cupcake cross She always knew that her birth had been the product of a rape suffered by her mother when she lived in a home for people with intellectual disabilities in Rochester, New York (USA). After 36 years and turned into an adult woman, she began to investigate the details of the crime and to search for the identity of the rapist.
The abuse dates back to 1985, when her mother was 30, but the mental ability of a girl of 2 years, wore diapers, did not speak and could not feed herself. Therefore, when she became pregnant, it became known that she was sexually assaulted within the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD, for its acronym in English).
State center mocked victim for 36 years
Officials at the state center told the woman’s family that another resident was likely responsible and that they would file a police report after a “thorough investigation.”
However, almost four decades later, Magdalena says that she herself solved the mystery of the identity of her mother’s attacker, thanks to the use of a DNA test and a popular genealogy database. He was an employee of the facility, not a resident, according to a lawsuit he filed in March.
It also found that no police report was ever filed, no employees were interviewed, and no action was taken by the center’s administrators. “My mother has had a difficult life and I hope this lawsuit helps her get the care she deserves from her after OPWDD failed to protect her from her abuser 37 years ago,” Cruz says.
Currently, criminal charges are no longer punishable due to legal deadlines that expired decades ago. However, the lawsuit was made possible because New York enacted a law in 2022 that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for litigation over past sexual assaults.
He discovered mistreatment and abuse in a state center
During her investigation, Magdalena received reports of a series of injuries her mother sustained before and during her pregnancy at the Monroe Developmental Center.
In the 1980s, the family had no idea that multiple incidents of abuse of residents were taking place at the state home, closed in 2013. At least 10 staff members had been identified as pedophiles and rapists between 1976 and 1985, including supervisors, security guards, and volunteers..
Several residents had even died under unusual circumstances. Like the case of a 21-year-old quadriplegic patient who died after being exposed to the sun for four hours without fluids. Another inmate died after swallowing five surgical gloves.
“She can’t even speak to say what happened to her, and if it wasn’t for the pregnancy, we would never know,” said one of her attorneys, Susan Crumiller. “And even if it weren’t for the investigation of her daughter, we still wouldn’t know about the institutional cover-up,” she added.
For its part, the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities avoided commenting on pending litigation, but stressed that “the safety and well-being of the people we support is OPWDD’s top priority.”
in search of justice
The man Cruz identified is not listed as a defendant in the lawsuit. “She did not want to file a lawsuit against her biological father,” emphasizes the lawyer. “He is named throughout the lawsuit, but we really wanted to focus on the negligence of the institution and how horribly (OPWDD) treated our client and others like it,” he told the BBC.
According to the lawsuit, the State Center had a duty to protect her mother from the abuser. However, the negligence demonstrated “was extreme, flagrant, immoral, reckless and willfully indifferent.”
“We’ll probably never know how many other patients were raped at this center, how many times our client was raped, how many other rapists there were, and that’s because the center covered up the abuse.”they finished.
Source-larepublica.pe
The post The daughter born of a rape who helped her mother identify the abuser 36 years later appeared first on American Journal.
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