Wednesday, December 6, 2017

WI GOP AG Schimel again passive on sexual assault issues

Not surprising that WI GOP AG Brad Schimel would offer a shoulder shrug on accusations of sexual assault and misconduct against Alabama GOP US Sen. candidate Roy Moore:
"I don’t have the information to say whether you can prove this allegation.”

Yes, it's all about the information, but even when Schimel could get, or is presented with, or has information in hand on such matters, well, gee, look at all the problems!

For example, in May:

Attorney General Brad Schimel punts on rape-kit test data



For the second time in four months, Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel struggled Tuesday to describe the state’s progress in testing a backlog of sexual assault evidence.
Schimel punted when he was asked at a public meeting in Madison to verify recent news reports that 60 packages of evidence from the backlog have been tested so far, a fraction of the thousands of rape kits in Wisconsin that have never been submitted to a lab for analysis.
“I don’t know that number," he said. "I don’t know where they got that number from.
Then, in November, more information complication:

Four new revelations about Wisconsin's rape kits backlog

While discussing Wisconsin's backlog at a March public hearing, Attorney General Brad Schimel assured lawmakers that recent sexual assault evidence was being handled by state labs "effectively and quickly."

But that same month, in grant documents, state Department of Justice officials told the federal government that additional funding could help them study how effectively and quickly sexual assault evidence was being handled...

Pitching a new system to track rape kits, state Department of Justice officials wrote in grant documents that sexual assault survivors faced barriers in accessing information about their kits and called that issue a "significant gap."


"At present, survivors have no way to directly access details about their kit including whether or not it was submitted to the (state crime labs), if it was tested or not, or if it's been destroyed," state officials wrote.


The state proposed a system that would track each rape kit and allow a survivor to monitor its steps through the criminal justice system. Survivors could either log into a secure website or receive notifications.


Department of Justice officials budgeted $1.3 million for the system, though it's unclear that much will be available with the state's reduced award. Officials said the system could help avoid survivors being denied information by law enforcement

1 comment:

Jake formerly of the LP said...

But boy, he had a lot of paranoid spin to throw around on John Doe, didn't he?

Schimel is an incompetent and partisan hack. And one who has likely allowed additional crimes against women to go unsolved because he thinks being a GOP operative is more important than bringing people to justice.