Houston Chronicle

A former Houston woman is suing the City of Houston and a long list of current and former mayors and police chiefs for failing to investigate a backlog of more than 6,000 untested rape kits, and not identifying her attacker as a man who had been in a national police database for decades.

For actress Mariska Hargitay, it wasn't enough to play a detective on NBC-TV's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." When her fan mail started to include statements like "I was raped when I was 15; I'm 40 now and I've never told anyone," simply remaining a Hollywood star was no longer an option.

Over the last two years, cities across Texas, including Houston, have acknowledged significant backlogs of untested rape kits in their police storage facilities — at least 4,000 kits in Houston and another 16,000 untested kits in Dallas and San Antonio combined.