Clearing Rape Kits Key in Detroit's Recovery: Businesswomen

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Justice has not been swift — or, until recently, seemingly important — for the 11,341 victims whose forgotten rape kits gathered dust on the shelves of a Detroit police storage facility for 30 years until their discovery in 2009.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy has made testing of the abandoned rape kits, which store DNA evidence collected after sexual assaults, a priority of her administration. But it’s an arduous, expensive task.

Worthy told The New York Times she “knew that they all had to be tested, even the ones that were beyond the statute of limitations”

“I wanted to try to bring justice to each and every one of those victims that I could,” she said.

The backlog of untested sexual assault kits isn’t unique to Detroit, though the issue in the Motor City is considered among the worst in the nation.

“You had potentially 11,000 victims, overwhelmingly women, overwhelmingly women of color, overwhelmingly from the city of Detroit, and if you can’t care about this issue, then I don’t know what you care about as a human being,” Worthy told Patch last year. “This a human issue.”

Those sexual assault survivors were among hundreds of thousands whose rape kits have languished in cities across the country. But unlike Detroit, other cities weren’t on the brink of financial failure when the abandoned rape kits were discovered.

Detroit formally emerged from its historic bankruptcy late last year, but Wayne County is still struggling and is under a form of financial oversight from the state known as a consent agreement as it works to fill a $52 million structural deficit.

Enough SAID Born of Outrage

Since 2009, Worthy has made scores of appeals for the millions of dollars needed to clear the backlog, investigate the crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice.

She has negotiated the cost of testing from $1,500 to $490, whittling away at the $17 million originally estimated to test the 11,341 forgotten rape kits, but millions of dollars are still needed to pay for investigations and prosecution.

A cadre of female business leaders have joined Worthy in the fund-raising effort through Enough SAID (Sexual Assault in Detroit), a public-private partnership of Worthy’s office, the Michigan Women’s Foundation, Detroit Crime Commission and more than a dozen business and other partners.

Among the champions of the effort is Joanna Cline, the chief marketing officer for wall decal manufacturer Fathead. One of the chief architects of Enough SAID, Cline told The Times she “was and am furious” about the issue, which she learned about in late 2013 when she saw Worthy explaining the funding dilemma on a national news program.

Convinced the funding problem could be overcome, Cline fired off 200 emails to business leaders.

“We probably have the resources to do something to show the victims that they matter, show the perpetrators they’re not going to get away with it and just keep working to make Detroit a safer city,” she said.

The shared determination is paying off.

Enough SAID has raised $1.3 million from private donors and $7.6 million in public financing. Still struggling financially, Wayne County recently set aside $1 million from the county’s delinquent tax fund so Worthy can hire more investigators and set aside secure office space for them to work.

652 Suspected Serial Rapists ID’d

To date, about 10,000 of the abandoned rape kits have been tested, and DNA collected from them has been matched to violent crime in at least 38 states. Some 652 suspected serial rapists had been identified, 27 convictions have been secured, 182 cases are under active investigation and 1,598 more are awaiting investigation.

The issues surrounding the forgotten rape kids have drawn the attention of national business leaders and celebrities, from Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, who gave a $25,000 gift to Enough SAID, to “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” actress Mariska Hargitay, who teamed with Worthy in 2014 to announce legislation, signed by the governor last summer, requiring hat rape kits be tested within 90 days.

Small fund-raisers and high stakes contests have been waged to raise money and send a message to the survivors that they matter.

The same month that a women’s philanthropy group in Canton raised $4,000 for Enough SAID, Worthy and ESPN’s Jemele Hall used the University of Michigan-Michigan State University intrastate football rivalry to raise money for rape kit testing. Participating businesses have donated services for auctions, and Birmingham based Brogan & Partners, a female-run marketing agency, is offering its services to the effort free of charge.

‘World is Watching Us’

Spurred by two sexual assault survivors — Kim Trent, a member of the board of directors of Wayne State University who works for Michigan’s Future, public relations executive Darci McConnell — a group of African-American businesswomen are working to raise $657,090 by the end of 2016 to test the remainder of the rape kits.

The overwhelming majority — 81 percent — of the sexual assault victims whose rape kits were abandoned were black women.

“This is definitely, on a personal level and a professional level, the most satisfying campaign I have ever worked on,” Trent told The Times.

Enough SAID’s warriors say clearing the backlog is an important piece in Detroit’s economic recovery.

“The business community has rallied around us, particularly businesswomen who are saying this can’t happen here if we’re going to make this the city we’re all working to make it,” Peg Tallet, chief community engagement officer of the Michigan Women’s Foundation, told The Times.

“It’s an interesting time for Detroit,” added Michelle Busuito, a lawyer for the suburban bus system in Detroit who is also involved in Enough SAID. “The world is watching us. But you can’t have economic development if you can’t feel safe walking to your car after work.”

Patch’s Earlier Reports

• Kym Worthy: Untested Rape Kits Illustrate Funding Crisis
• Detroit Discovers at Least 100 Serial Rapists After It Finally Gets Around to Processing Thousands of Rape Kits
• Company Gives $100K to Help Wayne County Clear Backlog of Rape Cases
• Michigan Gets $7.5M Grant to Test Rape Kits, Go After Serial Rapists
• Worthy, ESPN’s Hill Use UM-Michigan State Game to Raise Rape Kit Testing Funds
• Another $1M Earmarked to Clear Rape Kit Backlog