Disabled victims face legal pitfalls

The 18-year-old Aurora woman looked her age, but her mind was more like that of a child. She couldn't use words and instead pointed to pictures to communicate.

Then, her mother found two strange men in her daughter's bedroom last fall, one holding her arms as the other assaulted her, the woman later told Kane County authorities. The teen had thought they were her boyfriends.

The woman's impairment -- considered in the moderate rage of mental disability -- presented challenges for prosecutors trying to convict one of the men accused in her assault.

The case illustrates the challenges in trying to protect or prosecute people who are mentally impaired. In the Aurora woman's situation, it would have been difficult for her to testify against her attacker.

"I couldn't communicate with her," said Pam Monaco, an assistant state's attorney. "We're not geared for this. I wasn't geared for this."

Illinois has about 212,000 mentally impaired children and adults, ranging from mild autism to severe mental disability, said Tony Paulauski, executive director of the Association for Retarded Citizens of Illinois.

The mentally impaired are about four to 10 times more likely to be victims of a sexual assault than people without a developmental disability.

"They're easy prey," Paulauski said. "It's an awful fact."

The criminal justice system has made strides on behalf of the mentally impaired, including an increase in awareness training for police and resources that match lawyers with experts.

But pitfalls exist.

For example, witnesses in a legal case must possess the mental capacity to understand what it means to tell the truth and the oath taken before testifying. Many victims and defendants are unable to withstand the legal scrutiny.

"Cross-examination is bad enough for someone with normal intelligence let alone someone with cognitive disabilities," Paulauski said.

In the Aurora woman's sex assault, police were called to her home Sept. 8 after the woman's mother discovered the men and chased them out of her daughter's room.

Terry Bowles, 25, was arrested after he showed up at the home for his cell phone he left in the woman's bedroom. The Aurora man was charged with criminal sexual abuse of a person unable to consent.

His attorney, John Paul Carroll of Naperville, was unavailable for comment.

Prosecutors initially sought to have the offense charged as a Class X felony -- meaning Bowles could have faced up to 30 years in prison -- but the woman's IQ wasn't low enough to qualify for the pertinent law, Monaco said.

Colleen Dewan, who at the time was the victim's psychologist at Aurora's Hope D. Wall School, said the woman has a teenager's hormones but the mental ability of a child and she communicates her needs through drawings.

"They like the attention from the boys, but then things go too far and they don't understand the consequences," Dewan said. "In this case, she knew, thank God, that something was wrong."

Bowles' case inched closer to trial and it became clear the woman would have difficulty on the witness stand -- a key element to winning the case, Monaco said. Prosecutors planned to use drawings depicting a hand, breast and a man when the woman testified, but the case never went to trial.

Bowles pleaded guilty to criminal sexual abuse March 28 and was sentenced to two years probation in an agreement Monaco considered a minor victory because he also is required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

"We took it as far as we could and he pleaded," Monaco said.