Brad Schimel rape kit controversy: Top law enforcement officials say Susan Crawford is lying about his record.
Wisconsin district attorneys, sheriffs, and a prominent victims’ rights advocate praised Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel on Thursday for fixing the state’s rape kit backlog. In a news conference, they called Schimel a victim-focused, empathetic former prosecutor who successfully cleared a backlog that had festered for years under other officials.
District Attorneys Eric Toney and Patricia Hanson called out Schimel’s opponent for state Supreme Court, Susan Crawford, saying she was lying and misleading the public about Schimel’s record on the rape kits.
“It upsets me when I see the commercials and I know that the lies are being told… to say that Brad is the person who let us down on the Sexual Assault Kit initiatives is just a lie and unfair,” Hanson said. “So in fact, the mere number of test kits that Brad had tested in his term as Attorney General is absolutely staggering to me.”
As we reported previously, Crawford, a leftist, has distorted Brad Schimel’s record on rape kits, even chastising him for not testing rape kits in which victims did not want the kits tested, where there were acquittals, and where allegations were fabricated. As a Dane County judge, Crawford has given child rapists such weak sentences that some are already out in the community. As a private lawyer, she filed lawsuits to overturn Act 10 and Voter ID.
The law enforcement officials say she isn’t being honest with the public about Brad Schimel’s record on rape kits and victim rights.
“In the four years that Brad Schimel was working on this as the Attorney General, he worked very hard and was very successful, and put us in a really good position to not only test these kits but make sure we were looking out for the rights of the victims,” Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt said. “And that’s what Brad Schimel is all about, looking out for the rights of victims.”
Schimel also accused Crawford of lying.
“My opponent and the Democrats have been telling lies about it (rape kits),” Schimel said. “They’re misrepresenting something that was a great accomplishment for the state of Wisconsin and for survivors of sexual violence. Not only did we clear the backlog of kits that collected for 25 years… we put in place a process where this can never happen again. Now, if a survivor of sexual assault gets a kit collected and they want their kit tested, law enforcement must submit it for testing. No more collecting it in a storeroom.” The rape kits were scattered throughout the state on police agencies’ shelves when Schimel took office as state Attorney General.
He added: “The people who worked on this case, on this project, with me at the Department of Justice, in law enforcement, in the DA’s offices, and in the hospital systems, all are rightly proud of the accomplishment we made, as am I. It’s time to set the lies straight.”
Schimel was accompanied by Ozaukee County Sheriff Christy Knowles, Schmidt, Toney, Hanson, Dodge County DA Andrea Will, and Teri Jendusa-Nikolai, a survivor of a horrific attempted domestic violence murder. Jendusa-Nikolai is a state and nationwide advocate for victims’ rights.
“I am one of the few sheriffs that are remaining from the time that Brad Schimel worked on this initiative. We call this a SAKI initiative, Sexual Assault Kit initiative. I call it the Brad Schimel initiative,” Schmidt said. “He worked really hard to get this going.”
Brad Schimel Rape Kit Backlog: 4,100 Kits Tested
Said Schmidt: “I’m disappointed. I saw this coming, believe it or not, I saw this coming a couple of years ago when I was on a phone call with the current attorney general (Democrat Josh Kaul), and he tried to take credit for the Sexual Assault Kit initiative, and I called him out in front of other police chiefs, in front of sheriffs, and said, well, you might be, may have continued it, but this did not start under you. This started under Brad Schimel, and we need to give credit where credit is due.”
“Brad Schimel was able to get 4,100 kits tested while he was attorney general. This started in 1980. It didn’t start when he was Attorney General. It started in 1980 through many other attorney generals, and he took action to get it done,” added Schmidt.
Toney said, “I’m really proud to be here in support of Brad Schimel running for Wisconsin Supreme Court.”
He noted that current Attorney General Josh Kaul has not updated the sexual assault kit initiative website since 2021.
“It was so important to make sure these kits were tested to get justice for survivors,” Toney said of Schimel’s efforts.
“And it’s the leadership that then Attorney General Schimel exhibited to help put this process in place and help make sure this doesn’t happen again. And one thing that is very disappointing to me, it’s when we see partisan political campaigns, whether it be governor, Attorney General, Congress, US Senate, you expect some of these things, but when we have a sitting judge, Judge Crawford in her campaign, misinforming the public with those attack ads. That’s incredibly disappointing.”
Added Toney, “As a district attorney, to see a judge, the people that we look up to are supposed to be non-partisan, to mislead the public, and to do it for political gain. So I’m calling on Judge Crawford and her campaign to stop to tell the truth and be honest about the Sexual Assault Kit initiatives because Brad Schimel has been a leader in this effort. That is in part why he has bipartisan support from sheriffs and DAs all across the state of Wisconsin.”
Hanson told reporters, “I’m here to say that there are four women and three defendants who were impacted by the SAKI initiative because Brad Schimel took that initiative and ran with it. I’m a politician. We all have to run for office, whether we like that or not, and I understand that there are attack ads out there from every side on every issue, but what really upsets me in this race, as a lawyer and as someone who, as Eric mentioned, respects the work of our judges, respects the fact that they should be honest and fair and impartial, when I see the ads endorsed and approved by Judge Crawford, spreading the lies about Brad Schimel and the SAKI initiative.”
“I’m here today in support of Brad. Brad is one of those people you meet who is exactly who you think he is. From meeting him, he’s True Blue. If he says it, he means it, and he gets it done,” Hanson said. “Few lawyers try a case like Brad Schimel, and there are victims in Racine County who are eternally grateful that he was able to come and prosecute cases for us where we were unable to because of conflict.”
Brad Schimel: ‘Someone Who Actually Cares’
Jendusa Nicolai, who escaped from a horrific domestic violence scenario, spoke about Schimel’s empathy for victims.
“I want to tell you a little bit about Brad the person. When I first met him, in 2005 I was doing one of my first talks against violence, and it was at a Forensic Nurses conference, and we had run into each other in the hallway,” Jendusa Nicolai said.
“We had both been speaking at that conference, and I was just really taken back by – he didn’t just say, ‘Hi, how you doing?’ and walk off. He was actually interested. ‘How are you? How did things go for you? How are things going? What can I do to help survivors or victims of crime?’ I was so taken by that – someone who actually cares and who takes the time and who wants to know how he can help survivors.”
Added Jendusa Nicolai, “I believe it was 2006, he won an award from the victim witness professionals for helping survivors of crime. I worked with him when we worked with the Marsy’s Law of Wisconsin, starting in 2016 we traveled a lot from Milwaukee to Green Bay, did a lot of grassroots efforts for Marsy’s Law, which passed in 2020 that gave survivors more rights in the courtroom. He was a roll up your sleeves, get to work, kind of person with compassion for people, for women, for children, for families. He just really had it in his blood. It’s not just a job for him. It’s in his blood to help victims, to help survivors, children, women, families.”
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