[JURIST] DeJenay Beckwith, a woman who was sexually assault in 2011, has filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas [official wesbite] against the city of Houston [official website] for the city’s backlog of rape kit tests.

Beckwith was sexually assaulted in her home in 2011. Immediately after the assailant was chased away by one of Beckwith’s friends, she contacted the Houston Police Department who took her to a local hospital in order to administer a rape test kit. According to Beckwith, that kit was not tested until 2016, over five years after the incident.

Once the kit was tested, it was revealed that the assailant was a man by the name of David Lee Cooper, a convicted rapist whose DNA was on file with the FBI since 1991. Other kits that were tested years after they were taken revealed that David Lee Cooper had victimized numerous women in the Houston area.

Beckwith is alleging that Houston officials knew of the backlog going as far back as 1991 and failed to address the issue. The complaint alleges that such conduct is unconstitutional.

The suit is also seeking class action status for other affected woman.

There are currently similar backlogs in numerous states across the country. Wisconsin has a backlog of roughly 6,000 rape kits [USA Today report]. Iowa has a backlog of more than 4,000 rape kits dating back to 1990 [Des Moines Register report]. According to End The Backlog, an initiative started by the Joyful Heart Foundation [advocacy websites], there are hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits across the US.