An employee at a Florida group home was arrested Wednesday for allegedly impregnating a woman with mental disabilities, according to an affidavit from the Rockledge Police Department.
Willie Fred Shorter, 58, was charged with lewd and lascivious battery of a disabled adult, more than three years after a woman with a mental disability gave birth to a baby boy while residing in a group home.
According to the affidavit, an investigation began in January 2015 when the woman became pregnant. According to the affidavit the woman, who is not named, has the "mental capacity of a small child."
When she was questioned she could not tell the difference between a truth and a lie, authorities said.
"For this reason, [the woman] is unable to consent to sexual intercourse based on her mental health statues [sic]," the affidavit reads.
When she was interviewed as part of the investigation, she first provided three names of potential fathers, two of which were eliminated early on, police said.
The third person she identified was Shorter. At the time of the initial investigation he denied the allegations and there was not enough evidence to obtain a DNA sample from him.
More than three years after the initial investigation the woman reported that Shorter touched her vagina, which instigated a second probe.
During the second investigation Shorter again denied being the father of the child and gave a DNA sample, which matched the DNA profile of the woman's child, with 99.99% probability he is the father.
Shorter was released from prison Thursday on a $15,000 cash bond. Online court records do not list an attorney for Shorter, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In December, an incapacitated woman with "significant intellectual disabilities" at a Phoenix nursing home gave birth. Nathan Dorceus Sutherland, 36, a licensed nurse who was responsible for the woman's care, was arrested Jan. 23 after officials said a DNA test revealed he was the baby boy's father.
Hacienda Healthcare said Thursday its board had decided it was "simply not sustainable" for the Phoenix facility to continue operating and that it would be closed.