{"id":24278,"date":"2016-06-13T18:57:53","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T01:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=24278"},"modified":"2016-06-13T19:03:44","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T02:03:44","slug":"city-police-n-c-destroyed-rape-kits-1000-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=24278","title":{"rendered":"City police in N.C. Destroyed Rape Kits in More Than 1,000 cases"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mcclatchy-embed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.charlotteobserver.com\/news\/local\/article82696812.html\/video-embed\" width=\"640\" height=\"402\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">BY FRED CLASEN-KELLY<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"> Charlotte (N.C.) Observer<\/span><\/p>\n<p>(Published Last Week)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Law enforcement agencies across the nation rely on blood, hair and other DNA evidence collected from alleged sexual assault victims to identify and prosecute rapists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">But since 2000, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have destroyed the results of sexual assault exams \u2013 commonly called rape kits \u2013 in about 1,000 cases, including alleged crimes against children, according to department records obtained by the Observer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">An expert who has studied sexual assault investigations for the U.S. Department of Justice said she had never heard of that many rape kits intentionally destroyed by a police department.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Contacted by the Observer in September, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said they did not know how many rape kits remained in their custody. The newspaper then requested the department\u2019s records under North Carolina\u2019s Public Records Act.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Seven months passed before CMPD fulfilled the request. The records show that the department collected 3,015 kits since 2000, and that it incinerated or threw away about one of every three.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">CMPD Lt. David Robinson said the department\u2019s actions would not stand up to today\u2019s best practices. But he said that CMPD\u2019s handling of rape kits followed state law, and he maintained that they reflected generally accepted protocol at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Robinson said that every reported sexual assault was thoroughly investigated. He said the kits, which had not been analyzed, were destroyed after victims withdrew their complaints, the district attorney\u2019s office declined to prosecute, a suspect was arrested or officers determined that no crime occurred.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">In its analysis of the records, however, the Observer\u2019s found that kits were discarded in 72 cases that were still categorized as open. About half of those cases fall under a 2009 state law that requires police to retain biological evidence in unsolved rape and homicide investigations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Asked to explain the open cases, the department said it would examine them one-by-one, but it would do so only for cases that had occurred since the law was passed. Robinson later said the review found that those cases had been mislabeled, and many should have been listed as closed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">CMPD now submits all rape kits for testing, a change made last year. It also keeps the evidence in storage, said Lt. Melanie Peacock, who oversees sexual assault investigations. Today, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police recognize that the kits could contain a \u201ctreasure trove\u201d of evidence, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cNow we are better educated and looking at this from a global perspective,\u201d Peacock said. \u201cLooking back, it would have been nice if we had done it sooner.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Value of DNA<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Rape kits, first developed in the 1970s, had become a standard part of sexual assault investigations by the early 2000s. By then, the value of DNA evidence in rape cases was established and proponents warned that destroying rape kits was bad practice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The kits became a powerful investigative tool after the FBI created a national DNA database in the 1990s. The system allowed police to upload DNA profiles of convicted offenders and others arrested into a national database to look for matches.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Police departments in recent years have faced criticism for not processing rape kits collected from alleged crime victims. As a result of a national push to end the backlog of untested kits, however, departments in cities including Detroit and Cleveland had kits tested and identified hundreds of DNA matches.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">CMPD also has a backlog of 1,100 untested kits, and is seeking grant money to have outside laboratories process its unanalyzed rape kits.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">But the potential benefits of the kits that were destroyed will never be known.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Kim Lonsway, research director for End Violence Against Women International, which conducts training for law enforcement and related professions across the country, said it is a fair question to ask how many sexual assault evidence kits destroyed by CMPD contained evidence that could have helped identify serial rapists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Among those destroyed by CMPD were 271 kits in reported sexual assaults where an arrest was made, which means police had probable cause to believe a crime occurred.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Research has found that repeat offenders commit an average of six forcible rapes, Lonsway said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cThe single biggest reason why rape victims go through with the process of reporting is because they don\u2019t want it to happen to someone else,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Rebecca Campbell, a professor at Michigan State University who has studied sexual assault investigations for the Department of Justice, said in her six years of research she has heard anecdotes about departments destroying small numbers of old kits from the 1970s. But she said she has seen nothing that compares to the number intentionally destroyed in Charlotte.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Discarding rape kits is \u201ca symbol of neglect,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cThat\u2019s abuse. The message is: \u2018This does not matter to anyone.