Rapist’s sentence not enough for victim’s family

Friends and relatives of a completely helpless 12-year-old girl who was raped by a home-care nurse offered gut-wrenching pleas Thursday for more punishment than a judge felt he could deliver.

The rapist, Raymond Carl Hughes, 35, got the maximum standard sentence Spokane County Superior Court Judge Jerome Leveque could hand down: 81/2 years.

“It was a horrible breach of trust,” Leveque said, citing just one of the four aggravating factors Deputy Prosecutor Kelly Fitzgerald said justified an above-standard sentence.

But Leveque said he felt bound by his oath to follow the law. He and several other Spokane County judges believe a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last summer prevents above-standard sentences in many cases.

Leveque left open the door for Hughes to be re-sentenced if appellate courts decide an exceptional sentence is possible. Fitzgerald said she expects the issue to be appealed all the way back to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hughes pleaded guilty to second-degree child rape and standard second-degree rape last October. He faced a standard minimum prison term of 61/2 to 81/2 years. Under state law for serious sex offenders, a parole board may keep him locked up for life if it finds him too dangerous to release.

Quoting “Les Miserables,” Leveque said Hughes caused “the pain that can’t be spoken, the grief that can’t be spoken.”

Perhaps, but several people in the packed courtroom gallery did their best.

“This pain will never leave,” the girl’s mother said in a comment intended for Hughes. “I will feel guilty always for trusting you.”

She said she never wanted a male nurse for her daughter, but the girl was becoming harder to lift and her contractor, Integrated Health Professionals, urged her to consider Hughes.

“Integrated pressured me, said I shouldn’t be prejudiced, that you were their star nurse and you took care of other little girls,” the mother said. “You unfortunately won my confidence with your gentle, almost effeminate nature, your claim of being a Christian and your loving dedication to your children.

“All lies, lies. You are an evil and sick, twisted being.”

The victim’s family played a 10-minute video that left no doubt about the mute, quadriplegic victim’s medical fragility and her absolute inability to resist Hughes.

Dying of complications from cerebral palsy, she can’t move on her own or even hold her head up.

Low moans are the only sounds she can produce, and her mental ability is believed to be that of an infant.

Spokane Police Detective Neil Gallion joined the parade of people trying to speak for the victim. In more than 20 years of police work, Gallion had never before spoken at a sentencing.

“I have seen people hurt other people in ways that most people can’t imagine,” Gallion said. “This case represents the most appalling thing I have ever seen.”

The victim’s mother said the girl’s injuries from the rape last April amounted to “torture” because she is unusually small and her hips and spine are badly twisted.

Nurse Grace Hedequist, who has worked with the victim since she was born, outlined a long list of complicated surgeries that failed to arrest the girl’s physical deterioration.

Although Hughes has no previous criminal record, Hedequist and the girl’s mother said they are confident he had raped before and would do so again if released. Both women vowed to dog him at parole hearings.

Comments were supposed to be directed to Leveque, not Hughes, so Hedequist looked at the judge when she told Hughes she hoped he would get the maximum possible sentence.

“It is perhaps not a Christian thing to say, but I also hope that you get the maximum prison justice that can be inflicted upon a child molester,” Hedequist said.

Hughes’ sister, Sandra Young, and his wife, Maria, pleaded for mercy.

His wife, who came here nine years ago from Chile, made plain in broken English that she and the couple’s three children – ages 4, 10 and 12 – also were in emotional pain.

“I don’t have anybody in this country, just myself and three kids,” the sobbing mother told Leveque. “…This man means everything to those children.”

Hughes also wept.

“I have no excuses,” he told Leveque. “I do not ask for your mercy. I cannot pay back what I have done.”