For years, the Houston Police Department has conceded about 4,000 rape kits — all untested — are stored in a property room freezer, but a recent inventory shows there are potentially thousands more containing never-examined evidence from sexual assault cases.

"I think that's a disgrace and a disservice to women and the victims," said Johnny Mata, an activist with the Greater Houston Coalition for Justice. "What's happening right now is not acceptable"

According to department officials and figures compiled for a grant awarded to HPD from the National Institute of Justice this year, more than 3,000 kits stored in air-conditioned sections of the property room may not have been tested in addition to the 4,220 untested kits in a property room freezer. The estimate of additional kits is based on a random sampling.

Not only can untested sexual assault evidence cause delays in justice for rape victims, it also can lead to the conviction of innocent people.

Last month, the Houston Chronicle reported on a 1995 rape case that was solved after DNA evidence in the case, never previously analyzed, was tested. The suspect in the case, Roland Ali Westbrooks, was serving a prison sentence for a similar rape committed two years later.

Bob Wicoff, chief of the appellate division of the Harris County Public Defender's Office, said at least five people have been exonerated through DNA testing in Harris County.

"The great odds are that there is someone innocent in that group," he said of the additional untested rape kits.

HPD Capt. Ceaser Moore, who oversees the department's new property room that opened in 2009, said some of the rape kits stored in the air-conditioned part of the facility have been tested.

Since late last year, property room personnel have been going through offense reports for all sexual assault kits to determine which have been tested.

"We're rechecking absolutely everything," he said, adding that process should be completed in the next few months.

The temperature at which the kits are stored should not affect the usability of the evidence, said HPD crime lab director Irma Rios.

"Obviously in the freezer they (sexual assault kits) are in better condition, but we are able to get results anyway, even at room temperature," said Rios, who has been working in forensic science for 26 years and became the department's crime lab director in 2003.

Priority is being given to rape kits in the freezer — some recent, some dating back to the 1990s — because those are all known to be untested, Rios said.

'A serious matter'

Mata, who along with other local civil rights activists held a press conference last month concerning the department's untested rape kits, wants officials to find a better solution to the problem.

"We need to make City Council and public officials aware that this is a serious matter and it's not going to go away," he said. "And they have to be held accountable."

In 2002, DNA testing at HPD's crime lab was temporarily suspended after an independent audit revealed shoddy forensic work including unqualified personnel, lax protocols and facilities that included a roof that leaked rainwater onto evidence.

Since the lab resumed operations five years ago, the roof and other interior problems have been fixed. The lab also has reduced or eliminated backlogs in areas such as narcotics and ballistics.

"Our challenge really has been those sexual assault kits that have been there for decades," said Rios, who has continually cited a lack of resources for the slow testing process. She noted that investigators must request tests and attributed some of the untested cases to a lack of requests.

Depending upon grants

The HPD crime lab, which receives about 1,000 DNA requests for testing per year, is testing about 30 to 40 cases per month in its own facility. The lab also is sending 75 sexual assault kits for testing to three laboratories every 60 days, Rios said.

Rios said she hopes the Harris County Institute of Forensic Science, formerly the medical examiner's office, will be able to help reduce the backlog.

On Tuesday, Harris County Commissioners Court approved a revised pilot program that would allow the institute to process up to 150 DNA cases as well as 435 DWI cases requiring blood-alcohol testing in its first year. The program awaits approval by city officials.

The recent grant money of about $1 million, Rios said, will be used to study factors that have prevented the crime lab from testing thousands of rape kits. A previous $1.1 million federal grant awarded to HPD last year will be used to complete processing on 2,300 untested kits in the property room freezeer

Rios, however, worries that grants may dry up.

"What I prefer is that (the crime lab) is city-funded permanently," Rios said. "It is a stable form of budgeting."

anita.hassan@chron.com