Sexual Assault

SAN FRANCISCO – Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today issued an information bulletin to California law enforcement agencies, higher education administrators and campus security personnel, providing enforcement guidance on new and amended sexual assault and campus safety laws. The bulletin summarizes SB 967 (Senate pro Tempore Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles) and AB 1433 (Assemblymember Mike Gatto, D-Glendale), gives enforcement guidance in the context of existing state and federal statutes, and encourages increased collaboration between law enforcement and campus authorities.

“The threat of sexual assault is real and pervasive,” said Attorney General Harris. “Last year California adopted some of the most aggressive campus sexual assault laws in the country. Today’s bulletin ensures that education leaders and law enforcement understand their responsibilities under these laws, enforce them consistently, and collaborate to protect victims.” 

The two new laws create reporting requirements and standards for campus disciplinary procedures.

SB 967 requires California postsecondary institutions – in order to receive state funds for financial assistance – to adopt comprehensive, victim-centered policies and disciplinary procedures concerning sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking. Under the law, an institution’s policy governing its campus disciplinary process must use an affirmative consent standard – defined as an affirmative, conscious and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity – to determine whether a sexual assault complainant consented.   

SB 967 requires campuses to use a preponderance of the evidence standard when adjudicating complaints in the campus disciplinary process. This means the evidence must show it is “more likely than not” – i.e., greater than 50 percent likelihood – that the victim did not consent. The law also requires postsecondary institutions to partner with campus and community organizations to refer both victims and perpetrators to health, counseling, advocacy and legal services.

“The laws we pursue in the California legislature set an example for the rest of the country,” Senate pro Tempore de León stated. “With 1 in 5 women on college campuses experiencing sexual assault, it’s our responsibility to secure a safe learning environment for our students.”

AB 1433 specifies that as a condition for participation in the Cal Grant program, campus security authorities are required to immediately – or as soon as practicably possible – disclose to local law enforcement any report of a violent crime, hate crime or sexual assault, whether committed on- or off-campus. Postsecondary governing boards must implement policies and procedures by July 1, 2015, to ensure reports of these crimes are immediately forwarded to the appropriate law enforcement agency.  

“Students at our colleges and universities deserve to learn without living in fear of sexual assault, and they deserve to know that crimes that occur on campus won’t be treated any differently than those that occur elsewhere in our community,” said Assemblymember Mike Gatto.  “I thank Attorney General Harris for her advice and collaboration in these matters.”

AB 1433 builds on existing state and federal requirements for campus and law enforcement collaboration. California law already requires postsecondary institutions to enter into written agreements with local law enforcement agencies. The federal Clery Act also requires campus officials to contact local law enforcement to obtain accurate statistics about crimes reported on or near campus. 

Attorney General Harris has a longstanding commitment to reducing sexual violence and seeking justice for sexual assault victims. In her first year in office, Attorney General Harris eliminated a longstanding backlog of untested rape kits in state-run labs – which included 1,300 DNA cases.  In April 2014, the California Attorney General’s Rapid DNA Service Team received the United States Department of Justice Award for Professional Innovation in Victim Services. Attorney General Harris is currently prosecuting two operators of cyber exploitation websites who, combined, facilitated the posting of over 10,000 sexually explicit photos and extorted victims to remove the illicit content.

 In the coming months, the Attorney General’s Office will release additional guidance suggesting ways in which law enforcement and campus personnel can comply with the new laws and facilitate justice for victims and accountability for perpetrators. 

To view the information bulletin click here: http://bit.ly/1CcwfB1

SAN FRANCISCO -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced the arrest of two women accused of operating a sex trafficking ring in San Francisco. The arrests are the result of a five-month joint investigation by the California Attorney General’s Office, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
 
“The victims in these brothels were treated as commodities in an insidious human marketplace,” Attorney General Harris said. “Human trafficking is a heinous crime that destroys the lives of victims and threatens the safety of our communities. I want to recognize the steadfast commitment of our Task Force agents, law enforcement partners, and community organizations to bring perpetrators to justice and help rebuild these victims’ lives.”
 
“The interruption of this sex trafficking, under the leadership of the Attorney General Harris’s Office, is just another example of San Francisco’s commitment to protecting and preserving the basic rights of all; especially our most vulnerable,” SFPD Chief Greg Suhr said. “Fully understanding the gravity of the human trafficking trade, the San Francisco Police Department developed its own Human Trafficking Unit, partnering with other agencies to conduct proactive victim-centered investigations of sex and labor trafficking crimes.”
 
