Attorneys for a Coeur d’Alene counselor accused of having sex with a vulnerable adult want the charge thrown out because no evidence has been presented that the alleged victim is developmentally disabled.

Defense counsel for Jeffrey Worley, the Coeur d’Alene therapist who pleaded not guilty to rape and sexual abuse of a vulnerable adult in July, said prosecutors have not shown evidence that the alleged victim in the case, a former patient of Worley’s, falls into the category of being vulnerable.

Worley, 43, was a therapist contracted with Kootenai Health when he allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old who was being counseled following a suicide attempt.

The consensual relationship lasted more than a year. Worley and the teen engaged in sex “hundreds of times” at Worley’s Ironwood Drive office and other places, including Spokane, according to police reports.

The teen turned 18 during the time of the counseling, graduated high school and moved into an apartment.

Unlike vulnerable adults named in previous cases, who have a low IQ and are unable to graduate without special education or live on their own, the alleged victim “graduated high school without delay,” attorneys Robyn L. McPherson and Jason G. Johnson wrote in a motion asking for the charge against their client to be dismissed.

The alleged victim, attorneys argued, had none of the characteristics used to define a vulnerable adult, defined as someone “unable to protect himself from abuse, neglect or exploitation due to physical or mental impairment.”

Prosecutors provided no evidence that the victim’s intellectual abilities were affected by a low IQ, according to the defense.

“To the contrary, the state’s evidence indicates that (the victim) understood she was engaging in a consensual relationship, that she was able to get herself to and from appointments without assistance, that she was able to obtain alcoholic beverages as a minor, that she was able to rent a hotel room, that she was able to gamble,” rent an apartment on her own and take care of her personal possessions, defense attorneys wrote.

Although the victim may have suffered from a mental health issue at the time, she was not a vulnerable adult, attorneys argued.

“If every person who suffered from a mental disease or defect qualified as a vulnerable adult millions of Americans would be committing a felony by engaging in consensual sexual relationships,” McPherson and Johnson wrote. “There is absolutely no evidence that (the victim’s) physical or mental ailments prevented her from self protection.”

The relationship that began in 2016 continued until the summer of 2017, when the teen said she finally reported Worley because she didn’t want him to victimize others.

A hearing on the motion is set May 9 before First District Judge Scott Wayman. A three-day jury trial is scheduled May 21 in Coeur d’Alene.