Rape Accusation Against a Minor in a Residential Facility

My question involves juvenile law in the State of: Iowa

My son (13) has been in residential treatment for two months for depression and suicidal ideation. He has done a fantastic job in recovery. He has had a difficult roommate (also age 13) who has had serious problems on the unit with violence and at times my son has felt threatened, but didn't want to make a big deal about it and kind of minimized his concerns. The roommate was removed from the unit for a while because his violence was out of control, but he was recently reinstated. A week ago, the roommate was being disruptive and my son reported him to staff and he was disciplined. He was very angry at my son for getting him into trouble. Two days ago he made a written accusation to staff that my son had been raping him at night several times over the last two weeks.

Staff were blindsided by the accusation but said that they had to take every report of sexual assault seriously so they reported it to DHS. DHS then reported it to law enforcement. Now there are two investigations; one is a DHS investigation of the residential facility for their supervision and the other is a law enforcement investigation of the alleged rapes. We were informed just today that LE will be interviewing the two boys and we have no idea when this will happen. The residential facility seems to be not well-informed about how this works. They don't know if LE will ask staff for their input. If so, then they would report that our son is very well-behaved and has no history of sexual abuse or violence, but the other boy has a history of antisocial behavior. But the staff just don't know because they say this has never happened. Our son is the first to be accused like this (lucky us!). Staff do not know if we are allowed to be there during the police questioning.

This is just so incredible to us. We know without any doubt that this is a false accusation. Besides knowing that our son would not rape his roommate, with the number of night staff on the unit and the sensors in the rooms, it seems impossible for such a scenario to even happen at all. It's so ridiculous that we were thinking sure, have the police talk to our son and he'll tell the truth and it'll just be obvious--but we're starting to feel scared. How well trained will the LE be? What if they don't believe our son? Shouldn't we get a lawyer? We sent our son to residential treatment to work on self-esteem issues and suicidal ideation--and now he's being accused of rape. We feel like we put too much trust in the residential treatment program to protect our son from harm and now are we putting too much trust in LE?

Any advice would be appreciated! I am calling a lawyer for advice tomorrow, but also just was hoping for your thoughts.

I assume the other child will have a medical exam which you would think would prove whether there had been multiple rapes--but I also fear that this child may indeed be sexually abused and be substituting the perpetrator for my son (or perhaps he could be self-harming). So, even if a medical exam came back with signs of rape--I still do not believe my son is the perpetrator. I am not in denial--I know that sexual abuse is rampant and I believe in taking victim's reports seriously--I just know my son and he did not do this. It aslo just doesn't seem possible given the level of supervision on the unit.

It appears retaining a lawyer to represent your child would be a good idea immediately.

Does it make him seem more guilty? He hasn't done anything. Should we just let the police talk to him? If we get a lawyer does that antagonize the police?

A 13 year old should not be talking to the police alone. Tell your son not to talk to the police and hire a lawyer.

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Quoting kingsburyhill8

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Does it make him seem more guilty? He hasn't done anything. Should we just let the police talk to him? If we get a lawyer does that antagonize the police?

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No, it does not, it makes him look smart. It would be a big mistake to get into this without a lawyer. The lawyer will protect your son's rights and ensure the investigation is handled fairly.