Defendants Qiao He, a.k.a. “Judy,” 37, and her sister Gaineng He, 36, both of San Francisco, were arrested today and charged with felony pimping and pandering. They are both being held at the San Francisco County Jail on $25,000 bail each and will be prosecuted by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. The Attorney General’s Office is still investigating potential tax fraud and conspiracy violations.
 
In January 2014, the Tax Recovery and Criminal Enforcement (TRaCE) Task Force of the California Attorney General’s Office initiated an investigation of an alleged sex trafficking ring in San Francisco’s Richmond District operated by sisters Qiao He and Gaineng He.
 
Over a period of several months, TRaCE’s investigation revealed that “Johns” allegedly paid as much as $200 for sexual intercourse with their choice of one of several young Asian women in the brothels. During the investigation, the defendants repeatedly told undercover agents that “new girls” were brought in every Sunday.
 
On May 7, agents with the California Department of Justice, HSI and SFPD executed search warrants on four San Francisco locations, including 385 7th Avenue, 4719 Geary Boulevard #601, 2094 24th Avenue, and 1511 24th Avenue.
 
The joint investigation was led by the California Attorney General’s TRaCE Task Force, which includes representatives of the FBI, California Franchise Tax Board, California Board of Equalization, California Employment Development Department and the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.  TRaCE is a statewide task force created in 2014 to combat organized elements of the underground economy engaged in the manufacturing, importation, distribution and sale of pirated intellectual property, and other economic crimes resulting from the evasion of business and income taxes.
 
In March of this year, Attorney General Harris released a report, Gangs Beyond Borders: California and the Fight Against Transnational Organized Crime, which is the first comprehensive report analyzing the current state of transnational criminal organizations in California (http://oag.ca.gov/transnational-organized-crime). In addition, the report made recommendations to address the issue of transnational crime and human trafficking in our state, which included funding the state task forces that investigate and disrupt these organizations.
 
Attorney General Harris has been a strong advocate for increased collaboration between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies during the investigation and prosecution of the crime of human trafficking.
 
In 2012, Attorney General Harris released a report, The State of Human Trafficking in California, which outlined the growing prevalence of the crime of human trafficking in the state (http://www.oag.ca.gov/human-trafficking/2012). The report describes the evolving challenges California faces in addressing this crime, which has become a $32 billion-a-year global industry.
 
Please note that these are only allegations and, as with all defendants, those named here must be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

SACRAMENTO -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced that the California Attorney General’s office will receive the United States Department of Justice’s Award for Professional Innovation in Victim Services for its successful efforts to improve the DNA analysis of rape kits by law enforcement agencies.

The California Attorney General’s Rapid DNA Service Team (RADS) will receive the award during the Department of Justice’s National Crime Victims’ Rights Service Awards ceremony on April 9th in Washington, D.C.

“Victims of sexual assault deserve swift justice,” Attorney General Harris said. “The Rapid DNA Service Team’s technology gives law enforcement a critical tool to quickly identify perpetrators and prevent these dangerous individuals from victimizing more people. On behalf of all Californians, I thank our RADS team for their innovation and dedication.”

The RADS Team, part of the Attorney General’s Bureau of Forensic Services, developed a program in 2011 that improves the traditional process by which rape kits are tested and reduces the processing time to within 15 days. This program currently operates in eight counties across the state including Butte, Lake, Marin, Napa, Sonoma, Solano, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara.

The program allows for the processing of evidence from sexual assault cases within 15 days from the start of analysis and uses automation to reduce processing time, allowing for a threefold increase in casework capacity. This process includes the upload of DNA profiles into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System to search for unknown suspects.

In her first year in office, Attorney General Harris eliminated a long standing backlog of untested rape kits in state-run labs, which included 1,300 DNA cases. Along with committing additional resources to the labs, Attorney General Harris introduced new technology that dramatically increased the speed with which cases are analyzed.

In January 2012, Attorney General Harris announced that, for the first time ever, the backlog of untested DNA evidence in state labs had been eliminated.

SACRAMENTO – Spearheading efforts to dismantle sex trafficking networks in California, Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced the arrest of four individuals accused of pimping young women in a network of brothels located in Northern California.

The arrests are the culmination of a five-month investigation into an organized prostitution ring that trafficked women from Boston and New York to brothels located in residential areas of Sacramento and San Mateo counties. Once in Northern California, the defendants rotated the women between their brothels on an organized schedule. 

“Sex trafficking rings like the one we dismantled yesterday destroy the lives of young women and degrade the social fabric of our communities,” said Attorney General Harris. “I am committed to using all of the law enforcement tools at my disposal to bring to justice those who profit from the cruel and depraved business of sex trafficking.”

