justice for Rape Victims...At Last
DNA Tests Crack Cold Cases
Frank Baylor INDICTED for Rapes, Sodomy, Sexual Abuse - In December of 1991, a 16 year old girl was sodomized on her way to choir practice, in Queens. In October 1992, a 17 year old girl was raped walking home from work, in Queens. In both cases, the victim was dragged to an isolated location and raped at gunpoint. Frank Baylor, who’s criminal record spans 3 decades and includes prior rapes, was indicted for both incidents in February after his DNA was found to match that contained in the victims’s backlogged rape kits. Investigators believe Baylor may be responsible for approximately 3 dozen rapes in Queens and Nassau counties. He is currently being prosecuted by the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
Moussa Balde INDICTED for Rapes, Sodomy - On January 9, 2000, a 22 year old college student was dragged down a driveway and raped while walking home from the subway, in Queens. A 29 year old dance student was raped and sodomized in similar fashion in July of 2001, also in Queens. Moussa Balde was subsequently arrested for a series of burglaries, and his DNA was found to match DNA contained in the rape victims rape kits. He was indicted in January, and is being prosecuted by the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
Ceasar Bones INDICTED for Rape, Sexual Abuse, Assault - On February 25, 1996, the victim was walking in Queens and listening to her walkman when a man approached her from behind, placed a gun to her head, and dragged her to an alley where she was raped. Ceasar Bones was subsequently arrested for an unconnected offense, a DNA sample was submitted to the New York State data bank and found to match that from the February 1996 rape. He is being prosecuted by the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
Roland Johnson INDICTED for Rape - During the early morning hours of August 29, 1997, an NYU grad student was attacked from behind while entering her apartment in the village. Her assailant threw her to the floor, raped her, threatened to kill her, and fled. In 2001, Roland Johnson was arrested for grand larceny, a blood sample was taken, uploaded into CODIS, and found to match DNA taken from the August 1997 rape kit. He was indicted in March. His case is being prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
David Jenkins INDICTED for Rape - On October 2, 1997, a man followed the victim, an au pair living in upper Manhattan, into her building as she returned from grocery shopping, forced his way into her apartment, robbed her, raped her at knife point, threatened to kill her, and fled. David Jenkins was arrested for an unconnected assault in 1998, after which his DNA was found to match that contained in the October 1997 rape kit. He was indicted in February of 2002 for rape in the first degree. His case is being prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
http://weiner.house.gov/news_display.aspx?id=629
THIRTEEN PREVENTABLE RAPES
In August of 1993 a young woman was raped in the Bronx in what was to be the first of up to 51 rapes attributed to the same offender over a five-year period. The perpetrator was dubbed the "Bronx Rapist" by the media.
A person known to the police became a suspect when he was identified in a transaction involving a victim's jewelry at a pawnshop. He was arrested and subsequent DNA testing linked him to several of the rapes. He has been convicted on fourteen counts of rape in the Bronx, six counts of sexual abuse, nineteen counts of robbery, and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon. He has been sentenced to two life sentences.
Preventable Crime: This offender had a prior conviction in 1989 for felony robbery and assault, for which he received a seven-year sentence. If the State of New York had begun requiring DNA from all convicted felons in 1990 this offender would have been on the DNA database prior to the first rape in 1993, and at least thirteen rapes could have been prevented. Moreover, when New York's database was established in 1994, an inclusion of all convicted felons and retroactive application to persons previously convicted but still under supervision would have captured this offender's DNA sample much earlier in the investigation.
SEVEN PREVENTABLE RAPES AND ROBBERIES
In 2001 it was revealed that New York City had between 14,000 and 16,000 unanalyzed rape kits that were sitting in a storage rooms. Through a focused backlog reduction program, the City has been analyzing the rape kits and loading them into the state DNA database system.
In 2002, two unsolved rapes that were part of the backlog reduction project were connected to the same offender. The offender's criminal history included five prior arrests which resulted in two separate felony convictions—in 1991 for robbery and sexual abuse, and in 1997 for armed robbery. Although New York was not collecting DNA from robbery convictions in 1997, a 2000 law expanded the database to include robbery and included offenders who were still incarcerated for previous convictions. Upon release in 2001, the offender in question was required to give a DNA sample for the database.
