UPDATED::Anna Stubblefield case: The Rutgers-Newark professor is accused of citing "facilitated communication" as justification for alleged sexual abuse.

UPDATE 10/2/2015::  Professor convicted of sexually assaulting disabled man

A Rutgers University professor accused of sexually assaulting a disabled man she said had consented to the relationship by communicating on a keyboard was convicted on Friday.

A jury returned the guilty verdict on two counts of aggravated sexual assault against Anna Stubblefield.

Stubblefield testified during the trial that she and the man, who has cerebral palsy and is unable to speak, were in love and that he consented to the sexual activity in her office by communicating through assisted typing on a keyboard.

But prosecutors challenged the keyboard method, known as facilitated communication, and presented experts who testified the 34-year-old man was incapable of consenting.

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Not sure how I missed this horrid affair concerning the use of facilitated communication.  Although this mess does not surprise me, it is sickening none-the-less.

The backstory,,,

D.J., a 33-year-old man with cerebral palsy since infancy, became a cause celebre in the faux world of FC around 2009/2010 after becoming a patient of Anna Stubblefield.  The, then, chairwoman of Rutgers-Newark’s philosophy department., is an outspoken proponent of Facilitated Communication, a technique purported to give "the disabled the power to communicate thoughts to the outside world".

Try to make a name for herself, Stubblefield began toting D.J. around to various conferences demonstrating the awesomeness of her deception work, "D.J. would communicate to the audience with Stubblefield acting as his facilitator."  There was one slight problem, "it was a remarkable breakthrough for someone who doctors claimed had the mental capacity of an 18-month old and could not even effectively communicate with his family."

The notoriety Stubblefield enjoyed though came to a screeching halt in January 2013,

Today, Stubblefield, 44, is facing criminal charges of aggravated sexual assault for allegedly molesting D.J. repeatedly in her Newark offices in 2011. She’s been placed on administrative leave without pay, university officials say.

And she’s facing a civil lawsuit filed in federal court by D.J.’s mother and brother, who say she used D.J. as a “guinea pig” to advance her cause. They cast her suggestion that D.J. could communicate through her as “a farce” and are seeking an unspecified amount in damages.

The pending criminal case, should it go to trial as expected in the coming months, promises to be a referendum on facilitated communication, a technique dogged by controversy almost from the moment it was first publicly identified in the 1990s.
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But several months later, in May 2011, the relationship soured when Stubblefield met with D.J.’s mother and brother and, according to the civil lawsuit, admitted that she had sexual relations with D.J. In August 2011, D.J.’s family brought their allegations to university police officers, who contacted Essex County prosecutors. Stubblefield was indicted on aggravated sexual assault charges in January 2013.

Which brings us to today,

A Rutgers-Newark professor is on trial for sexual assault of a disabled man in a bizarre and disturbing criminal case out of New Jersey. Last week, a psychologist testified that the disabled man—who was a patient of Anna Stubblefield when she started having sexual encounters with him—was unable to consent to sexual activity, according to NJ Advance Media.

Stubblefield met the man, who suffers from cerebral palsy and other ailments, in 2009 and soon after began treating him using a controversial technique called "facilitated communication." Stubblefield has argued that the technique allows disabled people to type on a keyboard with the help of a facilitator, but the approach has been compared to using a Ouija board and called invalid by the American Psychological Association and the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. The judge in the case has refused to allow expert testimony on the method because it is "not a recognized science."

Anna Stubblefield case: The Rutgers-Newark professor is accused of citing "facilitated communication" as justification for alleged sexual abuse.