By Mario Garcia, Kristen Powers and Jessica Hopper
Rock Center
Wayne County, Mich., Prosecutor Kym Worthy has seen her share of grisly crime, but even she was shocked by a discovery in 2009 at a former police storage warehouse. There, stacks of dusty boxes were found on the shelves of the warehouse. The boxes contained thousands of untested rape kits, some decades old.
“What we were potentially looking at, at that time, was over 10,000 rape kits, representing over 10,000 cases where women had reported, whose lives and what had happened to them was sitting on a shelf and nobody cared. I was shocked, and I think I was kind of stunned -- and not too much stuns me,” Worthy told Kate Snow in an interview that aired Friday on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams.
Worthy and her team would ultimately discover 11,303 untested kits. Rape kits are what hospitals use to collect DNA evidence from a victim in hopes that police can test it and identify a rapist. Victims have to undergo a thorough exam that can take hours. The DNA evidence is often the most important evidence used to convict in a rape case.
“To know that we had all of these potential victims sitting out there, all of them, mostly women, and nothing had been done, was just truly appalling,” Worthy said.
She is spearheading the fight to correct the injustice. Worthy said that what’s happening in her city is happening across the country. From Chicago to Los Angeles to Houston, cities are grappling with thousands of untested rape kits. Through a national grant, Worthy is attempting to set a protocol for how other states tackle backlogged rape kits.
To Learn More About the Detroit Rape Kit Initiative, Click Here to Visit the Detroit Crime Commission
The daughter of a West Point graduate, Worthy says she has always felt a sense of justice and morality. As a lawyer, she’s fearlessly sought justice, taking on high-profile cases including the corruption case against former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. But perhaps her own traumatic experience has contributed to her drive. Worthy says that she was sexually assaulted while in law school but did not report her case.
Courtesy of Kym Worthy
Kym Worthy at her law school graduation.
“This may sound strange, but I think what happened to me in law school happened for a reason and kind of led me into what I’m doing now. I always felt that way. And I always felt that that was a part of what made me a very good prosecutor, and certainly that is part of everything that I do. But it wasn’t the driving force,” she said.
Worthy said her experience allows her to better identify with the women whose cases were left untouched for years, but ultimately her time as a prosecutor during Detroit’s tumultuous last decade sparked her determination. Over the past decade, Detroit has dealt with a high crime rate, budget woes and corruption in both the police force and former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's office.
“The fact that I was the first female assistant of [an] elected prosecutor here, the fact that I had been prosecuting rapes for 11 years, off and on for 11 years, and presided over many criminal sexual assault trials as well, as a judge, and then to see this happen in Wayne County, a county where we already have a crime problem that’s out of control, and then to have, to add this on top of the issues we had with the Detroit crime lab, it was just a little much. And that makes you even madder,” Worthy said.
WATCH: Detroit prosecutor vows justice after neglected rape kits found
Worthy’s journey to reverse Detroit’s backlog began in August 2009, when she got a call from then-Assistant Prosecutor Rob Spada. Spada had just taken a tour of a downtown Detroit warehouse used as an overflow storage facility by the police. At the time, the system for processing evidence was in disarray and Spada had been called in to help police figure out how to catalog and sort what they had. As Spada walked through the warehouse covered with graffiti and surrounded by barbed wire, he stumbled upon rows of boxes.
“I saw numerous racks with cardboard boxes, and they told me at that point those were rape kits. I immediately asked the representatives were they tested rape kits or untested rape kits. And at that point, they said, ‘We don’t know,’” Spada said.
Some of the boxes were opened and exposed to the elements of the musty, warm warehouse. He immediately called his boss, Prosecutor Worthy.
“You would think that with that discovery, everybody would be outraged, but it seemed that this office was the only one,” Worthy said.
Worthy took action because she says she got little support from the police chief at the time. Worthy says the police chief at the time promised an internal review, but she didn’t think that was enough.
She found volunteers on her staff to start sifting through the rape kits trying to match each one with a victim using old, handwritten police logbooks.
“We were literally blowing off dust and dirt off of those books so we can open them up and see if we can find any information in these books that would match the rape kit,” Worthy said. “My prosecutors that are overworked, underpaid and have too much to do volunteered on their own time because we were all concerned about this issue.”
So far, 600 kits have been tested, and investigators say that they have discovered evidence of 21 serial rapists. Grant money funded the testing of those kits. Worthy said it costs on average between $1,200 and $1,500 to get each kit tested. People have wanted to donate money to help get kits tested, but the prosecutor’s office cannot solicit or collect funds. But now a non-profit organization, the Detroit Crime Commission, has set up a fund and will manage it for the purpose of accepting donations and using those funds to help pay to get kits tested.
