Penn State’s Shame of Silence

by Diane Dimond

Imagine an 11 year old boy from an underprivileged family who gets help from a local charity called The Second Mile so he can spend time with members of the exalted Penn State University football team.

This little boy is ushered onto campus and is introduced around by one of the team’s top coaches. He gets to work out with the players and see the action up close. This kid feels like a King! Boy, wait till he tells his buddies back in the housing project where he lives with his single mother.

But a part of the boy’s dream includes something he wishes he could forget. The coach that brought him to this wondrous place suggests a shower at the end of their special day and when they are both naked engages in sexually charged behavior with the child.

After the coach drives him home the boy says to his mother, “If you’re wondering why my hair is wet, we took a shower together.”

The outraged mother calls police and the first official investigation of Penn State’s assistant coach Jerry Sandusky begins. The year is 1998.

The mother has two conversations with Sandusky while police listened in. Police confirm Sandusky admitted showering with several young boys and ultimately told the woman, “I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness … I wish I was dead.” The local District Attorney, Ray Gricar, decides there isn’t enough evidence to press charges.

Somehow word gets back to the University and a short time later Sandusky is told by head coach Joe Paterno that he will never be promoted. Sandusky soon retires but retains all university privileges, including keys to the football locker rooms.

Two years later, in the fall of 2000, in that very same Penn State shower room a janitor named Jim Calhoun comes upon a horrifying scene.

Just so you know the nature of what we’re talking about here I’ll quote a brand new Grand Jury report: “Jim observed Sandusky in the showers …. with a young boy pinned up against the wall, performing oral sex on the boy.” Calhoun was gravely upset and immediately told his supervisor, Jay Witherite. Another janitor, Ronald Petrosky, had also observed Sandusky walking out of the building that night hand in hand with a young boy.

Next, it’s March 2002 and a graduate assistant named Mike McQueary entered the locker room one night and heard a “rhythmic slapping sound” coming from the showers.

Back to Grand Jury report: “He saw a naked boy … whose age he estimated to be ten years old, with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky.”

McQueary doesn’t call police. He calls someone he believes is of a higher authority – the exalted Penn State football coach Joe Paterno. Paterno reports the incident only to his supervisor, Athletic Director Tim Curley. Curley tells the university’s VP of Finance, Gary Schultz, and the university’s President, Graham Spanier.

Not one of these men thought to call police or to try to identify the little boy. Why? Perhaps the 70 million dollars the Penn State football program generates each year had something to do with their silence.

I include the names of all the men who knew about Jerry Sandusky’s alleged activities with young boys because, to me, they are no better than the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church who put blinders on and continuously refused to call in law enforcement lest their precious institution be embarrassed. They all consciously allowed the corruption of young children to continue.

The new Grand Jury report outlines sexual attacks by Sandusky on eight different boys. The most disturbing is Victim #4 who was described as being “A fixture in the Sandusky household … (who was) repeatedly subjected to Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse and Indecent Assault at the hands of Sandusky.” Now 27 years old, the former Second Mile kid says he was victimized in 1996, often when he slept in a basement bedroom at the coach’s home.

Everyone in State College, Pennsylvania knew that Jerry Sandusky had established The Second Mile charity for kids back in 1977 and was actively involved in getting school counselors to refer troubled kids to his program. The Grand Jury reports he would often go to the schools and pull out boys from class for private, unsupervised meetings.

Joe Miller, a wrestling coach testified that in 2006 he found Sandusky in an isolated workout room of the school, on the floor with a young boy in a compromising position. “Miller unexpectedly entered the room and Sandusky jumped up very quickly and explained that they had just been wrestling.”

I’m going to predict we will all be astounded at the final number of young men who come forward to say they were victimized. At this writing the number is said to be more than 20 and some may be the many foster children the Sandusky’s housed over the years.

Sandusky is now out on bail, as are Penn State officials Curley and Schultz, the latter two were charged with lying to the Grand Jury about what they knew and when they knew it.

Some might say I’ve rushed to judge Sandusky but, may I just say, there has been no rush. Instead, there has been a years long campaign of foot dragging and cover up.

Shame on all those grownups who knew or who suspected what was happening and thought their football program was more important.

