Tuesday, January 9, 2024

My Urgent Plea Today to Utah House of Representatives: Please Authorize Police In Utah to DNA-swab Any Motorist Who Drives Through a Red Light, Crime Suspects, Runaway Juveniles, and Others

 My urgent plea to Utah Legislature to PLEASE make it easier for law-enforcement officers here in Utah to DNA-swab crime suspects, homeless persons, juvenile delinquents, runaway youths abandoned children, and others.

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: "John McMillan" <mcmillanj@att.net>

To: "Mike Schultz" <mikeschultz@le.utah.gov>, "Joel Briscoe" <jbriscoe@le.utah.gov>, "Angela Romero" <angelaromero@le.utah.gov>, "Gay Lynn Bennion" <glbennion@le.utah.gov>, "Paul A. Cutler" <pcutler@le.utah.gov>, "mballard@le.utah.gov" <mballard@le.utah.gov>, "Jplumb" <jplumb@le.utah.gov>, "jsepich@dnasaves.org" <jsepich@dnasaves.org>, "Deseret News 2022" <dnweb@deseretnews.com>, "newsmedia@ldschurch.org" <newsmedia@ldschurch.org>, "Fox News SLC 2022" <news@fox13now.com>, "chad.atkinson" <chad.atkinson@slcgov.com>, "mike.brown" <mike.brown@slcgov.com>, "Utah Restaurant Association 2022" <info@utahrestaurantassociation.org>, "Cameron Roden" <croden@utah.gov>, "dps-victimservices@utah.gov" <dps-victimservices@utah.gov>, "Crimevictims GV" <crimevictims@utah.gov>, "Univ of Utah Criminology Dir. Heather Melton" <heather.melton@soc.utah.edu>, "Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson 2021" <beckiepage@utah.gov>, "ryanwilcox@le.utah.gov" <ryanwilcox@le.utah.gov>, "mgwynn@le.utah.gov" <mgwynn@le.utah.gov>, "jburton@le.utah.gov" <jburton@le.utah.gov>, "khall@le.utah.gov" <khall@le.utah.gov>, "Cyprus Credit Union" <shauna.denos@cypruscu.com>, "shayes@le.utah.gov" <shayes@le.utah.gov>, "shollins@le.utah.gov" <shollins@le.utah.gov>, "Utah League of Cities and Towns 2022" <swood@ulct.org>, "tlee@le.utah.gov" <tlee@le.utah.gov>, "karilisonbee@le.utah.gov" <karilisonbee@le.utah.gov>, "vpeterson@le.utah.gov" <vpeterson@le.utah.gov>, "astoddard@le.utah.gov" <astoddard@le.utah.gov>, "swhyte@le.utah.gov" <swhyte@le.utah.gov>, "jfeinauer@le.utah.gov" <jfeinauer@le.utah.gov>, "dowens@le.utah.gov" <dowens@le.utah.gov>, "kcullimore@le.utah.gov" <kcullimore@le.utah.gov>, "mkennedy@le.utah.gov" <mkennedy@le.utah.gov>, "lescamilla@le.utah.gov" <lescamilla@le.utah.gov>, "tweiler@le.utah.gov" <tweiler@le.utah.gov>, "University of Utah Student Newspaper 2022" <press@chronicle.utah.edu>, "Utah Chiefs of Police Assn 2021" <vshupe@utahchiefs.org>, "Utah Peace Officers Association 2022" <homeupoa@gmail.com>, "slcpdpr@slcgov.com" <slcpdpr@slcgov.com>, "SLCPD Outreach" <slcpdoutreach@slcgov.com>, "Mayor Wilson" <mayor@slco.org>, "marie.stewart" <marie.stewart@slcgov.com>, "llstringham@slco.org" <llstringham@slco.org>, "County Council Member Bradshaw" <arbradshaw@slco.org>, "suharrison@slco.org" <suharrison@slco.org>, "Office of Gov. Spencer Cox" <govcomm@utah.gov>, "amy.stutzenberger@uvu.edu" <amy.stutzenberger@uvu.edu>, "lish.harris@utahtech.edu" <lish.harris@utahtech.edu>, "Molly Sween" <mollysween@weber.edu>, "annika.k.christensen@usu.edu" <annika.k.christensen@usu.edu>, "Utah State University Provost 2022" <provost@usu.edu>, "Utah State Univ Communications 2022" <ucom@usu.edu>, "Utah Public Radio 2022" <tom.williams@usu.edu>, "Utah Republican Party" <info@utgop.org>, "Utah Transit