Some of the kits tested have revealed sobering results. One kit from 2002 revealed DNA belonging to a man who was in prison for the murder of three women. The murders had been committed during the seven years the rape kit sat on a warehouse shelf.
Inspector Marlon Wilson and Sgt. Marvin Jones are currently in charge of the Detroit Police Department’s sex crimes unit. Since neither police officer was in charge when the rape kits ended up in the warehouse, they were reticent to say whether the police department failed by letting the kits go untested.
“Unfortunately at that time when those rape kits were untested, I was not part of the sex crimes unit, so I really can’t say,” Wilson said.
The Detroit Police department says that they completed an internal review in 2009. NBC News filed an official request for records of any internal investigation, and two months later we received an eight page document. In it, the police say once they became aware of the situation in the warehouse, they randomly pulled 36 of the stored rape kits and found there were “justifiable reasons” for not testing them. Those reasons, police say, include victims who refused to prosecute or were uncooperative and assailants who pleaded guilty to lesser charges. When NBC News showed the report to Worthy, she questioned its validity.
“Their reasons were just made-up reasons as to why there should be no investigation,” Worthy said.
Worthy says the newest Detroit Police Chief along with Inspector Wilson and Sgt. Jones have been very cooperative in the effort to now test every rape kit.
“I’m going to make sure that every sexual assault kit that comes through sex crimes is tested,” Sgt. Jones pledged.
“We don’t treat them as 11,000 rape kits. We’re looking at each one individually,” Wilson said.
NBC News
Audrey Polk's rape kit sat untested for over a decade.
One of the more than 11,000 kits discovered in the warehouse belonged to Audrey Polk.
“I feel like someone’s paid attention now, and it makes me feel a little better. And to those who shut the doors, kept putting boxes, kits on [shelves], shame on them all, shame on them,” said rape survivor Polk.
A mom of two, she was raped in February 1997 in an attack that began while she lay in bed sleeping with her infant daughter and 6-year-old son.
“What woke me up was his weight on top of me. I was horrified,” Polk said. “He had a gun. I know that. He did cover my eyes eventually. I didn’t see him, you know. It was dark.”
After the attack, she immediately called the police, and went to the hospital where evidence was collected from her.
“I had no choice. That was the only way I could ever have a way of, you know, getting this person off the street,” said Polk of the invasive exam.
Polk initially made several calls to the police about her case. She said she got little information and eventually stopped calling. The rape continued to haunt her and her children. Her son had trouble with his anger and had problems at school.
“It makes me tear up now because I know what he’s gone through and his anger, how his life was interrupted and he was cheated out of a normal childhood, you know. That’s not fair,” said an emotional Polk.
Polk, herself, had trouble spending the night alone. Fourteen years after the attack that altered her and her family’s life forever, she received a knock on the door from a Wayne County assistant prosecutor.
“I opened the door, and I said, ‘Ma’am, I’ve never done anything wrong in my life,’ and she goes, ‘No, we know who raped you 14 years ago.’ And I’m looking at her, like, are you really serious?” Polk said. “And the first thing she said, ‘Well, do you still want to prosecute?’ And I said, ‘Certainly, absolutely, yes, I do.’”
Polk’s assailant was found guilty and sentenced to up to 60 years in prison.
“I hope, more than anything, it gives hope to those women who were ignored that we are working each and every day to try to fix things, and not every case is going to be prosecutable, but we’re going to make sure that we have, we can prosecute as many as we can,” Worthy said.
Editor’s note: Kate Snow’s full report airs Friday, Feb. 15 at 10 p.m. ET/9 CT on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams.
To donate to the Detroit Crime Commission, click here. To specify that your funds go to the testing of rape kits, be sure to click the "add special instructions" section and specify that the funds go to the "Wayne County Rape Kit Initiative."
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Horrifying that these criminals were able to get away with their crimes for so long.
I forget who the politician was who said this: "Don't tell me what your values are. Show me your budget and I'll see for myself".
A non-profit had to be set up to process these? Guess that tells me all I need to know.
I remember that saying from the early 70's. Could not find who first said it though.
Most prosecutors I'm aware of are lazy grand-standers, using the flimsiest of evidence to prosecute people who cannot defend themselves, all for political gain.
This woman appears to be a welcome exception.
WOW you must have some serious legal issues if you know THAT many prosecutors!
The way women dress and with all the gay rights, how will a rape test tell who is being raped. The advertising on our streets today suggests, come and get it, if you want it. Have ou been to a bar, lately, the women and men may as well be naked, it would save wear and tear on the clothes, in their haste for sex.
You do know, Anthony, that your posts sounds like it could come from a rapist?
It's kinda icky...
....an YOU wonder, sadden american, why some people just come unglued over this? men like Anthony here make a lot of people think we are two seconds away from living in the dark ages again....
