Erin felt miffed with her friend. “That is not nice.”

“Sorry, but like ninety-nine percent of our gender, I get bent out of shape when I hear the R word.”

Erin nodded. “I understand, but it isn’t only my opinion that the incident occurred accidentally. A judge and jury, eight of them female, felt the same way. Wyatt was as much a victim as the woman was.”

“Go on.”

Erin sighed. “Have you ever noticed how beautifully Wyatt speaks? For a deaf person, I mean. His pronunciation is almost flawless, and that is extraordinary for anyone profoundly deaf. I won’t go into detail, but he got a language program and practiced his speech for hours and hours in order to talk like everyone else. The reason he did that is because he was shunned by other kids when he was in school. Can you imagine how that felt? To never fit in. To ask girls out and get laughed at. To be the outcast who couldn’t even hang out with other boys because they wanted nothing to do with him?”

Julie’s expression softened. “That’s awful. Kids can be so cruel. And no, I can’t imagine it.”

“Well, that was Wyatt’s life back then, and he hated school because of it. He couldn’t wait to get home to spend time on his grandfather’s ranch with the animals. I think that’s how he became so amazing with horses, because they accepted him when everyone in the outside world wouldn’t.”

“That is so sad,” Julie conceded, “but I still don’t get how that landed him in court for rape.”

“Long story. According to the court documents and all the testimonies, Wyatt got a job in Medford, Oregon, as a hired hand on a ranch. By then, he had fallen into a habit of passing himself off as a hearing individual. He made friends with another ranch hand who liked to cruise bars, looking to hook up with women, and Wyatt started going out with him, pretending he could hear.”

“Okay.” Julie nodded. “I would have, too. Who wants to be a pariah his whole life?”

“Exactly,” Erin went on. “I can’t blame him for not wanting to advertise his disability. It wasn’t a crime to pretend he could hear, and on the surface, what harm could that do?”

“I can’t see how it could harm anyone.” Gripping the stem of her goblet between her index finger and thumb, Julie turned her glass back and forth in a slightly agitated manner. “And I definitely can’t see how it could have led to rape.”

“It couldn’t unless the situation was exactly right. Let’s say a woman comes on to a guy, so he goes with her back to her apartment, where she’s still all over him and acting eager. Only she’s recently divorced, hasn’t been out with any guys since her husband, and she turns out the lights to undress because she feels suddenly shy. And then, after going to bed with the man and letting things escalate, she changes her mind.”