State Health Officials Tell Hospitals To Shelve Rape Kits

State health officials are telling hospitals around the state to stop using rape evidence kits made by a Circleville-based non-profit organization. Attorney General Mike DeWine says investigators noticed a problem with the kits from Pickaway Diversified Industries when several kits from obviously-unrelated cases tested positive for the same DNA. “We then started tracing it back and found that we have contamination from the company that actually assembles these rape kits," DeWine says. Tammy Alvoid is executive director at the non-profit. She’s most concerned with having to potentially reimburse hospitals. “It financially could have a very serious impact on our business," Alvoid says. DeWine says the A.G.’s office will do its best to handle payments to hospitals. He declined to blame the problem on the non-profit employing developmentally disabled people. He called it an issue of "poor supervision."