Update: Idaho lawmakers send rape evidence tracking bill to governor

An Idaho sheriff says the Legislature shouldn't have gotten involved in creating a statewide system for collecting and tracking rape kits because many rape accusations are false.

The state lawmaker who introduced the bill immediately denounced the comments.

Bingham County Sheriff Craig Rowland made the comments Monday to Idaho Falls TV station KIDK before lawmakers unanimously approved the new system and sent the measure to the governor.

The bill would require medical clinics to use rape kits to collect forensic evidence after a suspected sexual assault. The clinics would then have to send the evidence for DNA testing, unless the victim requests otherwise or law enforcement agencies get prosecutors' approval to not test the kits.

Rape kits contain samples of semen, saliva or blood taken from a victim during an examination. Specimens containing DNA evidence are uploaded to a national database to check for a match

More than 5,000 untested sex assault kits languish in Oregon.

Rowland said legislators should let law officers decide which rape kits need testing, the system that is currently in place.

He said: "The majority of our rapes -- not to say that we don't have rapes, we do -- but the majority of our rapes that are called in are actually consensual sex."

Such claims are part of a larger problem of law enforcement harboring unfair skepticism of victims of rape more so than other crimes, said Ilse Knecht, policy and advocacy director for the Joyful Heart Foundation.

"It's hard to know if a claim is false if the kits don't get tested," she said. "Each one of these kits represents a survivor. ... We need to take their claim seriously, treat them with respect and use the evidence."

Rep. Melissa Wintrow, a Democrat from Boise who introduced the bill, said the sheriff's remarks were harmful to women.



"Many times people are focused on a woman's behavior, and the victim's response," she said, "when we should be thinking about what are we teaching men in this society. What are we teaching young boys and men about how we should not initiate or cross any physical boundary without consent."

She pointed to FBI statistics that show only 33 percent of all rape victims report the crime.

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has not said whether he'll sign the bill.

-- The Associated Press