ST PAUL, Minn. — State lawmakers will consider sweeping reforms on how rape kits are stored and tested in Minnesota when they return to the capitol in February.
The proposed legislation, to be introduced by Rep. Marion O’Neill (R-Maple Lake), comes in the wake of a KARE 11 investigation that revealed systemic problems across the state with how rape kits have been handled, resulting in thousands of failed investigations.
“I can guarantee you there are serial rapists going undetected in Minnesota,” O’Neill said.
KARE 11 found that for years the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has sat on potentially thousands of so-called “partially tested” kits – where the evidence was only examined for fluids, but never tested for DNA. Failing to fully test those kits meant that suspects’ genetic information was never uploaded into a federal database meant to track serial offenders.
The KARE 11 investigation also found that despite a 2015 audit revealing nearly 3,500 completely untested kits, lawmakers failed to mandate and fund testing for them. As a result, only about 723 of the 3,500 kits have been tested.
And though federal guidelines say that kits in non-stranger cases should be tested, police are often still failing to test them. State law allows police to not test kits if the agency deems doing so “would not add evidentiary value to the case.”
In one case highlighted by KARE 11, Amber Rosett reported being drugged and raped. An initial examination found male DNA, but after a prosecutor declined to charge the case, the Steele County Sheriff’s Department told the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to stop testing the kit.
O’Neill said that so long as a victim consents, her bill would require that all rape kits in Minnesota be tested.
“It’s absolutely time to close the testing loophole here in Minnesota,” O’Neill said.
O'Neill also is also considering a bill to address another problem highlighted by Rosett's case. Only one in four Minnesota hospitals have a program for a sexual assault nurse examiner. In Rosett's case, she waited hours for a sexual assault exam, which likely meant a crucial loss of evidence in her case.
O'Neill said she wants to forward a bill that would require all nursing students to be trained in providing forensic examinations and better interviewing for trauma victims.
KARE 11 also revealed sexual assault survivors often struggle for answers about whether their kits were even tested because – unlike some other states – Minnesota has failed to establish a uniform tracking and reporting system.
To fix that, O’Neill’s legislation calls for creating a tracking system that would allow victims to know when their kits were tested and provide them with the results.
To avoid situations like what occurred in Minneapolis where city officials recently admitted they’d lost track of or failed to count roughly 15 hundred untested rape kits, the bill proposal also would require all rape kits to be put into a centralized storage at the BCA.
Victims of sexual assault who need help can go to www.rapehelpmn.org to find an advocate near them.
If you have a suggestion for an investigation, or want to blow the whistle on government fraud, waste, or corruption, email us at:
investigations@kare11.com