Law enforcement agencies will be eligible for federal grants to improve how they investigate sexual assault cases, under legislation named for a former University of Minnesota student and spearheaded by Minnesota lawmakers.
The Abby Honold Act, signed into law Tuesday by President Joe Biden as part of a $1.5 trillion budget bill, establishes a two-year test program for police training on trauma-informed investigations into sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking.
Following her rape by a fellow U student in 2014, Honold spent years fighting first for justice in her own case, and then to ensure that what happened to her didn't happen to anyone else.
"I am so grateful to finally see a conclusion here, and really a new beginning, I feel like, for so many people," Honold, 27, said in an interview Wednesday. "I want other survivors to be able to get the absolute best treatment that they can, from the very beginning."
Co-sponsors of the bipartisan legislation — years in the making — include U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, who represents Minnesota's Sixth District.
Though Honold immediately reported the sexual assault and went to the hospital for an exam, she said the Minneapolis police investigator assigned to the case treated her disrespectfully. Her rapist, Daniel Drill-Mellum, was not charged until an investigator from another agency took up the case and found other victims.
"I think people hear my story and they think to themselves, 'Oh my gosh, that detective that interviewed her — what a rude person,' " Honold said. "And maybe, but I think that he didn't have the training that he needed. He didn't have trauma-informed training, and so the whole experience for me reporting, from the very beginning, I always wonder what would have been different if he had been taught what trauma looks like."
Drill-Mellum pleaded guilty in 2016 to two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and was sentenced to six years in prison.
