A fundraiser organized to protest Colorado’s 568-day backlog for processing sexual assault forensic exams resulted in a $6,000 award to the state this week to urge officials to act faster to address the problem.
The GoFundMe fundraiser — dubbed “Tell Governor Polis to Clear Colorado’s Rape Kit Backlog!” — raised more than $10,000. Organizer Kelsey Harbert said she is working with different county crime labs to disperse the remaining money to speed up the processing of locally held exams, commonly known as rape kits.
She thanked the donors for helping with “this awful problem that hundreds of survivors and their loved ones are being affected by daily.”
The donation, which won’t clear the backlog by itself, is largely symbolic. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s plan, as seen in a report issued in February after the backlog was publicized, involves outsourcing 1,000 kits at an estimated cost of $2,000 per kit. The fundraiser represents community pressure for the agency to act.
As of May 31, the CBI had more than 1,300 kits in the backlog.
“Seeing so many strangers donate and volunteer to help us spread the word reminded me that not everyone places politics over people,” Harbert wrote in an email. “Most people recognize the inhumanity of this crisis and share our sense of urgency to address it — even if the Governor and his administration do not.”
In a statement Friday, the CBI said it “sincerely appreciates the donations towards a goal of reducing the sex assault evidence kit backlog. We recognize how important this is to victims.”
Harbert, who ran the fundraiser with survivor Angelique Perrin, estimates the donation will pay for the CBI to process six exams in-house, or for three to be sent to an outside lab for processing. She said state officials are assigning the money a tracking number to ensure it’s used to process the kits.
She and Perrin plan to continue the fundraiser until the state has cleared its backlog.
Officials with the CBI and the Colorado Department of Public Safety confirmed in January that sexual assault victims were waiting an expected 550-plus days for the state to process their kits. But the public acknowledgement came only after a survivor, Miranda Gordon, testified to having waited more than 400 days for her own kit to be processed.
Officials said the backlog started to build in 2022, but it exploded when the Missy “Yvonne” Woods tampering scandal was discovered in late 2023, prompting the retesting of old DNA samples.
CBI officials had expected to have the turnaround time for processing kits down to 90 days, the state’s goal, by spring 2027. But on Friday, Deputy Director Lance Allen said the agency was on pace to hit that goal by the end of 2026.
“Thanks to this donation and the $2.5 million dollars requested by Gov. (Jared) Polis and allocated by Colorado lawmakers, the CBI expects to start reducing the backlog next month and cut the turnaround time in half by this time next year,” Allen said in the CBI’s statement.
He was referring to what was left of money that had been earmarked for the processing of sexual assault forensic exams. Lawmakers in the recent session gave the CBI more time to spend that money, through mid-2026.
Department officials plan to outsource 1,000 kits over the next year to speed up processing.
During this year’s session, lawmakers repeatedly criticized the CBI and the department for their handling of the problem. The CBI is part of the department, which falls under Polis’ purview. Legislators also passed several laws, signed by Polis, to add oversight and accountability for the processing of the exams. Harbert regularly testified and advocated for the measures.
One of the new laws, Senate Bill 304, will create a new review board in the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, along with other oversight measures. Polis signed the law in early June, calling the backlog “simply unacceptable.” That law was named after Gordon.
Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.