Preventable Crime: This offender was arrested in December 2001 for a series of rapes and robberies (seven separate incidents). If the 1996 rape kits had been tested sooner, this person would have been linked to these assaults in 2001 prior to his release, thereby preventing the subsequent 7 attacks occurring after his release.
http://www.dna.gov/backlog-reduction/preventable/prevent_newyork
Last year, after Human Rights Watch reported a backlog of more than 12,000 kits in Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles Police and Sheriff’s Departments began timely testing of every rape kit collected. Their efforts have led to more than 400 suspect identifications in the FBI DNA database, according to CBS News.
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/27/will-rape-kit-testing-laws-help-clear-cases.html
Nonetheless, there is a long-term benefit to testing all rape kits, he says, besides following through on the implicit commitment made to rape victims who undergo the rape-kit collection process, which can take hours: testing and entering DNA into state and national databases can help link perpetrators to unsolved or future crimes, including homicides and burglaries. Cities like New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Oakland, Calif., have been the first to attempt to do so, and last week, Cleveland announced its own efforts to clear its backlog and test every kit. That Illinois will be the first state to attempt this level of rape-kit reform is no small feat, Tofte says. But the key issue remains, as always, money.
“The law shows that we take the crime of rape seriously, and that we take the truly traumatic and intimate process of going through a rape kit seriously,” says Sharmili Majmudar, the executive director of Chicago-based Rape Victim Advocates. “In the near future, we need to do the second step of that: ensuring that, as a state, we have enough resources to process the amount of evidence coming through.”
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/27/will-rape-kit-testing-laws-help-clear-cases.html
"Most rapes are perpetrated by serial rapists," says Dr. David Lisak, a psychology professor at the University of Massachusetts who studies the subject. The average rapist, he says, attacks multiple victims: One study suggested seven, another 11.
http://www.marieclaire.com/sex-love/rise-in-untested-rape-kits
A federal survey last year painted a sorry picture of the state of scientific awareness among the nation's crime-fighters. The report, prepared for the National Institute of Justice, found that of 150,070 unsolved rapes over the past five years, 27,595 (or more than 18 percent) produced forensic evidence that was never sent to a lab. What's more, nearly half of the police agencies surveyed said they were under the impression that they were not to submit such evidence without an identified suspect — the very purpose of seeking DNA matches. Astonishingly, the report noted, "Some law enforcement agencies are still not fully aware that forensic evidence can be used as an investigative tool and not just during the prosecution phase."
http://www.marieclaire.com/sex-love/rise-in-untested-rape-kits
DNA samples urged in NY misdemeanor plea bargains
Friday, August 20, 2010
By Michael Virtanen
The Associated Press
ALBANY — Local prosecutors in New York are being urged to collect DNA samples as part of plea bargains in all misdemeanor cases after a bill that would have required the record keeping got stuck in the Legislature.
The state has data on genetic material from about 365,000 criminals convicted of felonies or at least one of 35 misdemeanors, as required by law, plus 32,405 samples taken from crime scenes.
There have been 9,553 matches from the list of convicted offenders, which included the charging of a limousine driver Tuesday with a decade-old rape in New York City, according to the Department of Criminal Justice Services.
Acting department Commissioner Sean Byrne wrote to all 62 county district attorneys this week to “strongly encourage” adding DNA samples in misdemeanor plea bargains. Some had already started.
Byrne said there have been cases where a murder, rape or other violent crime would have been solved or prevented if the perpetrator had been required to submit DNA for relatively minor offenses.
The New York Civil Liberties Union has opposed roughly doubling the DNA database to include samples from all criminals, saying it raised questions about protecting privacy rights and about errors, either deliberate or accidental, in samples and matches.
Last year, more than 110,000 misdemeanor offenses that did not require a DNA sample were settled by a guilty plea, DCJS said. Defendants also had the option of going to trial, typically on higher-level charges with possible convictions that would carry longer sentences.
