Hennepin County Attorney's Office needs more time, funds for backlog of rape kits

The Hennepin County Attorney's Office says it will take at least another year to work through a backlog of nearly 1,700 untested rape kits that Minneapolis police identified in 2019.

Christina Warren, a senior attorney leading the effort to eliminate the backlog, told the County Board during a Sept. 24 work session that her team needs more time to process the kits and investigate cases. The work is funded through a $2 million federal grant the county got in 2020 and more federal grant money has been requested.

Warren told commissioners that many of the cases are decades old and that it can take time to find the victims and investigate assault allegations.

"These are not just kits. They are connected to real people who suffered over many years," Warren said. "One of our primary efforts is to locate and provide information to those victim survivors, as well as, of course, conduct thorough investigations into each case."

Commissioners signed off on extending the grant at their regular meeting Tuesday. That means the amount the County Attorney's Office receives from the grant will grow to $1,770,477.

The kits that law enforcement is testing are considered "unrestricted," which means the victims reported an assault and evidence was collected, but for some reason the sexual assault kit was never processed.

In 2018, the Legislature required unrestricted rape kits be sent in for analysis to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) within 30 days.

"It's important for victim survivors to hear that they matter," Foster said.

Minneapolis also had a backlog of "restricted" kits, when victims never agreed to initiate an investigation. In those cases, victims may have made an initial report and sought testing for sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy and other health concerns, Warren told the board.

In the past, restricted kits were kept and refrigerated but typically were not sent to the BCA. That changed in 2021 when the Legislature voted to require restricted kits be sent to the bureau for storage in case a victim decides later they want to pursue an investigation.

The $2 million grant awarded to Hennepin County in October 2020 under the U.S. Department of Justice's sexual assault kit initiative has funded a project manager, two investigators, a full-time and a part-time victim advocate for the past three years. The grant also has paid for additional DNA analysts and other costs associated with processing the kits and investigating cases.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said clearing the backlog is a "huge priority." She noted that the cases would not have been investigated without the federal grant funding a team of investigators and advocates. "We are very committed to finding resolutions for these cases."

In May, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office got its first conviction related to untested rape kits when James Andrew Works was sentenced to 32 ½ years for kidnapping and raping two women at gunpoint in 2010.

"Without this grant we never would have gotten this conviction," Moriarty said.