While some rape kits sat untested, suspects committed more assaults

As Houston officials Monday trumpeted the completion of DNA testing on a three-decade backlog of sexual assault kits, they also acknowledged that while the DNA of some alleged rapists went untested, the suspects committed other sexual crimes.

Those cases are among the 29 charges that the Harris County District Attorney's Office has filed so far.

There will likely be more. The newly complete testing of Houston's 6,600 sexual-assault kit backlog has led to 850 DNA hits, meaning a suspect's DNA already was in a national law enforcement database in connection with an earlier crime.

Investigators will continue to work the new hits in old cases as prosecutors decide whether they have enough evidence to charge suspects, District Attorney Devon Anderson said. Police and prosecutors likely face years worth of work.

Of those 29 new charges, six suspects allegedly committed other rapes while their DNA went untested. In some of those six cases - it's unclear precisely how many - the suspects likely could have been identified at the time because their DNA was already entered into the national database for previous serious crimes, according to district attorney spokesman Jeff McShan. Even then, Anderson said it can be difficult to tell if the kits had enough DNA at the time to produce an accurate profile given the technology. But others, Anderson acknowledged, could possibly have prevented future crimes.

"It did happen unfortunately," Anderson said of repeat offenders. "We are eagerly looking forward to prosecuting those rapists, those repeat rapists."

At City Hall on Monday, Mayor Annise Parker, alongside Anderson and police and crime lab officials, largely cast the backlog problem as a national one and said the work of Houston's specially designed taskforce is a model for other cities. Memphis, Cleveland and the county that includes Detroit are among local governments also working to clear sexual assault kit backlogs.

"It is significant that the city of Houston is among the first cities in the country to completely eliminate its backlog of untested sexual assault kits," Parker said. "Because remember, this was not a Houston problem, this was not a Texas problem, this was a nationwide issue that built up over years and years."

City Council in 2013 approved a $4.4 million plan, including some federal funds, to pay two private labs to test DNA samples from 9,750 cases, including a backlog of 6,600 rape kits dating to the 1980s. Staff from HPD and the city's forensics lab entered all eligible genetic information - 2,305 cases of the 6,600 - into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, a national law enforcement database.

DNA from 850 of the 2,305 cases was linked to existing profiles. In some cases, the hits confirm the right person has already been convicted for the crime. None, officials said, have pointed to someone being wrongfully convicted. Some hits also link to DNA already in the database for unknown suspects

The rape kit backlog was one of the most troublesome aspects of the Houston Police Department crime lab scandal. In 2002, DNA testing at the lab was temporarily suspended after an independent audit revealed shoddy forensic work including unqualified personnel, lax protocols and inadequate facilities that included a roof that leaked rainwater onto evidence.

The lab resumed operations about seven years ago, and since has transitioned to being run by a city-appointed board independent of the police department, though the Houston Forensic Science Center still is housed within police headquarters.

"This was an extraordinary project," said lab director Irma Rios. "This has made us a model for the nation."

With the lab testing complete, the focus now shifts to the police and prosecutor work.

Of the 29 new charges, prosecutors have disposed of seven cases. One was dismissed because the victim did not want to go forward with the case, and the others resulted in sentences ranging from two years to 45 years, said Jane Waters, head of the District Attorney's special victims bureau.

Eddy Montiel, 33, plead guilty to aggravated sexual assault in the case that led to the 45-year sentence. According to court documents, the assault occurred in May 2003. He broke into the victim's East End home in the morning and woke her, asking for money. When the victim, 38 at the time, said she didn't have any and attempted to fight him off, Montiel began smothering her with a pillow, according to a criminal complaint.

When she pleaded with him to stop, asking him "how can you do this, don't you have a mother," he raped her, occasionally brandishing a pocket knife. When he left, he took her cell phone and ripped the house phone off the wall.

She was hysterical, afraid to call the police because she worried it might affect her immigration status, according to the complaint. A coworker convinced her to call in the assault, and she agreed to take a sexual assault kit test at Ben Taub Hospital.

It's unclear why her kit went untested, but while it sat, Montiel went on to commit and be convicted of burglary of a habitation with intent to commit sexual assault. He was also later sentencedfor two aggravated sexual assault cases and indecency with a child, though it's not clear from court documents when those incidents occurred.

Johnny Mata of the Greater Houston Coalition for Justice said he was saddened but not surprised to learn of cases like Montiel's.

"It's just so regrettable, so sad that this if the kind of problem that is still occurring even way long after the discovery of DNA," Mata said. "It just should not be happening."