Hundreds of Coachella Valley rape kits left untested

Carissa sat on the edge of the bed watching Saturday Night Live when she felt a handcuff cinch around her wrist. Her closest friend, a man she had known for years, stood over her, leering. He reached under her sundress and yanked her underwear down. Then he pulled a chain from beneath the mattress and wrapped it around one of her ankles.

Before she could react, she was face down — hogtied. The man climbed on top of her. She demanded that he stop. He told her to shut up.

"Be glad I let you have one hand," he said. "And hope I don't break any bones."

Four days later, on July 18, 2012, Carissa walked into the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, flanked by a police officer, ready to get a rape examination. Over the next few hours, nurses gave her a pelvic exam and smeared her body with forensic dye, which stung against her torn skin. They snapped photographs of her bruised body. They swabbed for semen, blood and pubic hair.

Today, nearly three years later, any evidence collected in Carissa's rape examination has almost certainly gone nowhere. The swabs taken at Eisenhower are most likely in cold storage at the Riverside County Sheriff's Station in Palm Desert, having never been sent to a DNA lab for testing.

Police say that testing kits like Carissa's is unnecessary, because her attacker, Gerrick Mijares, has been caught and convicted. Victims' advocates say this kit — and all kits — should be tested anyway. While Mijares may be behind bars, thousands of other sexual predators remain free and untested kits could hold clues to their crimes. If tested in crime labs, kits have the power to identify serial rapists, bolster prosecution or exonerate the wrongfully accused.

Currently, more than 500 untested sexual assault kits are sitting on shelves of Coachella Valley police agencies when they could potentially be solving crimes.

In nearly half of these cases, no records are kept to explain why kits are not tested. California law does not require police to track this information, and only the sheriff's department and the Cathedral City Police Department maintain a case-by-case breakdown of untested kits. The Palm Springs Police Department says it is currently reviewing its untested backlog.

These kits, commonly called "rape kits," contain genetic evidence collected from men, women and children who have reported sexual assaults to local police. Laboratory testing generally costs between $1,000 to $2,500 per kit, according to a California auditor report.

At the lab, any evidence found in the kit is entered into the FBI's Combined DNA Information System, or CODIS, a nationwide database that searches for genetic matches on a weekly basis. If the DNA matches a known sex offender, CODIS will spit out his name. If it matches another sexual assault, CODIS will link the two cases so detectives can compare notes to uncover new leads. And, if there's no match, the genetic signature will sit in a database indefinitely, waiting for the day when the rapist strikes again.

The system can also work in reverse. For example, if local authorities upload the DNA profile of a rapist who was caught here, CODIS could link him to an unsolved case in another county or state.

The Coachella Valley's untested kits were uncovered by a nationwide reporting effort spearheaded by USA Today, with assistance by The Desert Sun and other Gannett newspapers. Together, reporters collected public records from more than 800 law enforcement agencies, tallying a backlog of more than 70,000 untested kits.

Considering there are about 18,000 police agencies in the country, the nationwide total of untested kits is likely in the hundreds of thousands.

Testing advocates insist that every kit should be sent to a lab.

"When someone is attacked, you become responsible for the past and future victims. You may be the first, you may be the tenth, but you won't be the last if something isn't done...Testing that kit could be it," said Carissa, who agreed to tell her story. The Desert Sun's policy is not to name victims of sexual assault in most cases.

Although Carissa supports testing all kits, her case is a quintessential example of why police say some kits don't need to be tested.

Even though Carissa's kit was never sent to a lab, her attacker was still caught. Mijares pleaded guilty to sexual battery and assault with a deadly weapon earlier this year. As part of his five-year prison sentence, his genetic profile was automatically uploaded to CODIS, which is the same place it would have ended up if the rape kit had been tested.

Cases like these are just one of the reasons that law enforcement officials argue a backlog of untested kits is normal and fiscally responsible. They say most of the untested kits come from cases where the allegations have been dismissed as unfounded, or where the District Attorney's Office won't prosecute because it believes the case isn't winnable, or where a victim refuses to cooperate with investigators.

"When you have a situation with an untested kit where we don't know who the perpetrator is … those kits need to be tested," said Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin. "But I don't believe every kit needs to be tested. I tend to agree with those people who say this needs to be reviewed and decided case by case. Sometimes testing a kit is unnecessary and it's a waste of public resources."

Many victims advocates disagree.

