I must warn you in the strongest possible terms, this video is extremely disturbing, especially if you’re an animal lover. DO NOT let your children see this! I could only watch about 10 seconds of it before I totally fell apart.

I found some additional information about this video. In addition to Marija Volarevic’, there were two other perpetrators involved in the making of this ‘eye candy’, which was actually posted on YouTube for a time until it was pulled for obvious reasons.

Ivo Skica Volarevic is Marija’s brother and the cameraman, and and fellow named Antonija Miskic was also involved in some capacity – probably immoral support. All three of these losers are from some podunk town in Croatia.

Obviously, this terrible act of cruelty was premeditated, and done with the intent of posting the video on YouTube. Everyone wants to be famous, and this was Larry, Darryl and Darryl’s shot at their 15 minutes.

So now we know. The price of fame is the lives of 6 puppies.

UPDATED INFORMATION

OK, here’s all the information I could gather on our girl here. Well, actually, I found it all on a website that calls itself ADDICTED (that’s right, all caps). Her full name is Marija Lpp Volarevic, and she’s 16-years-old. She is 5ft 6in to 5ft 8in tall and lives in a little Croatian town called Bugojno, which looks a bit like bunghole, which is another word for asshole, which is what Marija Lpp Volarevic is a walking, talking example of.

I also found this cute little picture montage of our heroine (Marija is the blond). Again, the I have to thank the owner of the website ADDICTED. She’s a 14-year-old Portuguese girl named Filipa, and I thank God for her today. After watching the 16-year-old puppy killer today, it was incredibly comforting to see a normal, well adjusted 14-year-old kid doing her best to do something about the puppy killer.

Big Thank You To My Daughter Amanda For Tipping Me Off About This Unbelievable Douchebag.

For long-time fans of PYSIH, you will recognize a wonderful vindication of sorts. Many stories on this site often attract friends, relatives and the like to come and defend their own special criminal.

When this story first broke the waves of the media, it was so un-fucking-believable that it automatically was relegated to tabloid status. And, like all stories dealing with human trash, there was an onslaught of supporters of the perp stating how she was innocent and that the victim was the real villain — You people slinging blame just don’t know all the facts!

Uh-huh.

Oh, yes. Innocent, innocent, innocent. With this case, some had the audacity in the comment sections of articles posted to liken the “poor” child-raper to Christ on the cross and His sufferings.

Well, turns out the perp came clean in a court of law and pleaded guilty as charged. Yep. Owned up to it being all HER fault. She doesn’t know why she did it, but yep, it was all on her.

Sooooooooo, it is with great pleasure that I can ask all of those denizens of denial, “How’s that working for ya now?”

Let’s get to the story, a story of incest, rape, psychological manipulation, emotional trauma and a life-sentence of being totally screwed up.

Depending on the personal belief of the reporter, you can tell by the headline how he/she really feels about the story:

Michigan Mom in Prison For Getting Intimate With Her Own Son
(no link)

Police: Michigan Mom Found Long Lost Son Online, Raped Him

Michigan Mom Aimee Louise Sword Faces Trial for Incest With Son She Gave Up for Adoption

What Made A 36-Year-Old Mother Want To Start An Incestuous Affair with Her 14 Year-Old Son?

Aimee L. Sword Sentenced To 30 Years In Prison For Having Physical Relations With Her Son

Mother Sleeps With Son She Gave Up For Adoption (no link)

If you think that perhaps you are seeing more than one news story, then it is perfectly understandable as you’d never be able to tell that it is one and the same story. In various headlines, the crime is described as: rape, sexual assault, incest, sex, affair, a summer romance, physical relations – but “Mother sleeps with son” has got to take the cake. It sounds like a police state over-reaction to a mother sleeping in the same bed with her son!

And summer romance?

Give me a break!!

Overall, the predominate tone is hushed, muted. Few papers were calling it rape or sexual assault. The headline where it states “Aimee L. Sword sentenced to 30 years in prison for having physical relations with her son” is a real work of art. From the headline, one could suspect that something happened under the banner “physical relations” and that Aimee was being unduly punished.

