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Here’s why Brad Schimel’s rape kit backlog is part of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election

By Pat Kreitlow

January 30, 2025

As state attorney general, Schimel was criticized for long delays in testing potential evidence of sexual assaults.

Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel wants his quest for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court to focus on so-called law and order themes, but he has been overshadowed by his own recent comments supporting an abortion ban, encouraging the notion of a “bloody revolution” in America, and complaining that the insurrectionists who launched a violent attack on the US Capitol in 2021 weren’t getting special treatment by the courts.

And that’s all on top of an issue that has been his lasting legacy as a former state attorney general: the massive backlog of rape evidence kits that required processing in order to secure justice for the victims of sexual assaults.

While the backlog existed prior to Schimel being elected in 2014, his management of the problem —slow progress in getting funds to pay for testing, a lethargic effort to remove roadblocks by local law enforcement, and misstatements about testing progress— made it difficult for him to run for a second term on “law and order” themes when justice was being delayed or denied for rape victims. He was unseated by current Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul in 2018.

What Went Wrong

Public awareness of the backlog grew with news reports in 2014 and 2015 that showed how law enforcement offices throughout the country had allowed rape kits to linger, fester, even rot on storeroom shelves. Each one contained forensic material collected during a lengthy, invasive exam from women still processing the trauma of some kind of sexual contact against their will. While the DNA evidence has led to convictions that get attackers off the streets, most everyone agrees much more progress should have been made.

When Schimel became attorney general in 2015, there were at least 6,000 rape kits in Wisconsin needing testing, according to state and national surveys. Two years later, a Journal Sentinel report showed that only nine of the kits had been tested, despite Shimel’s office receiving $5 million in grants. At the time, Schimel initially claimed “a few hundred” kits had been tested, a comment he had to walk back.

The backlog included at least two dozen kits from Waukesha County while Schimel had been district attorney. A Journal Sentinel report on the number had been delayed for months because Schimel at that point was overseeing a state office that denied or delayed the paper’s requests for evidence inventories.

As attorney general, Schimel could have prioritized the backlog and requested money from the Legislature, but he chose to seek grants from outside the state. And while Schimel acknowledged that many local agencies appeared to be slow-walking the testing process, there’s no evidence he tried to, in the words of Urban Milwaukee columnist Bruce Murphy, “use the bully pulpit” to change attitudes about the lack of urgency over investigations and doubts about victims’ stories.

Eventually, Schimel authorized overtime and hired part-time workers to do additional testing beyond the contracts with private labs. 

Dueling Ad Messages

During his reelection campaign, Schimel claimed 4,000 kits had been tested. While that message failed to sway voters back then, he’s using it in his 2025 race to become a Supreme Court justice and tilt control back to conservatives.

“Leading the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, clearing 4,000 backlogged tests so survivors could finally get justice,” reads one of Schimel’s ads.

But his opponent, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, has her own ad about the controversy: “Brad Schimel. He let 6,000 rape kits sit untested for two years, while survivors waited for justice.”

A state Supreme Court justice has no say in how the Wisconsin Department of Justice handles these kinds of backlogs, but while Schimel is claiming to have unclogged the testing pipeline as part of his campaign for the post, others note it didn’t happen until near the end of his term and only after delays and management issues, resulting in justice denied for victims across the state.

Author

  • Pat Kreitlow

    The Founding Editor of UpNorthNews, Pat was a familiar presence on radio and TV stations in western Wisconsin before serving in the state Legislature. After a brief stint living in the Caribbean, Pat and wife returned to Chippewa Falls to be closer to their growing group of grandchildren. He now serves as UNN's chief political correspondent and host of UpNorthNews Radio, airing weekday mornings 6 a.m.-8 a.m on the Civic Media radio network and the UpNorthNews Facebook page.

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