Survivors tell San Francisco supervisors police and prosecutors mishandled sexual-assault cases; departments vow reforms

San Francisco supervisors heard more than two hours of survivor testimony on April 25 alleging repeated failures by city agencies to investigate sexual-assault and drug-facilitated-assault cases properly — including lost files, long delays in testing evidence and investigators who survivors say blamed victims.

Vice Chair Hillary Ronan opened the hearing by saying departments should hear survivors directly and that the city must begin a process of accountability and change. Several survivors told the committee they were treated dismissively by investigators or prosecutors and, in some cases, learned years later that forensic evidence had not been processed. One longtime survivor told the committee her 1993 rape kit was unprocessed for 20 years and that she was later told the police had lost her investigation file.

"I call this hearing so departments hear directly from survivors about how they are being treated," Ronan said.

Witnesses recounted specific problems: delayed or missing toxicology and DNA tests, uncollected vomit or other biological samples that survivors said could have helped prove drug-facilitated assaults, repeated requests for records that were not produced in civil discovery, and interactions with investigators the survivors described as demeaning or blaming. Rachel…