On Thursday night, agents with the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation, with the assistance of the Sacramento Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, served arrest and search warrants at multiple locations in Sacramento and San Mateo counties.

As a result of the sweep, four individuals operating the brothels were charged with pimping and/or pandering:

• Xiu Juan Bai, 43, Sacramento County
• Ken Wong, 58, Sacramento County
• Yoon Chin, 55, Sacramento County
• Zhi Liu, 49, San Mateo County

The charges in the complaints are only allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless they are proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The operation was part of an ongoing campaign by Attorney General Harris to investigate, prosecute and punish sex traffickers in California. Last year, Attorney General Harris released The State of Human Trafficking in California. The report outlines the growing prevalence of the crime of human trafficking in the state, the increasing involvement of sophisticated transnational gangs in perpetrating the crime and the modern technologies that traffickers use to facilitate it.

The report was released at a Human Trafficking Leadership Symposium, where Attorney General Harris was joined by leaders from law enforcement, victim service groups, non-government organizations, and other groups to share the best strategies and tactics to use in the fight against forced labor and sex trafficking.

Attorney General Harris regularly convenes law enforcement officials in the state to discuss how to recognize, investigate and prosecute human trafficking cases.

Last month, three defendants in a human trafficking ring in which women from Mexico were used as prostitutes in five Northern California cities were sentenced to three years in jail.

For more information on human trafficking, go to: http://www.oag.ca.gov/human-trafficking

SAN FRANCISCO -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris issued the following statement on the decision to overturn the rape conviction of Julio Morales by the 2nd District Court of Appeal:

"The evidence is clear that this case involved a nonconsensual assault that fits within the general understanding of what constitutes rape. This law is arcane and I will work with the Legislature to fix it."

SAN FRANCISCO -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced that the California Department of Justice has cleared a backlog that slowed the analysis of DNA crime scene evidence and will now be able to perform routine analysis within 30 days, down from an average of 90 to 120 days.

“DNA testing is a powerful law enforcement resource – a smart on crime tool that we’re using in cutting edge ways in California,” Attorney General Harris said. “Public safety is too important not to embrace innovation and adopt technology where needed. Crime scene evidence is too important to sit unanalyzed for months, while the victims await justice.”

Attorney General Harris made DNA testing a priority in 2011, because of the direct link between timely investigations and successful prosecutions. Along with committing resources and encouraging Department of Justice labs to improve their procedures, the Attorney General introduced new technology that dramatically increased the speed with which cases are analyzed. Using robotics, an extraction method in sexual assault evidence analysis that once took two days now takes just two hours.

As a result of these efficiencies, state forensic analysts - for the first time ever - eliminated the backlog of untested evidence. In 2011, the Department’s Bureau of Forensic Services analyzed 5,400 evidence samples – an increase of 11 percent from 2010 (4,800) and 24 percent from 2009 (4,100).

As part of the DNA analysis, evidence samples are run through the CAL-DNA Data Bank. A “hit” occurs when DNA evidence from an unsolved crime sample matches a DNA profile from evidence in another case or the DNA profile of an offender or arrestee in the data bank.

The Bureau of Forensic Services operates 13 regional laboratories, seven of which perform DNA testing of biological evidence to assist local agencies in solving sexual assault cases and other crimes of violence. The seven DNA labs are located in Ripon (near Modesto), Fresno, Redding, Riverside, Sacramento, Santa Barbara and Richmond. The Bureau serves 47 of California’s 58 counties.

The CAL-DNA Data Bank contains the DNA profiles of 1.8 million offenders and arrestees in California, as well as crime scene evidence. It is the largest working DNA data bank in the United States and the fourth largest in the world.

LOS ANGELES – Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced today that accused Westside Rapist John Floyd Thomas, Jr., who is scheduled to appear in a Los Angeles courtroom today, was apprehended in pursuit of DNA evidence in the Grim Sleeper serial murder case.

Thomas is accused of murdering seven women in Los Angeles and is a suspect in as many as two dozen other murders.

“DNA analysis by the state lab provided the key that unlocked the mystery of the Westside Rapist’s murders of women over two decades,” Brown said. “A suspect is in custody today because our forensic scientists were able to link his DNA to multiple crime scenes.”

Starting in 1972, a killer preyed late at night on older women in the mid-Wilshire area on the west side of Los Angeles. He also struck in Inglewood and Lennox. After raping and strangling his victims to death, he left their faces covered with a blanket or pillow. Most of them were in their 60s, 70s or 80s.

A decade later, a similar skein of rape-murders occurred in Claremont, east of Los Angeles.

