Woman sues Harvey over untested rape kits

A woman has filed a lawsuit against the city of Harvey and a former police chief for allegedly failing to submit a rape kit to state officials for testing after she was sexually assaulted in 2007.

The class-action lawsuit accuses the Chicago suburb and former police chief Andrew Joshua of failing to properly investigate sexual assaults by systematically not passing on rape kits to the Illinois State Police Crime Lab. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, contends the lack of testing denied rape victims due process.

In 2007, Cook County state’s attorney investigators raided the Harvey Police Department and seized evidence and records relating to dozens of unsolved violent crimes and 200 untested rape kits.

Harvey attorney Cliff Kosoff said the lawsuit by the 22-year-old woman contains numerous factual inaccuracies.