Bay Area Case Spurs Law That Aims To Protect Sexual Assault Victims

ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed off a law this week that aims to empower sexual assault survivors and protect their privacy after it was inspired by a landmark case in the Bay Area, in which a woman's DNA kit was used to later incriminate her.

Senate Bill 916 — sponsored by the Alameda District Attorney's Office — seeks to protect victims's privacy by giving victims the right to access data drawn from their own forensic evidence kits. The law bans agencies from collecting DNA profiles for any reason that isn't related to identifying the perpetrator in an assault.

"Sexual assault survivors have a right to know what their options are in the aftermath of these horrific crimes," said District Attorney Nancy O’Malley.

The bill was authored by Sen. Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino) after San Francisco police in 2021 reportedly used a rape victim's DNA from her assault case to arrest her six years after her report was made. The city later filed a federal lawsuit against the city.

During a search of a San Francisco Police Department crime lab database, the woman's DNA was tied to a burglary in late 2021. Her DNA had been collected and stored in the system as part of a 2016 domestic violence and sexual assault case, then-District Attorney Chesa Boudin said in February in a shocking revelation that raised privacy concerns.

“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,” said the woman's attorney, Adante Pointer.

Local law enforcement agencies would also be prohibited from retaining and then searching victim DNA to incriminate them in unrelated crimes under the legislation.

After a report of sexual assault, many victims undergo a forensic examination with the purpose of collecting evidence, including DNA, to add to a sexual assault kit. Advocates say many of these kits remain untested in police evidence rooms.

SB 916 requires officers to collect the kits, log them into a newly created Department of Justice database and submit the kit for testing within 20 days. A crime lab must test the kit within 120 days, allowing the victim to track the process through the DOJ's database.

After the San Francisco Police Department received the complaint in 2021, the department's crime lab stopped the practice. It formally changed its operating procedure to prevent the misuse of DNA collected from sexual assault victims, Police Chief Bill Scott said.

Scott said at a police commission meeting in March that he had discovered 17 crime victim profiles, 11 of them from rape kits, that were matched as potential suspects using a crime victims database during unrelated investigations. Scott said he believes the only person arrested was the woman who filed the lawsuit.

The woman filed the lawsuit under the alias of Jane Doe to protect her privacy, Pointer said The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they choose to be named.

California allows local law enforcement crime labs to operate their own forensic databases that are separate from federal and state databases. The law also lets municipal labs perform forensic analysis, including DNA profiling, and use those databases — without regulation by the state or others.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.