Woman Feels Violated After DNA From Her Rape Kit Was Used To Charge Her For A Crime

In 2016, "Jane Doe" reported a sexual assault and sent her DNA to a rape kit. Five years later, San Francisco police utilized her DNA to arrest her for a property crime. She is now suing the city.

“This is government overreach of the highest order, using the most unique and personal thing we have, our genetic code, without our knowledge to try and connect us to a crime." "You’d think this is some type of sci-fi movie. But it’s real life.” Adante Pointer, the woman’s attorney, said in a statement.

After police used the woman's DNA to file a felony property crime case against her in 2021, the then-district attorney, Chesa Boudin, dismissed the charges after discovering how the DNA was obtained. At a February 2022 news conference, he stated that she and others had been treated "like evidence, not as human beings."

"The deal is that you will use this DNA to punish the individual who violated me," Pointer told The New York Times. And instead, the police became the violators here.

According to USA Today, federal law prohibits retaining the DNA of victims in the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). However, police departments in California and the rest of the United States are permitted to store the DNA of victims for subsequent analysis.

Professor of biology at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, Dan Krane, who has conducted research on the use of DNA in criminal investigations, referred to local police agencies as "stamp collectors" when it came to collecting and storing DNA. "They are pleased the more persons they can add to the database," he told The New York Times.

However, the disclosure of how Jane Doe's rape kit DNA was utilized to later arrest her in San Francisco has prompted a reckoning. ABC 7 reports that after receiving the complaint from the district attorney's office, the police crime lab ceased using the DNA of victims and amended its operational protocols.

During a March meeting of the police commission, Police Chief Bill Scott elaborated that 17 crime victim profiles, including 11 from rape kits, had been matched to prospective suspects. However, he indicated that only Jane Doe's DNA was used to formally indict her.

The New York Times also claims that California legislators intend to make it unlawful for law enforcement agencies to use the DNA of victims to link them to subsequent crimes. In August 2022, they passed a bill to do so, which is currently awaiting the signature of California Governor Gavin Newsom.

However, for Pointer, the issue involves more than the improper use of his clients' DNA. Since Jane Doe is a Black woman, he also told The New York Times that the use of her rape kit DNA indicates how people of color "are frequently targeted by the criminal justice system."

Pointer stated, "Their civil rights are frequently and continuously violated." Thus, another aspect of this is ensuring that we defend the rights of people in this society who are frequently disregarded.

A rape kit or rape test kit is a set of items used by medical experts to collect and preserve physical evidence in the aftermath of a sexual assault complaint. The evidence gathered from the victim can enhance the investigation into the rape case and the prosecution of the suspect.

DNA evidence can be incredibly useful in sexual assault investigations and prosecutions by identifying criminals, revealing serial offenders through DNA matches across instances, and exonerating the falsely accused.

The kit was created in the mid-1970s in Chicago in order to standardize the collection of evidence following sexual assaults. Martha 'Marty' Goddard, a victim advocate and founder of Chicago's Citizens for Victims Assistance organization, and herself a sexual assault survivor, studied and gave the idea to Louis R. Vitullo before he created the first kit.

For many years, the typical instrument was known as a Vitullo kit. Today, it is commonly known as a rape test kit or rape kit.

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