Sex crime reports

Grand Rapids, Michigan, June 10, 2009 - Grand Rapid News reports that a former employee of Rest Haven Homes has been charged with sexually assaulting a resident with developmental disabilities between March and May last year. Daniel Griswold, 26, of Wyoming, was arraigned Friday on single counts of gross indecency between a male and female, and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Columbus, Ohio, June 9, 2009 - According to Fox News, a former caregiver at Ohio Hospital for Psychiatry, Christopher Wiggins, has been charged with sexual assaulting a 17-year-old girl who is being treated as a patient. According to investigators, the assault took place inside the facility. Columbus Police were first notified after another patient told staff something was wrong. Wiggins is also under investigation for other allegations.

Mableton, Georgia (June 3, 2009) - As reported by WSBTV, 73-year-old William Stubbs was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a disabled 61-year-old woman at Emory-Adventist Hospital in Smyrna. According to police, Stubbs, inappropriately touched the woman while visiting the hospital on May 24. He is charged with aggravated sexual battery, sexual battery and exploitation of the elderly, according to his arrest warrant.

Staunton, Virginia, June 1, 2009 - News Virginia reports that a 73-year-old Staunton man has been charged with sexually assaulting a 26-year-old blind and developmentally disabled woman at his home on Sunday morning. John Oehlerking is charged with forcible sodomy. According to an investigator with the sheriff's office, Oehlerking and the women were acquaintances.

Lawsuit alleging gross negligence filed against PA psychiatric facility

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 9, 2009 - A 15-year-old girl and her parents have filed a lawsuit against Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic after she was allegedly sexually assaulted while she was a patient at the facility last summer. As reported by the Post Gazette:

The girl, who is not named in the complaint to protect her identity, claims that she was in her room about 9:50 p.m. on July 26 when a 16-year-old male patient entered and sexually assaulted her.

The lawsuit alleges that the day before the attack she told a doctor there that the boy had been acting inappropriately with her and that he had been intrusive.

According to the report, "the claim alleges gross negligence and corporate gross negligence". It also includes charges that the staff failed to properly supervise adolescent patients and allowed male and female patients to be housed on the same unit.

The story is full is here.

Bus driver charged with sexually assaulting six female passengers

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - The Pittsburgh Tribune reports that a 74-year-old male driver for the bus firm First Student (formerly Laidlaw) has been charged with sexually assaulting six of his female passengers over a three-year-period. The ages of the women, all of whom have developmental disabilities, range between 27 and 52. According to police complaints,

all six victims were picked up by the bus or van at their residences and were delivered to therapy or training facilities in the morning and then returned home in the afternoon.

During either the morning trip to the victims' place of therapy or training facility, or the trip home to residences, Lizza would pull the bus off the road, into a parking area or other area, and sexually molest, fondle and assault one or more of the victims."

Paul A Lizza, who was employed as a part time substitute driver for the bus firm and has since been suspended, has been charged with six counts each of indecent assault on a person with a mental disability, indecent contact without consent and institutional sexual assault. He has been released on $5,000 bail and a preliminary hearing has been set for March 3 2009.

According to Nicole Jones, a spokesperson for First Student, the bus firm has "the most stringent employee check and re-check screening programs in the industry in the world," adding that according to their information, Paul Lizza had a clean record.

Yet according to one of the witnesses interviewed by police, these assaults "have been going on for years."

Something, then, or someone, has failed these women. Where is the problem?

Dropped sexual assault charge spurs calls for changes in the laws concerning sexual relations between caregivers and their patients

Kansas City, Missouri - The prosecutor in this case, which is reported here, argues that sexual relations between a caregiver and a patient should be outlawed. Some of the comments in the discussion following the article are in agreement. I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Here is an extract from the story:

A nurse’s aide accused of sexually assaulting a severelyrain-damaged patient won’t be prosecuted because the woman could have been capable of consent, Johnson County prosecutors say.

Although a doctor said the woman in her 40s had the mental capacity of a 3-year-old, she could have met the requirements for consent under Kansas law, assistant prosecutor Michael McElhinney said at a court hearing Monday.

The prosecutor’s office dropped a sodomy charge that had been filed against Brent A. Wheeler, 38, of Lawrence. He formerly worked at a Gardner rehabilitation hospital where the incident allegedly took place.

The case illustrates the difficulty of prosecuting cases in which the victim has a mental disability, and some people are calling for a law change that would outlaw sexual relations between caregivers and their patients.

The story in full is here.

State run agency settles sexual assault lawsuit


From the Associated Press

SPARTANBURG, SC (AP) - A state-run center for the mentally disabled in Spartanburg has agreed to pay a former resident $300,000 after he was sexually assaulted by a facility employee.

The Herald-Journal of Spartanburg reports the settlement between the Whitten Center and the unidentified 22-year-old victim was approved Thursday. It is the most a state-run facility can pay to settle a lawsuit.

The victim's attorney says the Disabilities and Special Needs Department was negligent in hiring and training Daniel Maxwell Bradley.

