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   From: february2025@jail.time   
      
   https://d1hfln2sfez66z.cloudfront.net/07-21-2022/t_cb23b82bce5f4   
   389265f7ba1ad8bf4f_name_It_took_two_decades__but_a_local_rape_vi   
   tim_now_has_justice.jpg   
      
   ATLANTA — A rape victim is telling her story after her attacker was   
   convicted more than 22 years after the crime.   
      
   A Fulton County prosecutor says the victim’s rape kit sat untested for   
   years-- and there may be hundreds of other women still waiting for justice   
   because of the same issue.   
      
   The victim, who did not want to be identified, spoke exclusively with Channel   
   2 investigative reporter Mark Winne about the attack and how it changed her   
   life.   
      
   The lead prosecutor says Cleophus Ward served 15 years for four different   
   sexual assault cases from years ago and was back on the street. But Ward was   
   recently locked up at the Fulton County Jail to stand trial on a case that   
   went back even further.   
      
   Now, he’s serving a life sentence plus 20 years in state prison-- and a   
   victim from 22 years ago helped put him there.   
      
   “It really just derailed everything. I was basically just starting out on my   
   dream. After this, I just couldn’t do it. I could not be down there. It took   
   me a long time to even be able to travel to Atlanta and feel okay about it,”   
   the victim said.   
      
   She says that in 2000, she was in her second semester at Spelman College, her   
   dream school. But her dream was derailed by Cleophus Ward.   
      
   “I spent many years in what I now know is depression. Just really not able   
   to move forward with my life,” the victim said.   
      
   Ward abducted her near the Spelman campus, drove her south on Interstate 85   
   and raped her. It would be another 22 years before he went on trial and a   
   Fulton County jury convicted him of rape and kidnapping.   
      
   “I felt like I had been confined by my own fear, my own nervousness and I   
   felt like I got let out of prison. It was a wonderful day,” the victim said.   
      
   Deputy Fulton County District Attorney Julianna Peterson says the victim   
   regained her power when she testified against him in his trial.   
      
   “She testified so incredibly powerfully and strongly,” said Peterson.   
      
   Peterson says the rape kit in this case was among the first pulled out of a   
   huge cache of kits. There were roughly 1,500 kits from Fulton County alone.   
   The rape kit in this case languished at Grady Memorial Hospital, untested for   
   years until 2015. After    
   it was tested, it led to a DNA match that identified Ward as the suspect.   
      
   In response to Winnie’s query of whether the untested kit was the fault of   
   Grady Memorial Hospital or the criminal justice system, Fulton County District   
   Attorney Fani Willis answered: “It’s the fault of the criminal justice   
   system.”   
      
   Willis confirmed that the law requires police to retrieve kits that it   
   didn’t initially.   
      
   Peterson says that as a result of the delay, Ward victimized others.   
      
   “He would actually go on in 2002 to sexually assault four more women in a   
   span of six weeks,” said Peterson.   
      
   “The scariest thing is when we’ve gone back and looked at those kits we   
   have noticed that there are a lot of serial rapists,” said Willis. “You   
   think that it’s a very sad day that if we had prosecuted these people for   
   these horrible crimes    
   against these young women, you would have avoided a lot of crime in our   
   community.”   
      
   Willis says Ward’s prosecution was one of her top priorities. It was made   
   possible thanks to the sexual assault kit initiative which was funded by grant   
   money from the U.S. Department of Justice. The sexual assault kit initiative   
   sent old kits to    
   private labs for testing.   
      
   She says the initiative allowed her to double the size of her team.   
      
      
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