“Making this a condition of a plea is not onerous on any defendant. It’s a one-time submission,” said Warren County District Attorney Kate Hogan. “If a defendant does object to it, it does raise a red flag as to what may be lingering in their past.”
In making his point, Byrne cited the cases of Francisco Acevedo in Yonkers and Raymon McGill in Albany.
Acevedo agreed this year to provide a DNA sample as a condition of parole for a drunken driving conviction, which linked him to the murders of three women in Yonkers dating to 1989. He has pleaded not guilty and remains in custody with a hearing scheduled Sept. 2.
McGill was convicted of petit larceny in 1999, drug possession in 2003 and attempted robbery in 2005. Required DNA from the third crime linked him to the rape of an 85-year-old woman in 2000, the murder of a 50-year-old woman that year, and the murder of a 68-year-old man in 2004. He’s in Clinton Correctional Facility, serving 40 years to life.
http://www.troyrecord.com/articles/2010/08/20/news/doc4c6e0f922ec11101086520.txt
Police Sergeant Had Secret Life as Serial Rapist
Decorated Cop and Devoted Husband, Jeffrey Pelo, Sentenced to Over 400 Years in Prison
By JIM AVILA, ALISON LYNN and LAUREN PEARLE
Aug. 30, 2010—
It was nothing short of a nightmare -- a man obsessively tracking women, sneaking into their homes, assaulting them, and forcing them to perform a bizarre "cleansing" ritual that washed away any hint of evidence from their bodies.
Bloomington, Ill., Police Detective Clay Wheeler spent two years pursuing the first serial rapist in his town's memory.
"I've seen more brutal things, more violent things, but some of the things that happened and what he would say and tell these girls as he's assaulting them, and I mean, I get chills. It just disgusts me," he said.
Hot on the rapist's trail, Wheeler and his colleagues soon uncovered clues suggesting the perpetrator was closer to home than they had ever imagined.
The rapist's first victim was then 25-year-old Kristi Mills, who awoke to a masked intruder standing in her doorway in April 2003.
"I was in shock, absolute shock. I looked at the door and saw the light there, and something just didn't seem right. And that's when I saw him," she said. "The next thing I remember is he was on top of me in the bed."
Mills said the intruder told her he was there to burglarize her, and that he didn't want to hurt her, but if she made noise, he would shoot her.
Wearing a ski mask and gloves, he seemed oddly calm and methodical as he bound her with zip ties and duct tape, she said. Then he slipped a pillowcase over her head and sexually assaulted Mills for 45 minutes.
"He seemed very assertive when he talked and not like somebody who's, you know, panicking. He seemed like he knew what he was doing," Mills said.
Still blindfolded, he forced her into the bathroom where she heard water running. "I started to panic and I thought he was going to shoot me in the bathtub," she said. "Just over a month from my 26th birthday, and I was going to die."
Mills was forced to take a long bath and told to wash carefully, while her rapist calmly walked about her apartment cleaning up after himself.
Then he was gone, taking with him all the evidence, including the bed sheets.
She was so upset and scared that when she got out of the bathtub, removed the pillowcase, and ripped the tape from off her eyes, she actually tore out chunks of hair. Though she said she wanted to run and hide, she decided to call 911 and report it.
Two years later, the rapist found his fourth victim, 28-year-old restaurant manager Sarah Kalmes-Gliege, who also awoke to someone coming into her room in the middle of the night. She was just six weeks away from her wedding.
"It was gun to my head, knife to my throat," said Kalmes-Gliege.
He made it clear he had been stalking her, and he threatened her loved ones. "He knew everything about me," she said. "What my sister looks like to what car my [finance] drove, my work schedule. He knew where I worked out. Pretty much everything."
The intruder sexually assaulted and attacked Kalmes-Gliege for almost three hours. As with Mills, he was careful. He bound her hands and covered her head with a pillowcase.
"The majority of the assault was spent just humiliating and demeaning and terrorizing me. I mean, it wasn't at all about anything to do with sex. Just devastation is what, how I felt."
