The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Untested rape kits issue long before jogger case
MEMPHIS, TENN. >> Problems with rape kit evidence testing keep haunting Memphis.
A city long plagued by a heavy backlog of untested sexual assault kits was shaken by Cleotha Henderson’s arrest in the killing of Eliza Fletcher after she was abducted during a morning jog last month.
So when authorities said his DNA was linked to a rape that occurred nearly a year earlier — charging him separately days after he was arrested in Fletcher’s killing — an outraged city turned to the obvious question: Why was he still on the streets?
The case of Henderson, who already has served 20 years in prison for a kidnapping he committed at 16, has reignited criticism of Tennessee’s sexual assault testing process. That has included calls for shorter delays from the testing agency, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and questions about why Memphis didn’t seek to fast-track a kit that could have been tested in days.
Instead, it took nearly a year, unearthing key evidence too late to charge Henderson before Fletcher’s killing.
The tragic outcome brings back memories from the early 2010s, when Memphis revealed a backlog of about 12,000 untested rape kits that took years to whittle down and led to a lawsuit that’s still ongoing. The new rape charges have spurred another lawsuit accusing the Memphis Police Department of negligence for the delay.
The scenario also has raised broader concerns about Tennessee’s struggles with a problem that has been in the national spotlight for decades and that some states have addressed.
In response, GOP Gov. Bill Lee and Republican legislative leaders have fast-tracked money for 25 additional TBI lab positions, including six in DNA processing. The agency had requested 50 more this year, but Lee funded only 25 in his proposed budget and lawmakers approved that amount.
Meghan Ybos, a rape victim involved in the backlog lawsuit, blames the city for not curbing a problem known for years despite receiving more than $20 million in grants to address the backlog.
“I don’t think the shortcomings of Memphis law enforcement are limited to the handling of rape kits,” Ybos said, “but I think the public should be outraged at the lack of transparency about what Memphis has done with tens of millions of grant money that the city and county have received to test rape kits, train police, hire victim advocates, prosecute cold rape cases and more.”
As of August, Tennessee’s three state labs averaged from 28 to 49 weeks to process rape kits under circumstances that don’t include an order to rush the test. More than 950 rape kits sat untested in labs. TBI attributed the delays to staffing woes and low pay that complicates recruiting and keeping scientists.
TBI Director David Rausch laid out further moves in hopes of processing all evidence in eight to 12 weeks within the next year: Overtime, weekend hours, more outsourcing to private labs and using retired TBI workers for new worker training to free up current employees.
Tennessee doesn’t require specific turnaround times for newly collected rape kits, though 19 other states do, according to the Joyful Heart Foundation, which is pushing Tennessee to follow suit. Massachusetts requires processing kits within 30 days, but most of the states require testing within 60, 90 or 120 days.