LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada lawmakers have agreed to allocate almost $3.7 million to test 7,500 sexual assault evidence kits languishing in police vaults around the state, including some in Las Vegas dating back 30 years.
State Attorney General Adam Laxalt told the legislature's Interim Finance Committee on Wednesday the state is just getting started digging through the backlog.
The money includes $1.7 million from a settlement this summer with JPMorgan Chase in a debt collection practices case toward the rape kit effort.
About 6,300 of the untested evidence collection kits are in Las Vegas.
Police forensic lab director Kimberly Murga says full funding could get every one of them tested by 2020.
Funding is also coming from the U.S. Justice Department and a New York City-based Sexual Assault Kit Backlog Elimination Program.