By Matthew Monks
Authorities announced plans last week to review hundreds of the city’s unsolved rape cases and file indictments against unapprehended sex offenders, based only on their DNA, in order to circumvent the statute of limitations.
Under the John Doe Indictment Project, prosecutors will scour roughly 600 unsolved sex cases approaching the 10-year prosecution deadline and seek indictments for cases in which ample DNA evidence is present, said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, at a press conference at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.
“We will make aggressive use of John Doe indictments to ‘stop the clock’ on the statute of limitations and make sure that rapists are not rewarded for avoiding apprehension,” he said.
Armed with a $350,000 federal grant, authorities will focus on cases in which the victim was attacked by a stranger, Bloomberg said.
Using evidence collected from the victim’s “rape kit,” investigators will develop DNA profiles of the unknown assailants and file them with the New York State DNA Databank, which lists the genetic information of more than 100,000 criminals convicted of violent crimes, said Patrick Clark, spokesman for the Queens district attorney’s Office.
By obtaining indictments before the statute of limitations expires, prosecutors will have the foundation to charge suspects with sexual assault if they are ever convicted of a serious crime, no matter how much time has passed, Clark said.
“There was always a sense of frustration among prosecutors because wrongdoers … because of the statute of limitations were given a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Clark said. “This is an important public safety protection. It’s an arrow in the quiver of law enforcement.”
In 2003, New York City’s DNA lab compiled 24 DNA profiles from rapes that occurred in Queens between 1990 and 1993, said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. These cases cannot be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has run out.
City prosecutors have used John Doe indictments sparingly for several years, Clark said.
The Queens district attorney’s office filed one indictment in 2000 against an unidentified male who, posing as a police officer, forced his way into the homes of two women and sexually assaulted them at gunpoint. The man has never been caught, Clark said.
A 1999 state law increased the number of violent offenses designated as requiring the collection of a DNA profile. Since that time, Clark said technology has become advanced enough so that John Doe indictments have become a viable law enforcement tool.
The citywide initiative to employ them is an important step for sexual assault victim’s rights, said Elizabeth McCarthy, senior vice president of Safe Horizons, a New York City victim’s advocacy and support group.
Rape is a crime that traditionally has been swept under the rug by both law enforcement and victims, she said.
While the initiative will only benefit a minority of rape victims — two thirds of all assaults go unreported and most are committed by assailants the victim knows — it shows that lawmakers are striving to remove the stigma attached to the crime, she said.
“It tells the victims that ‘someone’s going to listen to me and take my crimes seriously’ which is not the way rape victims always have felt,” McCarthy said. “What we’d like to see is the next step, which is eliminating the statute of limitations for sexual assault.”
