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Sex With Your Wife or Rape? Husband of Alzheimer's Patient Takes the Stand

The case offers a rare look at a complex dilemma that will become more common as the 65-and-over population expands
Henry Rayhons

Henry Rayhons

Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
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A defiant, emotional and sometimes confused Henry Rayhons—the 78-year-old retired farmer accused of raping his wife, who suffered from dementia—told a jury he did not have sex with Donna Lou Rayhons in a Garner, Iowa, nursing home almost one year ago.

“I did not have intercourse in that particular setting,” he said in response to one of the first questions from his attorney, Joel Yunek.