MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The woman who says she was sexually assaulted by the same man accused of kidnapping and killing Eliza Fletcher has filed a lawsuit against the City of Memphis, saying the city failed to properly investigate the 2021 case.
The city has also responded to the lawsuit, objecting to most of the requests made in the 25-page-long document of the court proceedings.
The city admitted that MPD did not fingerprint the scene where Alicia Franklin said she was raped by Cleotha Henderson.
ABC24 does not name victims of alleged sexual assault unless they publicly identify themselves as Franklin has.
"The City admits that during the scene visit it conducted on September 22, 2021, MPD determined not to have Crime Scene dust for potential fingerprints," the court document reads.
The city also claims that while MPD did not obtain fingerprints from Alicia's cell phone, MPD allegedly advised Franklin that if they gave her the phone back when she asked for it, it would mean that the phone would then not be processed for fingerprints.
Franklin alleges that the city did not dust her purse for fingerprints, which they admitted they did not do.
The city also denied Franklin's request that they recognize that MPD had probable cause on Sept. 23, 2021, that Cleotha Henderson was the person who raped her. The city stated that he was indicted for assaulting Franklin a year later.
In the documents, Franklin said that Cleotha Henderson and her met on a dating app and talked to each other for a week before meeting him on Sept. 21, 2021, at 5783 Waterstone Oak Way.
She said he then pulled a gun on her, threatened her life, blindfolded her and took her to an empty apartment.
The city denied that Franklin told MPD the assailant’s name at the time or that he went by the name of Cleo — only that he was known as "CJ."
Franklin says she gave MPD the accused attacker's phone number, and they admit that she did.
The case develops amidst a call for the state of Tennessee to improve testing times, with some courtroom members saying the state's sex crimes unit "disregarded victims thousands upon thousands upon thousands of times with no justification.”
Republican Gov. Bill Lee announced in late September that he and lawmakers were fast-tracking funding to hire 25 additional forensic lab positions.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) had requested 40 more special agent/forensic scientist positions and 10 more technicians in the budget that is now in effect, but Lee and lawmakers initially funded half that amount.
Eighteen new special agent/forensic scientists have started since September, while 22 are in the hiring, background or relocation process, TBI spokesperson Keli McAlister said.
In early December, the TBI announced they were seeking $2 million in contracts with outside labs to process 1,000 rape kits they aimed to be tested before the end of June 2023.
