Iowa man found not guilty of sexually abusing wife with Alzheimer's
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.
It took the jury 13 hours over three days to reach its verdict, and it's not clear if the jurors believed Donna Rayhons was able to consent or thought the prosecutors didn't prove that sexual intercourse took place. With dementia on the rise, this likely won't be the last time sex and Alzheimer's mix uncomfortably in court.
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