Disabled Teen Was Raped at Hospital, Mother Says

The mother said hospital and police officials have shared few details about the case with her. She said a detective told her that her daughter had sex with the men but that police were trying to determine whether it had been consensual.

Police spokeswoman Lucille Baur said the investigation is at an early stage. No charges had been filed yesterday. In a news release about the case, police mentioned only one suspect, whom they described as a 23-year-old patient.

"We're concerned about these allegations," Potomac Ridge Vice President Pat Petralia said yesterday. "We have begun our own internal review here to help us identify any internal deficiencies."

The woman was released from Potomac Ridge yesterday. After arriving home, the woman's parents said, they found a handwritten, sexually explicit note in the pocket of one of the shirts the teenager wore at the hospital.

In the misspelled and largely unintelligible note, the writer expresses a desire to have sex with a woman described as "spanish look long hair." The family is originally from Bolivia, and the teenager has long hair.

"What placement are you going to," the note says. "When the white man leave again want you in the shower room."

The mother said she hadn't shown the note to police because they hadn't interviewed her at length.

Lossou Mawuena Wallace, 36, of Damascus, the van driver charged in the March case, had a $40,000 bond forfeited after he failed to appear at a hearing Oct. 19, court records show.

In that case, police say the man had intercourse with the teenager in the back of a van owned by a company that transports elderly and disabled people. The man admitted touching her sexually but denied having intercourse, according to police charging documents. According to the documents, the man told her that "if he didn't tell her mother what happened, he would bring her a gift tomorrow."