Papers that felt she was being treated harshly reported the upper limit of her sentence and it is only once you read the body of the article that you find out that she is sentenced to 9 to 30 years in prison, with 9 years mandatory before consideration of parole.

Furthermore, the people who raved on and on about how innocent Aimee was built their house of cards around vilifying the victim. Should we be surprised? Nah. This kind of thing goes on all the time. When the facts aren’t out there (as they were under wraps here with Aimee), then the next best thing is to spew whatever you can in terms of shit at the target – the victim – and some shit is bound to stick.

The worst of it came from her supporters – Aimee was really “forced” into having sex with the boy, don’t cha know? He laid on a guilt trip on her about her giving him up for adoption and she felt like she had to have sex with him. Well, that was one story. It actually makes it a tale of rape in reverse – the child raped Aimee.

Confused yet?

Well, Aimee’s supporters didn’t stop there. He was said to be a 17-year-old gangbanger who was in serious trouble with the law all the time. He was diagnosed bipolar, he was on the run, he was into drugs, he was … well, just short of Adolph Hitler right?

While they were busy shooting down her boy, the denizens of decorum were busy saying that the fruit of her loins was a piece of white trash. Really. That’s what it amounts to.

So how did they deal with the fact that Aimee has (sort of) confessed and pleaded guilty? Aimee swears it was just the one time that they had sex, but the boy said it was many times, and the prosecutors have the hotel records of several trysts. They don’t know the exact number, but they know it was more than once.

Back to her supporters. Well, I would like to tell you that these idiots finally came forth and apologized for demonizing said boy, but we know that ain’t the way the world works.

There appears to be a movement afoot that would, if the genders were reversed, be stomach-churning and nauseating.

It would seem that there is a plethora of incest-supporters out in internet-land. It is sad that the excuses weren’t so freely posted before, but there appears to be a “new” study that indicates Genetic Sexual Attraction as an affliction one psychologist seems to think explains this all away.

Forgive me for being old-fashioned, but there already is a term that explains a mother sleeping with her son: INCEST.

But these people would have you believe that it was something Aimee couldn’t help. This is bullshiting a bullshit theory at its best because GSA was only dreamed up to explain couples who DO NOT KNOW they are related, meet and fall in love. It was theorized that this thing can happen and that there was a psychological explanation lurking nearby.

In Aimee’s case, one must first examine the facts. She gave the child up for adoption two days after she gave birth to him. She did receive updates from the adopting family about her boy throughout his life. She was kept in contact with his progress. When she didn’t receive an update when she felt she should have after his 14th birthday in 2008, she took matters into her own hands and she used the internet to track him down, primarily through Facebook and Myspace.

Aimee found him and got to see a recent photograph of him. In her own words, at court, she said that when she saw his picture, it wasn’t a mother-son feeling she experienced: it was a girlfriend-boyfriend feeling.

All together now: EEEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!

And, knowing, as all people do that the feelings she was having were wrong, and a clear sign she needed psychotherapy, in a perfect world, she would have signed herself up for frequent appointments at the local psych ward.

But as we know, she didn’t do anything smart like that. After all, she’s a narcissist. What she saw was a perfect way to travel back in time and use the boy she got pregnant with fourteen years ago. Sort of an easy way to recapture her youth, know what I mean?

As the boy was having problems in Grand Rapids, Aimee suggested the boy come stay with her for a while. The adopted parents, feeling that maybe some time with his biological mother may help him with the terrible teens all that angst and stuff, agreed.

Remember folks, at the time, she is MARRIED and has FIVE children living in her home. She is 35 years old and she looks her little boy up in his 14TH year. Essentially, this 35-year-old woman is having the hots for a 14 year old boy. We are looking at a BIG gap. Some papers try to skew the facts and let the reader assume that the age difference ain’t so big. She was a teenager when she gave him up – nope, she was at least 21 years old. Another said she gave her son up ten years ago – nope, at least 14 years ago. But that story said she gave him up when he was 5 years old. See,, whatever Aimee’s fans want to spin, then they play fast and loose with the facts. If she had actually given him up at 5 years of age, then it would have been even worse.

