MEMPHIS, Tenn — The long-running effort to get local law enforcement to take sexual assault investigations more seriously has reached a new level. And there is one thing particularly worth noting: these unsolved and uninvestigated rape cases have names and faces, and they are coming forward to expose the distress they still have because of police inaction.
Several rape victims who have yet to get justice showed up in Circuit Court Thursday and Friday to make an emphatic statement – that what happened to them by their attacker, and then by a lack of an investigation – is unacceptable.
Among them were Debby Dalhoff, who was raped in 1985. But the evidence that could had led to her attacker was intentionally destroyed. Another was Celia Reynolds. She was raped in 1983 – and the case remains unsolved. They and others are supportive of a 2014 lawsuit that claims the city of Memphis, through the police department, inflicted emotional distress on victims through the negligent handling of rape kits over multiple decades.
The city claims the lawsuit has no merit. And yet, it is difficult to ignore the fact that the issues over untested rapes kits go beyond numbers. These are people who live and were victimized in our community. And I salute them for stepping forward to demand justice.
Judge Gina Higgins will issue rulings in the case later. Until then, let’s hope the cavalier approach to rape cases is over.