Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Police say a male psychiatric patient raped a fellow female patient in a psychiatric hospital

From the Fort Mill Times, Kansas City (via this post, partially titled "Still No Need for Single Gender Option Virginia? by Hymes over at Charlottesville Prejudice and Civil Rights Watch. If you have any thoughts on this topic, please join the discussion here)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City man is charged with sexually assaulting a woman when both were patients at a psychiatric hospital.

Jackson County prosecutors on Thursday said 20-year-old Darius Maggard is jailed on $100,000 bond on a sexual assault charge. Police said the 47-year-old woman told investigators that she was asleep in her room at Research Psychiatric Center on June 13 when she was attacked.

The woman said she awoke to find Maggard having sex with her, and that she was groggy from medication she was taking and unable to fight him off. Court records say the woman reported that Maggard repeatedly asked, "This isn't rape is it?" and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

Police said hospital staff told them that the woman's medication might have a similar effect as GHB, a drug often cited in rape cases.