MASON, Mich. (AP) - A Michigan sheriff who said no rape kits were among his county’s years of mishandled evidence retracted that statement after seven kits were discovered missing.
Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth said he provided wrong information to reporters after investigators told him last week that no rape kits were among the thousands of missing items. He says there was a miscommunication and that sexual assault kits are among the missing items, the Lansing State Journal (https://on.lsj.com/2oyxdXv ) reported.
A recent audit of the sheriff’s department evidence room revealed nearly 1,800 cases where evidence or property was improperly tracked or missing. The missing evidence prompted prosecutors to dismiss 79 of those cases.
The sheriff’s department said the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner kits are from cases dating to 2013 or older. The seven missing kits are not related to any open cases, nor were any cases dismissed because they went missing.
“They’re missing today, but it certainly doesn’t mean at that time we didn’t have them,” Wriggelsworth said.
Wriggelsworth and Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon both took office on Jan. 1, months after a State Journal article from September revealed longstanding issues in the evidence room and a failure to notify the prosecutor’s office and county officials of those problems. A March 30 report from Siemon’s office said the property room was in “disarray” and “handling of evidence was haphazard, undocumented and without regular audits.”
Siemon said she learned of the missing rape kits Monday and was assured before then that no kits were among the missing items. She said her office is evaluating its response to the new information on the kits.
“The public deserves better, and so do the victims of crime,” she said.
A Michigan State Police investigation of the sheriff’s office’s evidence issues is ongoing.
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Information from: Lansing State Journal, https://www.lansingstatejournal.com
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