Elderly woman with CMT abused at Rehab Center

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Dougherty convicted of elder adult abuse

http://www.torringtontelegram.com/V2_news_articles.php?heading=0 & page=34 & story_i\

d=3486

By: Lindsey Kroskob

After nearly four hours of jury deliberations, a Cheyenne man was convicted

Tuesday of felony elder adult abuse for sexually touching himself in front of a

65-year-old woman last year.

On the evening of Jan. 4, 2008, Ricky Lee Dougherty, 45, entered a woman's room

in the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center Acute Rehabilitation Unit, exposed

himself and masturbated. (The victim's name is being withheld by the Telegram

due to the nature of the crime against her.)

The wheelchair-bound woman was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a

degenerative nerve disease, when she was 28 years old and was completing rehab

at the center after a third surgery on her left leg.

" I was scared to death. I was terrified, " she said of the incident during

testimony Tuesday. " I wanted out of there. I couldn't imagine that the safest

place I was supposed to be was in a hospital and there was a man in there doing

that. "

As she spoke, the victim used a tissue to wipe away tears.