[Velocity Girl]

So if you're drunk and don't remember assaulting someone you're still accountable, but I guess it's ok if you're just asleep!!!!

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2005-12-02T155528Z_01_DIT257314_RTRUKOC_0_US-CANADA-SEXSOMNIA.xml

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian province of Ontario plans to review a court decision that acquitted a man of sexual assault charges because he suffers from "sexsomnia" and was asleep at the time of the incident.

The Office of the Attorney General, which oversees the province's prosecutions, said on Thursday it needs to research its options for an appeal because of the strange circumstances of the case.

"This matter will be carefully considered to determine our next steps," said Brendan Crawley, a spokesman for the Attorney General.

Jan Luedecke, 33, was acquitted of sexual assault charges on Tuesday because he said he was asleep during the attack.

A sleep expert testified that Luedecke suffers from a disorder that causes sexsomnia -- involuntary sexual behavior during sleep -- which he had experienced before.

The court heard that Luedecke and the female victim met at a party. She testified she fell asleep and woke up to find Luedecke having sex with her. She pushed him away and called the police.

Luedecke confessed to police after he discovered was still wearing a condom and realized he had had sex.

Canadian media reported that the victim left the courtroom in tears when the verdict was read, and said she would take the case to the highest court possible.

The Crown has 30 days to present its appeal.

 

[LordOpie]

wait, he put a condom on while sleeping?

Regardless, if you know you have such a condition, you should never allow yourself to be in a position to commit such a crime.

There's a saying in my head, it's also in Texas...
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me, you can't fool me again.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

Legal system seems a mite astray there.

 

[jimmydean]

I'm married, so I suffer from "sexsomnia" half the time myself

 

[jacksonpt]

I'm married - I don't have sex.

 

[biggins]

i have sex somnia anytime my girlfriend is in the bed with me.

 

[LordOpie]

i have sex somnia anytime my girlfriend is in the bed with me.

So does she, although it's not really the same just cuz she falls asleep during.

 

[reflux]

So does she, although it's not really the same just cuz she falls asleep during.

Nice. He puts 'em up, you knock them down.

 

[LordOpie]

Nice. He puts 'em up, you knock them down.

yeah, but it's no POTD candidate.

 

[Tenchiro]

I wonder if I could get away with stabsomnia...

 

[TreeSaw]

wait, he put a condom on while sleeping?

Regardless, if you know you have such a condition, you should never allow yourself to be in a position to commit such a crime.

There's a saying in my head, it's also in Texas...
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me, you can't fool me again.

 

[splat]

SOmething seams really strange about this whole thing.

1) the condom
2) how does he get into the room and into bed with her with out her noticing ?
3) and only waking once the act has started ?
4) how did he even know where she was ?

I'm not taking either side , because something just doesn't seam right about the whole thing. I don't buy "sexsomnia" Croc of Sh!t excuse, but I also don't think the woman is as innocent as she is made out to be.

sounds to me like she led him on , then said NO ( and Yes I believe no means NO ) and he wasn't taking that as an answear.

 

[Andy_B]

I wonder if I could get away with stabsomnia...

Its not looking good....

from CNN
-- If Scott Falater is telling the truth, he must feel like he's living in the twilight zone. The Arizona man admits stabbing his wife to death and pushing her body in the backyard swimming pool while their children slept inside their home.

But Falater, 43, says he remembers none of it. His defense: he was asleep, too.

"He was sleepwalking at the time the event occurred and he had no consciousness operating in his mind at the time, in fact, his brain was, in fact, asleep," said defense attorney Michael Kimerer during opening statements Monday in Falater's murder trial.

But prosecutor Juan Martinez told a Maricopa County Superior Court jury Falater "had an agenda" when he stabbed his wife, Yamila, 44 times in January 1997.

According to the prosecution, the defendant changed clothes and placed his bloodied clothing along with the murder weapon -- a hunting knife -- in a Tupperware container. He then put the container in a trash bag with his boots and socks and stashed the bag in the spare tire well in trunk of his car.

