Prosecutors want legislator's sex-abuse trial moved

DES MOINES — State prosecutors have asked a judge to move a state legislator's sex-abuse trial because the prosecutors don't believe they can get a fair hearing from jurors from his home county.

Such requests are common from defense lawyers, but almost unheard of from prosecutors.

State Rep. Henry Rayhons of Garner was arrested in August and charged with sexually assaulting his wife at a local care center. The felony charge said Rayhons had been told that his wife, Donna, no longer had the mental capacity to consent to sexual contact.

The Iowa attorney general's office, which is prosecuting the case, filed a petition last week asking a judge to move the trial out of Hancock County. Prosecutors contend that local jurors could be prejudiced toward Rayhons by statements from his lawyer and family, which were published by local media outlets. The statements said that no sexual abuse occurred, and that the charges were "incredibly illogical and unnatural, as well as incredibly hurtful."

Statements from local Republican leaders also implied that the prosecution was politically motivated, the prosecution's petition says. "These repeated comments by partisan elected officials, published in local media, taint the jury pool and compromise the state's ability to achieve a fair and impartial jury," prosecutors wrote.

Rayhons is a Republican. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is a Democrat. Hancock County has more than twice as many registered Republicans as Democrats, state records show.

Drake University law professor Robert Rigg, who is a veteran defense lawyer, said he couldn't remember another time when a prosecutor asked for a trial to be moved. Rigg said such requests usually come from the defense, and they often fail. Judges tend to be reluctant to move trials, partly because of the expense, he said.

To succeed in their request, prosecutors will have to show strong evidence that they could not get a fair hearing from jurors in Hancock County, Rigg said. "I think they'd have to go a lot further than, 'Gee, we didn't like what the defense lawyer said in the newspaper.'"

Rayhons' lawyer, Joel Yunek, called the prosecution's request for a change of venue "rarer than rare." He has filed a resistance.

In an interview, Yunek remarked on the prosecutors' complaints that others had unfairly accused them of filing a politically motivated case. "It's interesting how much time they spend talking about how political it isn't," he said. "I'm reminded of what Shakespeare said: Methinks they 'doth protest too much.'"

Attorney general's spokesman Geoff Greenwood agreed that the prosecutors' request was unusual, though he said similar motions have been made in a few other cases.

A hearing has been set for Dec. 16.

Rayhons, 78, remains free on bond. He did not seek re-election earlier this month, but he did not resign his seat.

Authorities accused him of abusing his wife in May at the care facility where she was living. They said facility staff members had warned Henry Rayhons that his wife's dementia made her incapable of consenting to sexual contact. Donna Rayhons, 78, died Aug. 8.