LAUREL WEMHOFF: 2012 was probably one of the best years of my life. In October of that year, I went out to a concert with a few of my friends. I met someone there who offered to buy me a drink, and after I took that drink is when the entire night just went black.
The next morning, I woke up and there was blood all over. I didn't remember anything. I went to the Washington Hospital Center the following day and had a SANE kit done.
I waited 8 months to find out if they found anything in that rape kit. When they found out that there was other DNA, they couldn't tell me if it was a match. It just seems like a right that every survivor should have.
BRIDGETTE HARWOOD: When I first met Laurel, she was just frustrated with the experience she had had with the criminal justice system. We had some sort of dialogue around, "Why don't we go to the D.C. Council and share your experience?"
LAUREL WEMHOFF: I was asked to actually give a testimony and share my story.
BRIDGETTE HARWOOD: Most people don't know when she went and sat in front of that Council to testify, her case was still pending.
LAUREL WEMHOFF: And a few of the items that were in my testimony were actually incorporated into that legislation.
BRIDGETTE HARWOOD: She literally took 9 months of what she had been going through and set it aside so that she could give a voice to people to never have to go through what she had been going through and get some groundbreaking legislation passed.
LAUREL WEMHOFF: It just gave me a sense of empowerment, too, that I was taking something that was so incredibly horrific and turning it into something that was a little bit positive.
