$2.5M awarded to develop sexual assault kit tracking system in Pennsylvania
The award comes from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and will help the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency to improve the support for survivors of sexual violence and increase accountability.
'Rape and sexual assault is about power – attackers want to take away their victims' power and dignity, their feeling of safety and security,' Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis, who serves as chair of PCCD said. 'As leaders, we need to do everything we can to help victims feel safe and whole again. If a victim is able to summon the strength to go through the process of getting a sexual assault examination and file a police report, they deserve to know their rape kit is being handled with care and attention, that their case is a priority. Here in Pennsylvania, we're reducing the backlog of processing rape kits, but there's much more work to be done. Now that we've passed Senate Bill 920, Governor Shapiro has signed it into law and with this federal funding, we can create a statewide tracking system that keeps victims informed and helps them get their power back.'
Over $3M invested in Pennsylvania to develop maternal health coalitions
In October of last year, a bill that would require Pennsylvania to develop a tracking system and enhance the rights of sexual assault victims was signed into law. That bill was sponsored by Senator Wayne Langerholc and he said that this award will help to support survivors.
'Act 122 reinforces the Commonwealth's dedication to supporting survivors and ensuring offenders are held accountable. This rape kit tracking system will allow sexual assault survivors to track the progress of their kits throughout an investigation,' Langerholc said. 'The $2.5 million federal grant from the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative will help launch the system sooner, ensuring faster access for survivors.'
Sexual assault kit testing can be a lengthy process and it can lead to backlogs in crime labs. Automated sexual assault kit tracking systems allow survivors to know where their sexual assault kit is throughout the testing process and prompt efficient processing to prevent backlogs and delays, which in turn can speed up the criminal justice process and prevent future assaults.
A portion of the funds will be used to develop a state-level team to build on Pennsylvania's efforts for sexual assault evidence collection.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


San Francisco Chronicle
a day ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
What to know about Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend
Once a British socialite who lived a life of luxury, Ghislaine Maxwell today is confined in a U.S. prison after being convicted of helping financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. Now, three years after she was sentenced, a top U.S. Department of Justice official plans to personally interview Maxwell to find out if she has information about anyone who has committed crimes against Epstein's victims. It isn't clear what Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche might learn from the meeting. Maxwell has long claimed she is innocent and had no knowledge that Epstein, or anyone else, was sexually abusing teenagers. Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial in 2019, but his case has generated endless attention and conspiracy theories because of his and Maxwell's links to famous people, including royals, presidents and billionaires. President Donald Trump has suggested in the past there was a cover-up. Now his administration is dealing with the fallout after the Justice Department initially announced two weeks ago that it would not release any more evidence about the Epstein investigation. The department has since changed course, at Trump's urging. Who is Ghislaine Maxwell? She grew up as the daughter of the late British billionaire Robert Maxwell, a former member of Parliament whose publishing empire included the Daily Mirror, one of Britain's biggest tabloid newspapers, and the book publisher Macmillan. As a college student, she became close friends with Britain's Prince Andrew, who would later invite her to royal residences, including Windsor Castle. But the Maxwell family was shattered by scandal. After Robert Maxwell fell from his yacht and died in 1991, investigators accused him of embezzling huge sums of money from his companies' pension funds. Soon after her father's death, Ghislaine Maxwell was photographed at a memorial sitting next to Epstein, an American money manager. Maxwell dated Epstein but later also became his employee, taking on a variety of tasks, including hiring staff for his six homes. How did Ghislaine Maxwell help Epstein? Part of Maxwell's household duties included hiring a steady stream of young people to give massages to Epstein. 'As far as I'm concerned, everyone who came to his house was an adult professional person,' she said in a deposition nearly a decade ago. But police and prosecutors said many of those 'masseuses' were underage girls who were paid for sexual acts. Epstein was arrested in 2006 in Palm Beach, Florida, after multiple girls, including students from a local high school, spoke to police. But he ultimately pleaded guilty in 2008 to a single charge of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and served 13 months in jail. Maxwell wasn't charged until 2021. At her trial, four women testified that Maxwell groomed them as teenagers to participate in sexual acts with Epstein and sometimes participated in the abuse. Maxwell's lawyers argued that the women's recollections had been manipulated by lawyers pursuing civil lawsuits, pointing to inconsistencies in their testimony. A jury convicted Maxwell of sex trafficking, conspiracy and transportation of a minor for illegal sexual activity. Why do investigators want to talk to Maxwell now? The Justice Department's request to talk with Maxwell comes at a time when it is dealing with backlash from some of President Donald Trump's supporters, some of whom believe there has been a government cover-up to protect Epstein's rich and powerful friends from being implicated in his crimes. The department asked a judge last week to unseal transcripts of the grand jury sessions that led to indictments against Epstein and Maxwell. The Justice Department said in a memo that it had not uncovered evidence to charge anyone else in connection with Epstein's abuse. But Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on social media that 'if Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say.' He said he anticipated meeting with Maxwell in the coming days. Will she talk? It remains to be seen. One of her lawyers, David Oscar Markus, said Tuesday that they were in discussions with the government. 'Ghislaine will always testify truthfully,' he said in the statement. Maxwell did not testify at her trial but gave two lengthy depositions years ago. She repeatedly said that one of Epstein's accusers, who claimed he had trafficked her to powerful men, including Prince Andrew, was a liar who fabricated her story. Where is Ghislaine Maxwell now? Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence and is currently at a low-security federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida.

Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
Judge gives ex-officer nearly 3 years in Breonna Taylor raid, rebuffs DOJ call for no prison time
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge on Monday sentenced a former Kentucky police officer to nearly three years in prison for using excessive force during the deadly 2020 Breonna Taylor raid, rebuffing a U.S. Department of Justice recommendation of no prison time for the defendant. Brett Hankison, who fired 10 shots during the raid but didn't hit anyone, was the only officer on the scene charged in the Black woman's death. He is the first person sentenced to prison in the case that rocked the city of Louisville and spawned weeks of street protests over police brutality that year. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings, in sentencing Hankison, said no prison time 'is not appropriate' and would minimize the jury's verdict from November. Jennings said she was 'startled' there weren't more people injured in the raid from Hankison's blind shots. She sentenced Hankison, 49, to 33 months in prison for the conviction of use of excessive force with three years of supervised probation to follow the prison term. He will not report directly to prison. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons will determine where and when he starts his sentence, Jennings said. The judge, who presided over two of Hankison's trials, expressed disappointment with a sentencing recommendation by federal prosecutors last week, saying the Justice Department was treating Hankison's actions as 'an inconsequential crime' and said some of its arguments were 'incongruous and inappropriate.' Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who helped Taylor's family secure a $12 million wrongful death settlement against the city of Louisville, had called the department's recommendation 'an insult to the life of Breonna Taylor and a blatant betrayal of the jury's decision.' Crump was at Monday's hearing and said he had hoped for a longer sentence but was 'grateful that (Hankison) is at least going to prison and has to think for those 3 years about Breonna Taylor and that her life mattered.' Afterward, before a crowd outside the courthouse, Crump sounded a familiar chant: 'Say Her name.' The crowd yelled back: 'Breonna Taylor!' And he and other members of Taylor family's legal team issued a subsequent statement criticizing the Justice Department. 'While today's sentence is not what we had hoped for –– nor does it fully reflect the severity of the harm caused –– it is more than what the Department of Justice sought. That, in itself, is a statement,' the statement said. Hankison's 10 shots the night of the March 2020 botched drug raid flew through the walls of Taylor's apartment into a neighboring apartment, narrowly missing a neighboring family. The 26-year-old's death, along with the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparked racial injustice and police brutality protests nationwide that year. But the Justice Department, under new leadership since President Donald Trump took office in January, sought no prison time for Hankison, in an abrupt about-face by federal prosecutors after the department spent years prosecuting the former detective. They suggested time already served, which amounted to one day, and three years of supervised probation. Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, said she was disappointed that the new federal prosecutors assigned to the case were not pushing for a tougher sentence. On many occasions inside the courtroom Monday, lead federal prosecutor Rob Keenan agreed with Hankison's defense attorneys on factors that would decrease Hankison's punishment. 'There was no prosecution in there for us,' Palmer said afterward. 'Brett had his own defense team, I didn't know he got a second one.' Taylor was shot in her hallway by two officers after her boyfriend fired from inside the apartment, striking an officer in the leg. Neither of the other officers was charged in state or federal court after prosecutors deemed they were justified in returning fire into the apartment. Louisville police used a drug warrant to enter Taylor's apartment, but found no drugs or cash inside. A separate jury deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison in 2023, and he was acquitted on state charges of wanton endangerment in 2022. In their recent sentencing memo, federal prosecutors wrote that though Hankison's 'response in these fraught circumstances was unreasonable given the benefit of hindsight, that unreasonable response did not kill or wound Breonna Taylor, her boyfriend, her neighbors, defendant's fellow officers, or anyone else.' Jennings acknowledged Monday that officers were provoked by Taylor's boyfriend's gunshot but said 'that does not allow officers to then do what they want and then be excused.' While the hearing was going on, Louisville police arrested four people in front of the courthouse who it said were 'creating confrontation, kicking vehicles, or otherwise creating an unsafe environment.' Authorities didn't list charges against them. Federal prosecutors had argued that multiple factors — including that Hankison's two other trials ended with no convictions — should greatly reduce the potential punishment. They also argued he would be susceptible to abuse in prison and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. The sentencing memorandum was submitted by Harmeet Dhillon, chief of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and a Trump political appointee who in May moved to cancel settlements with Louisville and Minneapolis that had called for overhauling their police departments. In the Taylor case, three other ex-Louisville police officers have been charged with crafting a falsified warrant, but have not gone to trial. None were at the scene when Taylor was shot. The warrant used to enter her apartment was one of five issued that night in search of evidence on an alleged drug dealer that Taylor once had an association with. Lovan writes for the Associated Press.


Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Judge gives ex-officer nearly 3 years in Breonna Taylor raid, rebuffs DOJ call for no prison time
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge on Monday sentenced a former Kentucky police officer to nearly three years in prison for using excessive force during the deadly Breonna Taylor raid five years ago, rebuffing a U.S. Department of Justice recommendation of no prison time for the defendant. Brett Hankison, who fired 10 shots during the raid but didn't hit anyone, was the only officer on the scene charged in the Black woman's death in 2020. He is the first person sentenced to prison in the case that rocked the city of Louisville and spawned weeks of street protests over police brutality five years ago. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings sentenced Hankison at a hearing Monday afternoon in which she said no prison time 'is not appropriate' for Hankison. She also said she was 'startled' that there weren't more people injured in the raid. She sentenced him to 33 months in prison as well as three years of supervised probation. Hankison will not report directly to prison. Jennings said the Bureau of Prisons will determine where and when he starts his sentence. Jennings expressed disappointment with federal prosecutors' sentencing memo filed last week, saying the Justice Department treated Hankison's actions as 'an inconsequential crime,' and said the memo was 'incongruous and inappropriate.' Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who helped Taylor's family secure a $12 million wrongful death settlement against the city of Louisville and was present Mondya, had called the Justice Department recommendation 'an insult to the life of Breonna Taylor and a blatant betrayal of the jury's decision.' He said Monday afternoon that he had hoped Hankison would get more time. But, he said: 'We are grateful that he is at least going to prison and has to think for those 3 years about Breonna Taylor and that her life mattered.' And afterward, before a crowd gathered outside the courthouse, Crump yelled: 'Say Her name.' The crowd yelled back: 'Breonna Taylor!' Hankison fired his weapon the night of the March 2020 botched drug raid, his shot flying through the walls of Taylor's apartment into a neighboring apartment without hitting or injuring anyone. The 26-year-old's death, along with the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparked racial injustice protests nationwide that year. Last week, the U.S. Justice Department recommended no prison time for Hankison, in an abrupt about-face by federal prosecutors that has angered critics after the department spent years prosecuting the former detective. The Justice Department, which has changed leadership under President Donald Trump since Hankison's conviction, said in a sentencing memo last week that 'there is no need for a prison sentence to protect the public' from Hankison. Federal prosecutors suggested time already served, which amounts to one day, and three years of supervised probation. Prosecutors at his previous federal trials aggressively pursued a conviction against Hankison, 49, arguing that he blindly fired 10 shots into Taylor's windows without identifying a target. Taylor was shot in her hallway by two other officers after her boyfriend fired from inside the apartment, striking an officer in the leg. Neither of the other officers was charged in state or federal court after prosecutors deemed they were justified in returning fire into the apartment. Louisville police used a drug warrant to enter the apartment, but found no drugs or cash inside. A separate jury deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison in 2023, and he was acquitted on state charges of wanton endangerment in 2022. In their recent sentencing memo, federal prosecutors wrote that though Hankison's 'response in these fraught circumstances was unreasonable given the benefit of hindsight, that unreasonable response did not kill or wound Breonna Taylor, her boyfriend, her neighbors, defendant's fellow officers, or anyone else.' On Monday, the Louisville Metro Police Department arrested four people in front of the courthouse who it said were 'creating confrontation, kicking vehicles, or otherwise creating an unsafe environment.' Authorities didn't list the charges those arrested would face. 'We understand this case caused pain and damaged trust between our department and the community,' a police statement said. 'We particularly respect and value the 1st Amendment. However, what we saw today in front of the courthouse in the street was not safe, acceptable or legal.' A U.S. Probation Office presentencing report had said Hankison should face a range of 135 to 168 months imprisonment on the excessive force conviction, according to the memo. But federal prosecutors said multiple factors — including that Hankison's two other trials ended with no convictions — should greatly reduce the potential punishment. The memorandum was submitted by Harmeet Dhillon, chief of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and a Trump political appointee who in May moved to cancel settlements with Louisville and Minneapolis that had called for overhauling their police departments. In the Taylor case, three other ex-Louisville police officers have been charged with crafting a falsified warrant, but have not gone to trial. None were at the scene when Taylor was shot.