Retired Mesa detective: No excuses — test all rape kits
My phone rang early on the morning of Oct. 19, 2014. The caller was a good friend of almost 60-years, but it was too early for chit chat.
His mom had been sexually assaulted during the night and he needed me to go to her Tempe home. Back in the days of kids wandering from house to house, I probably spent as much time with his mom as I did my own.
The call brought instant concern for old friends, but it also brought back memories of what kind of rapist I knew was out there, one who would savagely attack, kidnap and repeatedly sexually assault a 91-year-old woman.
In the world of sexual violence, a world where I investigated hundreds of sex crimes, this kind of sexual predator is extremely dangerous.
Thanks to the police response and the dynamic work of the Mesa Police crime lab and that department’s emphasis on collecting physical evidence and conducting DNA analysis whenever a sex crime or crime that could be linked to a possible sex crime was committed, the attacker was linked to multiple acts of indecent exposure in Mesa.
Weeks later Ekwunze Job Owen Jr. was identified and captured near Arizona State University following what could’ve been his second known sexual assault.
On July 20, Owen was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
At his sentencing, the victim told the court, “I am here today to ask women in general: If this happens to you, do not be embarrassed. Do not be ashamed. Be strong. Go to the police.”
What happens when you don’t have a police department that takes sexual violence extremely serious and backs it up with a crime lab that analyzes all DNA evidence taken from reported sex crimes or crimes that could be linked to a budding serial rapist? What happens when you have a police department that doesn’t look at every reported sex crime as a possible link in any number of known and unknown attacks in their city, or other jurisdictions?
The Arizona Republic and USA Today reported last month that there are thousands of untested sexual assault evidence kits sitting on shelves in police departments. Phoenix is one of the biggest culprits in the United States when it comes to not taking care of business when it comes to sexual violence. They’re the worst of departments surveyed in Arizona. Phoenix PD’s excuses for not testing for evidence that can solve crimes, link crimes and tie criminals to new crimes don’t hold water if you ask me. Mesa PD tests all sexual assault kits and it works. It stopped Owen.
Phoenix’s failure puts everyone at risk. Sexual predators don’t stop at city limits.
The vast majority of rapists escape justice. Owen’s capture was the exception.
If sexual violence, a crime committed mostly against women and children, is to be taken seriously in Arizona there not only needs to be a system to track sex crimes, there also needs to be 100 percent universal testing of all sexual assault kits. No more excuses.
Bill Richardson is a retired Mesa police detective.