DNA leads to charges in 6 Chicago rapes

With the aid of DNA evidence, a North Side man has been charged in a string of brutal sexual assaults across Chicago that stretched back to 2003 and included two he allegedly committed with his brother, authorities said Tuesday.

Leondo Joseph, 38, and his brother LB Joseph, 29, appeared in bond court over the weekend, where they were ordered held without bail for their alleged roles in the case which experts said illustrates the potential and the shortcomings of the state's DNA evidence collection and testing.

Women were terrorized and sexually assaulted in their apartments or forced into vehicles by threat of violence in the six attacks, which occurred in the city's Lakeview and Brighton Park neighborhoods and the community areas of North Lawndale and Belmont Cragin, court documents reveal.

Leondo Joseph, arrested Saturday night at his home in the 2500 block of North Halsted Street, is charged in all six attacks, according to records. LB Joseph is charged in the two most recent attacks in 2011 and 2012. Both brothers also face aggravated kidnapping charges.

Chicago detectives linked the brothers to the assaults through Illinois State Police crime lab examinations of all six assaults, prosecutors said in court at the bond hearing. In addition, some victims have identified the brothers, and Leondo Joseph gave statements regarding some of the cases, prosecutors said.

The number of years covered by the assaults nine was noteworthy, though victim's advocates point out that rapists, including in acquaintance assaults, are often repeat offenders.

But the experts also pointed to the fact that Chicago police were not notified by the crime lab until this year that the 2012 case was linked to the other five attacks, which was critical information because in the 2012 attack, Chicago police stopped a vehicle carrying the two brothers, though they were not charged.

"With a stranger case, DNA has a different kind of function, to identify and to connect cases to each other," said Sharmili Majmudar, executive director of Rape Victim Advocates. "Then the question becomes are we allocating enough resources to address and process the DNA we do receive through these kits in keeping with the trust the survivors are placing in the system.

"The crime lab is not resourced fully. There is definitely not a 'Law and Order: SVU' turnaround," she said, referring to the police procedural TV drama. "It is nowhere near what people expect."

Officials at the crime lab were not available Tuesday afternoon to answer questions about the case. The turnaround time at the lab has long been a concern of police, who rely on the work-ups.

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DNA leads to charges in 6 Chicago rapes