The Houston Police Department’s investigation into thousands of suspended sexual assault cases produced updates on Thursday, April 11, when Police Chief Troy Finner said 3,948 of the 4,107 suspended sexual assault cases have been reviewed.
Of those, 3,079 cases have been inactivated with no workable leads, which means the HPD has taken the investigation of those cases as far as it can.
“As we work through, you may find some good news, and you may find more bad news,” Finner said during a press conference Thursday. “But the fact is, I made a promise to everyone that we’re going to work through each and every one of those incident reports. So that’s what we’re doing.”
KTRK ABC13 previously reported that 1,147 rape cases in which rape kit tests were available were never adequately investigated by the HPD. Those kits are connected to the almost 4,017 sexual assault suspended incident reports.
Over the course of several years, as part of an automatic process, the 1,147 rape kits collected by officials were sent to the Houston Forensic Science Center for testing, with results then emailed to police. All of the kits’ information was also uploaded to a national DNA database, and dozens of matched profiles were already in the system, KTRK reported.
After a March meeting between the HPD, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, and the Houston Forensic Science Center, the center agreed to compare the incident numbers from the 4,017 sexual assault cases to its own files.
The Chronicle reported that the review revealed 291 cases where a test had been completed and subsequently uploaded into CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System. That interagency system shares DNA information about known sexual assault perpetrators and information from unsolved assaults.
Of those 291 cases, 76 were “hits,” in that they matched other tests in the CODIS system. A second review of other cases that initially had not been marked as sexual assault incidents revealed another 19 hits.
In 51 of the hits, police found a suspect who had been charged already, or complainants who were either missing or did not want to move forward with an investigation. Of the remaining cases, investigators are collecting new DNA samples from known offenders matched to the cases, or they are comparing information where the CODIS matches occurred with other police agencies.
So far, no charges have been filed related to the matched cases.
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Unclear why rape kit test results weren’t followed up
According to the Houston Chronicle, at Thursday’s press conference, Finner did not blame the Houston Forensic Science Center for the lapses in investigations. However, it remained unclear how tested kits that had provided matches to potential suspects in a federal database managed to be suspended.
The science center’s review of files uncovered another 220 sexual assault incident reports that had not been identified or assigned, Finner said, adding that even more sexual assault incident reports “may come to light.”
He called the review of sexual assaults the department’s “number one priority.”
“Lack of personnel” under fire as cause for suspending cases
The cases with matched profiles had gone unnoticed until the recent review of suspended cases for which the HPD had applied an “SL” code, meaning they were suspended not due to lack of evidence but due to lack of personnel.
The 4,017 suspended sexual assault cases were among over 264,000 incident reports of various kinds that had all been suspended under the SL code.
The HPD’s failure to investigate such suspended cases has stirred a furor in the community.
“Some dumb individual said, ‘Well, we can’t get to them, so let’s just say we don’t have the staff.’ Wrong. You sound the alarm,” Houston Mayor John Whitmire said recently about the code’s creation. Whitmire has appointed an independent panel to study the matter.
The HPD’s own internal review of the SL code’s creation and its usage is expected to be finished in May.
Finner said he never authorized the creation of the code, which he called “unacceptable.” The Houston Area Women’s Center deputy CEO, Sonia Corrales, concurred, saying it is “the responsibility of the police department to fully investigate.”
In 2025, a new Sexual Assault Response Team will be in place to prevent cases and evidence from being disregarded. The team will include police and victim advocates who will review Harris County sexual assault cases to prevent such inattentiveness from occurring again.
So far, the police department has reviewed 81,650 of the more than 264,000 suspended reports, Finner said, meaning someone read the report and tried to contact a victim. Of those, 26,000 incident reports should have been suspended using different internal codes, such as one that blamed a lack of leads, he said.
Finner said Thursday that more than three-fourths of the 3,948 sexual assaults that had been reviewed had been newly declared inactive due to a lack of “workable leads.”
“That means we’ve taken an investigation as far as we can,” he said. “We will, of course, at any time reopen any case if we have additional evidence.”
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Texas sex crime punishments can be severe
Anyone who faces an accusation or charge of a sex crime should know that sex crime punishments can be severe, especially in Texas.
In Texas, sexual assault is a second-degree felony for which punishments can include a prison sentence of 2 to 10 years and a fine of as much as $10,000. (The term rape is not used in Texas law, but rather sexual assault.)
Sex crimes involving children can elevate punishments even more. Aggravated sexual assault of a child under 6 years old is a first-degree felony, with penalties including up to 99 years (or life) in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
A sex crime defendant can also face civil lawsuits and a loss of reputation, even if they’re not ultimately convicted of the sex crime.
How can you get a Houston sex crime defense attorney?
Not everyone facing such a charge is guilty, and sex assault defense strategies may be needed with help from a skilled Houston sex crime defense attorney.
To protect your legal rights and ensure that you have your day in court, contact an experienced sexual assault defense lawyer today at the award-winning Neal Davis Law Firm.
