Father accused of raping autistic daughter has charges dropped
A West Bloomfield, Michigan man accused of raping his 15-year-old daughter had all charges against him dropped, because his daughter — who is severely autistic — could not testify.
The case was controversial from its beginning because the 15-year-old girl, who cannot speak, made the claims through facilitated communication, a widely discredited method of communication in which a teaching aide helps such students type words into a keyboard. Experts testified that scientific evaluations of the method have proven that the teaching aide, consciously or unconsciously, authors the messages.
Oakland County Assistant Prosecutors Paul Walton and Barbara Morrison defended their decision to press the case until it became clear the girl would not testify.
“We wanted to make sure we were giving her the same kind of opportunity to have her voice heard in court as every other kid,” Morrison said.
“We’re never going to feel good about this case,” Walton said. “Have we sent a child back to a potentially dangerous situation?”
We were first prone to outrage when we read the headline and first paragraph of the story until we got to the bit about “facilitated communication” — prosecutors might as well have said the girl told them she was raped by ESP. On the surface, this makes the Duke lacrosse team rape case look well run in comparison.
Here’s more on the farce of facilitated communication, which serves only to cruelly give parents of these kids false hope.
Information from: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...
