This man had sex with dead bodies that had been put under his care. Yes, he should have gone to prison. But here's the problem I have with this story. The government has ordered that he have to pay $2,450,000 dollars to the families of bodies he defiled (well, three of the families). A former morgue worker, 55-year-old Kenneth Douglas was convicted of sexually molesting a murder victim's body. The sexual violation would have taken place 26 years earlier before he was convicted. DNA evidence showed that Douglas had sex with the body of a 19-year-old young woman at the Hamilton county morgue where he worked, in Ohio. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The molestation of the corpse had been discovered in 1982, after the woman had died. A cleaning products salesman, David Steffen, was convicted for her aggravated murder and rape the following year but denied raping her. It would not be until the later widespread availability of DNA testing that authorities were able to determine there was a match to the morgue worker. Steffen had admitted to police that he beat, stabbed and killed the victim. He told them that he attempted to rape her but could not get an erection. Later, he was unable to explain why semen had been found inside the victim's body, who was purported to be a virgin. Because the body showed evidence of sexual violation, in 1983 a jury decided that Steffen was lying about having raped the young woman. He was sentenced to the death penalty. Steffen attempted to appeal the conviction for rape, but the appellate courts agreed with the jury. However finally, 26 years later in 2009, with the new DNA evidence, and the presumption that he had been wrongly convicted of rape rather than attempted rape, a judge decided to hold a near hearing to reconsider the punishment. In 2016 the judge resentenced Steffen to life in prison without possibility of parole. Kenneth Douglas was later sentenced to an additional 3 years for the violation of two other female homicide victims from 1991. While Kenneth Douglas was in prison, the families of the three bodies he had been convicted of sexually violating started a lawsuit against him. Being in prison can make it more difficult for someone to be able to defend themself in a lawsuit. In a court deposition Douglas admitted that he had brutally raped and assaulted up to 100 different female corpses waiting to be autopsied during his nearly two decades working at the morgue. Douglas claimed he was struggling with addiction at the time and would never have done this if he was sober. The judge issued a default judgement against Douglas, in 2015. So now Kenneth Douglas is obligated to have to give these families $2,450,000 dollars. Not that he even has that much money, but this is going to make him financially destitute when he gets out of prison. It's almost like a life sentence, punishment for life. I have several issues with this. First, yes, it may be understandable to send someone to prison for sexually violating dead bodies, but to make them have to pay lots of money for that crime, as punishment? Maybe I'm wrong, but this seems like a new idea, a newer development in American legal doctrine. I don't think it worked like this 100 years ago. Is this really how things should be? It's not just a moderate amount of money, like a fine. This is a huge amount of money. There were no actual financial damages, so how is ordering financial compensation justified? And should the family even be entitled to get money? I mean, the wrong wasn't actually committed against them; they were not the victims. Another issue is apparently there was not enough evidence to charge this suspect with the crime of violating the other bodies. But the burden of evidence in a lawsuit (a civil case) is much lower than a criminal case. Because he was convicted of one crime, he is just going to be assumed guilty of other similar crimes? They only know that he had violated lots of bodies because he willingly told them. On top of that, those three families were already given an $800,000 settlement from the county. In my opinion in one way that is even worse. Why should taxpayer money have to be paid out? The county was not really "responsible" for the wrongdoing. The county was not the person who committed the crimes. And with the families already being given $800,000 in government money for this, did they really need another $2.45 million? In the lawsuit, the lawyer representing the county had asked the judge to block the jury from hearing about Kenneth Douglas's testimony of having violated more than 100 bodies. If so many bodies had been violated, it suggests other workers should have noticed signs that something was wrong. sources Corpse abuser sentenced, Fox19 News, September 30, 2008 Corpse abuser sentenced (fox19.com) Death Penalty Case Reveals Morgue Worker Had Sex with 100 Female Corpses, September 2, 2016, Prison Legal News September, 2016, page 46 Death Penalty Case Reveals Morgue Worker Had Sex with 100 Female Corpses | Prison Legal News Corpse Abuser Sentenced To 3 More Years In Prison, Feb 2, 2010, WLWT5 Ohio: County wants to block testimony on sex with corpses, Feb 4, 2015, IndyStar
Yuck... as somebody who has been around a lot of dead bodies... yuck. But yeah it's an odd sort of crime. There isn't much of a victim. I mean, a dead body is more object than person. It's disrespectful to their loved ones, and I don't think I'd legalize it, but I don't think I'd put heavy penalties on it either (like, misdemeanor put you in jail for no more than a year kind of thing) particularly so-called pain and suffering damages. I'd not really a fan of "pain and suffering" damages in general though.
For anyone who thinks this lawsuit outcome was not absurd and insane, let's ask you this... Do you believe if a person has sex with a dead body, that person (in addition to prison time) should have to pay the father of that dead person $270,000 , the mother of that dead person $270,000 , and the brother of that dead person another $270,000 ? Because that's what this story amounts to. ($2.45 million divided by 3, for each family, and then divided by 3 again, assuming 3 family members) The average annual pay for a morgue assistant in Ohio is $37,600 a year, probably more like $23,000 after taxes. Just in case that helps put things into perspective.
