DNA evidence to be stored in Madison in sexual assault cases

RACINE When sexual assault victims go into the All Saints emergency room, they are not always ready to contact police.

Hospital staff give those victims choices, and as one of those options they are able to have a forensic exam where DNA evidence is collected in case they decide to work with police later.

In the near future that evidence could be sent to Madison for storage, possibly giving some victims extra time to report.

That evidence is currently stored at Wheaton Franciscan-All Saints hospital, 3801 Spring St., for three to six months and up to a year for some cases, although space is limited, said Rachel Cortez, coordinator of the hospitals Sexual Assault Treatment Center.

But at other hospitals and clinics around the state, sometimes that evidence is only stored for a matter of days or weeks, said Jill Karofsky, executive director of crime victim services for the state Department of Justice.

The state is now planning on going to a new system where evidence collected from sexual assault victims would be stored in one centralized place at the crime lab in Madison, Karofsky said, and there would be statewide consistency in how the DNA evidence is stored.

The idea of the system is to give victims time to make a decision if they want to contact police, but she couldnt say how long exactly evidence would be stored because those details are still being worked out.

The new system would likely be implemented later this year or early next year.

The DNA would not be tested until the victims authorized it and decided they were ready to get police involved, Karofsky said. They are also still working on establishing who would be contacting sexual assault victims to check in on if they were ready to report the incident to law enforcement.

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DNA evidence to be stored in Madison in sexual assault cases