Before leaving, as he had with Mills and his other victims, the attacker forced Kalmes-Gliege into the bathroom for a long soak to wash away the evidence.
"All I could think about was, 'I can't have someone call my family, my fiancé, my parents, my siblings and tell them that I have been killed six weeks before I get married,'" she said.
He left her alone, shaking in her tub and waiting hours until sunrise to flee.
Although she considered telling no one, she thought, "If I don't tell the police, this person is going to rape yet another person." So she called the cops.
Even through her trauma, Kalmes-Gliege had memorized details of her attacker, from his gait to the haunting eyes behind his mask.
"He had a very distinct way of walking," she said. "Kind of cumbersome. He had very distinct bright blue eyes. I knew I would be able to pick them out as soon as I saw that person."
Mills also remembered his eyes. "When you're staring into those eyes and that's the only thing you can see and the only thing you can focus on, they stick with you."
Detective Wheeler and his partner Matthew Dick realized this was a special kind of rapist; he was a stalker, a man seemingly obsessed with his victims who gathered intimate details about them.
"He's actually engaging in conversation rather than just the quick act of violence," Dick said. The victims described how he would talk almost lovingly to them, as if he was their boyfriend, before getting angry and violent.
And he knew how to cover his tracks. "It was very obvious to us that this was a sophisticated criminal and knew what he was doing," Dick said.
When the police turned to the FBI for help, they were told the rapist might be a seemingly model citizen.
"The one thing they did tell us that I'll never forget is that this would be some guy that everybody works with. They'll say, 'Naw. He couldn't do that. He wouldn't do that,' you know. And it'd be somebody that would be maybe a respected member of the community," Wheeler said.
The police had no prime suspect, until he stalked then 29-year-old Jonelle Galuska. She said she knew she was being watched, so when she was awoken one night by her startled dog, she immediately called the police.
At 1 a.m., Bloomington police officer Dave Zeamer arrived to find a man standing against the house, and in the glare of his flashlight, saw a man turn and walk away.
"I yell, 'Police. Stop, police!'" Zeamer said.
To his shock, he knew the man who turned around. It was one of his own ... fellow Bloomington police officer Jeff Pelo, his former supervisor.
Pelo was a 17-year veteran of the Bloomington police, a former policeman of the year and married father of three.
"You got that relief of, 'Oh, it's Pelo.' But then you are like, 'Wait a minute, it's Pelo. What's he doing out here?'" Zeamer said.
Once a trusted cop, now Pelo was a suspected serial rapist. "As soon as I heard that Jeff Pelo was stopped outside that house, that connection had been drawn in my mind," said Dick.
Mounting evidence revealed how Pelo may have used his police training and access to commit the crimes and cover his tracks.
Detectives found that Pelo's police computer had been used to run license plate searches on three of the victims. Pelo claimed that someone else must have been using his computer terminal.
"Victims described how [the rapist] would pull some of the items around from his belt. You know, the gloves that they described were consistent with what police officers or security officers commonly wear," Wheeler remembered. It made sense that the rapist might be a cop, he said.
During a tense interrogation, Pelo denied "prowling" around Galuska's home and said he was only looking at the nearby lake. He was house-hunting, he said, rubbing his head and eyebrows nervously.
Then, a search of Pelo's home turned up a jacket and a ski mask made of fibers that matched the kind found on the duct tape used to bind Mills.
"Fiber evidence was what I think was the most important," Dick said. "About the only actual physical evidence to tie Jeff Pelo to these crimes."
The victims were brought in to see if they could identify him, first through a voice line-up. "The third victim, when she heard his voice, she literally curled up into the fetal position and pulled herself into the wall of the interview room," Dick said.
"If you spend two hours listening to that person threatening, degrade you, it doesn't take very much to recognize it," said Kalmes-Gliege.
Three victims also picked Pelo out of a photo line-up, even though the rapist had worn a mask during the attacks. But it was those clear blue eyes both Kalmes-Gliege and Mills said they remembered so vividly.
