Autistic sex offender gets treatment, not prison

Morning Call - 7/25/2017

July 25--An autistic sex offender from Bethlehem has been spared prison, given his limitations.

Luis Rodriguez Rivera, 21, will be on house arrest while authorities look for a suitable facility for him to be treated. In all, he'll be under court-ordered supervision for three years.

Rivera received the sentence Friday from Northampton County President Judge Stephen Baratta after previously pleading guilty to sexually abusing a young girl over a two-year period.

Rivera will apply for a placement at Mainstay United, a Bethlehem-based inpatient program specializing in the developmentally disabled. If Rivera can't get a slot there, other treatment options will be explored, said Assistant District Attorney Tatum Wilson.

"He'll end up somewhere," Wilson said. "For the interim, he is on electronic monitoring."

Rivera was born with brain damage, struggles to read and is cared for by his mother, according to testimony in April when he pleaded guilty. He admitted to felony charges of indecent assault and corrupting a minor, and will be required to register for life as a sex offender.

Rivera's victim was 11 when she disclosed the abuse last year, leading to his arrest, authorities said. Rivera would sneak into the girl's bedroom early in the morning and touch her inappropriately, prosecutors said.

In a victim impact statement, the girl's mother told Baratta that her daughter continues to have nightmares about the assaults.

"She is beyond distraught that this man is not behind bars and feels as though he will find his way into her room and continue to injure her," the mother wrote. "We have tried to assure her that she is safe, but we too fear ... his presence."

Wilson said psychologists concluded Rivera was not a threat to the community and was a low risk to offend again. Those experts traced his sexual misbehavior to his cognitive disability, and not to predatory desires, Wilson said.

Given their findings, Wilson said, she agreed that treatment was appropriate in Rivera's case.

riley.yates@mcall.com

610-554-8245

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