Manhattan DA will use bank settlement funds to process rape kits nationwide
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced Wednesday that he will use up to $35 million in asset forfeiture funds to help fund the processing of rape kits around the country.
Vance said the money comes in part from funds distributed to local entities in a nearly $9 billion settlement by BNP Paribas, France’s largest bank, for concealing transactions with countries sanctioned by the United States, the New York Times, the New York Observer and the Associated Press report. A press release is here.
The bank settlement paid $448.7 million to the DA’s office and $447 million to New York City, the Times says.
Vance made the announcement at a press conference with actress Mariska Hargitay, who plays a sex-crimes cop on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Hargitay is president of the Joyful Heart Foundation for sex assault survivors, which seeks to eliminate the national backlog of rape kits. The foundation will assist in the initiative.
Rape kits collect DNA and other evidence in rape investigations. The cost of DNA testing runs about $500 to $1,000 a rape kit. Backlogs include about 11,000 untested rape kits in Memphis, Tennessee, and an estimated 4,000 rape kits in Las Vegas.
New York had 17,000 untested rape kits in 2000. An effort to process the kits resulted in 49 indictments in Manhattan and 200 prosecutions throughout the city.
“Rape kits that are untested are not just going to solve crimes in the jurisdictions where they are,” Vance told the New York Times in an interview. “Because some of these people are serial offenders, this could lead to solutions of crimes all over the country.”
See also:
CBS News: “For some sex assault victims, ordeal carries price tag”