Dear Lord! Anthony, Anthony, Anthony! Bless your heart! Do you still have issues understanding what rape is? I suggest looking up the definition, talking with rape counselors--just educate yourself honey. Please. For all of us. . .
Really? This type of thinking presumes that men are incapable of any sort of control. So women should stop dressing in whatever they are wearing because men can't differentiate between what's right and wrong and they can't control themselves?
Certain Islamic sects mandate that a woman be stoned to death should it be proved that seeing her unclad form caused sinful thoughts in a righteous man . . .
Anthony would make a great convert. He's already got the mindset.
What is the truth?
to be or not to be? That is the question.
Sex is so easy and prevelant on the TV, no wonder the lawyers want to see the money first, not mention, pants below the butt, and dresses above the butt, it all looks free to me, not mention easy. I gues it is a matter of paying the girl first, maybe that is the issue.
...dream on, pervie.
NO, the issue is force. She says no, she means no. The end. I sure hope you never have kids because if you have a girl the chances of her getting sexually assaulted are extremely high. I wish I could quote the numbers, but I think they have changed since I last heard them. Back then it was 1 in 5 women living have been sexually assaulted. So basically, between my mom, me, and three of my cousins, one of us has been sexually assaulted. Unfortunately in my family it's more like 4 out of 5. Oh, and we dress like people. We cover ourselves. Learn the facts.
I’ve thought all along that our justice system has some miss-placed priorities.
How is it that it’s legal to give sex away but a crime to sell it? Let’s make prostitution legal. Then you can insist on health exams and tax it. Those tax dollars can be used to fund putting rapist behind bars. You know the people who force others into a sexual act against their will versus those who buy and sell what it’s legal to give away.
With prostitution legal, you can cut down on the size of the Vice Department. The savings or personnel can be used to build cases to prosecute rapist.
Talk about miss placed priorities, it seems more prostitutes end up behind bars than rapist.
FYI I’m a Christian, but regardless the brutal truth is some people sell their bodies for a living and others purchase their bodies. It’s old as time. You can’t legislate morality, which is what laws against prostitution attempt to do. Rape on the other hand is a vicious attack of one person against another. Let’s get priorities straight and put attackers behind bars.
Er... what does that have to do with the article??
Not much, but he makes cogent points. Everyone likes solid logic. You should try it sometime, Sadden.
ALL of the prosecuting attorneys BEFORE Ms. Worthy should have to pay for the testing,....NOW, and if their dead, then their estates should bare the costs of the retesting.
pitiful waste of money.
Yeah, the bottom line should always trump justice.
I feel sorry for male, teachers in the class rooms, Men seeing the boys butts, and girls crutch, and women seeing the sme thing all day long. I am preducice, as the women slide a little easier, then the men, when it comes to jail time.
...hot there in the Middle East today?
Got your favorite stoning stone all polished up?
ALL of the previous prosecuting attorneys before Ms. Worthy, should have to pay for ALL of the testing/retesting of those kits, and if they are dead, then their estates should bare the costs.
Hey Tracy and the rest of you who blame immigrants for all of our problems, How do you just "be illegal?" Are you "an illegal" when you break the speed limit? Do you have redeeming qualities or are you just "an illegal" forever more. Breaking the law has consequences, but it does not mean being dehumanized forever. We are a nation of immigrants. Historically, they are one of our greatest strengths.
Yeah, when they immigrate, which implies proceeding through a list of requirements in order to gain citizenship. Swimming a river or climbing a fence makes you an "illegal", as in you are in the country illegally. And until you complete the list of requirements and gain full citizenship, you are illegal "forever more".
It's actually pretty simple, as you appear to be. : )
If policemans or somebody in the Justice Department don't due his job FIRE THEM ! fk the unions mafia
Hey everybody, let's double shock prosecutor Worthy by asking her if she can account for where did the money to use to pay for testing those kits go? So if a kit was suppose to be tested dated decades ago, where did that money to pay for the test go?
double shocker! where did the money go?
The moolah did a hula right into some officals wallets. Those responsible should be sought out and prosecuted, but then again Detroit is obviously having a problem with honest investigations. Let the FBI handle it if federal funding was involved.
Another corrupt government officals. it is time america stand up. All over this country, our tax dollars. Yet once again the poor middle class must pay for politicans city officals not doing there jobs serve and protect.
Since Ms Worthy works for the DA's office and prosecuting people is what she does, why in the @#$% doesn't she go after the people who put these tests in the warehouse in stead of doing their @#$% JOB?
She's talking about going after somebody who raped one or more women, what about the SOB who covered up 11,303 rapes?
The words "dereliction of duty" keep spinning in my mind with this.