If Jerry Sandusky has an ounce of compassion he will repeat what he told that mother back in 1998. He’ll say he’s sorry and ask for forgiveness and spare everyone the torture of a trial.

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Are Men Really Pigs or Does It Just Seem That Way?

by Katherine Scardino

I have consciously made a sincere effort to ignore all the media attention to the latest in a long line of powerful men acting like whore dogs. I thought this subject may be improper for Women in Crime, but then we had another news flash about the French presidential hopeful, Dominique Strauss-Kahn actually getting arrested and accused of raping a maid in his glitzy hotel room in New York. This accusation caused a buzz in the United States as well as all over the world.

The French people got angry at us because our system allows the accused to do the famous “perp walk.” The French believe that doing the “head down, handcuffed” walk into the courtroom creates a sense of guilt in the minds of people who watch it. In this case, most of the citizens of planet Earth saw the haggard, unshaven, unkempt man in an expensive business suit walk handcuffed and led by several police officers. The New York City mayor made a comment, like “don’t do the crime and you won’t have to do the walk” or something to that effect - which just reassured the French that the American system of justice is screwed up. But, why would he risk losing his marriage, political career and friendships over one impulsive urge?

Now Mr. Strauss-Kahn is in serious trouble. But, his trouble is more seriously psychological and mental than the other men we have read and heard about in the media. Take John Edwards, for example. What a true pig. While he was running for the vice-presidency, he was having an affair - and at the same time his wife of several decades was dying of breast cancer. Oh, and then to top this off, as if that was not bad enough, we learned that he had fathered a child by his mistress while married to his dying wife. Prior to the “honorable” Mr. Edwards, we heard all about Newt Gingrich having not one, but two affairs in two different marriages. One affair was going on at the same time he was standing on the floor in Congress berating Bill Clinton for getting it on with Monica Lewinsky, an aide in the White House. At least Eliot Spitzer just had flings with prostitutes--nothing serious there--while married to his very elegant, rich wife. The one I really liked was the governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, who disappeared from his political staff, and I suppose his wife, for several days. He told everyone he was going to hike the Appalachian Trail, but he was really enjoying the sun in South America with his latest squeeze. For heaven’s sake, Mark! At least come up with an excuse that sounds better than that.

And, last but certainly not least, here comes the Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger. We learned this week that not only was he having an affair in his home with a household staff member (at least she is female...) but that he had fathered a son, now 14 years old, by this woman. And, this is the same politico who twice vetoed marriage equality in California, while lying to his wife and family. It is always insulting to be the wife of a man who cannot seem to keep his pants zipped, but it is the pinnacle of insulting to learn that he had sex with the mistress in the marital home. A couple of divorce attorneys in California will probably send their children to a ritzy college with their fees in this case.

So, what is going on here? Well, I did some reading on why men cheat and frankly, got a bit gaggy! There are all sorts of excuses--the one I like the best is that men in olden times believed they had to “spread their seed” to promulgate our planet. Seriously? It is not like our men have to pick up their clubs every morning and go out and hunt for our dinner, right?  Some people think that monogamy is not part of our species, and that we are in fact a polygamous species. Doesn’t millions of years of morals, changing cultures, education, or evolution count for anything? Sorry, but that is an excuse that is unacceptable. We are living in a now era. I want something, so I can have it - now. 

I would think that it has got to be difficult to really produce statistics on who does all this cheating, because if I fell in that category, I would just lie. But, it appears that men, and, yes, some women, are more susceptible to cheating when they make money and have power. Why? Because men who are powerful are narcissistic and believe that the world revolves around them and any bad conduct can be ignored and forgiven. The “I can get away with anything” syndrome--isn’t that true? They are self-confident, demanding, and if they see something they want--for example, a woman they can go after (in the case of Strauss-Kahn, forcefully and illegally, perhaps).

The urge to stray from spouses or partners is not insurmountable, guys. Just because you have a penis does not mean you get to use it every time you want to. There is such a thing as self-control. As a woman who has gone through a few men in my lifetime, I appreciate the urge to have sex. But, it would appear that women have more control--or maybe ethics--than men. Women really do believe that they are supposed to remain true to their spouses. It looks to me like men think they should keep their belts tightened and zippers zipped only when they want to, not when the urge is overwhelming. When is the need to have sex overwhelming to the point of ruining marriages and hurting other people? Is it only when you are powerful and in control of the lives of many people? Obviously, that is not always the case, but statistically, that appears to be the way it is with people in these situations.

