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Department Of Justice Grant Will Fund Sexual Assault Investigative Team With Kentucky State Police

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear annouced a $1.5 million dollar grant to fund a sexual assault investigative team with the Kentucky State Police.
Screenshot Kentucky State Police Facebook
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear annouced a $1.5 million dollar grant to fund a sexual assault investigative team with the Kentucky State Police.

A sexual assault investigative team will work under the Kentucky State Police with help of a grant from Department of Justice.

The 1.5 million-dollar grant will support the transition of the sexual assault investigative team from the Kentucky Attorney General’s office to the Kentucky State Police. 

On Wednesday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said the team of three investigators and a criminal intelligence analyst will focus on cold cases and investigate sex crimes.

“The sole mission will be to investigate sex crimes with a focus on cold cases where the testing of older rape kits or new DNA gives the possibility for justice where hope has most likely been lost,” Beshear said.

During his time as attorney general, Beshear said the testing of backlogged rape kits lead to the indictments of two accused serial sexual assault offenders.

“And it's why we can never again allow any of these kits to go untested,” he said. “And let's remember that we all know someone because sexual assault is so endemic in Kentucky and across the United States.”

According to the Kentucky Sexual Assault Kit Initiative website, Kentucky does not have a backlog of rape kits. Of the nearly 5,000 kits tested, there have been eight felony convictions.

Copyright 2021 WEKU. To see more, visit WEKU.

Corinne Boyer
Corinne Boyer is the health reporter for the ReSource. Previously, she covered western Kansas for the Kansas News Service at High Plains Public Radio. She received two Kansas Association of Broadcasters awards for her reporting on immigrant communities. Before living on the High Plains, Corinne was a newspaper reporter in Oregon. She earned her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Oregon and interned at KLCC, Eugene’s NPR member station. Corinne grew up near the South Carolina coast and is a graduate of the College of Charleston. She has lived in New York City and South Korea. Corinne loves running, checking out stacks of books and spending time with her rescue cat, Priya.