An agency spokeswoman says Bradley's hiring process was rigorous and included an interview, a State Law Enforcement Division criminal background check and a drug screening.

Bradley was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2006 after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting three Whitten residents.

A 14-year-old girl allegely raped on a bus by a sex offender

Knox County, Tennessee - According to Knox News, a $3 million civil rights lawsuit has been filed against the Knox County School District in connection with the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl with Asperger’s Syndrome by an alleged sex offender who, according to the report, had been deemed “too dangerous” by his court-appointed guardian to be unsupervised. The 18-year-old boy “was being transported to a sex offender treatment program at Halls High School when the alleged rape occurred.” Remarkably, the bus driver had warned school officials not to leave the girl alone on the bus but it seems that noone listened:

According to the lawsuit, bus owner Stanley Rudder had warned Knox County school officials the girl, identified only as Jane Doe in the lawsuit, "would not make it two days" on a special education bus crammed with "rowdy" troubled boys.

His prediction proved correct, with the girl immediately being subjected to sexual harassment on the bus, the lawsuit alleged. Her mother complained to school officials to no avail, Isaacs wrote.

Meanwhile, Knox County Juvenile Court officials were worried about the supervision of an 18-year-old boy who was being transported on the bus to attend sex offender treatment classes at Halls High School, and his guardian warned against leaving the teenager alone with other students, according to the lawsuit.

"The 18-year-old male student was in therapy for a sex crime related matter and has been characterized as a sexual predator," Isaacs wrote.

The teenager is identified only as John Doe. Police records indicate the teenager's alleged sexual assault of the autistic girl is under criminal probe, but a spokesman for the Knox County District Attorney's Office was not immediately available for comment Monday afternoon.

According to the lawsuit, the alleged sexual predator plotted an attack on the girl, taking advantage of her autism and inability to recognize deception."

In a calculated manner, the male student pretended to have an earpiece that enabled him to communicate with the persons in the other vehicle in order to deceive and frighten the autistic (girl)," the lawsuit stated. "The 18-year-old male student terrified (the girl) into believing that she would be harmed by the persons in the other vehicle if she did not let the male student fondle her and sexually assault and batter her person."

Hat tip to Autism Vox.

Adult day care program supervisor arrested for sexual abuse

Tallahassee, Florida - A 30-year old man employed as a direct care staff member at ARC Gateway was arrested yesterday in connection with sexually abusing three women with developmental disabilities; according to Foster Folly News, the man, Mark Harris, was employed as a supervisor and mentor to the three women, whose ages range between 24 and 36. Harris has been charged with two counts of lewd or lascivious battery of a disabled person, six counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a disabled person, and two counts of lewd or lascivious behaviour in the presence of a disabled person. If convicted of all charges, he faces up to 70 years in prison and up to $60,000 in fines.

Norwalk, Conneticut - charges of sexual assault by a former sex offender

A 61-year-old resident of Marathon Healthcare Centre, who, remarkably, has a prior conviction for sexual assault, has been charged with sexually assaulting a fellow female patient with developmental disabilities, Newsday reports. According to police, Windell Jordan entered the woman's room and touched her without her permission on several ocassions in recent weeks. Jordan, who was placed on the state's Sex Offender Registray after a 1989 conviction for second degree sexual assault, has been charged with fourth-degree sexual assault, and is being held on $100,000 bond. He will appear in court on October 24.

Medical health technician charged with sexual abuse

Via Hymes over at Charlottesville Prejudice Rights Watch:

Tacoma, Washington - The News Tribune reports that a 51-year-old man has been charged in connection with the sexual assault of a teenage girl with developmental disabilities at Western State Hospital in Tacoma, Washington. Remarkably, the man, a 51-year-old mental health technician at the state-run psychiatric hospital, had been reported for sexually assaulting female patients twice before, but no criminal charges were laid. Following an investigation prompted by the third woman's allegations of sexual abuse, five criminal accounts have now been filed against him, including charges stemming from the previous two complaints. The man has been released after posting $50,000 bail and will appear in court on November 13 for a pre-trial hearing.

Hymes post, titled "Another day, another sexual assault of a female state hospital paitent ...," is here. Hymes is an advocate for single gender living and personal care options for state hospital patients.

Parents sue school district for not protecting their daughter

The parents of a sixth-grade girl with autism are filing a lawsuit against the Fort Wayne Community Schools, on the grounds that the district failed to protect their daughter.

As reported in The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne, Indiana), the girl, a special education student, was allegedly sexually molested by another student on two occasions on April 25, 2007, during a classroom movie session, according to court documents.

After each incident the girl told her teachers, school principal and bus driver about what had happened, the document said.

When the girl’s mother called school officials, she said she was told that an “incident happened at school … but nothing had occurred and that the student’s hormones were involved,” according to court documents.

"The girl’s family is seeking damages for her emotional suffering, medical and psychological treatment, and payment for the expense of attending another school, according to court documents."

Read the full story ...

(Thanks to Austism Vox for the link)