Political men have an even tougher time. They get voted in to office by people who like them for one reason or another. This leads to narcissism to the nth degree. Look at John F. Kennedy. He was young and handsome, with a beautiful, educated, cultured wife. Was he less of a president because he cheated on Jackie? He actually cheated on her in the White House with the girlfriend of a mob boss from Florida. How much worse can it get? But he was not banned from society nor was he ousted from office. When he was assassinated, the world mourned his death. The media protected him during that era. Not so today. With the Internet, it is difficult to keep a secret. What I cannot figure out is why Schwarzenegger made public a secret that he had obviously successfully kept from the general public for many years. I am sure we will hear more soon.

There is an answer to why men cheat, but it is not one we like. The answer lies in our backgrounds, temperament, psychological makeup, education, finances, and whether he can place his family values over his need to be satisfied “now.” Stay tuned. I’m sure there’s more!

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Rape and the U.S. Congress

by Gina Simmons, Ph.D.

Angela, age 15, loved to dance hip-hop with her girlfriends. She earned good grades in school and got along well with her parents and her brothers. On a Saturday night, she left to spend the night at her girlfriend's house. Angela and her friend heard about another party, with boys, a few blocks away. The girls sneaked out of the house and went to the boy's party. One cute boy gave her a drink. She doesn't remember much more about that evening except waking up in a large closet, naked from the waist down, with blood running down her legs. She told me she hurt "down there," and her legs were covered with bruises.

Angela dressed, found her friend and left the party. They sneaked back to her friend's house and, after talking for hours, they fell asleep. The girls agreed to not talk about what happened. They didn't want to get into any trouble with their parents. Angela's parents might keep her away from her friend's house. It would prove terribly embarrassing to talk about the incident, and perhaps nothing bad really happened.

After a few weeks of vomiting, missing school and feeling weak, Angela's mother took her to the doctor. After a few tests, they heard the staggering news: Angela was pregnant. The family sought my help shortly after the pregnancy diagnosis. Angela had tried to convince herself that nothing had happened to her. Perhaps she got drunk and did it to herself. The pregnancy confirmed that she was a victim of rape. Angela, who had never experienced any kind of sexual intimacy with the exception of an awkward kiss, now found herself pregnant at 15.

Angela was drugged and, while unconscious, raped by an unknown attacker. Rape, or sexual assault, often goes unreported. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), 60 percent of rapes are never reported to authorities. Victims often secretly struggle for the rest of their lives with the physical, mental and emotional scars. Teen girls like Angela fear the stigma of "damaged goods." Some worry that their drug and alcohol use will get them into trouble. Others opt to bury the secret to avoid burdening their families.

To understand why rape victims often never report it, read this rip-out-your-guts story, Stalking the Bogeyman, by David Holthouse. He planned the murder of his rapist because of his lifelong rage and fear. Yes, rape happens to men too (one in 33 men and one in six women). Rape damages the minds and bodies of both men and women. The difference is men don't get pregnant.

Now we come to the U.S. Congress part of our story. Representative Chris Smith, (R-N.J.) introduced HR-3, titled the "No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act." This bill currently has 173 co-sponsors. The ever-weepy House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has made passage of this bill a top priority. Since 1976, federal laws restricting the use of federal funds for abortions have included exemptions in the case of rape, incest and pregnancies that endanger the life of the woman. HR-3 originally aimed to change the language to exemptions for "forcible rape." Forcible rape (not a legal term) redefines rape as something using force rather than the more appropriate term, sexual assault, that can include rape while the victim is unconscious. They subsequently backed down after hearing an outcry from victims advocates. The writers of the bill intend to foment political division to weaken and destroy the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act is a sane and sensible law that actually solves some serious problems and helps Americans.

Women have fought long and hard for the rights of rape victims. Some survivors still experience blame, stigma, social isolation, physical abuse and public humiliation. Rape violates a woman's sense of control over her own body. Victims often feel victimized again by the court system. This bill puts another barrier between a woman and her own body.

