HANDICAPPED'S HELPER SENTENCED MAN GETS 3-YEAR TERM IN CONNECTION WITH SEXUAL

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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 23, 1993                   TAG: 9302230272
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HILLSVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium
HANDICAPPED'S HELPER SENTENCED MAN GETS 3-YEAR TERM IN CONNECTION WITH SEXUAL
A former Southwest Virginia Training Center employee who pleaded guilty to sexual assaults in 1986 on two retarded residents in his care received a 12-year prison sentence Monday, which was reduced to three years in the Carroll County Jail.
Wilbourne Chester Robinson, 52, of Austinville also will be eligible for work-release plus about three extra hours each day to care for mentally and physically handicapped family members for whom he has provided a home.
Circuit Judge Duane Mink had to make the decision Monday on how much justice to temper with how much mercy.
Robinson had worked about 11 years at the regional training center for mentally handicapped residents. He resigned in July when he became the focus of a state police investigation into allegations of abuse.
As a developmental technician, Robinson supervised daily care such as the feeding, bathing and hygiene of some of the residents in one center building.
He pleaded guilty in December to one charge of forcible sodomy and a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery. He had been free on $5,000 bond until Monday's sentencing.
Robinson testified that he was sorry and embarrassed about what he had done and the hurt it had caused. "I regret everything that it has cost everybody . . . my family, my co-workers, everybody concerned," he told Mink.
Commonwealth's Attorney Gregory Goad pointed out that Robinson had taken sexual liberties with two residents who were almost totally dependent on him for daily care.
Dr. Barry M. Mayberry, who has worked at the center since 1981, said one of the victims is not able to communicate verbally. The other can communicate through facial expressions and by saying "yes" and "no," but those answers are not always reliable, Mayberry said.
Both have IQs below 12 and have required institutional care for most of their lives, he testified.
"What were you thinking when this was going on, when you did that?" Goad asked Robinson.
"I guess I wasn't," he answered.
Rich Harrison, a Mount Rogers Mental Health counselor, said Robinson had become almost suicidal over the matter.
Harrison said Robinson had started to accept the blame for what he did, and was not a danger to anyone at this time.
Robinson now works on a second shift at a Mount Airy, N.C., plant. He was in the U.S. Air Force until he got a hardship discharge to care for his mother. For more than 20 years, he has taken care of her and an uncle who also is retarded and physically limited.
He said he would probably lose the home he bought for them if he was imprisoned and could not continue mortgage payments. His wife is retired on a disability.
Carroll E. Stone, who has known Robinson "since the day he was born," testified that Robinson's mother was retarded and his family was illiterate. He said Robinson was "like a wild animal" at age 8, to the point that he even ate meals under the table.
Stone said Robinson overcame that background to graduate from high school and support members of his family, often working two and three jobs at a time. "He always did twice as much work as anybody else," Stone said.
"What he did I do not condone in any way," Stone said. But if Robinson was imprisoned, "a lot of innocent people would suffer a lot more than he would. . . . He has taken care of his family, and he was born into something that he should be very bitter at the world."
Robinson testified about a childhood in which he saw his mother being sexually molested by his grandfather. He said he tried to tell his grandmother what was happening and she would not listen. When he was about 14, he said, a 19-year-old man visiting in the household made sexual advances to him.
He said he had held jobs from age 10 and supported himself since age 15.
"These offenses occurred some seven years ago," defense attorney Joseph McGrady said. "Nothing happened since that time. . . . I'm not trying to minimize the offenses, but the court has heard the circumstances of Mr. Robinson's life."
"I give to you that he's had a sad life, but there's been no time in his past life to justify what he's here on today," Goad said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB