To the editor:

I’m writing in regard to Cory Elkins’ sentence reduction. I am friends with one of his victims, and I attended every day of the trial in 2008.

Elkins was responsible for rapes that occurred in 1993, 1994 and 1995. That’s right. Lawrence had a serial rapist running around, breaking into houses, violently beating, choking and assaulting women in the mid-1990s, and yet, he was not arrested. The reason he was eventually brought to trial is because, in 2008, his DNA was entered into the national CODIS database after another violent attack on a woman in California led to his arrest. At his trial, he was only charged with the 1994 and 1995 rapes because the statute of limitations had run out on the earlier one. But, it was three rapes, not two. He was found guilty on all seven counts and sentenced to 48 years in prison, which is how the justice system is supposed to work.

In 2021, KU’s Innocence Project (which is not actually called that) found that yet another crime committed by Elkins – a burglary this time – had been misclassified during his sentencing, and they lobbied the DA’s Office to reduce his sentence by 30 years for what is essentially a clerical error. The DA’s office made the decision to go against the Kansas Crime Victim Bill of Rights and not inform the victims from the earlier cases. Ever. In fact, the only reason anyone found out is because one of the victims noticed that Elkins’ release date had been changed.

Why would the Innocence Project even touch this case? Aren’t there actual innocent people they could be helping? Cory Elkins is a dangerous, violent, repeat offender who hates women and he deserves to stay in prison for the rest of his life.

As for the DA’s Office, they were concerned about “retraumatizing” the victims. But, that’s not their decision to make. As a DA, the victim comes first. Instead, Judge Stacey Donovan drastically reduced a violent criminal’s sentencing without hearing both sides of the argument.

DA Suzanne Valdez is already facing a disciplinary hearing for the mishandling of another, unrelated, case, and her office is too ineffectual right now to be allowed to continue to oversee this situation. The attorney general needs to be brought in to re-evaluate this entire fiasco. And, Cory Elkins’ original sentence needs to be restored.

This is an embarrassment to Lawrence. And one that, without swift action, will put a predator back on your streets in less than two years.

Michael Brandt,

New York, New York