The bill (HR-3) eliminates the incest exemption if the mother is over 18 and aims to eliminate tax deductions on private health insurance that includes abortion benefits. Currently, 87 percent of private policies include some type of abortion coverage. Sponsors of the bill hope to force private insurance companies to eliminate any coverage of abortion.

Abortion is such a painful, difficult issue with a long history. Sensitive people on both sides, pro-life and pro-choice, make reasoned arguments. I regularly donate to The Door of Hope, a safe haven for pregnant teens. These programs make it possible for abused and indigent youth to carry their babies to term in a healthy environment. These programs do more to prevent abortions than this worthless, waste-of-time law. If Rep. Smith really cared about preventing abortions and serving the people why not propose a law to increase funding for programs like The Door of Hope?

A recent poll found the top three issues of concern to Americans today are:

• Unemployment
• The economy
• Health care

A Harvard study found that medical bills are the leading cause of bankruptcy in America. Millions face unemployment, home foreclosures, unaffordable insurance and the loss of their life savings. The nation is fighting two wars, a great recession and a mushrooming deficit. Why is it the top legislative priority of this Congress to make life even more difficult for poor women?

Photos courtesy of straightpost.com and theepochtimes.com.

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Sexual Abuse in the Orthodox Jewish Community

by Robin Sax and Vicki Polin

The history of the Jewish people is filled with traumatic experiences stemming from anti-Semitism. In the Jewish community, especially in the ultra-Orthodox world, there has always been a general fear of airing dirty laundry.

In the past, going public with community problems might increase the likelihood of another pogrom. This is one of many reasons that Jewish survivors of sexual abuse have kept silent. Many fear that if the gentile (non-Jewish) world finds out that sex crimes occur statistically at the same rate as in any other community, it would threaten the cultural perception of the wholesomeness of the Orthodox Jewish family. The reality is that in all cultures, one out of every four children will be sexually abused by their 18th birthdays, and Jewish adults are assaulted at the same rate as in any other ethnic group.

Orthodox Jews account for approximately 10 percent of all Jews nationwide, and not surprisingly, a far greater percentage live the metropolitan New York area. According to New York's Jewish Federation (UJA), it is estimated that 36 percent of the more than 520,000 Jews living in Brooklyn are part of the Orthodox community. That means, statistically speaking, 130,000 would be survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Given these facts, it is shocking to learn that only recently have cases of sexual abuse within these communities started being prosecuted in criminal courts.

To understand the dynamics of sex crimes in the Orthodox world, it helps to know how the community dealt with sexual-abuse allegations in the past. While this list isn’t exhaustive, it certainly offers some perspective.

1960s: Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach was like a rock star, known for his dynamic singing and song-writing, which lured unaffiliated Jews back into the fold. But secretly he was a monstrous figure who sexually terrorized young women and teenage girls. It wasn't until 1998, when Lilith Magazine dug into this case, that there was any awareness Carlebach's actions might have been considered sex crimes.

Just as in many cases in the secular world at the time, the rumors were brushed aside and many of our rabbis would say things such as "boys will be boys" or "he's an artist, what would you expect?"

1970's: Joyce and Eugene Abrams were convicted on charges of incest and running a child pornography ring out of their Long Island, New York, home. Still, most believed such crimes were extremely uncommon in the Jewish community, let alone the Orthodox world.

1982: Dr. Eugene Aronin molested children at the Magnolia Middle School in Maryland, where he worked as a counselor. He then moved on to Texas, where he sexually abused more children. In 1984, Dr. Aronin's sentence was modified, allowing him to move to Illinois. In 1991, he allegedly molested another child. while teaching at a University. In Chicago, rumors about his past convictions spread through the Orthodox community. Aronin felt he had no choice but to flee to the northwest suburbs. To this day, this convicted sex offender teaches at the university level and has been known to seek work tutoring students, with the backing of some rabbis.

1984: Rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz's case first broke in the New York Times. Besides carrying the alleged title of “rabbi,” he also promoted himself as a psychologist. He had strong ties with Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox mental health center -- Ohel Children's and Family Services. Like other Orthodox offenders in the past, Aronin avoided prosecution by escaping to Israel, which has no extradition treaty with the United States, and spared his family, friends and community embarrassing media attention.

