SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The San Francisco district attorney’s stunning claim that California crime labs are using DNA from sexual assault survivors to investigate unrelated crimes shocked prosecutors nationwide.

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Advocates fear that the practice could affect victims’ willingness to come forward.

District Attorney Chesa Boudin said he became aware of the practice last week after prosecutors found a report among hundreds of pages of evidence in the case against a woman recently charged with a felony property crime.

The papers referred to a DNA sample collected from the woman during a 2016 rape investigation.

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