Louisville woman shares painful memory in effort to keep accused child rapist locked up

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A glance at a mirror is a ride on a painful time machine for Latoya Smith. Her penciled-on eyebrow hardly hides scar tissue that reminds of her of an excruciating encounter more than two years ago.

In June 2017, she woke up to a shooting pain: according to police, someone sexually assaulted her then bit her above her eye, "removing a large chunk of the victim's face."

"I still feel that situation. I talk about it a lot — how much a bite is like a pit bull locking onto you. You know what I'm saying? You can't do anything," she said. "He bit my eye — about an inch perimeter around my eye. Half of my eyebrow is gone. I have to draw my eyebrow every day."

Latoya Smith — Smith's face is still scarred after the 2017 attack. (WDRB Photo)

Police arrested Cane Madden, a man whose face and name are now well known in the Louisville's California neighborhood, after another newer crime.

"The pain and the effects of it are severe, and it's not easy," Smith said.

Madden is now accused of an August 2019 attack: the violent beating and rape of an 8-year-old just a short walk away from where Smith said she was attacked two years earlier.

Cane Madden arraignment 8-12-19 — Cane Madden

"It affects you your whole life," Smith said tearfully. "Your whole life."

Smith agreed to share her story for one reason: There's a chance Madden will soon be set free, just like he was in other cases, including hers.

Oak St. Home — Near where the alleged attack happened. (WDRB Photo)

In fact, back in February, a circuit court judge dismissed Smith's case when she determined Madden was too mentally ill to stand trial.

"If he's not able to do the time in jail, he's need to be in a mental institution," Smith said. "A mental institution. He should not be let free."

As WDRB News has recently exposed, over the years, Madden and other mentally ill defendants across the state have fallen into a vicious cycle allowing the to be released back on the streets without serving prison time or getting sufficient mental health treatment to make them better and fit to stand trial.

Judges in Kentucky must decide, based on psychiatric evaluations, whether a defendant can understand the charges against him and participate in his defense. If not, the defendant's charges are dropped and prosecutors then file paperwork to have the defendant hospitalized for treatment.

However, there are three separate criteria, in a state law known as KRS § 202A.026, determining whether a mentally ill patient can be involuntarily hospitalized:

• The person must be deemed a danger to himself or others

• The person can reasonably benefit from treatment; and

• Hospitalization is the least restrictive treatment available

If any one of those criteria is not met, at any time during treatment, the hospital is required by law to release the person.

Because of that law, prosecutors say some defendants, like Madden are sometimes released within hours and without receiving proper mental help.

Cane Madden mugshots — Cane Madden has had several cases dismissed due to incompetency but also has not met Kentucky's criteria for involuntary hospitalization, meaning he has repeatedly dodged both prison time and mental health treatment.

On Friday, that vicious cycle could continue for Madden, when his public defender asks for the case involving the 8-year-old to be dropped. According to court documents, that public defender believes that Madden is still mentally incompetent to stand trial.

"I forgive him, but he needs to be put away," Smith said. "I think he needs to be put away."

Smith said the system already made her feel violated twice. She hopes the 8-year-old won't experience that same second dose of pain.

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