Believing Pelo was the rapist, Dick and Wheeler said he had betrayed the badge they held dear.
"To go to the victims and have to tell them that 'This was one of my own that did this to you,'" Dick said. "It was pretty devastating."
Pelo's family -- his wife of 20 years, Rickie, and their three kids -- stood by him. Rickie Pelo said the police jumped to conclusions.
"He was in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said. "He's explained to me. He's never given me any reason not to believe him. So I do believe him."
Pelo's home life was exemplary, according to his family. He seemed to be a devoted family man who volunteered at his kids' schools. He coached his daughter's softball team and was present at all sporting events.
Rickie Pelo describes her husband as being her kids' biggest fan. "In fact, my oldest daughter's friends would always joke around. They knew when her dad was in the audience because they could hear him," she said.
At Pelo's trial in May 2008, the most damaging testimony came from his victims.
"The women that were his victims, the women that survived his attacks, were all women that were willing to stand up," Mills said. "We took control back. And I think that's what really led to his downfall."
After six weeks the jury returned a damning verdict: guilty on 35 counts of rape, kidnapping and stalking. He was sentenced to 440 years, one of the longest sentences in Illinois history. Pelo is currently appealing, asking a judge to overturn his conviction.
"I just felt it was important to have him be accountable to me, to my family, to the public for the things that he did. I have no doubt that the person sitting in jail right now, Mr. Pelo, is who is responsible for every single one of these attacks," said Kalmes-Gliege.
But Pelo's family says the jury got it wrong. "I don't think he did it," Rickie Pelo said.
"There wasn't DNA that said it was him. There wasn't any hard proof to say it was him, so I just don't understand how so many people have come to the conclusion that he's a bad person," said daughter Shayla Pelo.
Rickie said she tries to shut out the present, fondly remembering the Jeff Pelo that she knew, the man she fell in love with when she was just 18.
"He had such a great sense of humor," she said. "Such a loving, caring heart. Actually, the first thing that I fell in love with are his eyes. His eyes were just beautiful, and I could just lose myself in them."
They're the same eyes that will stare at four walls in a small cell for the rest of his life, the eyes his victims say they cannot forget.
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/illinois-police-sergeant-jeffrey-pelo-doubled-serial-rapist/story?id=11497530[/quote
Consequently, the Winter Park Police Department report indicates that Mrs. Nall was indicted for two misdemeanors, a false police report and a false official statement. For these, she could possibly receive up to one year in jail in addition to large fines to cover the extraordinarily high cost of the police investigation
http://media.www.thesandspur.org/media/storage/paper623/news/2005/04/15/News/Was-It.All.A.Hoax-926917.shtml#5
Convicted child rapist is Upper West Side super
By DAN MANGAN
Last Updated: 1:58 PM, February 1, 2010
A registered high-risk sex offender who served more than 14 years in prison for vile attacks on three Long Island girls works as a super at several Upper West Side buildings -- where tenants have complained he has tried to shake them down for sex, The Post has learned.
William Barnason, 57 -- whose registry indicates one female victim older than 17 -- has access to keys for the more than 50 apartments in the three buildings he oversees, which terrifies some residents.
"It seemed so unbelievable that someone would allow a registered sex offender -- Level 3, a rapist -- would allow them to have keys," said Carol Engle, a resident. "Just a total disregard for the safety and well-being of people."
In September 1987, Barnason -- already in prison for sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl -- was sentenced to 10 to 20 years after pleading guilty to rape, sodomy and sexual-abuse charges related to an attack on three Suffolk County girls between ages 5 and 7.
Barnason -- who was denied parole four times before his 2001 release -- made other children watch him abuse the girls, a Suffolk County prosecutor said at the time.
He was hired by landlord Stanley Katz shortly after his release.
Barnason, whose sex-offender designation means he is considered to be at a high risk of re-offending, lives at 144 W. 73rd St., where he is the super and rent collector, a job he also holds at two other Katz buildings -- 140 and 142 W. 75th St.
