Was there a backlog of untested rape kits in Nevada while Catherine Cortez Masto was attorney general?
Democratic U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto was Nevada’s attorney general from 2007 to 2015. In 2014, it was revealed that Las Vegas police had more than 4,300 unprocessed rape kits and had only tested 16% of kits received since 2004.
Rape kit results are entered into an FBI database but often go untested because a victim decides not to press charges, a case is solved with other evidence or a lack of funding. By 2018, 95% of Nevada’s 7,300 backlogged rape kits had been tested, leading to 13 arrests. This was possible through grant and legal settlement funding secured by Adam Laxalt, Cortez Masto‘s successor as attorney general and her Republican opponent in the 2022 U.S. Senate election in Nevada.
Nevada’s attorney general does not have explicit legal responsibility related to rape test kit processing. However, many state attorneys general, such as Laxalt, spearheaded projects in the mid-2010s to reduce the backlog of untested kits.