RETARDED WOMAN TESTIFIES TO RAPE, JUDGE DELAYS RULING

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 8, 1992                   TAG: 9202080356
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
RETARDED WOMAN TESTIFIES TO RAPE, JUDGE DELAYS RULING
A 22-year-old mentally retarded woman testified this week in Roanoke Circuit Court that a man raped her at his Roanoke home.
After hearing the woman's testimony against Robert Woods, Judge Roy Willett said that she was a credible witness and that he had heard sufficient evidence to convict Woods, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Hill said Friday.
However, Willett took a ruling under advisement Thursday until psychological evaluations are completed for a sentencing hearing scheduled in April.
Hill said the case was especially aggravated because Woods knew the woman was mentally retarded and took advantage of that in convincing her to have sex.
But much like a statutory rape charge involving a child too young to knowingly consent to sex, state law did not require Hill to prove that Woods forcibly raped the woman. Instead the prosecutor needed only to establish that he took advantage of his victim's mental incapacity.
The woman, who has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old, was able to testify convincingly that she was raped, Hill said.
Testimony showed that Woods and his wife agreed to take care of the woman after her mother, who lived nearby, had to be hospitalized in September.
After his wife fell asleep, Woods lured the woman into a bedroom and forced her to have sex, Hill said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB