A woman has filed a lawsuit against the San Francisco Police Department after officers’ allegedly used her DNA from a rape kit to identify her as a burglary suspect.
On Monday, a woman who identifies herself as Jane Doe in a lawsuit filed to sue the San Francisco Police Department, claiming she was “re-victimized” after police allegedly used a genetic sample from a rape kit that she says was “weaponized against her” so they could arrest her as a burglary suspect. She called the department’s use of the rape kit “unconstitutional,” NBC News reports.
The woman provided her DNA in a rape kit to police after she was sexually assaulted six years ago, the lawsuit states. Back in December, a lab criminalist used the DNA to connect her to a burglary. However, the charges against her in that case were later dropped. The department has declined to comment on the matter, NBC News reports.
“Sexual assault survivors consent to police to use their DNA for one purpose — to find the perpetrator of the sexual assault,” said the woman’s lawyer, NBC News reports. “What we have here is our constitutional rights turned on their head.”
