Yeah, but the other issue is that it could just be that they saw the state of the house, some crazed autistic troon being the primary caregiver, barb drugged out of her mind, and just decided "fuck it, best to just put a protective order on over here and see what we find". I mean, even basic elder abuse could warrant that, ignoring rape.
Okay, so, quick aside, sorry if this has been discussed already in this flaming dumpster of a thread.
There are actually two parallel legal processes that are now (potentially) in motion here. One of them is going to move faster than the other.
I have not passed the bar in VA but I have a long background in vulnerable persons legal practice and some basic things are mostly the same everywhere.
The first legal process is a civil one. Its focus is the safety of Barb and - possibly later, but not in this process right now - Chris himself. This is the process that involves social work and caused the protective order. The aim of this process is to establish on the balance of probabilities whether or not a) Barb has been subjected to elder abuse and neglect, whether or not that includes sexual abuse, and/or b) it is no longer safe for Barb to be in the house with Chris as sole carer because he is not capable of caring for her sufficiently to meet her basic needs.
So this process is all focused on Barb’s needs. Over and above that, the standard the court needs to be convinced of is only that it is more likely than not that Chris has abused or neglected Barb, or is incapable of caring for her.
You can see the problem here already: there is already sufficient evidence from the voice call and texts to convince a court to order the emergency protective order. We know the house is fetid, and we have no idea what physical shape Barb herself is really in. The sexual abuse itself does not need to be proved of the court is convinced on the other points. If I was asked to lay odds at this point, I would give you 6 to 5 on that Barb is removed permanently to elder care at the end of this process.
Because this process is about the safety of a vulnerable adult, it moves fast and it will not be stayed until the outcome of criminal proceedings is known. There may be a game of unpleasant legal chicken where the DA’s office tries to stall to see if Barb is removed to safety by the civil process. It is not uncommon, if the civil process ensures the safety of the victim, for the prosecuting authority to mumble about “the distress of trial proceedings to the victim” and just… not proceed with the criminal case. This would be what Chris would want. The only wrinkle here is that the headline complaint against Chris is that he raped his physically disabled own mother, who may well be demented and therefore additionally vulnerable, whilst he was her sole carer in their shared home. Prosecutors are pretty jaded by nature, but if they have strong evidence against Chris - and by god, if they find anything damning in that rape kit - this is not the sort of offender you are going to feel comfortable with strolling about your community.
The other process, which is possibly ongoing at this point, is a criminal one against Chris. If there is sufficient evidence of really bad abuse and neglect, that itself could found criminal charges against him. But - as discussed above - any charge of rape or sexual abuse, particularly if it is aggravated by any finding that Barb is legally incompetent, will be the headline on the ticket. There would be strong grounds if you were cursed enough to be Chris’ public defender, to take a plea bargain on any garden variety abuse and neglect charges to make the charge of raping your own demented mommy come off the docket.
Now, for Chris to actually get jail or even a conviction, the evidence must be sufficient that first the DA’s office (so that they bother to bring the case) and secondly the court (including any jury if this is a jury trial case, I know fuck all about VA crim procedure sorry) are convinced beyond reasonable doubt that he actually sexually abused Barb. Not beyond all doubt, just beyond reasonable doubt. And he has freely offered detailed claims that he has abused to internet randos. You already lose a lot of the benefit of the doubt in any judge or jury’s mind doing that shit. “Lol I was just pretending to be retarded” has traditionally not been a very successful defence. But it can work, if there is basically no other evidence against you.
You see now why that rape kit is so important. Any physical evidence of sexual abuse of Barb and Chris is likely well behind the 8 ball here, because that voice call and text evidence in which he freely admits to molesting her in detail has itself evidentiary value to the court.
However, sexual abuse prosecuting being how it is, if the rape kit is clear or at least unconvincing, and the DA’s office has a lot on its plate at the time, the chances of Chris getting either to plead out to some elder abuse misdemeanour or just dodging criminal proceedings altogether get much, much higher. Again, if laying odds, I would say that based on what we know currently, there is a ~70% chance that Chris walks away from the sexual abuse allegation specifically. Probably higher. If they find any semen in that rape kit, it’s over for him.