DETROIT — Testing of two of the 11,303 untested rape kits discovered in 2009 by a prosecutor stacked and dusty in a Detroit police storage facility have led to new sexual assault charges against a Southfield man.

The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office Wednesday said it has charged Jerrod Desean Allen, 29, of Southfield with assaults that occurred in 2003 and 2004 after receiving analysis results from two previously abandoned rape kits.

In Sept. of 2003 prosecutors believe Allen hit a 43-year-old woman in the head and threatened her with a gun prior to sexually assaulting her about 5 a.m. near Conner and Essex in Detroit.

The most recent incident is believed to have occurred about 3 a.m. on Sept. 1, 2004 near Lakewood and Kercheval in Detroit. Allen is suspected of pointing a gun at a 59-year-old woman and proceeding to pull off her pants and sexually assault her, the prosecutor's office said in a Thursday release.

Allen is charged with two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, each 15-year felonies, for the 2003 incident; he is charged with a county of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, which carries a penalty of up to life in prison, and aggravated assault, a 1-year misdemeanor, for the 2004 incident.

Allen was arraigned Thursday and is being jailed on a $100,000 cash/surety bond on each case. His preliminary examination is set for Feb. 28.

"Today we are charging two more cases from 2003 and 2004 from the 11,303 untested rape kits found in the DPD warehouse annex," said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. "We will continue to work hard to bring justice to these victims."

Allen was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm in 2007. His received his first felony for illegally carrying a concealed weapon in 2002, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections website.



After Worthy's office discovered the huge backlog of rape kits sitting idly and collecting dust in a Detroit storage facility, the department's crime lab was shuttered.

State police forensic scientists now handle the city's rape kit analysis but don't have the resources to test the backlog. The county is seeking grant funds to pay for testing those.

As of March 4, 640 rape kits had been sent out for analysis — 240 to Bode Technology Group in Lorton, Va. and 250 to the state police crime lab, according to Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for Worthy.

Of the tested kits, 71 matched records in a government DNA database and 21 were identified as serial rapists.

Prior to Allen, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office had charged two men, Antonio Jackson and Eric Taliaferro, in 2012 resulting from evidence obtained from the untested kits.

Another kit contained DNA belonging to Shelly A. Brooks, 43, a serial rapist and killer arrested in 2006.

"Shelly A. Brooks killed and raped five more women after the date on this rape kit," Worthy said in September. "So that means if the rape kits were analyzed in a timely fashion perhaps, perhaps these five women would still be alive."

The problem of untested kits is not confined to Detroit and is a national problem, Worthy said she learned after investigating the matter.

NBC's "Rock Center" interviewed Worthy about the problem in a piece that aired Friday.

The National Institute of Justice awarded a grant to research the nationwide problem in 2001.

Partners on the grant are: The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, the Detroit Police Department , the Michigan State Police Crime Lab, Michigan State University, the Michigan Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention and Treatment Board, the Wayne County Sexual Assault Forensic Examiners, YWCA Interim House, the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan and the Joyful Heart Foundation.