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Sister: 68-Year-Old In Caregiver Sex Case Has Disabilities

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By HOWARD ALTMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 16, 2008

Updated: 07/16/2008 08:10 pm

  Luella McAdoo

TAMPA - Ida McAdoo can barely hold back the tears as she talks about her younger sister, Luella.

"She has Down syndrome," said Ida, 77, of Luella, who is 68. "She doesn't hear enough to talk. She doesn't hear anything. If she looked at you and knew you, she could kind of read your lips."

The older sister said she is "devastated" that her younger sister is in jail, accused of forcing the severely mentally disabled 34-year-old son of a longtime friend to perform oral sex on her.

Earlier today, a frail Luella McAdoo appeared before Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Walter Heinrich via a video monitor from the Orient Road Jail. Heinrich ordered a full bail hearing for Friday morning to determine whether he will change her bail, because he wanted more information about her case. She is being held at the Orient Road Jail, with bail set at $7,500.

Tuesday, Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies arrested Luella McAdoo on a Tampa Police Department warrant.

The victim's mother, Tampa police say, left her son in McAdoo's care on April 5 as she went shopping. When the mother came home, she found her son performing oral sex on McAdoo, authorities said. The woman kicked McAdoo out of her house, then called police.

The investigation was particularly challenging because of the victim's mental condition and because he does not speak, said Tampa police spokeswoman Andrea Davis.

Ida McAdoo said her sister has her own challenges. Aside from the Down syndrome and her hearing loss, Luella McAdoo is 4 feet tall and weighs about 50 pounds, her sister said.

"I don't think the son should have been in her care," Ida McAdoo said in a telephone interview tonight. "That was a pair that wasn't able to take care of each other."

Her sister knew the victim's family for more than 30 years, Ida McAdoo said.

"This is disturbing," Ida McAdoo said. "It is all so disturbing. I have to hang up now, because I feel I am going to fall."

News Channel 8 videographer Kate Caldwell contributed to this report. Editor Howard Altman can be reached at (813) 259-7629 or haltman@tampatrib.com

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