We can't forget to mention the case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks, who fled Canada for Brooklyn after the suicide of Daniel Levin, one of his alleged victims. The Canadian Broadcast Company produced "Unorthodox Conduct," a documentary about this case. Bryks has never been tried on charges in Canada. Nor have adult women who alleged sexual abuse felt safe enough to file criminal charges against him.

Another strange case is that of Rabbi Alan Horowitz, MD, a convicted sex offender. As part of his probation agreement, Horowitz was allowed to move to New York to study Torah at Ohr Somayach. The agreement ordered that he live on campus, even though the yeshiva also housed young men, including teenage boys. It is believed that while attending Ohr Somaych he was ordained an Orthodox rabbi, yet a few years ago this rumor was disputed once Horowitz made it to the FBI's most-wanted list. As a psychiatrist, Horowitz specialized in working with adolescents. His resume also includes volunteering as a Boy Scout leader and writing for NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) publications. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, and received his Ph.D. and medical degree from Duke University.

In 2000, the case of Rabbi Baruch Lanner broke in the more modern Orthodox community. This landmark case, which was international news, led to the formation of organizations like The Awareness Center. Without Lanner's 2002 conviction, none of the cases heard more recently would have ever been brought out in the open.

Though many ultra-Orthodox rabbis and leaders are still in denial, some have stepped up to familiarize themselves with past cases and make changes for the future. They are starting to see how cases were mishandled. Slowly more of these rabbis are deciding rabbinic approval isn't necessary to make a police report (a huge victory). Meanwhile, Orthodox Jews are realizing that Jewish law requires all community members to report such crimes.

The national media have avidly followed cases of sexual abuse by clergy in other religious communities. In recent years the Roman Catholic Church has come under fire for transferring predatory clergy from one parish to another without telling parents or reporting the crimes to police. Catholic dioceses have had to pay millions of dollars to abuse survivors. Members of a polygamous offshoot of the Mormon Church were recently charged with ignoring the systematic sexual assault of children in their care. Authorities removed children from the Arkansas compound of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries amid allegations of beatings and sexual abuse.

But we have rarely heard about sexual abuses committed in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. The only real data was compiled in Israel in the Mikvah study.

Roman Catholic, Amish, Eastern Orthodox, Jehovah's Witness and Mormon groups all have been accused of denying that sexual abuse occurs within their communities. Similarly, Orthodox Jewish leaders deny altogether or claim they didn't know rabbis have been sexually assaulting women and children. It took decades for the Roman Catholic Church to even admit that such crimes were occurring in its parishes.

Vicki Polin founded The Awareness Center, based in Baltimore, about 10 years ago. It gathered just about everything known about sex crimes and put it into a Jewish context, hoping to break through the denial. Though the information reached many insulated communities around the globe, denial and resistance to education and change appears to be growing into a holy war of sorts.The key players in many communities are establishing pseudo vaads (rabbinical councils serving as religious courts) and organizations to deal with sex-crime issues. But instead of working with secular law enforcement officials, they are just using these vaads and other programs as a cover to do the same old thing.

How long will it take in the Orthodox Jewish community? Most yeshivas, schools that train primarily Orthodox Rabbis, have refused to cover the area of sexual abuse -- supposedly for reasons of modesty. Until recently, sex abuse claims were handled quietly and secretly by local Orthodox rabbis, rarely going as far as a beit din (rabbinical court), let alone child protective service hotlines or local police.

Some rabbis active in Orthodox politics publicly support taking charges to police, yet when cases come across their desks privately, they encourage their congregants not go to the civil authorities. The concern often is that the offenders will not be treated fairly in secular courts and will be targets of anti-Semites in the prison system. In addition, the offender's family will suffer financially while the offender is incarcerated.

New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind has been publicly calling for change in the status quo. But instead of working with established rape crisis centers, he's trying to keep help for sex-crime victims within the Orthodox community, overseen by rabbis.

If someone's home is on fire, they don't need a rabbi's permission to call 911; if someone is ill, they can call an ambulance on their own. But if someone suspects a child is being abused or neglected, they have no guarantee within the Orthodox community that their civil rights as U.S. citizens will be recognized or protected.