"We think they should be testing every single one of them," said Ilse Knecht, senior policy adviser for the Joyful Heart Foundation, which runs a nationwide "End the Backlog" campaign. "Every untested kit represents a survivor who has gone through a long, invasive procedure. And when they submit to that exam, they believe their kit will be tested."

"We believe that mandating the testing of every kit sends a very powerful message that these cases matter, and that perpetrators will be held accountable for their crimes," Knecht added. "This is the path to a better justice system."

Testing all kits

For evidence of the benefit of testing all kits, advocates point to places like New York City, Houston and Detroit, all of which have found success in concentrated efforts to erase their hefty backlogs.

In the late 90s, New York spent $12 million to analyze about 16,000 sexual assault kits held by the city police department. The effort uncovered new leads in more than 2,000 cases and sparked about 200 prosecutions. In Houston, federal grant money helped launch a similar effort to test 6,600 kits in 2011, prompting 850 new leads and 29 prosecutions.

In Detroit, where police had lost count of the rape kits collected, authorities found a stockpile of more than 11,000 untested kits in a remote warehouse in 2009. Testing just a sample of 1,600 kits found links to 127 serial rape suspects, according to a study released in February.

The Detroit situation dealt a major blow to the public's faith in sexual assault policing, but Hestrin said the faults of one city should not be an indictment of all law enforcement. Based on what happened in Detroit, a test-all policy "may be warranted" there, but that doesn't mean it's necessary everywhere, Hestrin said.

"That's why local sheriffs and local DAs are elected — locally," Hestrin said. "If this were Detroit, the public would be rightly outraged. But we don't have that situation here."

The lessons of Detroit, Houston and New York have sparked an effort to explore mandatory testing in many state legislatures. In California, these efforts have failed.

In 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed AB 322, which would have piloted an all-kits testing strategy in 10 California counties with the lowest clearance rate in sexual assault cases. The bill had bipartisan support, but was opposed by many of the targeted sheriffs' departments.

Brown said he wouldn't force the departments to test all kits if they didn't want to.

"I don't see why we would mandate counties to participate in a program they don't want, especially when the state is cutting back so many programs that are needed and wanted," the governor wrote in his veto message.

Two years before that, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed two other bills — AB 558 and AB 1017 — requiring police to track why kits are left untested for an annual report. California couldn't afford it, Schwarzenegger said.

All three of those bills were introduced by former state Assemblyman Anthony Portantino Jr., who said he chose the issue of untested rape kits because he felt police were re-victimizing women by putting them through examinations that were ultimately pointless.

Portantino, a Democrat, represented the La Cañada Flintridge area, from 2006 to 2012. He is now campaigning for state Senate.

"There is no justifiable reason why we would take someone who has been violated, then subject them to a traumatic experience of having to give up physical evidence, and then further disrespect that person by not processing that information," Portantino said. "We have to look at these kits as evidence, which was retrieved for a reason. But if we don't process it, it's tantamount to not having it at all."

Although Portantino has left the Legislature, the debate over untested rape kits has not.

Currently, a new bill — AB 909 — re-proposes requiring the annual reports vetoed by Schwarzenegger. The author, Assemblyman Bill Quirk, a Democrat from Hayward, said reporting will reveal whether or not California has an actual problem with untested kits.

The proposed legislation, like those that have come before it, faces opposition from the California State Sheriff's Association, a political powerhouse. Cory Sazillo, the legislative director for the association, argues that testing legislation forces police and DNA labs to divert time and money away from other crimes, including homicides.

"We feel that reporting the number of rape kits collected, and the number that aren't tested and the reason why they aren't tested isn't as important, potentially, as other police work," Sazillo said.

Although they have opposed most testing legislation, the sheriff's association did support AB 1517, which was signed into law by Brown last year. The law, which goes into affect in 2016, encourages police to send sexual assault kits for testing within 20 days, but does not require it.

Coachella Valley backlog

Of the more than 500 untested kits in the Coachella Valley, about half are in the custody of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, which polices more than half of the desert cities.

As of July 1, 137 untested kits were in storage at the sheriff's station in Thermal and 132 at the Palm Desert station.

The Indio Police Department has the next highest total with 128. The Palm Springs Police Department has 84. Desert Hot Springs police and Cathedral City police follow with 25 and 10, respectively.

In April, the sheriff's department became the first Coachella Valley agency to adopt a policy dictating specifically when testing is and isn't necessary. Other agencies leave the decision to the descretion of detectives, which is the national norm.

