Day 3 Report on Iowa Sexual Assault-Dementia Trial

On April 10, the third day of the trial of State of Iowa v. Henry Rayhons, the prosecution offered its first witnesses.  According to news sources, the evidence included:

• Testimony by an adult daughter of the alleged victim, the defendant’s wife. She is reported as saying that she did not disapprove of the 2007 marriage between her widowed mother and the defendant, but that “in the years after the wedding, her mother began showing troubling signs of mental decline.”  By the spring 0f 2014, her mother appeared “very confused” and the daughter, who runs an agency for people with intellectual disabilities, observed disturbing behavior, including incidents of her mother’s inappropriate and inadequate clothing, inability to use silverware, and an attempt to use a toilet to wash her hands.  At a meeting a few weeks after her mother was moved from the couple’s home to a care facility, the “doctor told the family,” including the defendant, that Donna Rayhons “was no longer capable of consenting to sex.”  She is reported as testifying she did not remember Rayhons’ exact response, but that “he indicated it wouldn’t be a problem.”
• Testimony of a doctor who met with Donna Rayhons in March 2014.  He reportedly testified she was unable to answer “basic questions, including the names of her daughters.” According to one news report, he testified that “it wouldn’t be likely that a 78-year-old suffering from dementia would be able to consent to sex.”
• Testimony of a social worker from the care center where Donna Rayhons was a resident. According to news reports, the social worker testified about a staff meeting with the family in May, saying that she “wrote up a one-page list of suggestions, including limits on outside activities, and had Donna Rayhon’s doctor go over it beforehand.” At the bottom of the document, the social worker reportedly wrote: “Given Donna’s cognitive state, do you feel she was able to give consent to any sexual activity?”  And according to the news reports, it was the doctor who wrote, “No.” She is reported as testifying that she’d “never written such a statement for a family in 18 years on the job,” but that she also said she never had a spouse seem to want to continue having sexual contact with a resident who was severely cognitively impaired.” According to the Des Moines Register, on cross examination, the social worker said that no one at the meeting explained to Henry Rayhons what sexual activity meant, and that “she never saw any evidence that Rayhons harmed his wife, or that she was afraid of him or angry with him.” She was reported as saying his wife was “always pleased to see Henry,” and were very affectionate.

The testimony on Day 3 appears to raise interesting questions about the admissibility and effect of opinion testimony regarding the mental capacity of the alleged victim, potentially bringing into play prior Iowa case law.

The charges against Henry Rayhons allege he is guilty of third degree sexual abuse under Iowa law because the alleged sex act was without consent, because Donna had a “mental defect or incapacity that precluded giving consent.” In State v. Chancy, the Supreme Court of Iowa sustained a conviction in 1986 of a defendant for third-degree sexual abuse, where the defendant engaged in sexual relations with a young woman he met casually, based on testimony at the trial by a social worker and a school psychologist that the woman was either “retarded” or “mildly mentally retarded.” 

Further, in a “decision without published opinion,” in State v. Babb, in 2012 the Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed a conviction for third-degree sexual abuse, where the defendant, a health care facility employee, engaged in sexual relations with a resident of his facility, where the court accepted the evidence that the alleged victim had a “a mental defect or incapacity” as the result of brain damage from a car accident, thus negating the apparent “consent” manifest by her “flirtatious” behavior and “willingness” to have sex with the defendant.  Both of these cases seem quite different than the Rayhons case factually (in both older cases the defendants and the alleged victims were at best casual acquaintances or at worst “strangers”), but the reliance on opinion evidence could still potentially impact a defendant’s opportunity to argue “consent” of an “impaired” alleged victim. Under Iowa law, the statute permits the “mental defect or incapacity to give consent” language to apply to married couples only if they are not “cohabitating.” Iowa Code Section 709.4(2).

The Rayhons trial is scheduled to resume on Monday, April 13.