Authority" <llasker@rideuta.com>, "anielson@murrayschools.org" <anielson@murrayschools.org>, "anielson@murrayschools.org" <anielson@murrayschools.org>, "Westminster College Legal-Risk Mgment-Safety2022" <bbuckley@westminstercollege.edu>, "Westminster College Provost 2022" <rbadenhausen@westminstercollege.edu>, "daniel.aaron@law.utah.gov" <daniel.aaron@law.utah.gov>, "California Sexual Assault Investigators Assn Pres. (2016)" <kbeler@csaia.org>, "Utah Citizens Against Physical and Sexual Abuse 2021" <info@capsa.org>, "Utah Department of Corrections 2022" <kefelsted@utah.gov>, "Attorney General of Utah" <uag@utah.gov>, "Uag" <uag@agutah.gov>, "jessanderson@utah.gov" <jessanderson@utah.gov>, "utahdistrict02@gmail.com" <utahdistrict02@gmail.com>, "Internships" <internships@romney.senate.gov>, "Joel_wellum" <joel_wellum@lee.senate.gov>, "Congressman John Curtis" <john.curtis@mail.house.gov>, "chris.bertram@slcc.edu" <chris.bertram@slcc.edu>, "Rori Andreason" <randreason@midvale.com>, "Mike Weichers" <mweichers@ch.utah.gov>, "prevention@schools.utah.gov" <prevention@schools.utah.gov>, "Schools Utah Webmaster" <webmaster@schools.utah.gov>, "St. James Episcopal Church" <wendy@stjamesutah.com>, "mayor@sandy.utah.gov" <mayor@sandy.utah.gov>, "Rape Abuse and Incest National Network" <info@rainn.org>, "Office for Victims of Crime (U.S. DOJ)" <itverp@usdoj.gov>, "Fbinaa Info" <info@fbinaa.org>, "U.S. Department of Homeland Security" <private.sector@dhs.gov>, "csfc@nsa.gov" <csfc@nsa.gov>, "media@utahsafetycouncil.org" <media@utahsafetycouncil.org>, "bcrockett@utahsafetycouncil.org" <bcrockett@utahsafetycouncil.org>, "AMA Council on Science and Public Health" <csaph@ama-assn.org>, "Utah Medical Association 2021" <info@utahmed.org>, "Utah Hospital Association 2021" <jill@utahhospitals.org>, "Him-roi" <him-roi@umail.utah.edu>, "contactus@imail.org" <contactus@imail.org>, "media@naag.org" <media@naag.org>, "National District Attorneys Assn Crime Prevention" <nbunn@ndaajustice.org>, "Salt Lake County (UT) District Attorney 2022" <districtattorney@slco.org>, "Napo Info" <info@napo.org>, "Kimberly Foster" <kimberly.foster@wvc-ut.gov>, "Univ of Utah Criminology Dir. Heather Melton" <heather.melton@soc.utah.edu>, "Manhattan Institute Info" <info@manhattan-institute.org>, "contactudot@utah.gov" <contactudot@utah.gov>, "Criminal Justice Journalists Board Member Rashbaum" <rashbaum@nytimes.com>, "Steven Rich" <steven.rich@washpost.com>, "DenverPostEditors" <newsroom@denverpost.com>, "Arizona Republic Newstips" <newstips@arizonarepublic.com>, "Las Vegas Sun newspaper 2022" <feedback@lasvegassun.com>, "Utah Press Assn Director Brian Allfrey 2022" <ballfrey@utahpress.com>, "commerce@utah.gov" <commerce@utah.gov>, "Utah Restaurant Association 2022" <info@utahrestaurantassociation.org>, "membership@utahretail.com" <membership@utahretail.com>, "bruce.ellis@psych.utah.edu" <bruce.ellis@psych.utah.edu>, "lina.aspinwall@psych.utah.edu" <lina.aspinwall@psych.utah.edu>, "Forensicnurses Info" <info@forensicnurses.org>, "Office for Victims of Crime (U.S. DOJ)" <itverp@usdoj.gov>, "NBC Nightly News Headqrtrs 2016" <contact.nbcnews@nbcuni.com>, "nbauer@abc4.com" <nbauer@abc4.com>, "Fox News SLC 2022" <news@fox13now.com>, "Utah Public Radio 2022" <tom.williams@usu.edu>, "Utah Educational TV 2022" <resources@uen.org>, "news@ksl.com" <news@ksl.com>

