Monthly Check-in January-June 2021
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Hi Alicia,
Happy New Year! I hope you are well and enjoyed a bit of a break over the Holidays, including some safe and socially distanced time with friends and family.
I know you have some trials coming up, and I hope those go well.
Anything else to report or other needs?
Finally, see below for an announcement out of IACP.
Caring for the Sexually Assaulted Patient when There is No SANE in Sight: A Training for All Health Care Providers
Hi Julia,
Happy New Year to you too. Thank you for the link below.
Current report: We are still focused on the outsourcing of kits and we are very encouraged by the number of hits coming in during these times. As for trials, we have one still on calendar for February 1, 2021. I will let you know in February If that case begins as scheduled.
Have a good day.
Alicia A. Nicosia, CP
Here are the OC SAFE updates:
1.) ViCAP
? Are you experiencing any challenges or barriers preventing ViCAP entry? No
? Are you still the ViCAP point of contact? Yes
2.) Serial Offenders
? Have you identified serial offenders through SAKI case investigations? Yes
? If yes, please summarize efforts made and/or provide success stories. Some things we’re interested in:
o Is there any detailed data about these offenders in the sense of are they committing other crimes besides sexual assault; Yes
o how many serial assault serial offenders have you identified via testing SAKI cases; 14
o is there data on how many cases an offender may be linked to; Yes for SAKI filings
o is this serial offending data an unexpected result for you? No
SAKI Success Stories:- Recent Cases to Highlight:
1) People v. Armijo: Defendant Michael Armijo was sentenced to 24 years to life in prison. The jury found this Defendant guilty of 209 (b). Case synopsis: Jane Doe and her date were in the back seat of a car making out. All of their clothes were on. Suspect knocked on the door and pretended to be a police officer and pointed a gun at them and had them drive to a remote area where he ordered the male out of the car and force raped, digitally penetrated and attempted to sodomize Jane Doe. Suspect also stole their vehicle and $1500 cash from them.
2) People v. Anthony Mack: Defendant Mack pled guilty to 209 and was sentenced to 8 years to life in prison. Case synopsis: Victim was in her car at a stop light when 2 male suspects opened her car doors and got in. Suspect # 1 pushed her to the passenger seat and drove to an unknown location. Victim tried to fight suspect away but he told her if she fought he would kill her. Suspect #2 then forced her into the backseat, removed her clothing and raped her. Victim put her clothes back on, then; Suspect#1 forced her clothes off and raped her. Then, they drove to a nearby residential neighborhood and dropped her off.
Our office is currently working on press releases for these two cases.
3.) Sexual Assault Awareness Month- April
? Are you planning any events for Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April including but not limited to virtual panels, screenings, or trainings? We are highlighting these events on social media! Yes, please see attached flyers.
Our office continues to focus on outsourcing and completing the testing of the SAKS and reviewing all hits received. These are all the highlights and updates we have at this time.
Brief check in for any needs. Worked to schedule call for beginning of May with Carey Hendricks included. Scheduled call.
No concerns with spending down funding until end of POP. Grant is up 9/30/21. Will have all our funding completed before September. Took $18,000 allocated to Orange County crime lab. Takes 30-45 minutes to do a technical review for every kit that comes back from BODE. If there isn't overtime to do this, won't get them done. Lauren approved that.
Will not be able to test all kits by end of September. Won't be very many, 300 or less. Next step will be to meet with crime lab and decide how to get those remaining kits tested. Continue to test those few remaining kits. We'll use a different grant, DOJ grant testing. Some kits with BODE, assuming we can extend our contract past the SAKI grant. Will get all those tested prior to June of 2022. Have a sustainable process to make this not happen again. Kits go straight from nurse to crime lab. Crime lab is Orange County sheriff department crime lab. Nurse puts kits in the freezer. Runner from sheriff's department, takes them from nurse to crime lab. Officers used to have to wait around for the kit and take the kits back to police department, then get it over to the crime lab. Now it goes straight to the crime lab, now the crime lab has to STOP that testing. But that's very rare. And they have to work to stop it. So for a case to be stopped, it's because no crime was committed. Result of everyone working together just to solve this problem, so this is Orange County rules. We had within a certain number of days to get things tested. Just Orange County process. It was important to keep that chain of custody. Needed to hold all evidence and needed to lock. But also our crime lab is OC sheriff's department. So that helps with chain of custody as well.
Crime lab is up to date on current issues. All that's left over are these remaining kits. We can use California DOJ money to test those kits. We're going to use those funds to outsource. County funds to test from our crime lab. Regular county funds will be used for investigation and prosecution. We took personnel off the SAKI grant, and put as much money as possible toward testing those kits.
FY21- no plan to come back in for SAKI funds. This will be it! Our team has transitioned from working current to cold hits. And the DA's office pays our salaries. Jose, Alicia, and Vanessa, will be working ongoing SAKI hits, and any other cold cases.
Public website is great. Press release is out. No victims have used it yet. We have our tracking system that can be used in conjunction. No plans for additional press releases. Any other press releases would be concurrent with convictions. Will send press releases on arrest and convictions.
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