Eleven years later, advancements in forensic technology have helped the Milwaukee Police Department charge a suspect in the 1994 rape of a Marquette graduate student.

At Milwaukee Circuit Court Oct. 27, Sandy Farrior, a 28-year-old Chicago man charged with sexually assaulting the woman, pleaded not guilty and waived his rights to a preliminary hearing.

Farrior was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service and extradited to Wisconsin on Sept. 29 of this year. He is charged with four counts of first degree sexual assualt and could face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each charge, according to Paul Tiffin, an assistant district attorney for Milwaukee County.

Farrior's next appearance in court will be on Nov. 9 for a scheduling conference to set a trial date. His attorney, Theodore Bryant-Nanz, would not comment on the case.

At the Oct. 27 court date, Judge Jeffrey Wagner said Farrior had been committed to a mental institution in 1990 but gave no further details.

Tiffin said a warrant was issued for Farrior in April of this year after Farrior's DNA was matched to a piece of semen-stained upholstery from the Marquette student's car in December 2004. The evidence had been kept in the archives of the Milwaukee Police Department since 1994. A DNA sample Farrior submitted in 1994 after being convicted for armed robbery in Illinois was entered into a national DNA database late last year. The two samples were then positively matched.

Crime and punishment

Farrior and another man allegedly confronted the student in a near-campus parking lot and used guns to force her into her car where they raped her, according to Tiffin.

The assault did not take place on campus but occurred in close proximity to the campus, Tiffin said.

The second man suspected cannot be charged with the crime because of Wisconsin's six-year statute of limitations, Tiffin said. Because Farrior was living in Chicago, the time limit does not apply to him, he said.

The statute of limitations in Wisconsin lasts six years for felonies, said Assistant District Attorney Norm Gahn.

Every crime has a statute of limitations, but the more serious the case the longer the statute of limitations, said Janine Geske, a professor in the Law School.

"The statute of limitations pushes the prosecution to bring lawsuits and to move in a reasonable amount of time. It also allows the defense to develop an adequate case," Geske said.

Gahn initially looked at the Farrior case in 1999 and was ready to issue a John Doe warrant before the statute of limitations on the case expired in 2000. However, when Gahn discovered evidence was destroyed from the case, the warrant was not issued.

Lori Gaglione, a detective in the Sensitive Crimes Division, the cold hit unit of the Milwaukee Police Department, said a John Doe warrant is issued when police are able to develop a genetic profile from evidence gathered from a case.

Had Gahn issued a John Doe warrant for Farrior, the statute of limitations would have been frozen on the case.

Evidence could be contended

Although some physical evidence from the case was destroyed, a DNA packet survived and that DNA evidence should be sufficient to incriminate Farrior, according to Gahn.

"We can expect challenges from the defense about the original evidence," Gahn said.

Gahn said in cases in which DNA evidence is being used, defense attorneys could make their case five ways.

"The defense could claim that the science was wrong and that someone else has that profile. They could attack the statistical basis for the data. They could claim it was a setup and that the DNA evidence was planted by the police. They could say that the crime lab misinterpreted the data or that all the information is correct but the sex was consensual."

The weight of DNA evidence differs from case to case; however, technological advancements in DNA technology have helped make it incriminating proof of a crime, Gahn said.

"The technology [DNA evidence] is well settled with jurors. They tend to accept the technology given the 'CSI' world we live in," Gahn said.

Campus security increased

Some professors said campus safety increased in the mid-1990s after the graduate student's rape, which was just one of a series of serious crimes occurring on and near campus during the early 1990s.

Ken Ksobiech, an associate professor of journalism and longtime faculty member, said the Department of Public Safety has since become more visible on campus.

"Campus safety has simply become a way of life at Marquette," Ksobiech said. "DPS has done a better job of making the Marquette community aware of programs to make the campus safer."

William Thorn, associate professor of journalism, said security on campus was 'beefed up' in the early and mid-1990s after a series of homicides, sexual assaults and muggings of students.

"There was more emphasis on vans, foot patrols and lighting," Thorn said. "They moved the Public Safety office to a more central location and sent out mass mailings just warning the community to be aware of different situations."

The size of the DPS staff in that era was not as large as it is currently, said DPS Lt. Brian Joschko.