Brad Schimel's Backlog
Brad Schimel is trying to hide his record on the rape kit backlog.
As state attorney general, Schimel was criticized for long delays in testing potential evidence of sexual assaults
Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel wants his quest for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court to focus on so-called law and order themes, but he has been overshadowed by his own recent comments supporting an abortion ban, encouraging the notion of a “bloody revolution” in America, and complaining that the insurrectionists who launched a violent attack on the US Capitol in 2021 weren’t getting special treatment by the courts.
And that’s all on top of an issue that has been his lasting legacy as a former state attorney general: the massive backlog of rape evidence kits that required processing in order to secure justice for the victims of sexual assaults.
State has tested only 9 backlogged rape kits
Two days after the state's top prosecutor said "a few hundred" of Wisconsin's 6,000 backlogged rape kits had been tested, his office acknowledged that the number is a fraction of that.
The state has completed testing of nine kits, said Rebecca Ballweg, a spokeswoman in the office of Attorney General Brad Schimel.
Cops, foundation clash on importance of untested rape kits
Thousands of rape kits remain untested and in police storage facilities in Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin, a national organization that works on issues of sexual assault and family violence said Monday.
[D]ata compiled by the state Attorney General's office found an additional 3,351 untested rape kits from with 81% of jurisdictions reporting. That's a total of 6,006 untested rape kits in Wisconsin.
Delays, blunders and police neglect in Wisconsin’s reponse to rape kits
Rather than ask lawmakers for additional full-time staff, Schimel applied for out-of-state grants, which had strings attached, and he limited resources for the project to grant-funded work. He also contracted with private firms for the testing, rather than beef up Wisconsin's own crime labs for the task, as other states had done.
Even Schimel's agents lacked a sense of urgency at times, records show.
Brad Schimel falsely claimed there is no ‘backlog’ of untested rape kits in Wisconsin
In February 2017, Schimel said ‘a few hundred’ kits had been tested, but his office acknowledged days later that only nine had been completed.
The department has decided that the work should be done — a process that began slowly and is on pace to stretch out for up to two years, based on the current capacity and pace. That’s a large accumulation of uncompleted work.
And that’s the definition of a backlog.
