Supreme Court will not review sex abuse case

CORVALLIS — A man sentenced to 98 years in prison for sexually abusing three Alzheimer’s patients in his care may soon be released, his lawyer said, after the Oregon Supreme Court decided not to hear his case.

Michael Simons, 27, was convicted in 2004. But in September the Oregon Court of Appeals overturned the convictions on 21 of 24 charges against him. It said the victims were unable to testify in court or corroborate the confession because they were elderly patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday declined to hear an appeal. Court spokesman Jim Nass said nothing should be read into the court’s refusal.

“The court denies review about 85 percent of the time,” Nass said. “Three of the seven judges must vote to take the case. For whatever reason, the case did not spark the interest of the judges.”

(http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=55059&sid=4&fid=2)

If one of the victims had been a judge's parent, it may have had a different outcome. Just the way things are in society about AD. Hopefully it will change as time goes on.

This is a big problem!! People without voices need to be protected!!!AND the people who do the hiring in Nursing homes need to be more selective and do better back ground checks! I'm sorry to say it is a very "SICK" world out there and I'm not talking about illness!!
We as a People need to be more outraged at this kind of behavior and insist on stricter punishments!!
Thank you for bringing this to our attention!!
Lisa

My dad lives at home with my mom thats one good reason why he stays at home and the other he loves his house,bebe his dog..and we love him this just makes me sick that anyone would do this.