The media has tried to track the ex-husband down to get his view on all this, but he hasn’t said a word. What could you say?

And dear sweet Aimee, her lawyer said that she decided to plead guilty because she didn’t want the boy to suffer the trauma of having to testify against her.

I can hear it now – she just did that so that the boy would be safe. Yes,, she isn’t really guilty of anything except loving her son too much. YUCK!!!

Oh, and her lawyer said Aimee had been sexually and physically abused in her childhood too. Hmmm. That must be why she abused her son. She just wanted him to have the same wretched fucked up psychosis for his life, too, right?

Wow. She’s mother-of-the-year material.

I guess what sticks in my craw more than anything is the blatant double-standard that seems to be going on here.

The whole focus should be on the victim; but you know it isn’t. He was vilified up one side and down the other.

To give you some idea, here’s a quote from one site(emphasis mine):

The original press article mentions that her son wasn’t ten but fifteen. Not only that, this teenager was a gangbanger. He had been repeatedly in trouble with the law. He likely used anabolic steroids. Most likely, as most criminal juveniles his age, he already had a wild sex life.

Aggressive, early matured boys at that age are at their sexual prime, and guys with a criminal record and who even threaten their parents don’t exactly take no for an answer when they try to get into a girl’s pants. So much for the “Permanent emotional damage of the little boy that so cruelly lost his virginity by a perverse incest rape” that the prosecution alleges. As far as we know, it was him who demanded the sex, not his biological mother.

She conceded partly due to guilt, partly out of fear of losing contact with her son forever and last but not least, partly because she was asked by his adoptive parents, the social workers and her son’s shrink to make an attempt to bring him to his senses – or he would face juvenile detention. She was desperate to do whatever it took to save her son from jail.

The article in question isn’t provided with a link for readers to judge for themselves, but factual truth is the least of this writer’s concern.

The teenager had just turned fourteen when his mom hooked up with him.

He wasn’t a gangbanger.

He hadn’t been repeatedly in trouble with the law, but, like most adolescent boys, had been in trouble and was getting counseling from a psychologist and his parents were spending time and money to get him help.

He didn’t use anabolic steroids – but you’d leave this article with the impression he did.

He wasn’t a criminal juvenile – but again you’d think he had a rap sheet a mile long.
And he didn’t already have a wild sex life.

It glides over specifics and gives the impression that he had a criminal record, that he had threatened his parents, that he had raped other girls.

They do state “As far as we know….” but when you first read this article, it takes a very critical eye to spot the fallacies they are fobbing off as facts.

In fact, you get the impression that the son raped the mother. Every time I read this paragraph, I can feel my blood pressure rise.

“As far as we know, it was him who demanded the sex….” Actually, no, we know it was Aimee as she testified that it was all her idea.

They end their supposition with poor Aimee giving in to her child’s demand for sex in an effort to assuage the guilt he made her feel at putting him up for adoption and in an effort to keep her emotional connection with him.

Hmm? Sounds like she’s not playing with a full deck. Any mother this easily manipulated doesn’t deserve to be in charge of raising any children, and Aimee has five more at home. So the case of the boy bullying his mother into fornication doesn’t stand any sort of scrutiny.

And when you start to look at the way in which the words are put together, you realize what kind of a hatchet job they are doing on the victim.

He didn’t want or seek her out and make contact. Aimee did that all on her own. She testified in a court of law to this and she was the one who asked the adopted parents if she could have him live with her for a while.

The thing people have lost sight of is the young boy who is now royally screwed up. He wasn’t some drug-using sex-mad aggressive gangbanger intent on raping all females in his path, up to and including his biological mother.

Who’s the victim here?

You’d honestly swear it was Aimee. The article continues:

Is Aimee Louise Sword A Pedophile?

