This is a pretty amazing podcast that addresses the rape kit backlog and treatment of rape survivors. The series focuses on Ingham County Sheriff’s Deputy Annie Harrison and the crime spree of serial rapist Marshawn Curtis.
The State of Michigan became a leader in dealing with the rape kit backlog primarily because of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. In 2009 an assistant prosecutor walked into a Detroit PD warehouse and discovered some 11,000 untested rape kits. Worthy was horrified and started raising funds to test the rape kits. Her office spent nine months just categorizing the mountain of rape kits. This work was literally unprecedented in law enforcement.
Worthy later testified before Congress about the need for funds to test these kits–all of them. It was an uphill battle.
In 2015 federal legislation was passed with a $41 million dollar grant initiative to clear up the rape kit backlog. Each kit costs between $500 and $1500 to test. The Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) was the result.
https://bja.ojp.gov/program/saki/overview
The Michigan State Police received funds to help local law enforcement agencies follow Detroit’s lead in dealing with backlogged rape kits. This led the MSP to Detective Annie Harrison at Ingham County because her cases kept coming up in their review of rape cases. Note that Michigan State University is in Ingham County.
Detective Annie Harrison decided to believe the survivors (compare the opening scene with a Georgia detective in Episode 1). Harris learned early on in her career as a detective that whether perpetrators were caught “came down to the luck of the draw.” This is because there is not a lot of training in the area of sexual assault or child sexual abuse and it was a “straw draw” to see who you were going to get to respond to your case. Does the officer have training, compassion and courtesy to deal with a victim of a sex crime? (I’m looking at you OCSD). Straw draw. Not very reassuring.
Marshawn Curtis’ years-long crime spree was stopped with the help of Detective Harrison. The podcast details what a rape survivor goes through and how hard the system is on them, as well as the importance of testing every rape kit.
Rape kit testing bears out the fact that a rapist almost always commits more than one rape. A rape kit is a time stamp and can show how many more crimes a rapist goes on to commit as the kit sits on a warehouse shelf. Review also shows the many bogus reasons law enforcement does not believe victims and decides not to have a rape kit tested. (Episode 4.)
I am still furious that law enforcement dismissed the statements of a survivor of a Michigan child sex ring who came forward after viewing Children of the Snow. Her story never changed as she first told my dad and then me. She was supported by her psychotherapist and an attorney as she came forward to law enforcement. I am told she stood up to over three hours of questioning by two men associated with the OCCK task force. It was a waste of her time and probably more than extremely triggering.
The bottom line, I believe, is that cops thought she was just pulling things together and making things up after viewing the documentary in an effort to try to give answers to a sad old man who had lost his son. Instead of believing that the people she said were associated with this child sex ring were connected and her observations about Kristine Mihelich in particular, she was dismissed. At that time, the OCCK case was on the verge of being once again passed on to the first of another series of MSP detectives who would never have time or resources to follow up or even get up to speed on the file. The information this woman provided would involve significant leg work, dot-connecting and an open mind. That’s three strikes as far as this investigation is concerned.
At some point a retired Wayne County investigator was brought in to evaluate “loose ends” in the investigation into my brother’s murder. Stunningly, he essentially told author Marney Keenan that the issues raised by this possible witness were no longer under review as he had to give full faith and credit to the determinations of his predecessors.
The straw draw thus gets compounded. The vastness of the child sex and CSAM rings in Michigan and the connections with white collar men and some of their adult sons in Oakland County and beyond would remain locked in the sewer of the unsolved OCCK case and the nonexistent investigation into N. Fox Island. Nothing to see here.
If you listen to podcasts, this one is worth your time.
See also:
https://mdocweb.state.mi.us/OTIS2/otis2profile.aspx?mdocNumber=835641
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