Rape victim sues Harvey over untested rape kit

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Robert Buchanan

Updated: March 9, 2012 8:15AM

A woman whose rape kit sat untested in the Harvey Police Department’s basement for a decade after her stepfather allegedly sexually assaulted her filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the city and the stepfather — a former Cook County correctional officer — saying she did so to gain closure.

The woman, 25, was 11 at the time of the alleged 1997 rape. Her stepfather, Robert Buchanan, 45, was charged in October with predatory criminal sexual assault in the case after investigators determined Buchanan’s DNA matched DNA in the rape kit, prosecutors said at the time.

The seven-count lawsuit, filed in Cook County, seeks unspecified damages, the woman’s attorney said.

“I feel that my case wasn’t handled properly,” the woman, identified in the suit as “Jane Doe,” said Tuesday during a teleconference. “I want my family to know what’s going on. I also want the public to know what has happened to me.”

More than 200 untested rape kits — evidence collected in sexual assaults — went undiscovered until authorities raided the Harvey Police Department in 2007 to confiscate evidence in numerous unsolved murders.

Harvey detectives investigated the alleged 1997 rape of the girl in her home, but no charges were filed. The woman had been sexually assaulted by Buchanan several times between January and August that year before police were notified, and the assaults continued repeatedly “for several years,” the lawsuit said.

“Everything from (the rape) to the present time has been a blur,” the woman said. “You go on. No one knows. You live your life like everything is normal. I always knew this was not right.”

The victim did not know until a state’s attorney’s office investigator told her last spring that the rape kit had not previously been tested, attorneys said.

The suit alleges Harvey officials failed to protect the victim’s rights under the Illinois Domestic Violence Act of 1986. It also claims infliction of emotional distress, willful and wanton neglect, and fraudulent concealment.

“Sometimes you have to peel back the onion to understand what’s going on,” said Yao Dinizulu, the woman’s attorney. “Unfortunately for (the victim), the system broke down.”

Harvey spokeswoman Sandra Alvarado said in an email that Harvey police “diligently investigated” the sexual assault but were unable to bring charges due to circumstances “that were beyond the control” of the police department. She said Harvey police worked with the state’s attorney’s office to bring charges last year by “taking advantage of technology which did not exist in 1997.”

“The Harvey Police Department takes every crime seriously and is grateful to its steadfast investigators and help given by the Illinois State Police to, hopefully, bring some degree of closure the victim and her family,” Alvarado said.

The woman, who now lives out of state, has been diagnosed with suppressed memories and is undergoing therapy, her attorney said.

Buchanan was a correctional officer at the time of the incident but went on duty-related disability leave in November 2010, the sheriff’s office said at the time of his arrest in October.

Buchanan is to appear for a status hearing at the Markham courthouse on March 9.

Contributing: Sun-Times Media