Look at her. Is this a pedophile predator? She seems to have no problem getting adult male attention, and clearly enjoys it. A pity we have no picture of her “raped” son, because we strongly suspect that he looks similar in maturity to this tattoo artist. Poor child. His tender soul will never recover from banging this MILF he has no emotional bond with and wouldn’t even recognize as his biological mother. When a man violently rapes an underage girl, it is a despicable crime. When an adolescent horny young man manipulates a woman he has no relationship with into sex, it is worse for that woman than for him, if that woman is his mother and is desperately trying to establish a rapport with him. He certainly isn’t being raped in the ethical, moral sense. We sometimes forget that the Law is there to fairly enforce the morals of society, not to be politically correct. The Law should concern themselves with the spirit of the law, not blindly follow its letter. However, extremist feminism and political correctness make us treat “statutory rape” cases equal, regardless of which gender is the “rapist”, what the relationship was between the parties and how much emotional or physical damage was inflicted. This is an abomination. There were other cases where a gang of youths coerced a not so bright teacher into gang-banging them, and hey presto, the woman gets plastered all over the Internet as one of the worst serial rapists in history – and she’ll spend her prime years in jail.

I particularly like the inference that there is a “look” that one can identify for pedophile predators. Again, the rape isn’t about sexual attraction – it’s about power. The pseudo-pity is more salt on the wound. It mocks whatever feelings the boy may have, and it certainly paints him as active participant and chief villain in his own assault.

Did he know she was his mother? Yes, eventually.

Did he know prior to their first encounter? Well, no. You see, Aimee got around to telling him at their first rendezvous. And since the Aimee-supporters engage in speculation, I can too. Can’t you just hear her telling the boy, “We’re special, you and I. We have a bond no one can understand. We are connected on a different plane of existence. The rules don’t apply to you and I.”

Of course, I can’t do Aimee justice as I don’t really know what yarn to spin to convince a child I had given birth to that it was okay I tracked him down just to have sex with him.

And there is the blatant stereotype here of the wronged woman – “experts|” have been crawling out of caves to spew forth some drivel about “genetic sexual attraction” as some sort of explanation for Aimee’s actions. GSA is seen as a reason for people having attractions for their cousins or relatives they never knew about.

This is bogus and I call it junk science.

To begin with, IF Genetic Sexual Attraction exists, then it should at least follow the theory’s premise. The premise? That two individuals, who do not know that they are related, somehow meet and find an irresistible attraction to one another.

I’ll reiterate this sticking point: the two individuals do not know they are related.

Hmmm. Doesn’t really cover Aimee’s case, now does it?

But you’d be nauseated to read in comment after comment the apologists foisting this tepidly acknowledged psychological babble as the “explanation”.

In Aimee’s case, she knew who the boy was and when she didn’t get her update on her 14 year old, then she tracked him down.

My theory? Aimee is one of those women that never want to grow up. She is a narcissist who thinks everything she does is clever and cute. Every man she’s been with she has managed to have a child with. Starting with this boy.

When she saw her boy, entering the teen years, he must have resembled the original man that knocked her up and left her flat.

And why shouldn’t she go and have a piece of time travel and recapture her youthful passionate relationship with the end result of the original fling?

How often have we read stories about fathers, particularly lately, deciding to keep their daughters captive and impregnate them year after year until they escape? The reason being, I made you, you’re mine to do with as I please.

I don’t cut any slack if the perp happens to be a mother doing essentially the same mind-fuck.

And she is.

Do you know how difficult it is for males to even admit someone is sexually abusing them? There are studies on male victims of sexual abuse, but the studies are fraught with problems as it is under-reported especially for boys. There is a cultural bias that males cannot be victims. To be a victim is to admit that one is less than a “true” male; aggressive, assertive, confident, knowledgeable, in charge and in control.

So aside from having to surmount this hurdle, what if the boy in question responds sexually to the abuse? The victim would somehow feel responsible for the abuse – why else would his body have reacted?

