The statute of limitations for rape in Ohio is now 25 years instead of six as it was decades ago. Police departments, including Akron, are not only keeping the evidence in rape cases but also making sure that any cases with DNA evidence are tested by the state.
“Thank goodness we’ve made significant progress,” said Akron Lt. Dave Whiddon. Whiddon, along with many victim advocates and state politicians, think Ohio’s statute of limitations for rape should be eliminated.
This would put rape in the same category as murder, with no limit on how much time has passed since the crime occurred for a suspect to be charged. About half the states have already taken this step and pending legislation would make Ohio the next.
Teresa Stafford, CEO of the Hope & Healing Survivor Resource Center, which includes the Rape Crisis Center and the Battered Women's Shelter. Mike Cardew, Akron Beacon Journal
“We need to have no statute of limitations for sexual assault,” said Teresa Stafford, CEO of the Hope & Healing Survivor Resource Center in Akron, which includes the Rape Crisis Center. “One of the things that is important to keep in the forefront is that sexual assault is a crime of opportunity and access. Most will continue to cause harm if they are not held accountable.”
Rape case is key to solving woman’s murder in 1987
Old rapes can also be used to help solve old murders.
That’s what happened with Thomas Collier Jordan. The now-deceased drifter from Cleveland was recently identified as the man who killed Janice Christensen at a Hudson park in August 1987. But her case could only be solved using DNA from the rape kit of another of his victims.
Michelle Puett, 17, was raped in May 1987 at a park in Cuyahoga Falls. Because of similarities between the two attacks, investigators tested evidence in Michelle’s case that police had preserved even though the statute of limitations had run out 30 years earlier. That evidence, coupled with DNA extracted from Jordan’s remains, proved that Jordan was responsible for both Michelle’s rape and Janice’s murder.
After investigators announced the DNA revelation, Vicki Farinacci, whose last name was Miller-Cobb in 1987, called Akron police to see if Jordan may also have been her rapist. She was raped in April 1987, one month before Michelle, by a man with a knife who bound her arms and legs and stole her car keys — steps also taken by Michelle and Janice’s attackers.
Whiddon discovered that the evidence in Vicki’s case was destroyed in 1993 after the then-six-year statute of limitations for rape had expired. He showed Vicki a mug shot of Jordan taken not long before she was raped and she positively identified him. Both Whiddon and Vicki are confident Jordan was her rapist, despite a lack of evidence that can be tested to definitively prove he was responsible.
Whiddon said Vicki’s case would be handled very differently if it happened now.
Rape kit testing ushers in new approach to rape cases
A national movement began in about 2013 to test rape kits that were still within the statute of limitations but had long been sitting on shelves in police department property rooms.
A rape kit used in a Cuyahoga County trial in April 2016. DNA testing resulted in charges in this case. Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer
Police began submitting these untested kits to state crime labs for DNA testing and to see if entering this DNA into a national database could identify any suspects.
“Some of these cases were not only untested but uninvestigated,” said Stafford, who has worked in crime victim advocacy in Northeast Ohio since 2006. “For some survivors, this was the first opportunity for identifying who the perpetrator was and for justice in these cases.”
The Akron Police Department submitted 1,822 untested rape kits to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and got back 847 hits to CODIS, the federal Combined DNA Index System that tracks DNA from crime scenes.
In some cases, a suspect’s name was attached but others involved an anonymous DNA sample from a case somewhere in the United States.
The police department partnered with Victim Assistance, the Rape Crisis Center and the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office and received more than $3 million in federal grants to support the effort.
The unit’s work resulted in 20 suspects being charged and prosecuted, which included four men who were convicted in multiple rapes , Whiddon said. The unit’s effort has been winding down. The police department and prosecutor’s office was due to stop their involvement at the end of September, while the other agencies and a research partner will finish their roles by the end of the year.
Whiddon said the department now keeps rape kits indefinitely and is required to submit all kits to the state crime lab within 30 days. He said the department is also part of a pilot project with the Attorney General’s Office that tracks kits from the moment the victim goes to the hospital.
The department filed several "John Doe warrants" in cases in which a DNA profile was found that couldn’t yet be matched with a suspect. The warrants were filed before the then-20-year statute of limitations expired, resulting in active warrants waiting to be served on the suspects when they are identified, Whiddon said.
However, Whiddon said he believes the statute of limitations for rape should be eliminated, especially because of the advances in DNA testing and other forensic techniques.
“I’d like to see the sexual assaults extended to have the same unlimited statute of limitations similar to murder, but we’ll see what happens in the legislature,” he said.
Legislation would eliminate Ohio’s statute of limitations for rape
A movement has been underway to eliminate the statute of limitations for rape in Ohio for several years, but it hasn’t gained enough traction to become a reality.
Ohio’s statute of limitations was last increased from 20 to 25 years in July 2015.
Gov. Mike DeWine, who had championed the testing of rape kits when he was attorney general, voiced his support for eliminating the statute of limitations in 2019.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, joined by five other former attorneys general, sent a letter to the leaders of the state legislature in June 2019 that also championed this change.
“We can’t let a rapist run out the clock on justice,” Yost said in a news release .
A bill pending in the Ohio House of Representatives would eliminate the statute of limitations for rape cases.
Tavia Galonski Courtesy of Summit County Clerk of Courts
State Rep. Tavia Galonski, a Democrat from Akron who recently left the legislature to become the Summit County clerk of courts, was among the bill’s sponsors.
“Victims of rape, no matter how far removed from their trauma, deserve to be heard and have an opportunity for justice,” Galonski said in a news release . “Technology has changed, and our laws should reflect that.”
The Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Assault supports eliminating the statute of limitations. The agency says one in five women in the United States has been the victim of rape in their lifetime.
Stafford said one of the lessons learned since the effort to test sexual assault kits began is that many serial rapists target people of different ages, genders and relationship statuses. For them, she said, this is a crime of “opportunity and access.”
“That’s why it’s so important to eliminate the serial offending nature,” she said. “A small number of people are causing a lot of harm when it comes to sexual violence.”
Resolved: The trail of a serial rapist. How many more victims are there?
Resolved is a collaboration of the Beacon Journal and the Ohio Mysteries podcast. Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com and 330-996-3705. Paula Schleis can be reached at feedback@ohiomysteries.com.
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