KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — Attorney General Bill Schuette says his office will spend $1.7 million to test rape kits that were never submitted to the state for processing.
He ordered the probe last September after thousands of untested kits were discovered in an abandoned lab in Detroit.
There were 184 kits in Kalamazoo County and 307 in Calhoun County that were never submitted. But Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Pauli Matyas said it’s not because of lazy investigators or neglect.
He said state labs refused kits unless there was a cooperative victim. In other cases, the suspect confessed, eliminating the need for test results.
He said the state changed those rules last year, and the sheriff’s office submitted the few they had on hand.
“Now, they’re saying that we don’t care what the victim says, we don’t care if there’s a suspect or not, we don’t care what the reasons are,” Matyas said. “All of the previous reasons are off the table.”
Schuette said there’s still a chance those kits could reveal evidence of a serial rapist or help solve cold cases.
– John McNeill