Sheriff's Capt. Scott Madden, former commander of the department's evidence database bureau, said the new policy put Riverside County "ahead of the curve" on testing procedures.

"We couldn't take this more seriously than we do," Madden said. "We are constantly evaluating this, and constantly trying to do the right thing. Under no circumstance do we want a victim to be afraid to come forward."

The new policy requires all kits to be tested in cases with unknown suspects, which both police and advocates agree should be the highest priority for testing. The policy recommends a 20-day timeline to send kits to a crime lab, just like California's new law.

Despite the sheriff's department's focus on testing, Madden said measuring backlogs of untested kits are an "unfair assessment" of police agencies, which suggests investigators are not doing their job when in fact they are.

Many of the untested kits are redundant because they come from cases where sex offenders have already been convicted and their DNA uploaded to CODIS, Madden said. Police have to keep these kits anyway, often for decades, while the sex offenders sit in prison.

"We are always going to have a backlog, and it is actually going to get higher," Madden said. "If we catch 50 rapists next year, and they all get sentenced to 100 years in prison, then our numbers will actually go up."

Redundant kits amount to about one fifth of the sheriff's department backlog, according to agency records.

'Uncooperative' victims

Although redundant kits account for some of the Coachella Valley backlog, the largest percentage of untested kits appear to come from cases with victims who have been deemed uncooperative. Even if a victim doesn't cooperate with police, their kit —if tested — could identify a suspect who is wanted in another case.

About one third of the backlog in Cathedral City, Palm Desert and Thermal come from women who police say underwent a rape examination, then decided not to press charges against their attacker. Police officials in Palm Springs and Indio also cited this as a common reason for not testing. In fact, nationwide, uncooperative victims are the most cited reason given by law enforcement agencies for not testing kits.

However, some advocates and researchers argue that many of these victims are really just discouraged by a police culture of doubt and mistrust. For example, the Detroit study released earlier this year faulted police for "negative, victim-blaming beliefs."

Knecht said the problem is bigger than just one city.

"Research shows, more than any other crime, that police don't believe sexual assault survivors. They withdraw because of how they have been treated," she said.

On paper, one of California's uncooperative victims is Nichol Bridges-Crescenzi, an Orange County woman who says she was raped 15 years ago. Crescenzi agreed to be identified and tell her story to help spread awareness about sexual assault.

Crescenzi, then 23, was a college student in Newport Beach. Her attacker pinned her to the floor of his apartment on their first date. His grip was "like a boa constrictor." She felt that if she fought back, he would hurt her.

The next day, Newport Beach police took Crescenzi to the hospital for a rape exam. Just like Carissa, she was questioned, photographed and swabbed. The nurses tried to be as gentle and comforting as possible, she said, but they couldn't sugarcoat the invasive exam.

"I had just been raped — and this felt barbaric — but there was no easy way to do it," Crescenzi said. "The only reason I went through with it was my hope that they would get evidence. This would prove to them that I wasn't making it up."

Ultimately, it wouldn't matter. A day or two later, detectives had Crescenzi call her attacker on a recorded line, trying to dupe him into a confession. He hung up. Officers said this was a classic case of "he said, she said," and that prosecution would be long, arduous and painful.

Intimidated, Crescenzi gave up. Charges weren't pursued. The case was closed.

Almost certainly, her rape kit was never tested.

"The fact that this is happening, all these kits are going untested, shows women are not given confidence when they go to the police," Crescenzi said. "There are too many cases like mine, because women feel that when they go to the police, the likelihood of anything happening is slim."

USA Today reporter Stephen Reilly contributed to this report.

Reporter Brett Kelman can be reached by phone at (760) 778-4642, by email at brett.kelman@desertsun.com, or on Twitter @TDSbrettkelman.

UNTESTED RAPE KITS

More than 500 untested sexual assault kits, commonly known as "rape kits", are in storage at police departments in the Coachella Valley. Here is a breakdown:

•Sheriff's Department, Thermal Station: 137, dating back to 1997

•Sheriff's Department, Palm Desert Station: 132, dating back to 2008

•Indio Police Department: 128, dating back to 2000

•Palm Springs Police Department: 84, dating back to 2000

•Desert Hot Springs Police Department: 25, dating back to 2008

•Cathedral City Police Department: 10, dating back to 2010

Source: Public records requests by USA Today and The Desert Sun