Cc: "Jennifer Gardiner" <jgardiner@abc4.com>, "CBS News '60 Minutes' Editors and Reporters" <60m@cbsnews.com>, "social@usatoday.com" <social@usatoday.com>, "media@intermountainforensics.com" <media@intermountainforensics.com>, "Guardian (England) Story Ideas 2020" <guardian.letters@theguardian.com>, "Irish Times (Dublin) Newstips" <newsdesk@irishtimes.com>, "Courts HR" <courtshr@utcourts.gov>, "scott.stuck" <scott.stuck@slcgov.com>, "Drew Hadley" <drew.hadley@slcgov.com>, "leo.abila" <leo.abila@slcgov.com>, "elder.justice@usdoj.gov" <elder.justice@usdoj.gov>, "slsheriffpio@slco.org" <slsheriffpio@slco.org>, "communications@ogdencity.com" <communications@ogdencity.com>, "sociology@byu.edu" <sociology@byu.edu>, "byu-info@byu.edu" <byu-info@byu.edu>, "ashley.anderson@slcschools.org" <ashley.anderson@slcschools.org>, "bryan.jensen@slcschools.org" <bryan.jensen@slcschools.org>

Sent: Tue, Jan 9, 2024 at 4:11 PM

Subject: Lack of Forensic DNA-swabbing Endangers Lives in UT

http://www.dnasaves.org/about-dna-saves/

January 9, 2024

Dear Very Honorable Utah State House Majority Leader Mike Schultz; Highly Esteemed  Utah  State Representatives Joel Briscoe,  Angela Romero, Gay Lynn Bennion, Paul A. Cutler, and Melissa Ballard; and Highly Esteemed Utah State Senator Jen Plumb,

I appreciate the friendly reply letters to me that five of you seven respective Highly Regarded  voting   members of the Utah State Legislature kindly wrote  and sent to me in  2022 and 2023, respectively.  

I am writing to each of you sagacious state legislators  today to urge each of you to please author or sponsor or co-sponsor  a proposed new law as soon as possible in the 2024 session of the Utah State Legislature. 

I am referring to a proposed new state law that significantly increases the total number of specific contexts in which a public law-enforcement agency in Utah  can legally DNA-swab a crime suspect or possible crime suspect or crime victim or homeless person or profanity-spewing "deranged" person or abandoned or runaway or "juvenile delinquent" minor without obtaining that individual's or his parents' or legal guardian's prior permission. 

 Above is an online link to a noble non-profit group in New Mexico, "DNA Saves", that is a very persuasive nationwide forensic-DNA-testing advocacy organization.

Among the many additional specific contexts that I personally believe should be sufficient justification for the Utah State House of Representatives to authorize  law-enforcement officers  in Utah to DNA-swab a suspect or crime victim  in our state are:

---If police or DPS troopers in Utah  directly observe a motorist driving through a red light or red turn signal at a street intersection in our state.

 Motorists who drive through red lights at intersections in Utah are significantly more likely to commit a personal-injury crime in that and other contexts than are motorists in Utah who never drive through red lights at street intersections. 

Any motorist in our state who drives through a red light on any occasion endangers the safety and medical health of themselves, their passengers, other motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians at or near that intersection. 

---If a person in Utah states or indicates to a law-enforcement officer that he or she is homeless. 

A Utah Legislature-authorized  police or Utah DPS or Sheriff's Office  photographing of that individual and immediate DNA swabbing of that individual could then establish an online file on each and every homeless person in Utah.

The DNA data obtained from homeless individuals could be very useful if that  homeless person ever commits a violent  crime or felony crime in Utah,  or is victimized by a crime  in Utah, for which DNA evidence is obtained from the scene of the crime.

 The DNA data base and accompanying online profiles about all current homeless persons in Utah could also help law-enforcement officers in Utah to quickly find out  whether there are current warrants for the arrest of any of the currently documented  homeless persons in Utah.

---If a person in Utah  states to a police officer that he or she does not have on his person any driver's license or any other form of reliable identification for himself or herself. 

-----If a possible crime suspect in Utah verbalizes either profanity or obscene speech, or a death threat or statement of personal-injury intention, in directly communicating in person  with a law-enforcement officer in Utah.

I was reminded of the urgent need for crime-prevention-minded increased DNA-swabbing legislation a few years ago when I read online  a  very alarming factual online account about an infamous serial rapist of the  1990s in Austin, Texas. He  eluded arrest on rape charges over a multi-year  period  because he  was never DNA-swabbed by any police officer for a burglary crime he was charged in 1993 with having  committed in Austin.

 That account was   provided online by the noble above-cited New Mexico-based non-profit group "DNA Saves" at their currently-copyrighted official website. An exactly-quoted factual statement about that serial-rapist, as reported online by "DNA Saves", is provided farther below in this letter.

There are numerous tangible advantages from the proposed major increase in the number of Utahns  and visitors to Utah  whose DNA information is stored in computer data bases for law-enforcement agencies. Those advantages include:

(1) Reducing the amount of time and money that law-enforcement agencies in Utah  need to devote or spend to solving crime cases  in which DNA traces can be obtained from the body or home or workplace of a victim or perpetrator or from the scene of a crime or near the scene of a crime.

(2) Reducing the risk of any law-enforcement agency in Utah  making a "wrongful arrest" or arresting or unjustifiably detaining a crime suspect or possible crime suspect whose own DNA does not match  that of the perpetrator in a crime case.

(3) Reducing the total number of in-person interactions between  police  and private citizens---- such as  patrol car exploratory drives through neighborhoods or districts in which officers stop the car and explore an area on foot---- in which police in Utah  need to interview possible suspects or possible informants in person in order to solve a crime case. This also helps to reduce the number of occasions in which private citizens in Utah  allege that they were "targeted" or "discriminated against" or "abused" or "injured" or  "harassed" or "wronged" or "threatened" by police.

(4) Reducing the number of crime cases in Utah in which any particular racial or ethnic group or immigrant group or any visitors to Utah  from a foreign nation or any political group or religious group alleges that a law-enforcement agency in Utah  has "targeted" that entire group for detainments or arrests. DNA traces per se DO NOT identify the racial or ethnic identity or nation of birth of a possible suspect whose DNA was obtained or identified in a public law-enforcement agency's computer data base records.

(5) Increasing the number of successful criminal-law prosecutions of defendants in the courtrooms of Utah.

(6) Reducing the number of criminal-law convictions in Utah courtrooms that are later overturned by a judge in a higher court of law.

The following is the exactly-quoted and very pertinent factual online real-life account about  the so-called "Mopac (Expressway-area) Rapist" in Austin, Texas, that I recently  found  at the official "DNA Saves" website:

"Christopher Ted Dye raped three Austin women in their homes before the police first arrested him in 1993 for burglarizing a house. Unaware they had apprehended a serial rapist, authorities released the 34-year-old former auto mechanic on bail.

"Over the next six months, Dye raped four more women before being arrested a second time for burglarizing an apartment. He served two months in jail. For two more years, as the police searched for the Mopac rapist, nicknamed that because the attacks occurred near the (Mopac) expressway, Dye raped seven more women before finally being caught.

"When Austin Police Chief Stan Knee began championing DNA testing at the time of arrest, he had to look no further than Dye, the city’s most notorious serial rapist. 'He’s the perfect example of how we could have saved 11 (rape) victims.' Testing Dye upon his first burglary arrest could have led to a DNA match from his first three rapes."

http://www.dnasaves.org/about-dna-saves/

More information about the noble non-profit group "DNA Saves" can be obtained by contacting that life-saving organization's founders, Dave and Jayann Sepich. Their mailing address: 1711 Mountain Shadow Drive, Carlsbad, NM 88220. Their phone number: 575-361-1931. Their e-mail address: jsepich@dnasaves.org

 A key statement from the copyrighted "DNA Saves" official website:

"DNA Saves is a 501(c)(4) non-profit association organized to educate policy makers and the public about the value of forensic DNA. The association was formed by Jayann and David Sepich in late 2008, marking the 5 year anniversary of the senseless murder of their daughter, Katie. DNA Saves is committed to working with every state to pass laws to expand the DNA database, and to provide meaningful funding for DNA programs."

Utah State House Majority Leader Schultz and your cited six respective colleagues in the Utah House and Utah  Senate to whom this letter is primarily addressed, I hope to hear from any of you, or any other Utah state lawmakers,  as soon as possible on whether any  of you support the above-cited proposed new state law for Utah.

Sincerely and Best Wishes,

John Kevin McMillan, founder and only approved current member of the crime-prevention-minded and politely-non-Christian "Progressive Prohibitionist Religion"----a new and non-proselytizing one-total-member (only me) religion that does not agree to having a second member at any time in the foreseeable future. 

I am also a current full-time  employee inside  a very reputable  business in  Salt Lake City. I am a former full-time employee in Austin, Texas, of the Texas Department of Public Safety state-law-enforcement-agency.

I feel sure that my  very honorable Murray (UT) butcher shop owner Grandfather, Mr. Parley McMillan, and his devoted LDS member wife, Mrs. Alice Mae Pugh (maiden surname) McMillan,  my beloved Grandmother in Murray,  Utah, would have  both enthusiastically supported an increase in the number of  contexts in which  law-enforcement agencies in Utah are pre-authorized by the Utah Legislature to  pursue DNA swabbing on persons  in Utah under specified circumstances.

My fully bolt-locked and locked solo-occupancy studio-apartment-unit rental-home address ever since June 1, 2022:

535 South 200 East, Apt. 912, Ninth Floor, Salt Lake City, UT 84111.

Cell phone: (512) 993-7305.

Home phone: (801) 355-0850.


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