Taking advantage

Few acts are more despicable than taking advantage of someone who is disabled.

The Union County state's attorney's office in Illinois has charged five people -- three men and two women -- with doing just that to 21-year-old Roy Easton, whose mental retardation made him a target of the group. They allegedly thought he was carrying a $500 federal disability check.

One of the women allegedly encouraged him to drink more and more alcohol prior to the attack.

Though police say only a 17-year-old boy beat Easton in the abandoned Jonesboro house, hitting him with a board and beer bottles, each of the five has been charged with three felonies. They could serve up to 50 years in prison.

Last week, surgeons at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau operated on Easton's shattered orbital bone, broken nose and jaw. They implanted titanium plates around his right eye.

His body is healing. We hope his faith in people will someday be restored too.