Posted on 04/22/2015 3:25:47 PM PDT by iowamark
A jury in Hancock County has found Henry Rayhons not guilty.
He was accused of having sex with his wife, Donna Lou Rayhons while she was suffering from dementia in a care center and may not have been able to give consent. She died last summer...
Rayhons testified himself that the couple did not have sex on May 23, 2014, the day of the alleged sexual abuse.
The Iowa Attorney General’s Office gave KIMT a statement following the verdict on Wednesday:
“Our office prosecuted this case based on a complaint, thorough law enforcement investigation, and Iowa law. The jury made its decision, which we respect.”
After about 13 hours of deliberation over three days, jurors on Wednesday found 78-year-old Henry Rayhons not guilty of third degree sexual abuse of his wife Donna Lou Rayhons. He was accused of having sex with her at a nursing home on May 23 after being told by a doctor that she was no longer capable of consenting due to dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease. She died in August.
Henry Rayhons testified in his own defense that on the night in question the couple held hands, prayed and kissed, but had no sexual contact...
The key issue was when a previously-consenting spouse is no longer mentally capable of consenting to sex. Iowa law defines an act as sexual abuse in the third degree if the two parties are not living together as husband and wife and if one person “is suffering from a mental defect or incapacity which precludes giving consent.”..
Rayhons served 18 years as a Republican member of the Iowa House. He withdrew from the race for another term shortly before he was charged last year
(Excerpt) Read more at kimt.com ...
This should never have gone to trial. We’re intruding on this man’s grief way too much. It’s not like he was expected to keep doing this to some other elderly woman not his wife.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2015/04/22/henry-rayhons-acquitted-sexual-abuse/26105699/
“There was no eyewitness to the alleged sex act.
Donna Rayhons’ roommate, who tearfully complained that night about hearing something improper going on behind a curtain, never specifically told staff members the sounds were sexual. The defense lawyer called the 86-year-old woman to the stand last week. When he asked her whether the sounds were sexual, she replied: “I really can’t say.”
An exam done on Donna Rayhons that night found no sign of injury. Also, lab tests done on swabs from that exam found no conclusive evidence she’d recently had sex. Although an expert testified that the lack of evidence didn’t necessarily mean no sex occurred, there was no physical proof it did occur.
During a secretly taped two-hour interview a few weeks later, a DCI agent got Henry Rayhons to admit he’d tried to have sex with his wife. But Rayhons sounded confused at times on the recording played in court, and his lawyer contended the agent badgered the elderly man into agreeing to a false statement.”
Unless there is some major element missing here, I can’t believe this went to trial in the first place.
So, the woman must have showed signs of sexual activity, and the nursing home filed a complaint.
If the husband denied having sex with her, that could mean someone else at the nursing home assaulted the woman. If so, then the nursing home could have filed charges against the husband to cover up the assault and protect an employee or other resident of the home.
Sounds like this nursing home needs a cursory investigation from outside.
What if it were turned around?
What if the demented party was the male, and the female lured him sexually, although perhaps his dementia prevented him from giving consent?
Could his friends testify that old Charley would have consented?
Can we file durable advance consent writings?
Just thinking out loud.
“Rayhons served 18 years as a Republican member of the Iowa House. He withdrew from the race for another term shortly before he was charged last year”
There you have it, folks. The whole point of this exercise.
Good!
Nothing missing, just business as usual with overzealous, unaccountable agents of the state.
A very strange case...
Without knowing more, this stinks to me of some kind of senile ‘busybody’ involvement; and then some CYA on the part of others.
That reminds me: I need to find a lawyer who can draw up a ‘living will’ indicating that my husband can still love me and be affectionate toward me, even if I have Alzheimer’s.....
Jeez...
-JT
If we were to pursue the terrorists like we do Republicans in this country, we would be making some progress against terror.
Good. This case should never have been brought in the first place.
It is the critical point. A look at the prosecutors involved will tell the story.
Why would a jury take more than an hour on this case? Was there an awesome deli nearby?
WTH are sexual sounds and can an 86 year old be credible to knowing what she heard?
There’s a reason she’s in a home
Is her hearing impaired?
Is her judgement imlaired?
Can she believe her lying ears?
There was no evidence whatsoever she and he engaged in any sexual act.
There was no evidence she was injured in any way.
How in the San Hill was this allowed to be prosecuted?
How in the hell was it allowed to even get to preliminary
Lastly, how was it allowed to proceed past discovery?
The judges, police and prosecutors were hoping he’d self incriminate?
FU Bozos....
This is totally a piece of crap reporting.
No man who loves his wife would do such a thing if she was not able to function or if she was totally incapacitated.
My wife and I enjoyed “having fun” but as she neared death due to myotonic dystrophy, the thought would never enter my mind.
I think this story is pure BS and if somehow she said someone had sex with her I think I would be looking at the medical staff there.
No man who truly loved his wife would ever think of anything like the article described.
If the assaulter were a school teacher it would be completely understandable. ..sort of...
You read the fabricated smear. The real crime is below.
Rayhons served 18 years as a Republican member of the Iowa House. He withdrew from the race for another term shortly before he was charged last year.
I hadn’t even thought of that; and the case is so odd, it IS something to consider.
But people nowadays are such cowards when it comes to possible litigation, they’ll do things that make them look and sound like imbeciles, to avoid a lawsuit - even if they’re innocent. “Appearances” have become all that matter.
This is the America we have now. So many actions and pronouncements that we encounter do not have any real ‘good will’ or genuine concern behind them; they’re just designed to be protection against lawsuits.
-JT
"They" are still recruiting and if it ever comes, "they" will have a pretty good force of drones
obama's brownshirts are (imo) already complicit in activity designed to test its effectiveness .... can't prove a word of what I just said .... but I believe it.
Nobody’s making rounds in this place? Where was the staff during this so-called activity? Oh wait...probably having sex with each other.
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