"In 107 cases reviewed by the Globe, the prime suspects were usually taxpayer-funded caretakers such as nurses, counselors, and orderlies, and more than half the cases involved sex crimes."
Marta
Prosecutions rare for disabled crime victims
By Associated Press, 6/10/2001 15:46
BOSTON (AP) Hundreds of reported rapes, beatings and robberies of people with disabilities have resulted in convictions for only about one in twenty of the alleged crimes.
Between 1997 and 1999, the state investigated 342 crimes allegedly committed against people with disabilities, but gained convictions for only 18, or about 5 percent, according to The Boston Globe.
In all of the cases, specially trained investigators found strong evidence of crimes, and forwarded the evidence to police and prosecutors, who then dropped most of the cases.
By contrast, about 70 percent of crimes involving victims without disabilities resulted in convictions during that same period.
Michael Uhlarik, chief of the elders and persons with disabilities unit of the Suffolk district attorney's office, said it is difficult to prosecute cases when victims have disabilities like mental retardation or are unable to speak. Prosecutors try nonetheless, he said.
''We try to be as diligent as we can in preparing these cases, at the same time fulfilling our obligation that we have sufficient evidence to support our case,'' Uhlarik said. ''We have to consider the disabilities involved and the communication difficulties they present.''
But advocates for the disabled speculate that prosecutors are not being as aggressive as they could.
''Because they've never worked with the disabled, they presume that they might not be good witnesses,'' said Leo Sarkissian, executive director of ARC-Mass., a local advocacy group for the disabled.
One case is that of a 36-year-old severely retarded woman. In March 1998, a coterie of doctors, police, and social workers concluded she was raped.
She named a caretaker at her state-funded residence as the assailant. Because of her disabilities, the unidentified woman would be a liability in court, police decided. The case was dropped.
''Cases like that are very difficult to prosecute. In essence, we don't have the luxury of relying on the testimony of the victim,'' recalled the lead detective, then a member of the Boston police's sex crimes unit. ''We thought that putting her on the stand would hurt her even more,'' he said.
In 107 cases reviewed by the Globe, the prime suspects were usually taxpayer-funded caretakers such as nurses, counselors, and orderlies, and more than half the cases involved sex crimes.
State statistics indicate that the same pattern holds for the remaining 235 cases, for which complete records were not available.
And results of the rare convictions were sometimes mixed: An Oxford man convicted of binding and sexually assaulting a young retarded woman behind a convenience store received just two years' probation with no prison time.
Disabled victims are often incapable of protecting themselves from attack. Afterward, their
handicaps make it very difficult to use their testimony in a criminal case, police and prosecutors say.
Some, like the 36-year-old rape victim, are almost mute. Others can talk but have limited memories and weak reasoning skills.
Another problem is late reporting of crimes. Prosecutors say evidence is often lost because those who care for the disabled are unschooled in basic crime-solving.
In 1997, state lawmakers issued a scathing critique of the way the state handled crimes against the disabled after media reports of the torture of two retarded men in a Raynham home and the rape of a retarded woman at a state school in Waltham.
A review panel of prosecutors and specialists drafted a ''memo of understanding'' that outlined a reform plan. Last year, the state's social service agencies and 12 district attorneys signed onto it.
''It's the first time we're working together with the same common goal,'' said Elizabeth D. Scheibel, district attorney for Hampshire and Franklin counties and chairwoman of the reform panel.
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