Engle, 43, said that in May 2007, Barnason threatened to keep her $2,000 deposit if she didn't pay another $1,000 for the first month's rent -- even after Katz had agreed to let her move in mid-month. Then, she said, he made a salacious offer.
"He said, 'If we were friends, I could help you out, and I could pay,' " Engle recalled.
"I said, 'You mean if I had sex with you? That's what you're trying to say?' And he said, 'Yes and . . . not just once. I'd come over a couple of times a week, and I could help you out.' "
She angrily refused, and Katz let her move in. Engle later stopped paying rent because she said she was being overcharged and is about to be evicted.
Another female tenant, who in Manhattan Housing Court filings has cited Barnason's criminal past and current alleged harassment in an effort to avoid eviction in a rent dispute, said she would not have moved in had she known his status.
"Multiple times, he said, 'If you want to hook up once or twice a week, I can pay your rent, and I can get you a bigger apartment,' " recalled the 22-year-old, who requested anonymity. "I said, 'F- - - off.' "
That woman's legal filings say that Barnason, "when residents have been late in payments . . . pressures them to have sexual relations with them."
When The Post approached Barnason, he said, "I got nothing to say to you."
Katz's lawyer, Santo Golino, said the landlord denies the allegations and only recently learned of Barnason's criminal history. He said there were no plans to dismiss him.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/resident_evil_fhucKFMAxrRvfmJAtyewiL
WOMAN CHARGED WITH FALSE RAPE REPORT
Case involves claim against WSU basketball player
BYLINE: Amelia Robinson [email protected]
DATE: October 8, 2004
PUBLICATION: Dayton Daily News (OH)
EDITION: CITY
SECTION: SPORTS
PAGE: 2C
fairborn - A 25-year-old Dayton women has been charged with falsely accusing a Wright State University basketball player of raping her in his campus apartment.
Fairborn police Capt. Ron Van Nuys said Andrea Meriwether claimed 20-year-old Zakee Boyd raped her Wednesday in his university-owned apartment.
Police say she changed her story during questioning. She admitted she made up the story after Boyd angered her when he told her to leave his apartment because his girlfriend was about to arrive, according to a police report.
Meriwether admitted to police that she had consensual sex with Boyd and his roommate, Lorenzo Shine, also a WSU basketball player, Van Nuys said.
Neither Boyd, a 6-foot-5 sophomore forward from Newark, N.J., nor Shine, a 6-2, freshman guard from Detroit, were available for comment Thursday. WSU basketball coach Paul Biancardi declined to comment.
Meriwether was arraigned on the misdemeanor charge of falsification Thursday and pleaded not guilty in Fairborn Municipal Court. She's being held in the Fairborn City Jail in lieu of $3,000 bond. Her trial is scheduled for Oct. 25.
Meriwether and Boyd both told police they met Tuesday at a Dayton-area nightclub, where she is a dancer.
She said Boyd called her the following morning and asked that she come to his campus apartment, the police report said. She originally told police Boyd touched her inappropriately after she danced for him and then assaulted her.
Meriwether, who is currently on five-years probation for a May robbery conviction in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, told police she left the apartment and called authorities from a gas station.
Boyd told police Meriwether asked him to pay her for sex before leaving his apartment.
Shine told police he walked in on Meriwether and Boyd while they were having sex. Shine also told police, according to the report, that Meriwether also agreed to have sex with him.
Boyd gave police sexually explicit images he said Meriwether allowed him to take with Shine's cell phone, according to the police report.
Contact Amelia Robinson at 225-2384.Louisville Fire of AF2.
`It's frustrating because the
Copyright, 2004, Cox Ohio Publishing. All rights reserved.
Convicted Danville child rapist given 30 years
August 30, 2010
By GoDanRiver Staff
A Danville judge sentenced Marcus Christopher Long to 30 years in prison for raping a child.
Circuit Court Judge David Melesco formally sentenced Long, 39 of Keeling, Monday for raping an 8-year-old girl three times between 2005 and 2006. It was the total punishment recommended by the jury that convicted him.
“I’m happy the judge didn’t suspend any of the time recommended by the jury,” said Allan Budny, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney, who represented the victim.
