Free rape kit testing from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation is working to ensure that more perpetrators end up behind bars.
Rape is a relatively common crime, and even though every victim would like to see his or her perpetrator behind bars, investigations are not always successful, state and local officials have said.
In that regard, for the past two years Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office has tested rape kits for local entities such as the Athens and Ohio University police departments free of charge — but those two departments haven’t gotten any results back yet.
That’s because the state tests older rape kits first because of a 20-year statute of limitations on rape. For example, state officials said tests from 1992 and 1993 get some sort of priority over a more recent rape kit because 20 years after a rape, Ohio law states that a perpetrator can’t be charged.
The Athens County Common Pleas Court has seen many rape cases throughout the years, such as this past summer’s conviction of Levi Canterbury, 23, who was found guilty of raping an OU student in 2011.
OUPD is investigating a student rape case in Pickering Hall just this past Tuesday.
“Sexual assault cases are very difficult to resolve, even more difficult to prosecute; very few actually go to trial (and) very few actually end in criminal charges, which is unfortunate,” said Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle.
“For these cold cases, essentially we have no further evidence to follow up on and there is nowhere to go with the case.”
Adding to the discourse, OUPD Chief Andrew Powers said most police departments choose not to send rape kits to a lab unless there’s a suspect already in mind. He said that’s because some authorities want to have some idea of how an investigation would go before spending money for a test.
In an effort to shift away from that mentality, DeWine made solving rape crimes one of his first orders of business when he took office in 2011. He encourages police departments statewide to allow the Bureau of Criminal Investigation to re-examine rape kits for free.
“It’s important (to re-examine cases) because we have an obligation to the victim to try to find who committed the offense,” DeWine said. “There’s also an obligation to the public to find sexual predators.”
He said it’s a “tragedy” if rape kits remain untested.
The bureau spent an estimated $435,000 in the first year of testing, said Jill Del Greco, spokeswoman for DeWine’s office.
As of Sept. 2, the bureau has received about 3,530 rape kits since it started free testing in 2011, Del Greco said.
“What we’re finding is even though these kits are very old, they still have evidentiary value,” she said.
The bureau completed DNA testing on 1,488 of those rape kits, with an average of about 20 to 24 days for a test to be completed. Testing has led to 460 hits in the state’s Combined DNA Index System, according to a news release from DeWine’s office.
The number of incoming rape kits increased so dramatically over the past few years that the state plans on hiring six new forensic scientists in addition to its current staff of four.
When the state finds a match, the information is then returned to the local law enforcement agency that sent the kit in for testing; then it’s the law enforcement agency’s responsibility to reinvestigate.
Powers said DeWine’s approach is important to solving rape crimes because the DNA analyses make connections that would have never been made otherwise.
“It’s very exciting for us to be able to solve these cases,” DeWine said. “It’s very good for the victims, and good for the public.”
kf398711@ohiou.edu
@KellyPFisher