New York's Orthodox religious organizations still aren't complying with mandated reporting for sexual assault. The families are still going to the beit din and letting rabbis handle the cases internally. Why is mandatory reporting a good thing for the community? It allows people to report anonymously and begin an investigation that will determine whether abuse has occurred. It allows use of best practices in child sexual assault reporting (for example: SANE teams, forensic interviewers, video recording). Reporting solely to the beit din does the victim little good. There is absolutely no substitute for a police report.

Back in 2007, Hikind said he had collected more than 1,000 complaints and the names of over 60 accused sexual predators. But he still hasn't released these names. This is truly unbelievable. Six Orthodox Jews, former yeshiva students, hired attorney Michael G. Dowd, a leading advocate against sexual abuses in religious communities. Dowd filed a lawsuit claiming sexual abuse by a teacher in Borough Park, Brooklyn. He served Assemblyman Hikind with a subpoena in November 2008 demanding that he surrender the files he keeps under wraps. Ironically, by keeping these disclosures secret, Hikind seems to agree with the Orthodox party line that abuses can be handled internally.

When Hikind's radio program went on the air in 2007 discussing the taboo subject, i.e. child molestation among members of the insular world of Orthodox Jews, it didn't get much attention nationally. Now that Hikind has brought the issue to light, it is his responsibility to follow through. And it is our responsibility to make sure we hold him -- and the community --accountable. Do your part!

Comment on this blog to start the discussion and write to Assemblyman Hikind: 1310 48th St., Brooklyn, NY 11219, call 718-853-9616, or visit Hikind's website.

Vicki Polin, MA, LCPC, is the founder and director of The Awareness Center, which is the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault. She has over 25 years experience empowering both adult and child survivors of sex crimes.Vicki was the author of the 1997 Chicagoland Area Sexual Abuse Resource Guide and has authored numerous articles.She has also provided educational and experiential workshops across the United States.

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Keep Him in Prison

by Kathryn Casey

I don't go to my P.O. Box as often as I should. I finally made it over there this past weekend, and to my dismay I discovered a letter from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice dated March 9. The subject: James Edward Bergstrom, the rapist in my book Evil Beside Her. The bad news: Bergstrom is up for parole.

Although the jury handed down four 99-year sentences, it shouldn't have been a shocker. Bergstrom was eligible a couple of years ago. At that time, I went on Montel and did a bunch of radio interviews, asking people to write letters protesting his release. I don't usually do this with the folks I write about. Once they've served their time, if the parole board decides to let them out, I don't try to keep them in. Bergstrom is an exception.

Why? Well, let me tell you something about him. He started out as a teenager, molesting a little girl. As an adult, he was a peeping Tom, skulking around windows, looking in on women, hoping to see them undress. From there, Bergstrom began breaking and entering, figuring out how to get into the houses. When he attacked his first intended victim and she fought back, he ran away.

Still, Bergstrom was determined. Stung by his failure, he began planning, thinking, watching, deciding the best way to subdue a victim, how to keep from getting caught. When he couldn't accomplish his goal by sheer physical force and intimidation, James Bergstrom began carrying a knife, and then a gun.

Once he had a weapon, he was in control. He tied his victims up, sometimes for hours, while he stayed in their homes, raping them. He psychologically tormented them, talking like they were friends, like they were willingly with him. It was demented, and he was obsessed.

Day and night, all waking hours, James Bergstrom fantasized about stalking and raping women. Over a period of two years in Houston, he has admitted attacking 35 women and raping five. He told me that they wanted him as much as he wanted them, insisting some of them enjoyed it. He threatened them with guns and knives, and told his last victim he'd kill her if she fought back.

The bottom line is that James Bergstrom is a very, very sick man, and he belongs in prison, forever. I have no doubt that he will attack more women, claim more victims, if he's ever released.

So I'm asking all of you, no matter where you live, to help me keep James Bergstrom in prison, where he belongs. It's easy. It doesn't matter where in the world you live. It's as easy as sending an e-mail.

Include this information:

His name: James Edward Bergstrom

His state ID: 04408281

TDCJ ID: 00659297

E-mail, fax or mail your protest letters to:

TDCJ – Victim Services Division

8712 Shoal Creek Blvd, Ste 265

Austin, Texas 78757

Email: victim.svc@tdcj.state.tx.us

FAX: 512-452-0825

You don't need to list your address, only your name. TDCJ assures me that the inmates don't see the protest letters and all names are kept confidential. Simply detail in the e-mail why you want James Bergstrom kept behind bars: because he's a psychopath obsessed with victimizing women. Spell it out: If he's released, more women will suffer. He threatened to kill his final victim, a 16-year-old high school student. There's absolutely no reason to believe he won't carry out his threats if he's ever allowed out on parole.

