Woman sues San Francisco after DNA retained in sexual assault case used to arrest her on unrelated charge

San Francisco — A rape sufferer whose DNA from her sexual assault case was used by San Francisco police to arrest her in an unrelated property crime on Monday filed a lawsuit in opposition to town. During a search of a San Francisco Police Department crime lab database, the lady’s DNA was tied to a housebreaking in late 2021. Her DNA had been collected and saved in the system as a part of a 2016 home violence and sexual assault case, then-District Attorney Chesa Boudin mentioned in February in a stunning revelation that raised privateness issues.
 
“This is government overreach of the highest order, using the most unique and personal thing we have — our genetic code — without our knowledge to try and connect us to crime,” the lady’s legal professional, Adante Pointer, mentioned in a press release.
 
The revelation prompted a nationwide outcry from advocates, legislation enforcement, authorized specialists and lawmakers. Advocates mentioned the observe may have an effect on victims’ willingness to come ahead to legislation enforcement authorities.
 
Federal legislation already prohibits the inclusion of victims’ DNA in the nationwide Combined DNA Index System. There isn’t any corresponding legislation in California to prohibit native legislation enforcement databases from retaining victims’ profiles and looking them years later for solely completely different functions.

California lawmakers final month permitted a invoice that may prohibit utilizing the DNA profiles collected by police from sexual assault survivors and different victims for any objective apart from aiding in figuring out the perpetrator. Local legislation enforcement businesses would even be prohibited from retaining after which looking sufferer DNA to incriminate them in unrelated crimes underneath the laws, which is pending earlier than Gov. Gavin Newsom.
 
Boudin mentioned the report was discovered amongst lots of of pages of proof in opposition to a lady who had been lately charged with a felony property crime. After studying the supply of the DNA proof, Boudin dropped the felony property crime costs in opposition to the lady.
 
The police division’s crime lab stopped the observe shortly after receiving a grievance from the district legal professional’s workplace and formally modified its working process to forestall the misuse of DNA collected from sexual assault victims, Police Chief Bill Scott mentioned.

Scott mentioned at a police fee assembly in March that he had found 17 crime sufferer profiles, 11 of them from rape kits, that had been matched as potential suspects utilizing a criminal offense victims database throughout unrelated investigations. Scott mentioned he believes the one particular person arrested was the lady who filed the lawsuit Monday.

The girl filed the lawsuit underneath the alias of Jane Doe to defend her privateness, Pointer mentioned The Associated Press typically doesn’t title individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted except they select to be named.
 
California permits native legislation enforcement crime labs to function their very own forensic databases which can be separate from federal and state databases. The legislation additionally lets municipal labs carry out forensic evaluation, together with DNA profiling, and use these databases – with out regulation by the state or others.