How Could You? Hall of Shame-Michigan Domestic Adoptee case UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Detroit, Michigan, a 15-year-old adoptee with Down Syndrome “was raped more than two weeks ago.

They know who did, but police haven’t made an arrest.

Detroit Police Commissioner Jerome Warfiled brought the incident up at the Police Commission meeting Thursday.

“The male is still walking the streets and the community is enraged and up in arms,” he said. “Unfortunately the young man is severely mentally challenged but at the same time the community is literally taking watch in that area.”

Southwest Precinct Commander John Serta said he is “well aware” of the case and his department has been working on it since before citizens “bombarded” him with their concerns.

The suspect “has constitutional rights, so we can’t just run out and grab him up because citizens tell us he’s the perpetrator,” Serta said. On Monday, “they were able to get the interview done.”

Serta said as of Thursday afternoon that the suspect remained jailed, although Ray said on Friday he had been released.

“Checking,” Detroit Police Sgt. Eren Stephens of the Public Information Office said in an email when asked about the suspect’s detention status Friday afternoon.

The suspect, a man whom Ray and her daughter know from the neighborhood — he’d sometimes come to Ray’s porch for a glass of water — also suffers a mental disability.

Ray’s daughter on July 17 was walking to her job at a local coffee store, the first job she’s ever held, when it happened.

“On her way to work he somehow got her to go with him to her apartment,” Ray said Friday.

Ray’s daughter remembered the brown sheets; she said the man took pictures of her nude and had sex with her.

“When he was penetrating my daughter and she said, ‘Stop, you’re hurting me,’ and he says, ‘I know I’m hurting you; I’m going to go to jail,’ he knew what he was doing was wrong,” Ray said. “He should be accountable. This community gets to be safe.”

She’s told the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office will not charge the crime until analysis of the rape kit by state police is concluded, which could take up to three months.’

“We look at each case on a case by case basis to determine if we have sufficient evidence to charge,” Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in an email Friday. “Because this case is currently being reviewed and there is further investigation that is ongoing there can be no comment about the specific evidence needed in the case.”

In the meantime, we are forced “to lock our kids in our houses,” Ray said, adding, “one person can’t hold our community hostage.”

During a community meeting Tuesday, Ray said multiple other women came forward and said the suspect has in the past made “provocative, threatening” remarks to them as well.

“The officers and the assistant prosecutor have been marvelous, professional and compassionate,” Ray said. “It’s the system that is inefficient, and they need more resources.”

Since the incident, Ray says her daughter is doing well, outwardly at least.
Beneath the surface, there are signs of trauma.

“She draws very angry pictures and she scribbles out that man’s face,” Ray said. “Externally, she seems more worried about us.”

Ray called her daughter the “community’s daughter.”

Ray and her partner became the guardian to the girl and her five siblings when their mother, a neighbor of Ray’s, died six years ago.

“This is the example of a village raising a child,” Ray said. “And the village is mad.””

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: Vigilante justice  reigned in the neighborhood where the adoptee lives.

“Community members in one Detroit neighborhood took matters into their own hands and beat an accused rapist of a 15-year-old girl with Down Syndrome after they say Detroit Police failed to respond.

Friday marks the 23rd day without an arrest after the 15-year-old victim said a man grabbed her while she was walking to work, took her to his apartment and raped her in early July.

The suspect lives in the same neighborhood as the victim. Members of the Hubbard Farms community say the man has mental health issues. They posted his face on flyers around the neighborhood to warn others.

Family friend of the victim, Megan Herres says the teen waited for seven hours at the hospital for Detroit Police to administer a rape kit. She reportedly waited five days before police interviewed her about the sexual assault and 21 days until Detroit Police sent the rape kit to the Michigan State Police Crime Lab.

“That’s just not acceptable,” said Herres.  “DPD, we want to see an effort toward sexual assaults of minors,” she continued “It’s not good to live in a community where people don’t feel safe.”

Other community members were equally outraged at what they believed was a lack of response by Detroit Police and on Monday took matters into their own hands. The community beat the accused rapist with a baseball bat so badly he needed to go to the hospital.

Herres said vigilante justice is not the answer, but frustrations grew and boiled over. “There was a lot of community response in asking the police for their assistance in apprehending the perpetrator and it wasn’t happening in a timely manner,” said Herres.

When 7 Action News asked officials why the investigation was taking so long, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said they have asked Detroit Police for more evidence and are waiting to determine if charges will be brought.

Detroit Police say the prosecutor’s office is waiting on DNA. The MSP crime lab does have the rape kit and are expediting it. When we told Detroit Police we wanted a reason for the delay, a police spokesperson told 7 Action News, “We are looking into this.”

The condition of the accused rapist is unknown at this time. Community members say his family checked him into a facility of some sort.

Herres says the teen victim is doing the best she can and she has her family and an entire community rallying behind her.”

Detroit community beats alleged rapist of 15 y.o. girl with Down Syndrome after slow police response

[WXYZ 8/8/13 by Julie Bankovic]