Iowa man found not guilty of sexually abusing wife with Alzheimer's

An Iowa jury found Henry Rayhons not guilty of sexually abusing his wife with severe dementia

(Image credit: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

published 23 April 2015

On Wednesday, a jury in Garner, Iowa, acquitted 78-year-old longtime state legislator Henry Rayhons of charges that he sexually abused his wife, Donna Rayhons, an Alzheimer's patient who died in August. Rayhons had been told by staff at his wife's nursing home that Donna was cognitively unable to consent to sex. Her roommate, 86, said she heard the couple making noise in bed behind a curtain one night, and Rayhons was arrested soon after Donna's funeral and charged with third degree sexual abuse.

During the trial, Rayhons said that he had not had sex with his wife on the night in question, just held hands and kissed, and that he had assumed the warning from staff about ability to consent was a medical opinion, not an order. Henry and Donna were married for seven years, both widowed from first marriages, and they were by all accounts a happy, affectionate couple.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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