\u2019 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Rape kit exams<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The gathering of potential evidence for a rape kit involves a thorough physical examination and interview.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The procedure can take four to six hours. Victims are asked to not take a shower, change clothes or eat. The exam often involves vaginal and anal inspections, plucking hairs and a recounting of the attack.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">A Charlotte mother whose 13-year-old girl reported being raped in 2009 told the Observer that she was dismayed to learn that her daughter\u2019s rape kit was destroyed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">If her daughter\u2019s alleged attackers assault someone else, she said, they might never be held accountable for what happened to her daughter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cI\u2019m very bothered by the fact that they randomly destroyed it without reaching out to myself or my daughter,\u201d said the woman, whose name is being withheld by the Observer to protect her daughter\u2019s identity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The district attorney\u2019s office declined to prosecute the case. The mother said an investigator interviewed the two alleged assailants and they said the sex was consensual.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cThe detective said it\u2019s one in a million that they\u2019ll prosecute, and they\u2019ll be able to get a conviction because there were two young men versus her story,\u201d said the mother. \u201cI told him, \u2018We\u2019re not ready to drop this.\u2019 I called him for a couple of months. He never returned my calls. I never heard a word more on it until you (an Observer reporter) called me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">CMPD said officers are expected to return calls from victims within a reasonable time frame. Officials would not answer other questions about the case, saying it would violate department policy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The mother said the ordeal left her daughter devastated, unable to sleep and in need of counseling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">In addition to being sexually assaulted, she said, the rape kit examination \u201cprocess was demoralizing\u201d for her daughter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Mecklenburg County Assistant District Attorney Bruce Lillie said his office reviewed the case thoroughly and determined it was unlikely to lead to convictions. Prosecutors have an ethical responsibility not to pursue cases in court they do not believe they can prove, Lillie said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Open cases<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">In 2009, the N.C. General Assembly mandated that police retain rape kits while cases remain unsolved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Prompted by the Observer\u2019s questions, two CMPD commanders reviewed 32 open cases that occurred after the law took effect in which rape kits were no longer in the department\u2019s possession.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">They said all of the rape kits were handled properly and that CMPD had not violated the state law.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Mark Newbold, the department\u2019s attorney, said the cases had been resolved even though they were listed as open in department records. That meant CMPD was under no legal obligation to keep the rape kits, Newbold said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Robinson, who helped conduct the review, said some cases were incorrectly listed as open when in fact they should have been marked closed, either because officers could not find probable cause to make an arrest or the allegations were unfounded.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">In other cases, Robinson said officers were awaiting administrative clearance to close cases or rape kits were sent to other law enforcement agencies for storage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Christine Mumma, an attorney who has worked with the General Assembly on all updates to the state\u2019s biological evidence law since it was first passed in 2001, said it is troubling that CMPD destroyed rape kits because it will make it difficult, if not impossible, to charge potential suspects at a later date.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely a concern\u201d the rape kits were destroyed, Mumma said. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly why we changed the law to require preservation of untested rape kits in 2009.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Mumma heads the N.C. Center on Actual Innocence, a group that advocates for inmates with credible claims of wrongful conviction. She said the statute has been revised five times since 2001. Although some of the changes were made to increase efficiency, some were in response to law enforcement agencies that interpret the law \u201cin the least restrictive manner possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">When asked if they made a mistake in destroying kits, CMPD officials said they followed generally accepted standards in the past. They said officers and detectives followed department policy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">That stands in contrast to the Fayetteville Police Department, which issued a public apology last year for destroying 333 rape kits from 1995 to 2008. It was discovered that the kits were missing during an audit. Previous administrations ordered the kits destroyed to create more storage space.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Chief Harold Medlock, who was deputy chief in CMPD until he was named to Fayetteville\u2019s top post in 2013, said at a press conference that he was distraught the department had potentially lost evidence that could help solve sexual assaults.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u201c(The apology) was necessary to address the problem and fix the problem,\u201d Medlock said in an interview last week. \u201cIn my mind, the destruction of one rape kit is the destruction of one too many.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Read more here: http:\/\/www.kansascity.com\/news\/nation-world\/national\/article83253287.html#storylink=cpy<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY FRED CLASEN-KELLY Charlotte (N.C.) Observer (Published Last Week) Law enforcement agencies across the nation rely on blood, hair and other DNA evidence collected from alleged sexual assault victims to identify and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,456],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-video-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>City police in N.C. Destroyed Rape Kits in More Than 1,000 cases<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"BY FRED CLASEN-KELLY Charlotte (N.C.) 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