Other than that- THIS IS LOCAL NEWS! WHY ARE WE BEING PESTERED WITH IT? Especially as a headline. Is there no NATIONAL NEWS worthy of attention? Still waiting to hear where the TRILLIONS of dollars went that were reported lost on Sep 10,2001, the day before the attacks (hint hint- megastory!). IF NBCNEWS doesn't do better with this page than putting out a national gossip page it won't be worth having as a homepage or even consulting.
Having just moved from Detroit less than a year ago (and yes, I was a Detroit resident, not one of the suburbanites that call themselves a Detroiter) I can assure any doubters that the city is in a state of complete sh!t. I spent 16 years there, and abandoned all hope of it ever rebounding. Until the state moves in, and takes over the city, articles like this won't surprise me - this is a financial problem. The crooks and morons that are elected into city council cannot balance the books, and therefor this will continue.
Maybe Detroit is trying to run competition with Chicago, which is the worst he!! hole.
Hmmm...there's a lot to untangle here. Let's start by focussing on what's claimed as to issues of corruption with the police department, and mayor's office, and consider those questions as transposed to the prosecutor's office (as a 'gedanken' heuristic) and then to take matters back to the crime lab, which is the main area of interest.
So, let's affirm what's implicit in the story, that, unlike with the mayor's office and police department, which have an inertial assumption of being corrupt, that that's not at all operative (in ANY, even 'structural' sense) with regards to the prosecutor's office.
And WHY might we think otherwise? What's the 'uncontained subversion' (Greenblatt concept) here? Well, the subject of the story claims she was assaulted in law school, but did nothing. Her doing nothing would parallel the crime lab doing nothing insofar that it's not testing the rape kits, so one MIGHT think that she (in the prosecutor's office) is not a TOTAL mismatch to such corruption issues related to inaction.
Okay, so, again, let's say that she's held-up as competent (ABLE to do her job) and let's posit whether she was earlier.
If the PROSECUTOR'S office was felt to be ABLE to do their job, but then NOT doing it, and then later 'felt like' doing their job, would the RESULTS of what they did be felt to be belatedly acceptable, or suspect?
In other words, it's not just ENOUGH that one CAN do a job, but, that one's RECORD in not doing the job when one COULD have, ALSO impacts on one's views.
If one hired someone as fully capable, but then they were lax, and THEN turned in timely reports would one conclude that things were wholly in-order, or maybe be a little wary due to the prior work history?
So, my point is, vis-a-vis the crime lab, that GIVEN that they've had a history of NOT doing their tests, now, when they ARE doing their tests, are we to think that the results are WHOLLY reliable, or is the whole ENTERPRISE now to be greeted with a jaundiced eye?
If one knew a doctor was trained at Harvard, but then was lazy, but then decided to show up for work, maybe we might think they COULD do good work, but, would we WANT for THEM to be treating us and deciding matters as to outcomes?
This story needs MUCH more critical thought by me at the very LEAST, but these are my initial views.
So, my take-away is that LAW has long been with us, as flawed as it is, and I'd rather have THAT be our focus and area of repair than a new-fangled area (forensics and criminology) as not ONLY with OUTSIZED claims to authority, but, from what we've seen, a VERY less-than-reliable record.
Blah blah blah...
Their is no money to be made by investigating rape cases but a lot to be made with drug and minor crimes. Go figure.
The police there must have had a money scheme going to getting money to loose the rape test kits.
"must have"...
If you have proof, then I'm sure Kim Worthy would love to talk to you...
I admire this lady prosecutor and all her staff who stepped up to the plate and tried to correct a wrong. Those who complained about the cost- One test done on a very old rape case found the man had committed 3 murders afterwards, and now, if they had done the test they could have maybe caught that person and in the process 3 people would still be alive today. Can you put a price on peoples' lives?
Many people bring race into a factor when something is wrong, it would be nice to see people see people for just that. I do not care if a person is black, white, Asian and or Spanish we are all human beings and we all tick the same way no matter what the surface cover may look like and we should judge each situation on the merits of just that.
It is my hope that all those rape kits get their just justice and those whose committed the crimes get their time in jail making our world a little safer.
Crimes of violence against innocent victims should receive priority in prosecution. It is unconscionable that 11,000 victims have been ignored, when the evidence needed to identify and prosecute their assailants was right there--at the police station.
Max^108 wrote: That is why women should arm themselves. This is their best chance for justice. No - while it may serve your need for guns, that's solving the wrong problem. Men to to learn how to get control of themselves and then there would not be a need for guns or appling justice. Hope springs eternal.
Are you kidding me! this country is screwed. Its this type of incompetence from the Whitehouse down that nothing is getting done. Why dont we pass more laws and keep everyone in business. It is a sorry state of affaiers and everyone from the top down should be prosecuted or held accountable. If I did that lousy of a job I would be fired.