MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Now a story about continuing problems for victims of sexual assault seeking justice in Colorado. And a warning to listeners, it includes details about these types of crimes. The problems have to do with the lab testing needed to process what can be the strongest evidence in sexual assault cases - rape kits. The state has a backlog of about 1,400 untested kits. Colorado Public Radio's Bente Birkeland reports.
BENTE BIRKELAND, BYLINE: Miranda Spencer, a 35-year-old mom and business consultant, lives with her young daughter in Denver. A couple of years ago, when she was going through a divorce, she tried a dating app for the first time. After a few uneventful first dates, Spencer agreed to meet a man who'd been persistently messaging her.
MIRANDA SPENCER: So I let a friend know, hey, I'm going to go out - and the exact words that I used were - on this pity date. You can come over afterwards, so we can hang out.
BIRKELAND: Those words ended up being fateful. She said she only remembers the first 20 to 30 minutes of that date. She woke up the next morning with her friend hovering over her asking if she was OK. Her friend told her what he walked into when he came over.
SPENCER: The person that assaulted me was in my bedroom. I was unclothed. I was pretty incapacitated. I had vomit all over me.
BIRKELAND: The hospital in Denver told her she was drugged with fentanyl. She agreed to an invasive exam by a nurse to attempt to collect DNA evidence. What Spencer didn't know is how long it would take for a lab to process that kit. Wait times had been going up and were about to balloon exponentially. Chris Schaefer, director of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, explains one reason - allegations that a longtime scientist in the lab had manipulated DNA results.
CHRIS SCHAEFER: Because of that, we had to shut down basically 50% of our DNA sciences for the better part of a year to go through and research the over 10,000 cases that our former scientist had worked. That was our No. 1 priority.
BIRKELAND: Also, at that time, a number of DNA scientists were on family leave or had left the job. Wait times for sexual assault kits skyrocketed. Schaefer has apologized to victims, but for Spencer, it's been excruciating.
SPENCER: Waiting, you know, almost a year and a half to have to, like, fully understand what the worst thing that's happened to you - like, all of the details of it - is - honestly, it feels, like, very barbaric.
ILSE KNECHT: We start to feel very uncomfortable and concerned when the turnaround time gets above 90 days.
BIRKELAND: Ilse Knecht is with the Joyful Heart Foundation, a nonprofit based in New York City. She directs their End The Backlog initiative and says it's hard to document how long wait times are across the country, but Colorado's current pace is pretty extreme.
KNECHT: More than a year, it's - alarm bells are going off. So getting closer to almost two years is, like, a four-alarm fire.
BIRKELAND: This year, Colorado lawmakers set aside $2 million to outsource tests and another million to help with overall issues at the bureau, including the backlog. For one state lawmaker, it's especially personal. Democratic representative Jenny Willford said the evidence from her sexual assault by a Lyft driver went untested for more than a year.
JENNY WILLFORD: It was really difficult to wait as long as I did and to feel like that result was hanging over me and that I didn't know if there would be DNA evidence or not.
BIRKELAND: Willford is suing Lyft. In response, the company said passenger safety is fundamental and that it works with police to investigate alleged crimes. Law enforcement officials say waiting for this evidence prevents them from completing investigations and making arrests. Delays also make it harder to get convictions. As the wait for her evidence stretches onward, Miranda Spencer says she's trying to stay present for her 5-year-old daughter.
SPENCER: I need to move forward. I need to not be in this holding pattern. Like, my whole life has stopped because of this.
BIRKELAND: She got a temporary restraining order against the man she believes assaulted her, but it's expired. She's still fearful of her alleged perpetrator. Spencer's been told she'll get her DNA evidence soon. But after all is said and done, she says she has no expectations she'll ever get justice.
For NPR News, I'm Bente Birkeland in Denver.
(SOUNDBITE OF RANDALL BRENEMAN, ADAM SKINNER AND DAN SKINNER'S "THE GRIEVANCE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
