In a county that's otherwise brutal in its treatment of anyone so much as accused of sex crimes (see Shane Vicars, sentenced just last week), why is it also no surprise that when a Sacramento Police officer stands accused of rape, suddenly both Judge Cheryl Chun Meegan and the Office of DA Jan Scully appear to be playing for the defense.
The National Aphasia Association has filed a discrimination complaint against a Sacramento judge for ruling that an alleged rape victim with the disorder that inhibits communication isn't competent to testify at trial. Besides naming Superior Court Judge Cheryl Chun Meegan in a complaint filed with the U.S. Justice Department, the association wants the agency's disability rights section to review the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office for not taking up the issue on appeal.BACKGROUND (from the SacBee):
Gary Dale Baker is charged with sexually assaulting a woman in her late 70s who suffers from a serious speech impairment caused by a stroke.
Baker, 50, is free on $1 million bail and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Aug. 26, according to Sacramento Superior Court online records.
He was arrested in December after he was accused of raping and assaulting the woman in three attacks beginning in 2010 and ending in early December 2012. A 22-year-veteran of the Sacramento Police Department, Baker was fired the day of his arrest.
The alleged attacks occurred while Baker was off duty, and police have said they believe he met the woman through his work patrolling her Meadowview neighborhood.
Superior Court Judge Cheryl Chun Meegan ruled last month that the woman, who suffers from expressive aphasia, will not be allowed to testify against Baker during his trial. The judge found that because of her condition, the woman "is not capable of expressing herself in a manner as to be understood and that no reasonable accommodations exist to assist the witness."
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