200 sex assault cases pass prosecution deadline before LAPD tested DNA kits
The cases are part of a backlog of 7,000 DNA kits that the department has not tested, according to an audit by City Controller Laura Chick. Police say they don't have enough money.
Los Angeles police officials have allowed the deadline for prosecuting as many as 200 potential sexual assault cases to pass without testing DNA evidence that might have resulted in a suspect's identification, according to a city audit released today.
The 200 cases were part of an overall backlog of 7,000 sexual assault test kits that have not been examined by the LAPD. Each kit contains a potential genetic road map to the perpetrator of a crime.
"Sometimes I find problems as city controller that simply defy explanation," said City Controller Laura Chick at a news conference at which she unveiled her findings. "It is beyond disturbing that the thousands of victims who have undergone the invasive ordeal of [submitting to] these tests do not even know that their evidence is still untested."
The LAPD has been repeatedly criticized for its huge backlog of untested DNA evidence, but officials have said that they lacked the money to move faster on the cases.
Chick's report, however, found that the logjam existed even though the department had received nearly $4 million in grants in recent years to address the problem.
Her audit, which is the largest assessment yet of how many untested DNA samples have run up against the statute of limitations, was the second setback for LAPD's crime lab in as many weeks. A confidential report obtained by The Times last week showed that the unit that is responsible for analyzing fingerprint evidence had falsely implicated people in crimes and had been marred by shoddy work.
Unlike the Hollywood portrayal of high-tech crime fighting on police shows such as "Law & Order" and "CSI," Chick said the LAPD's ability to analyze evidence seemed "stuck in an era of Wyatt Earp."
Chief William J. Bratton was expected to address Chick's findings Monday evening at a meeting of the civilian Police Commission.
According to the city audit, there are 217 rape kits that have sat on the shelves in LAPD property rooms that are beyond the 10-year statute in which to prosecute the crimes.
"They are totally useless and that number is growing every day," Chick said.
Auditors also found that the LAPD was failing to comply with a state law that requires sexual assault victims to be notified by the police if their rape kits are not tested within a two- year period. If authorities had made those notifications the statute of limitations would have been extended.