Long was convicted July 27 in Danville Circuit Court on three counts of rape of a child. The jury recommended he serve 10 years for each incident.
As for an appeal, Long’s public defender, Jason Eisner, said he didn’t know if the defendant plans to petition the Virginia Court of Appeals. He has 30 days to make a formal appeal.
http://www2.godanriver.com/news/2010/aug/30/convicted-danville-child-rapist-given-30-years-ar-480251/
‘Chilling’: Admitted child rapist gets 33 years
by Lisa Provence
published 6:47pm Wednesday Apr 21, 2010
Thomas Jefferson Race pleaded guilty to three counts of forcible sodomy in Charlottesville Circuit Court today, but estimates that his victims could number as many as 37 over 18 years.
Race, 34, was arrested March 24, 2009, after his first victim, then a five-year-old boy, told police 20 years later of his babysitter’s brutal assaults.
Probation officer Jeff Lenert told the court of Race’s “euphoric recall” in describing his victims. “It was chilling,” said Lenert.
Race was 15 years old when he first raped a young relative. The other victims in the plea agreement were between 8 and 11 years old, and 6 and 7 years old when they were assaulted, according to prosecutor Elizabeth Killeen.
She described Race as an animal torturer and his attacks on children “sadistic,” involving bondage, whips and weapons, including a sword. And while his first assault occurred when he was a minor, she said, he went on to other victims when he was an adult. “It’s not something he grows out of at 18 or 19,” she noted.”
The defendant said he went eight years without molesting children, self-medicating himself with porn and scotch.
Race apologized to his victims, one of whom testified in court. “I know what I’ve done,” said Race. “It’s horrible. I do have things I can offer society.”
As thunder rolled outside the courtroom, Judge Edward Hogshire sentenced Race to 40 years on each of the three counts, with all but 11 years suspended on each charge.
“I don’t think I”ve ever seen a case wth this level of potential damage to children,” said the judge.
Killeen notes that there may be other victims who have not been identified, and she urges them to come forward to receive help.
http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/04/21/chilling-admitted-child-rapist-gets-33-years/
08-20-2010 14:03
Child rapist sentenced to life imprisonment
A Seoul court on Friday sentenced a 45-year-old man to life imprisonment for raping an elementary school girl in a high-profile case that outraged the country.
Kim Su-cheol was arrested on June 13 on charges of kidnapping an eight-year-old girl from a Seoul primary school in broad daylight and raping her at his home.
In addition, the court ordered that Kim's personal information be disclosed for 10 years and that he wear an electronic monitoring anklet for 30 years.
Prosecutors had requested the life sentence.
During the trial, Kim, who had spent 15 years in prison for raping a woman in 1987, admitted his guilt and apologized to the victim's family.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/08/113_71723.html
Kendrick Morris trial: Daycare rape victim takes the stand
Tampa, Florida -- Opening statements have wrapped up in the first of two trials of the man accused of two rapes, one that left his second victim so badly beaten she can no longer see, speak or eat on her own.
19-year-old Kendrick Morris is on trial this week for the 2007 rape of a 61-year-old daycare worker.
The woman is the first witness to take the stand, but as she started to talk about the attack, she broke down in tears.
She was escorted out of the courtroom for a few minutes.
Kendrick Morris, meanwhile, showed little emotion.
In an emotional testimony, she recounted the seeing a man near the Children's Lighthouse Daycare in Clair-Mel in the days leading up to the attack and then the moment of the rape.
She says she was the first one at the daycare, preparing to open up for the day when a masked man forced his way in and demanded she give him money. He then told her to take off her clothes and raped her, she said.
"I was afraid to look," she said when asked if she got a good look at her attacker during her rape.
Ten months went by without any leads or suspects in her rape, until the brutal attack and rape of a high school senior at the Bloomingdale Library in 2008. DNA evidence in that case links Morris to the 2007 attack, detectives say.
Morris is also scheduled to go to trial for that second rape this year.
His defense team claims the DNA evidence is tainted, and also disputes Morris is the man seen on surveillance video of the first attack.