"After he killed her he took ... all of the items that showed that he was the person that actually killed her and he hid them," said Martinez.

Neighbor's testimony

Neighbor Greg Koons testified Monday he saw what happened next.

After hearing moaning, Koons watched from his yard as Falater pulled on gloves, dragged the body over to the pool and rolled it in. He said he saw Falater hold his wife's head under water and that's when Koons called 911.

Prosecutors said when police searched Falater's Volvo, they found "one neat little package" of evidence, including the gloves.

Defense attorneys don't dispute that Falater killed his wife of 20 years and the mother of his two children. But Kimerer said the evidence will show Falater should be acquitted because he was sleepwalking when it happened.

Dr. Rosalind Cartwright, a sleep disorder expert who examined Falater, says it's possible.

"Sometimes they hurt themselves. Sometimes they hurt other people. But this is a state in which they are confused. They're not conscious. They think something terrible is happening and they have to defend themselves so, often, they will fight," she told CNN.

Children support father

Falater's two teen-age children, both honor students, say they believe their father is innocent and told police there was nothing out of the ordinary on the night two years ago their mother was killed.

Kimerer said sleep tests conducted on Falater show he fits the profile of a sleepwalker and has a history of sleepwalking.

Kimerer said Falater was undergoing severe stress related to his job as a product engineer at Motorola, sleeping only two or three hours per night at the time.

The defense said Falater returned home from work on the night of January 16, 1997, had dinner with his family and tried to fix a faulty pool pump.

After getting his tools -- including the knife -- and work clothes out of the Tupperware container in the trunk of his car, he decided to do the repair later, Kimerer said.

Kimerer said Falater went to sleep exhausted. His explanation for what happened next was that Falater was trying to fix the pool pump as he was sleepwalking and reacted in a rage when his wife came across him.

Kimerer called Falater's actions after the killing "nonsensical and illogical," which he said were typical of a sleepwalker.

Other sleepwalking defense cases

Testifying after opening arguments, Koons said Falater's motions appeared fluid and natural.

Kimerer said Koons stated before the trial that Falater appeared "robot-like and mechanical," but Koons denied he used those words.

The prosecution and defense also portrayed differing views of the relationship between Falater and his wife.

Prosecutors hinted at marital discord over the family's Mormon religion, with Yamila wanting to be less involved with the church.

The defense, however, said the two were "soulmates" and there was no discord at all in the marriage.

The "sleepwalking defense" is not unique.

In 1992, the Canadian Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of Kenneth Parks, who said he was sleepwalking when he drove 14 miles, stabbed his mother-in-law to death and seriously injured his father-in-law.

In the early 1980s in Arizona, attorneys for Steven Steinberg called psychiatrists who testified he may have been sleepwalking or in a "dissociative mental state" when he stabbed his wife 26 times.

Steinberg was found innocent on the ground he was temporarily insane when he killed his wife, Elana.

 

[BigMike]

Both of those stories are retarded! Yes, I know sleep disorders are real, but come on, stabbing your wife and pushing her in the pool?! And the sex thing, there must be somthing fishy there. How would she not notice until he was actually banging her?

 

[Velocity Girl]

Both of those stories are retarded! Yes, I know sleep disorders are real, but come on, stabbing your wife and pushing her in the pool?! And the sex thing, there must be somthing fishy there. How would she not notice until he was actually banging her?

I agree with you and Splat that it sounds like some details are missing....but I still think it's entirely feasible that she didn't know right aways what was happening. I am a very very very sound sleeper most of the time and many times outside things become part of my dreams before I fully realize what's going on...like being able to sleep thru my alarm clock going off for over a 1/2 hour until it turned itself off! Also she was at a party so maybe she was passed out which in my case would mean it would take something just shy of a nuclear explosion to get me to come to. I've had a 75lb dog jumping on my stomach while passed out and didn't move a muscle. So although not waking up to something like that might not be the norm....definitely possible.

I just think it's crazy that someone could rape/murder someone and just walk away...even if they were asleep. How do you prevent this from happening again? Are others just supposed to be put at risk everytime they decide to shut their eyes? Very strange indeed.