Dad of autistic West Bloomfield girl nearly free of rape charges

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Dad of autistic West Bloomfield girl nearly free of rape charges

She won't testify, so case collapses

BY JOHN WISELY AND L.L. BRASIER * FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS * MARCH

11, 2008

A West Bloomfield man who spent 80 days in jail while accused of

raping his autistic daughter could be reunited with her as early as

today after Oakland County prosecutors suddenly sought to dismiss

all charges against him.

Bloomfield Hills District Judge Marc Barron has scheduled a 10 a.m.

hearing to rule on the request to drop charges against the man and

his wife.

Prosecutors in December charged the girl's father with repeatedly

raping her. His wife was charged with child abuse in failing to stop

him. Prosecutors also sought to terminate the couple's custody of

the 15-year-old girl and a 13-year-old son who has Asperger's

syndrome, a form of autism.

The Free Press is not naming the parents to protect the girl's

identity.

The case has been controversial because the girl's claims were made

through facilitated communication, a widely discredited method in

which a teaching aide helps a nonverbal student type responses to

questions into a keyboard. Experts testified that scientific studies

of the method show that the aide, consciously or subconsciously,

authors all of the messages.

On Monday, prosecutors sought to drop both the criminal and the

custody cases, claiming in court filings that the girl had used

facilitated communication to tell them that she was afraid and would

not testify in court. Without her testimony, the case lacked its

central accusation.

" The option of alternative proofs have been fully evaluated and

found to be not legally sufficient to sustain the requisite burden

of proof, " Prosecutor Gorcyca wrote in the request to drop the

charges. He declined to comment further.

Defense attorneys learned of the move after prosecutors had been in

court to seek the dismissal. The request caught them off guard, they

said.

" Usually, you notify the defense attorneys when you're going to

dismiss the case, " said Deborah Tyner, who represents the girl's

mother. " We had no indication. "

" It was the right thing to do. It's just unfortunate it took so

long, " said Robyn el, another attorney in the case.

They said that prosecutors were never able to establish that the

girl could communicate independently.

At two court hearings in January, the girl was unable to answer a

single question correctly when her teaching aide did not hear it

first. The questions included, " Are you a boy or a girl? " and " What

color is your sweater? "

" This case should never have been brought, " said lawyer Jerome

Sabbota, who represents the girl's father.

Oakland County Family Court Judge Joan Young ordered the children to

be returned to their parents on Monday, despite prosecutors' claims

that the girl still fears her father.

Contact JOHN WISELY at or jwisely@....