DA refiles case against worker after disabled woman impregnated at Wichita facility

Prosecutors have refiled a criminal case against a 29-year-old man accused of carrying on an illegal sexual relationship with a physically and intellectually disabled woman at the Wichita facility where he worked.

The woman, who lived at the facility, was an adult at the time of the assaults but has the mental capacity and maturity of an 8- to 12-year-old, according to court records. She also has several health conditions that prevent her from walking, using the bathroom, bathing and otherwise caring for herself independently, the records say.

Salvador Loga Taylor, of Wichita, on Wednesday was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on suspicion of having unlawful sexual relations with the woman and on Thursday made a first appearance in Sedgwick County District Court on the charge. The count alleges the unlawful sexual relations involved a “DCF employee with (a) DCF patient” who is 16 years of age or older, court records show.

Kansas law prohibits employees of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services and the Kansas Department for Children and Families, as well as employees of their contractors, from having sexual contact with patients who are in institutions or in the custody of either department — even if they could legally consent to sex in other circumstances.

The Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office previously charged Taylor in February with rape of a mentally deficient victim for the woman’s assaults, according to court records. But it dismissed the case without prejudice two months later after “a legal issue was discovered that required additional investigation,” DA Marc Bennett said in an email.

Taylor remained in the jail on Thursday in lieu of $100,000 bond. His next court date is July 10.

Taylor wrote on an application for a court-appointed lawyer that he is currently unemployed and has no money to help pay for his defense costs. A lawyer listed for him in court records Thursday did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

ResCare, where the sexual assaults reportedly occurred, did not immediately return a message seeking comment Thursday. ResCare provides services to people with intellectual disabilities, including group home living arrangements, day programs and activities and home- and community-based services, according to its website and social media pages.

According to an arrest affidavit released in Taylor’s dismissed case, staff at ResCare discovered the woman was pregnant in October 2022 when she was checked at a hospital for abdominal swelling and missing several menstrual periods. A pregnancy test came back positive.

The woman disclosed that she had been having sex in her bed with a ResCare staff member she identified as Taylor “almost every weekend since April of 2022,” when he was scheduled to work, the affidavit says.

She told authorities she agreed to the sex, but when asked to define consent, “she said that it was when you put your name on a piece of paper saying it’s ok to do something,” the affidavit says.

A doctor who conducted a psychological assessment of the woman concluded that she “lacks the capacity to consent to sexual relations” and that “her ability to understand the nature of consequences of (a) proposed sex act are impaired.”

The doctor also concluded that the woman’s conditions “put her at a very high risk for undue influence, coercion, and malfeasance,” according to the affidavit.

The woman also told authorities that she lives with roommates but has her own room at ResCare and that she can’t move her legs without help from others. She described a number of sex acts with Taylor, and said she was scared that “she is going to have her baby taken away from her,” the affidavit says.

In an interview with police, Taylor said his job at ResCare included cooking for patients, taking them to the bathroom and helping them shower. He told police he was friendly with clients at the house where the woman lived and that he and the woman “listen to music together.”

He said he helped the woman with her hygiene needs, including using the restroom and bathing, and that he thought part of the reason she was living at ResCare is because she “has some mental illness,” the affidavit says.

Taylor told police he “didn’t know if ResCare has a policy on relationships” but thought he remembered “slideshows during orientation.”

When police asked why the woman would say he was her baby’s father, “he said that she has delusions,” according to the affidavit.

Paternity testing after the baby boy’s Jan. 9 birth showed Taylor “cannot be excluded as the biological father,” with a probability of 99.9%, the affidavit says.