News

FY2022 Grantee Welcome Webinar - Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program
— Forensics Training and Technical Assistance Team, Mar 8, 2023

The Forensics TTA Team recently hosted a webinar in collaboration with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). The purpose of this webinar is to introduce MUHR grantees to the overall BJA Team that works collectively to administer their award funds - the BJA Policy Office, BJA Programs Office, and BJA Planning, Performance, and Impact Team. The webinar provides useful training information on how to submit progress reports; submit Grant Award Modifications; accept awards; performance management and measures; and other information to support the award management and grant monitoring activities of your project. During this webinar attendees are introduced to the RTI Team and the new Forensics TTA Program, which provide a range of TTA resources and services to all active grantees within BJA's individual forensic science programs.

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FY2023 Solicitation Webinar - Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program
— Forensics Training and Technical Assistance Team, Mar 2, 2023

The Forensics TTA Team recently hosted a webinar in collaboration with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). The purpose of this webinar was to provide details and guidance for potential applicants to the Fiscal Year 2023 BJA Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program. The MUHR Program furthers the Justice Department's mission of increasing public safety by providing resources to locate and identify missing persons and unidentified human remains in the United States. The presenters provided a solicitation overview to discuss the purposes, goals, and deliverables of this funding opportunity; reviewed the eligibility requirements; the solicitation categories; permissible use of funds; guidance on how to apply for the program; and addressed frequently asked questions.

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Dorchester man arrested in connection with 2014 rape, Boston police say
— WCVB 5, Mar 1, 2023

"Boston police announced Wednesday that 30-year-old Ali Tariq Abdallah-Muhammad, of Dorchester, was arrested at about 5 p.m. Tuesday on an outstanding warrant of one count of rape stemming from a 2014 sexual assault. Police confirmed that the investigation that led to Abdallah-Muhammad's arrest was initiated through the department's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative."

FY2023 Solicitation Webinar - Strengthening the Medical Examiner-Coroner System Program
— Forensics Training and Technical Assistance Team, Mar 1, 2023

The Forensics TTA Team recently hosted a webinar in collaboration with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). This webinar provides details and guidance for potential applicants to the Fiscal Year 2023 Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Strengthening the Medical Examiner-Coroner (ME/C) System Program. The ME/C Program provides funding to help address the extreme shortage of board-certified forensic pathologists in the United States and provides ME/C offices with the resources to become accredited and maintain that accreditation. The presenters provide a solicitation overview to discuss the purpose and goals of this funding opportunity; review the eligibility requirements; the solicitation categories; guidance on how to apply for the program; and address frequently asked questions.

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G.O.L.D. Unit Defendant Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Sexually Assaulting Two Victims in 1994 and 1998
— Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, Mar 1, 2023

"Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley announced that the defendant Leo Bradley Scott III, 61, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting two women in 1994 and 1998. The arrest was the result of the efforts of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Office’s G.O.L.D. Unit (Genetic Operations Linking DNA). “This individual was able to evade justice due to his prior rape conviction occurring before CODIS existed,” said Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley. “He assaulted two additional women over 20 years ago, and now through the great work of our G.O.L.D. Unit and our law enforcement partners, he will deservedly serve time behind bars.”"

Spokane rape kit leads to cold case arrest in 1979 Lake Tahoe killing
— mtdemocrat.com, Mar 1, 2023

"A murder suspect in a 1979 El Dorado County cold case has been arrested after investigators found a DNA match for an unrelated crime in Washington state, according to the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office. The arrest of Harold W. Carpenter, 63, is the result of dogged detective work on the part of investigators in El Dorado County and the Spokane Police Department, as well as an initiative from the Washington attorney general that resolves to examine evidence in a backlog of thousands of unexamined sexual assault kits statewide."

FY2023 Solicitation Webinar - National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative
— SAKI Training and Technical Assistance Team, Feb 27, 2023

The SAKI TTA Team recently hosted a webinar in collaboration with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). In this webinar, attendees heard from the BJA team regarding the FY2023 National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) grantee solicitation. Now in its ninth year, the SAKI program has awarded nearly $300 million across 82 unique agencies in the United States since 2015. Presenters overviewed the solicitation in-depth and discussed changes to the SAKI program for FY2023, including the brand new Purpose Area 6 - The National Cold Case Initiative (NCCI). This purpose area encompasses all other violent crime cold cases which are not sexually motivated and provides funding not only for DNA/FGG activities, but also for critical and labor intensive investigative, behavioral and crime analysis, and prosecutorial activities, as well as victim and family advocacy.

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State hopes to clear out remaining backlogged rape kits by the end of the year
— Fox 13, Feb 24, 2023

A new bill making its way to the US Senate could provide more funding to states like Washington to finally clear out backlogged rape kits that have taken years to process and review. Loftis said the state has come a long way from the 12,000 kits that sat untested on evidence shelves six years ago. In November of last year, the number of kits waiting for testing and review had been cut in half to around 6,000, and this month, he said it's dropped even further.

Wyoming man pleads guilty in two 2013 sexual assaults from Kalamazoo
— News Channel 3, Feb 23, 2023

"Michael Vincenzo Johnson, 30, of Casper, Wyoming pled guilty to two separate sexual assaults in Kalamazoo from 2013, Michigan Attorney Dana Nessel announced Thursday. “He had already moved to another state to continue his pattern of assaulting young women and girls. I’m grateful for the hard work of the Kalamazoo SAKI investigators and participating law enforcement agencies in Michigan and Wyoming for their help in taking a sexual predator off the streets,” Nessel said."

FY2022 Grantee Welcome Webinar - Strengthening the Medical Examiner-Coroner System Program
— Forensics Training and Technical Assistance Team, Feb 22, 2023

The Forensics TTA Team recently hosted a webinar in collaboration with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). This webinar introduced Medical Examiner-Coroner grantees to the overall BJA Team that works collectively to administer their award funds - the BJA Policy Office, BJA Programs Office, and BJA Planning, Performance, and Impact Team. The webinar provided useful training information on how to submit progress reports; submit Grant Award Modifications; accept awards; performance management and measures; and other information to support the award management and grant monitoring activities. Viewers were also introduced to the new Forensics Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) Program, led by RTI International, that will provide a range of TTA resources and services to all active grantees within BJA's individual forensic science programs.

Click Here to View the Presentation Slide Deck