It is a vicious set of cultural and psychological factors that almost condemn male victims to suffer in silence. Both girls and boys fear having the abuse made public, but boys fear it for more reasons: loss of freedom and independence, the perception of others of the male as a “helpless” victim, the threat of reprisals, negative judgment, being held responsible for the abuse occurring in the first place.

Worse consequences are for those males who may have a homosexual orientation and thus end up believing that they somehow “attracted” male abusers, that it is somehow their fault. Public revelation would then carry the double threat of exposure to the abuse and to the boy’s orientation. There is less sympathy held for male victims of sexual abuse, and even less for homosexual victims.

In Aimee’s abuse, it is thoroughly reprehensible. The “Mrs. Robinson” scenario of an older woman seducing and “initiating” a young male into sexual activities is seen as some sort of cultural rite-of-passage, and the fact that many sites on the internet have referred to her as a MILF (Mothers I’d Like to F*ck), the whole thing is taken as a joke.

But would it be so funny if the genders were reversed? Would people be so quick to crack jokes if this were a story about a 35-year-old father looking up his 14-year-old daughter? She is having troubles at school and coping with adolescence; she’s seeing a psychologist and a school counselor. She’s into arguing with her adoptive parents and is moody and sulky – in other words, a typical teenager.

Along comes her father, to whom the adopted parents have kept in touch with over the years and have sent him updates as to her life: how she’s done in school, the sports she’s good at, her likes and dislikes. They have even mentioned the help she’s been getting for her teen troubles. The father suggests taking her to his house with his family (spouse and five other children) to see if a visit would break her routine and maybe help her keep her mind off her troubles or work things out?

The couple is happy that the father is taking an interest and agrees wholeheartedly. I mean, after all, she’d be going to a house where the wife and children are, so it would be safe. And, the man is her father, right?

Now, the father takes the daughter to a motel and they end up in bed together. It doesn’t happen just once, but many times. It happens at the house where the father and his wife live. It happens at several other motels.

The girl returns home after a period of months, but she’s not any better. In fact, she is now downright secretive. The discussions are few and far between. Conversations are non-existent and responses are monosyllabic.

Do you see the difference? I can, and I’m just writing it down. The whole idea that it is somehow less of a crime against a young, confused and vulnerable boy is just wrong and I don’t believe that shame and the trauma of abuse has a color or a gender.

In fact, I think what Aimee’s done is even worse as the boy isn’t going to get any sympathy as her crime is seen as “not that bad” and I’ve seen comments in internet sites about this case stating things like, “You can’t rape the willing.”

Really?

I think Aimee and her ilk all deserve a special place in hell. Their justifications and rationalizations are just as bad as those used when girls are raped by their fathers.

And the excuse that Aimee used? I mean, you know that an excuse had to be coming because no one accepts responsibility for anything anymore.

Her excuse? She was sexually and physically abused when she was young.

You know what? Big deal. Suck it up and move on. Many people were, but they chose not to ever abuse anyone in their life time. It’s called making a choice and living to a code of moral standards.

Aimee should try it some time.

She does have at least nine long years to think things over.

Hancock had pleaded no contest last month to one count of second degree murder in the beating death of 15-month old Amber Russell, the daughter of this then-girlfriend, Iyesha Lightcsy. Lightscsy also was charged with murder and later pleaded guilty to child endangerment. She was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Hancock was also charged with murder in the beating death in San Bernardino of Talonia Johnson-Boutee, who was also 15 months old when she died Jan. 2, 2007, after a New Year’s Eve 2006 assault.

Sad to report that the murder charges of little Talonia were dismissed as part of the plea agreement in the murder case of little Amber. District Attorney Vicki Hightower, who was to prosecute the case, stated that Hancock will not be eligible for parole until he’s served the full 15 years in prison and will remain on parole for life.

MAN SENTENCED IN TODDLER BEATING DEATH
excerpts of a story by Imran Ghori – The Riverside (CA) Press-Enterprise

Patricia Darby often wonders what it would have been like to watch her granddaughter, Amber Russell, grow up.