Take a few minutes, send TDCJ an e-mail. You may be saving another woman's life.

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Victim or Cold-Blooded Killer?

by Diane Fanning

Under suspicion of first-degree murder, 15-year-old Jordan was arrested on July 13, 2009, by Colorado Springs Police. The lead detective, Lieutenant David Whitlock, described her as "a cold-blooded killer."

More than six months later, she remains in the custody of the state; her mother's rights as a parent have been terminated.  No charges have been filed yet against Jordan because prosecutors do not know what to do with her, even though she admitted to shooting Jon Hazard (below, right) to death.

Although I normally stand with murder victims, this case may be an exception.  Hazard is not a very sympathetic figure.  His wife didn't realize he had an obsession with underage porn until his fascination with their teenage babysitter brought it all out in the open.  She divorced him in 2001.

Hazard's sons lived with their mother in Texas, but traveled to Colorado to visit their dad.  He lived next door to Jordan and her mother.  During the summer of 2006, 11-year-old Jordan became friends with Hazard's 10- and 13-year-old boys.

At one point, when Jordan was in Hazard's home, he surreptitiously videotaped her making out with a boy her age.  He used that tape as blackmail.  He said he'd show it to her mother unless Jordan used her cell phone to take nude photos of herself and send them to him.  Soon pictures of this naked child weren't enough to satisfy Hazard's lust.

He used the images to pressure Jordan to meet him at the Hampton Inn, where he plied her with booze until she passed out.  When she woke up, he was fondling her.  She leaped out of bed and took refuge in the bathroom for the rest of the night.  It wasn't the last time they met in a hotel, though.  On later occasions, he used pills to ensure he got what he wanted.  When Jordan went to Grand Junction with Jon Hazard in July 2008, her mother found out and called the police.

In December of that year, Hazard was arrested on two counts of sexual assault with a pattern of abuse, sexual assault on a child from a person in a position of trust, and contributing to delinquency of a minor.  A forensic analysis of his computer uncovered more than 200 images and videos of Jordan, dating back to when she was 13 years old.

But there was even more evidence stored on his computer.  Analysts uncovered a video of Hazard administering pills to Jordan, a 23-page confession complete with a time-line, and inappropriate images of other underage girls.

You'd think that with all the digital evidence to back up Jordan's story of abuse, police should have confiscated Hazard's hand guns when he was released on bail awaiting trial.  But they didn't. 

According to a source close to the case, when Hazard went to Palmer Park on the evening of May 31, he took two of his guns with him.  Was it mere happenstance that those weapons were in his car when he went to meet the young girl?  Or did he intend to use them to intimidate Jordan?  Or did he bring the weapons because he planned to take his victim's life to prevent her from testifying against him at his trial on June 9?

Whatever his intentions, Hazard died that night from multiple gunshot wounds.  His body was found near the picnic area in the park.

If he threatened Jordan that night, and she managed to get the gun away and turn it on her attacker, it is clearly self-defense.  But even in the worst-case scenario for Jordan -- if she took the gun from the car and shot Hazard dead without immediate provocation -- is a first-degree murder charge appropriate?

Opinions run the gamut.  On one side: Hazard deserved it, let the girl go.  On the other: victims can't take the law into their own hands; she took a life, her own was forfeit.  I think truth and justice lies somewhere in between those two extremes.

If Jordan saw her situation as one of perpetual victimization, a nightmare with no end, isn't it understandable that she would take action to end it?

The state finally moved her to a treatment facility last week.  But since she's being held on suspicion of first-degree murder, is she really there for psychological help for her past trauma? Or is the state using that methodology to build a first-degree murder case against her?

Hazard stole this child's dignity and destroyed her childhood. Now the state is holding the threat of lifetime incarceration over her head. Prosecutors need to file charges against this girl or set her free. The limbo Jordan is living in now adds to the trauma of her short and difficult life and prevents her from getting the help she needs to rebuild her life and heal her soul.

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