Man Found Not Guilty of Abusing Wife With Alzheimer’s

On Wednesday an Iowa jury found Henry Rayhons not guilty of charges that he sexually abused his wife, an Alzheimer’s patient.  Rayhons, 78, a farmer and former Republican state legislator, was accused of having sex with his wife in a nursing home after staff members told him she had become cognitively unable to give consent. 

This case has ignited a national discussion as to whether people with dementia are capable of indicating they desire intimacy.  At trial, Rayhons testified that his wife continued to desire and initiate physical contact.  He told the prosecutor, “I always assumed that if somebody asks for something, they have the capacity” to consent. 

See Pam Belluck, Iowa Man Found Not Guilty of Sexually Abusing Wife with Alzheimer’s, The New York Times, Apr. 22, 2015.

Special thanks to Naomi Cahn (Harold H. Greene Professor of Law, George Washington University School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.