Amber died at 15 months old almost six years ago. Authorities found her beaten and strangled in a Colton apartment in August 2004. She was covered with bruises, had cuts on her throat and a cigarette burn on her chest, police said at the time.

On Monday, Ivan Hancock, 48, of San Bernardino, was sentenced in a Fontana courtroom to 15 years to life in prison for the killing as part of a plea deal he agreed to last month. He pleaded no contest to one count of second-degree murder in the death of Amber, the daughter of his then-girlfriend, Iyesha Lightcsy.

Lightcsy also was charged with murder and later pleaded guilty to child endangerment. She was sentenced last year to seven years and four months in prison.

Two years after Amber’s death, Hancock — who had not yet been charged — was implicated in the beating death of another toddler.

He was charged with murder in the killing in San Bernardino of Talonia Johnson-Boutee, who also was 15 months old when she died Jan. 2, 2007, after a New Year’s Eve 2006 assault. That charge was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Talonia’s mother, Talonia Henderson, 38, who was Hancock’s girlfriend at the time of her daughter’s killing, pleaded guilty last month to child abuse and to infliction of great bodily injury. She is scheduled to be sentenced Friday and faces 12 years in prison.

Authorities suspected Hancock and Lightcsy in Amber’s killing but could not obtain charges initially due to what they described as lack of cooperation from witnesses.

Following Talonia’s death, prosecutors reopened the case and filed charges in both cases in November 2008.

Darby of San Bernardino, who is Lightcsy’s mother, broke down in tears as she attempted to read a statement before Hancock’s sentencing, describing the pain the family has suffered.

“Amber was my little sweet baby,” she said

Darby said later Hancock’s conviction helps a little.

“I needed that closure,” she said. “I just wish he could have gotten more time. I just don’t want anybody to go through what I went through.”

Angela Stephens, Darby’s sister and Amber’s great-aunt, said Hancock should have gotten a harsher sentence.

“Fifteen years to life, that seems too lightweight to me,” she said. “(Amber) didn’t even get to spend 15 years on Earth.”

Deputy District Attorney Vicki Hightower, who was responsible for reopening the case, called the outcome a “long time coming.”

Hancock will not be eligible for parole until he’s served a full 15 years in prison and will remain on parole for life, she said

“I think ultimately it gives justice to both of the victims,” Hightower said.

Hancock’s attorney, Julian Ducre, said he had no comment on behalf of his client.

Editor’s Notes: Perhaps one of you fine people can explain to me how dropping murder charges against Ivan Hancock for beating Talonia Johnson-Boutee to death in anyways gave justice to this little victim.

Lets just go over the injuries Talonia suffered. The 15-month-old toddler had extreme swelling to her brain, bruising of her neck and face, and several cuts on her body. She was strangled to death, but also showed signs of being severely abused over a period of weeks.

Now, because of a plea deal, Ivan Hancock will never go to trial for the horrible things he did to her. He will never pay for ending her life in the cruelest of ways, despite several witnesses who saw him do many of the things he is accuse of doing.

I’m pleased that Baby Talonia’s waste of skin mother, Talonia Henderson, pled guilty to child abuse and infliction of great bodily injury, and is awaiting sentencing. She faces up to 32 years in the California state prison of your choice.

I’m also glad that Iyesha Lightcsy, the incubator and so-called mother of Amber Russell is serving a eight year sentence for child endangerment connected with baby Amber’s death.

I guess the best we can hope for is that Ivan Hancock never receives parole – 15 years just isn’t enough for the life of an innocent baby, much less two of them. It’s disgraceful that this walking, talking puss bag gets to breath the same air as all of us, while Amber Russell’s and Talonia Johnson-Boutee’s tiny bodies decompose in the cold, wet ground.

I don’t know what can be done about this, except to offer my condolences to the families. For all my anger and hurt, nothing I feel can compare to what they have been, and still are, going through. I can wish the best for them, and hope someday they will be able to move on with their lives.

