Autistic Girl Unable to Answer Court Questions
By L.L. Brasier and John Wisely, Detroit Free Press
Jan. 29–A 14-year-old autistic girl was unable to answer questions in court Monday using the same controversial communication method prosecutors used to charge her father with rape, according to a defense attorney who witnessed the demonstration.
Jerome Sabbota, who represents the girl’s father, said the teen was unable to answer questions such as her brother’s name and the color of the sweater she was wearing.
“It was total nonsense,” Sabbota said. “It proves what we’ve been saying all along that it’s not valid.”
Prosecutors say the girl, who cannot speak, used facilitated communication to accuse her father of repeatedly raping her and her mother of allowing it to go on. Using the communication method, an autistic person types answers to questions on a keyboard with the assistance of a teaching aide. Bloomfield Hills District Judge Marc Barron closed his courtroom to the public and reporters for the demonstration. Reporters and others were able to watch but not hear the proceedings on closed-circuit TV cameras. The girl sat at a table in the courtroom.
During the demonstration the girl’s teaching aide was removed briefly from the courtroom while the girl was asked a question. The aide returned to help her answer it, but the girl could not answer, Sabbota said. He estimated 10 or 11 questions were asked and she couldn’t answer them.
Barron also heard testimony on the validity of the method. He is expected to issue a ruling soon.
School records show that the child was tested at age 9 — before she began facilitated communication at the encouragement of her parents — and that she had the intellectual development of a 3-year-old. Her IQ level was judged to be in the moderate to severely retarded range by a defense expert.
The girl spends four of her six hours of school each day in classes with other students, accompanied by her facilitator, who guides her hands on the keyboard for all her work.
Howard Shane, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and the director of the Center for Communication Disorders at Children’s Hospital in Boston, said the communication method was worthless.
“It is a complete waste of time,” said Shane, who added that the child likely remains at the developmental age of 3 and likely is mentally retarded.
Shane wrote a book debunking facilitated communication as a legitimate method and came to Michigan to testify on behalf of the girl’s parents.
The girl’s father, a house painter, is charged with criminal sexual conduct in the first degree. The mother faces neglect charges and is accused of witness intimidation. The father remains in the Oakland County Jail. The mother, a research attorney in Oakland County, is free but wears an electronic tether.
The Free Press is not naming them to protect the identity of the child.
Contact L.L. BRASIER at 248-858-2262 or brasier@freepress.com.
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