La Crosse man convicted of 2010 sex assault
A La Crosse man pleaded guilty to third-degree sexual assault thanks in part to a backlogged sexual assault kit that was tested in 2018.
Hank W. Elmore, 37, committed the sexual assault in 2010 in Jackson County. A sexual assault nurse conducted an examination on the victim after the incident. The sexual assault kit was tested in 2018 as part of the Wisconsin Sexual Assault Kit Initiative and the DNA matched to Elmore, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
“After more than ten long years, there has finally been a conviction in this case,” Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a press release. “Through the Wisbacklog consin Sexual Assault Kit Initiative and other critical work, the Wisconsin Department of Justice is continuing to make it a priority to hold offenders accountable, support survivors, and strengthen Wisconsin’s response to sexual assault.”
Elmore has prior convictions for sexual assault from 2003 and 2014. The judge sentenced Elmore to five years in prison and five years probation. If his probation is revoked he could spend 10 years in prison.
The kit that helped convict Elmore was one of thousandsof sexual assault kits that were tested in 2018 under former Attorney General Brad Schimel, which were related to 4,154 cases at that time.
Wisconsin lawmakers have been debating policy aimed to prevent such a
of kits from building up again but passing legislation has been difficult.
In October, the Republican-controlled state Senate approved a bill that is meant to prevent backlogs of processing sexual assault kits by putting in place rules for who is responsible for submitting kits to the State Crime Laboratory and establishing timelines.
However that bill stalled in the Assembly after failing to get a hearing in the Assembly Health Committee.
Assembly Republicans moved forward on a different bill aimed to make sure sexual assault evidence is processed, however it did not have the support of the state DOJ and some sexual assault victims have been critical of the legislation.
The bill would have required the DOJ to provide reports to the Legislature every year, give victims the ability to anonymously track their sexual assault kits and give them the right to have evidence tested within 90 days and be given notice 60 days before evidence was destroyed.
The bill would allow students who were sexually assaulted by a fellow student or school employee to automatically qualify for the state’s school voucher programs.
It also requires law enforcement to report to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when undocumented immigrants were arrested for sexual assault.
However then-Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said in February 2020 he preferred the bill they passed, which leaves the issue stalled.