MADISON, WI – Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate and Dane County judge Susan Crawford is facing widespread criticism after publicly telling lies about her opponent’s history of successfully processing rape kits. Fair Elections Wisconsin, Inc., a nonpartisan group supporting candidate Brad Schimel for the state’s Supreme Court seat, sent Crawford a cease and desist letter on Friday.
When Wisconsinites elected Brad Schimel to serve as Attorney General in 2015, he inherited about 6,000 kits, some of which dated back to the 1980’s. According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, by 2018, Schimel and his team had tested more than 4,000 of those rape kits.
“These kits sat untested on shelves in hospitals and law enforcement agencies for years,” Schimel said in August of 2018. “Every week at the DOJ, we are reviewing many of the returned results, and seeing how we can bring justice to survivors.”
By the end of Schimel’s term, every kit that needed to be tested was tested. A process was then put in place to prevent future backlogs. Laboratories did not test kits if the victim did not consent to testing. Brad Schimel advocated for sexual assault survivors during his term, revising rules so victims are never billed for a forensic exam following a sexual assault.
Despite these facts, Crawford falsely accused Schimel of ignoring rape cases by not addressing these 6,000 rape kits. Additionally, Crawford’s PAC launched fraudulent campaign ads to spread this unfounded claim.
“Judicial candidates, including incumbents and challengers, must refrain from making false, misleading, or deceptive statements,” the letter reads.
Racine County District Attorney Patricia Hanson criticized Crawford, saying she was misleading the public about Schimel’s record on the rape kits.
“It upsets me when I see the commercials and I know that the lies are being told,” said Hanson. “To say that Brad is the person who let us down on the Sexual Assault Kit initiatives is just a lie and unfair. In fact, the mere number of test kits that Brad had tested in his term as attorney general is absolutely staggering to me.”
According to the public data from the Wisconsin Crime Laboratories, the average turnaround time to process a rape kit actually increased by 21 days after Schimel left office as attorney general in 2019.
“In the four years that Brad Schimel was working on this as the Attorney General, he worked very hard and was very successful, and put us in a really good position to not only test these kits but make sure we were looking out for the rights of the victims,” Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt said. “That’s what Brad Schimel is all about, looking out for the rights of victims.”
The irony is that according to court records, Susan Crawford has a history of going easy on convicted child rapists. In June 2020, Crawford issued a $500 signature bond in the case of Curtis O’Brien, a Wisconsin man charged with the repeated sexual assault of a 5-year-old. He was released despite living close to an elementary school. While he was out on bond, O’Brien was allowed to go to work, exercise at Planet Fitness, stay at a hotel, and walk his dog, according to court records.
Wiconsinites are encouraged to learn more about lawful rape kit processing here.
