2 women to appeal lawsuit over Houston rape kit backlog
HOUSTON (AP) — Two women will appeal a federal judge's recent dismissal of their class-action lawsuit against Houston and the city's officials over delays in testing rape kits.
The pair are among about 6,000 women and several hundred minors represented in the 2017 lawsuit who said they were harmed when the Houston Police Department failed to submit rape kits to a crime lab for years. A judge last week ruled the lawsuit was filed too late and didn't cite any civil rights violations to hold officials responsible.
An attorney for the women, Randall Kallinen, tells the Houston Chronicle the women's legal claims aren't too late because they didn't know about issues with their rape kits until police told them.