KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel was in Kalamazoo Friday to learn more about the county’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) Program.
State lawmakers took action after discovering, in 2015, that there were thousands of untested so-called “rape kits” sitting in police department storage rooms throughout Michigan.
“The SAKI initiative began as a result of the Sexual Assault Kit Evidence Submission Act, and that was in 2015,” Nessel said. “There was inventory testing of more than 3,000 previously untested forensic kits across the state of Michigan.”
Now, law enforcement must submit sexual assault test kits to the State Police lab within 14 days of collecting the evidence.
The lab then has 90 days to process the test.
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AG Nessel joined Kalamazoo County Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Getting to talk about the SAKI program’s successful history.
“Nearly 180 of the untested kits in Michigan were from Kalamazoo County,” she said, adding that all 180 have since been tested.
“All of these professionals are trained on how to handle cold case sex assault cases, which in my opinion are the hardest, the hardest of any kind of case to solve and prosecute,” Nessel said.
Michigan State Police received $1.3 million in grant money for SAKI programs in 2016 and another $1.6 million in 2018.
“We look at every single one as a viable case, how can we make it stronger and try to give an opportunity for justice for victims who didn’t get the response they deserve the first time around,” Kalamazoo SAKI Lead with the Prosecutor’s Office Erin House explained.
SAKI facilitated the arrest and charging of now-32-year-old Cameron Alvarez in May 2022 for an alleged assault that happened in 2010.
Shawn Hopkins turned himself in in February 2023 for an alleged 2005 assault.
That same month, SAKI helped charge now-30-year-old Michael Johnson with two separate assaults that allegedly happened at Western Michigan University in 2013.
Then in May 2023, a 29-year-old man named Caleb Watson was charged with an alleged 2013 assault.
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“These cases are so important because stopping the perpetrator means preventing future assaults,” Getting said.
