For the town of Glen Ridge, where the defendants and their victim all grew up, the case was a very personal tragedy. But for advocates of the mentally disabled and feminists, it was a test of how well the courts deal with retarded rape victims. “The jury essentially agrees with our view that people with mental retardation have rights,” says Herbert Lev, president of the local chapter of Association for Retarded Citizens. “It has served to raise the consciousness of people around the country.”
The victim’s competence was key to both the prosecution and defense strategies. The young woman, 17 at the time of the attack, has an IQ of 64. Still, she was able to testify convincingly for two days. In the past, says Leonard Rubenstein of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, prosecutors rarely brought cases involving retarded victims because they worried about juries’ prejudices and victims’ credibility on the stand. “To me the importance of the case is that against the weight of all these centuries of prejudice, the people in the jury did respond.”
Defense lawyers sought to portray the victim as sexually aggressive and a consenting partner. The judge allowed the defense to bring up aspects of the victim’s sexual history-normally prohibited in rape cases-to show that she knew what she was getting into when the young men invited her into the basement. “We thought this was an outrage,” says Carol Vasile, of the local chapter of the National Organization for Women, who was in court every day of the five-month trial. “Past sexual history has no place in a rape case.”
In any event, the strategy failed. Jurors told reporters that while the victim’s testimony was coherent, she was clearly disabled and had not understood what was going to happen to her. (In court, she described the defendants as her friends although “I know they don’t give a hoot about me.”) “The basic issue is that this is a person who was viewed by a group of boys as vulnerable and they violated her,” says Douglas Biklen, a professor of special education at Syracuse University.
Kevin Scherzer and Archer could get 40-year prison terms, while Kyle Scherzer faces 30 years. Bryant Grober, who was acquitted on other charges, could get up to five years for conspiracy. Defense lawyers say they will appeal. As for the victim, “Her life will be changed forever,” says Vasile. “You don’t walk away from this experience and go back to the person you were beforehand.” Her first task on the road back to normality will be to try to forget the nightmare in the basement.