The killings stopped in 1989. For years, police were unable to solve any of the cases.

Twenty years later, frustrated by their inability to catch the Grim Sleeper, who was believed to have killed as many as 10 people in south Los Angeles, LAPD officers tried a new tack. In the fall of 2008, they fanned out across the city to collect DNA from 92 registered L.A. sex offenders whose DNA was not already in the state databank.

Thomas was one of them. He had been convicted of a sexual assault in 1978 in which he snapped a 78-year-old woman’s ankle during an attack in Pasadena. She survived, a neighbor identified a license plate, and Thomas served five years in prison.

In the 2008 dragnet, Police doggedly pursued Thomas and the other offenders. Finally, Thomas agreed to come in for testing. Dressed for work as an insurance adjuster in slacks and a long-sleeved red dress shirt, Thomas reported to the LAPD Southwest Community station, where a DNA sample was taken from the inside of his cheek.

In March 2009, officials at the Department of Justice forensics lab that maintains the state DNA database notified Los Angeles detectives there was a DNA match between Thomas and unsolved murders – but not the Grim Sleeper cases police had set out to solve.

Thomas’ DNA matched genetic evidence found at the scene of a 1972 homicide of a 68-year-old woman in the mid-Wilshire area, one of the first of the Westside Rapist cases. His DNA was also linked to DNA collected at other Westside Rapist slayings.

Thomas, 74, is currently being held without bail in Los Angeles County Jail on seven counts of murder. He is scheduled to appear today in Department 30 on the fifth floor of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles to set a date for his preliminary hearing.

Ultimately, the state DNA lab also played a critical role in the Grim Sleeper case. At the behest of the Los Angeles Police Department in 2008 and 2010, the lab searched its DNA databank for family members of the suspect. One convicted felon’s genetic blueprint showed he was almost certainly the suspect’s son. After further investigation, police on July 7 of this year arrested Lonnie David Franklin Jr. and charged him with multiple counts of murder in that case.

SACRAMENTO - Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. said today that a jury’s verdict of first-degree murder this week in a 1988 homicide in Redding is a powerful example of how DNA analysis conducted every day by state laboratories can “stop criminals from getting away with murder.”

“The Harper conviction, like the Grim Sleeper arrest earlier this month, is further evidence that DNA is becoming an increasingly important factor in fighting violent crime,” Brown said. “Work being done every day in our labs stops criminals from getting away with murder.”

Brian Harper, 40, was convicted Tuesday afternoon in a Redding court room for the 1988 murder of Judith Hasselstrom, 43, a Shasta County woman whose body was found in a local park. Investigators determined she had been strangled.

After Hasselstrom’s murder 22 years ago, blood was found on bamboo stalks that covered her body, but there was no way then to submit DNA from the blood for forensic analysis. DNA technology had yet to be developed for use in criminal investigations, but in 2002, investigators were able to test that blood sample to create a DNA profile of an unknown suspect in Hasselstrom’s murder. No suspects were identified, however, and for years, the evidence remained stored in the Redding Police Department’s “cold case” locker.

Harper’s DNA was collected after he was convicted of a 2007 bank robbery. Although Harper had never been a subject of the murder investigation, his DNA was tested and found to match the DNA found at the 1988 murder scene. State forensic scientists were also able to match two palm prints found on the bamboo stalks to Harper’s prints. Harper initially denied knowledge of Hasslestrom’s murder, but eventually admitted to killing her.

It was Redding’s first cold case homicide arrest involving a DNA hit. The Shasta County jury trial lasted three weeks and came back with its first-degree murder verdict after several days of deliberations. Harper is scheduled to be sentenced on September 10. He faces 25 years to life in prison.

Like the “Grim Sleeper,” the Harper case is an important example of how every day Brown’s forensic labs use DNA to solve violent crimes. Harper’s conviction illustrates the state’s DNA program is fulfilling its promise to make Californians safer and to bring criminals to justice. Each day, an average of nine “hits” are made in which forensic scientists match crime scene DNA to that of a suspect in the state database of 1.5 million offenders and arrestees.

SAN DIEGO -- Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, Jr. announced today the successful completion of “Operation Watchdog,” an unprecedented law enforcement sweep to verify that 300 registered sex offenders in San Diego are obeying the law and living at the address they have reported to authorities. Nine arrests were made.

“Because of sex offenders’ propensity to reoffend, keeping tabs on them is crucial to protecting the public,” Brown said. “As in many things, the price of safety is constant vigilance, and my office is committed to providing that.”

Led by David Collazo, a special agent supervisor in Brown's office, Operation Watchdog involved more than 100 state, federal and local law enforcement officers, who fanned out over San Diego County yesterday to check on more than 300 registered sex offenders. Five of the 26 task force teams took along specially trained dogs to check for illegal drugs and guns.

Some 4,600 registered sex offenders live in San Diego.

Sex offenders on probation or parole were searched. The others were questioned to make sure they were complying with all state laws, including living at the same address they provided to law enforcement authorities. Arrests were made for parole and probation violations and possession of drug paraphernalia and guns.

As Operation Watchdog began yesterday morning, the Attorney General visited the command center and was briefed. Besides its enforcement function, the Attorney General’s office maintains a website at http://meganslaw.ca.gov/ that lists the locations of 63,000 sex offenders in the state, along with other pertinent information.

The SAFE (Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement) task force that conducted the operation was formed nearly a decade ago to reduce the number of sex crimes in San Diego County and apprehend the perpetrators of those crimes. SAFE assists in criminal investigations such as the case of convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III, who was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year for the 2009 rape and murder of 14-year-old Amber Dubois and the February 2010 rape and murder of 17-year-old Chelsea King. Gardner had lied to authorities about his residence, listing Riverside County instead of San Diego.

Yesterday’s sweep was the first such large-scale effort, although SAFE conducts hundreds of face-to-face interviews with sex offenders each year to make sure they are in compliance with the law.

SAN FRANCISCO – Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. continued his fight today against an attack on the state’s innovative use of DNA to identify suspects of violent crimes, asserting that “DNA is the fingerprint of the 21st century.”

In an argument before the federal court of appeals in San Francisco, Brown’s office defended the state’s voter-mandated collection of DNA from adults arrested for felonies.

“California is at the forefront of solving crimes through new and innovative uses of DNA technology, and I intend to do everything in my power to defend the state’s ability to reduce crime by collecting DNA from those arrested for felonies,” Brown said. “So far, DNA collected from arrestees has led to the identification of suspects in more than 970 rapes, murders and other very serious crimes,” Brown added.

This case arose when the ACLU filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the state’s DNA arrestee program. The Attorney General prevailed in the United States District Court, and the ACLU appealed to the federal court of appeals.

Samples are taken through a simple procedure using a wooden swab to collect DNA from the inside of a person’s cheek. Strict safeguards ensure that the samples are used only by law enforcement officials to identify an individual and not for any other purpose.

Brown pointed out that about 40 percent of homicides and 60 percent of rapes go unsolved. For example, many of the victims of the Grim Sleeper might still be alive if the suspect had been identified from DNA taken when he was previously arrested.

Collecting DNA samples from those arrested for felonies is a profoundly important way to help solve murders, rapes and other very serious crimes. It should be noted that almost half of those arrested for felonies are repeat offenders.

In 2004, California voters approved Proposition 69, which required law enforcement officers to begin last year taking DNA samples from every adult arrested for a felony.

The program is accomplishing its purpose: identifying criminal suspects. In its first 18 months, DNA collected from arrestees has lead to the identification of 970 suspects of serious felonies. For example:

• DNA collected from Donald Carter, 56, arrested in Sacramento in 2009 on a felony drug charge, was linked to the unsolved 20-year-old murder of Sophie McAllister, 80. Although Carter's drug charge was dismissed, he was later charged with murder and his trial is pending.

• In April 2009, Christopher Rogers, 34, was arrested in Sacramento for assault with a deadly weapon, which was ultimately reduced to a misdemeanor. But his DNA, collected at the time of arrest, was matched to DNA taken at the scene of a 2004 murder in Sacramento. In October, Rogers was arrested and charged with murder. He awaits trial.

• In August 2009, Rene Hernandez, 26, was arrested in Watsonville for felony assault. His DNA was linked to a February 2009 sexual assault of a Watsonville woman, and he was arrested on multiple charges related to that crime. His trial is pending.

• In May 2009, Anthony Vega was arrested in Los Angeles County on felony drug charges, which were later reduced to misdemeanors. His DNA, collected at the time of arrest, was linked to two separate crimes committed in Orange County, a burglary in 2007 and a 2008 armed home invasion robbery. A preliminary hearing is scheduled.

• Earlier this year, Joshua Graham Packer, 20, was arrested in Santa Barbara on armed robbery charges. His DNA was matched to a sample taken at the site of an unsolved 2009 triple murder in Ventura County. He was arrested for that crime in April and charged with murder.

Oral arguments in the case were scheduled today in the Ninth Circuit United States Court of Appeals at Seventh and Mission streets in San Francisco.

Attached are briefs filed in the case. An earlier press release on the DNA felony arrestee program can be found at http://ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/release.php?id=1936&