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=143533&catid=8
Thibodaux officer accused of raping Nicholls student
He says sex was consensual.
By Daniel McBride
Staff Writer
Published: Sunday, August 29, 2010 at 6:01 a.m.
THIBODAUX — A Thibodaux Police officer arrested Friday is charged with raping a 22-year-old Nicholls State University student while on duty, according to University Police.
Corey Morris, 35, 805 Lafourche St., Thibodaux, is charged with simple rape. He admitted having sex with the woman but told campus police officers the encounter was consensual.
Morris, who was on-duty and in uniform, allegedly raped the intoxicated student after giving her a ride home from a downtown Thibodaux bar in his patrol car, according to a report from the University Police.
In this case, simple rape is defined as sex without consent when the victim is incapable of resistance, such as when that incapacity is caused by an “intoxicating agent” like alcohol. The maximum penalty for simple rape is 25 years in prison without parole, probation or suspension of sentence.
The victim’s name is being withheld because of the nature of the alleged offense.
Nicholls State University Police Sgt. Michael Richard saw a Thibodaux Police car about 1:15 a.m. Friday parked outside Nicholls student apartments off Bowie Road on the east side of campus. The car’s engine was running, and the lights were on, the report says.
After determining that no Thibodaux Police had been called to the area, Richard saw Morris walking from the apartments to the car.
Morris told Richard he brought an intoxicated student home from downtown, the police report says. Morris also told Richard that he had to sit with the student for a few minutes because she was nauseated.
After Morris left, Richard entered the apartment and saw that the student was the only person inside. Richard asked the student if she was OK, and the student said “Yes,” the report says.
After University Police decided to check on the student Friday morning, she told investigators she had a friend ask a Thibodaux Police officer to bring her home. The student said she had never met Morris before.
After Morris brought the student to the apartment, he followed her in without being invited, the student said. The student got into bed and was semi-conscious when Morris started having sex with her, the report says. The student said because of her semi-conscious state she was unable to resist Morris.
Morris told investigators he had to help the student to her room because she was intoxicated. He admitted to having sex with her but said she verbally consented.
Morris said he became concerned that what he was doing was wrong, so he stopped and left the apartment.
Morris was arrested Friday after an interview with Nicholls Police and taken to the Lafourche Parish jail. He was released Saturday after posting a $50,000 bond.
Thibodaux Police Chief Craig Melancon said Morris was immediately suspended and will remain so until a formal internal hearing scheduled for Monday morning. The suspension will be unpaid, Melancon said, unless civil-service regulations prohibit it.
Melancon said he knew of no discipline problems during Morris’ 2 1/2 to three years with the department. Morris was heavily involved in the recent Night Out Against Crime initiative, Melancon said, and was “up for a nomination” for employee of the month.
Melancon also noted that Morris returned to the department “a few months ago” from a tour of duty in Iraq.
Thibodaux Police did not issue a statement about Morris’ arrest earlier because they did not want to interfere with the investigation by University Police, Melancon said. Melancon said he also wanted to ensure Morris was given fair due process.
“If I put something out right now, I’m premature doing that,” Melancon said Saturday night. “What we’ve done is taken the necessary steps to make sure this officer is not working in uniform in color of law, coming into contact with citizens representing the Police Department in any means.”
Morris is the latest area law-enforcement officer to face charges for sexual crimes. On Aug. 10, Lafourche sheriff’s deputy David Lewellen was charged with aggravated rape. Lewellen has since been fired from his position with the Sheriff’s Office.
Other incidences include a former Nicholls University Police officer charged in 2009 with aggravated rape, a former Assumption Parish sheriff’s deputy charged in 2008 with sexual battery and another Thibodaux Police officer charged in 2007 with aggravated rape.
And though he hasn’t faced criminal charges, Terrebonne sheriff’s deputy Steam Fitch was suspended in July for planning a sexual encounter with an intoxicated woman he pulled over for speeding.
http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20100829/ARTICLES/100829260/1212?Title=Thibodaux-officer-accused-of-raping-Nicholls-student