It’s the beginning of the 21st century. You’re a member of an incredibly successful musical group. You and your bandmates have paid your dues, working gigs at run down bars and 3rd rate venues for little or no pay, working your way up the ladder of fame.

Your big break comes in the form of an American Idol type television talent show for singing groups. All that hard work, all those hours and hours of practicing and rehearsing finally pay off, and you and the band are declared the winners.

Now, instead of gigging at dive bars that hold 50 or 100 people, you’re performing in twenty-thousand seat arenas to overflow crowds. The band’s first album sells nearly one million copies before it ever arrives at record shops.

You’ve finally made it.

There’s just one problem, and it’s a big one. You’ve known for many years that you are HIV positive. You were infested by a blood transfusion during surgery, through no fault of your own, but you a convinced that if it is ever revealed publically, it will mean the end of the band and your dream.

You decide to keep your condition a secret, which is harmless by itself. But what about the guys you choose to date. Whether it’s a one night stand or a long term relationship, what do you tell your partner? Do you tell the truth, and risk a vindictive lover spilling the beans in a fit of anger or jealousy, or do remain silent, but make sure you practice safe sex.

Or do you take door number three, and pretend that everything is fine and dandy, and you don’t actually have the virus, therefore, there’s no need to take precautions to ensure the safety of your partner. Now you don’t have to explain why you insist on a condom.

So what do you do?.

It really is test of character, isn’t it? Well, this is exactly the predicament that singer Nadja Benaissa, 28, one of the original members of the German girl band No Angels, found herself in. From what I can tell, No Angels is the German equivalent of Girls Aloud (whoever they are – I’m really feeling the generation gap right now).

Her solution has not only shocked people with her callous disregard for the well-being of others, but presented us all with the moral dilemma I discussed at the beginning of my story; How far would you go to protect your lifelong dream of fame and fortune?

Before I continue, it’s important to know that Nadja Benaissa has been on trial this week for knowingly infecting one of her sexual partner with HIV without informing him of her status or using proper precautions. Closing arguments were on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010, and a verdict is expected any time now.

Nadja Benaissa was addicted to crack cocaine at 14 and living on the street, but 2 years later, in 1998, she discovered she was pregnant and stopped using drugs, only to find out during a regular pregnancy blood test that she was HIV-positive. Thankfully, her now 12-year-old daughter was virus-free.

She and the other original members of the No Angels were selected during the international TV talent show Popstars in 2000, and became Germany’s most successful girl band, selling five million albums from 2000 to 2003.

When Nadja Benaissa was faced with her dilemma, she chose to remain silent. She hid her HIV status from everyone, fearing it would damage her career. She also claims that she didn’t want to stigmatize her then baby daughter – even though the child had no trace of the disease. And, of course, she didn’t want to jeopardize the band.

Even though I don’t buy Nadja’s claim that a health professional told her it was nearly impossible for her to infect another person, I think most of us can see her point – hey, it’s nobody else’s business anyways. But Nadja Benaissa wasn’t celibate during this period either – or careful.

As a matter of fact, she admits to having sex with the three men a maximum of five times between 2000 and 2004. During those five encounter she neither informed her partners of her HIV positive status nor took any precautions to protect them from becoming infected.

Unfortunately one of those partners, a 34-year-old man, discovered that he was HIV positive in 2009, when news of Nadja Benaissa’s HIV status became public, prompting him to get tested by his doctor:

“[After] a few hours he called me and said I should go to see him. It was then I knew I was positive.”

Needless to say, the man, who I’ll call Mr. Smith, was pretty unhappy that Nadja Benaissa had neglected to inform him of her little “issue”. Surprisingly though, he was not the one who ended up reporting Nadja to the police.

No, one her other two sexual partners, who had also heard through the media of Ms. Benaissa’s HIV positive status, went to police and made a complaint.

On April 11th, 2009, police arrested Nadja Benaissa on charges of causing grievous bodily harm for allegedly infecting Mr. Smith with the virus in 2004 and attempting to cause grievous bodily harm for having unprotected sex with her two other partners.

Nadja Benaissa was held in jail for 10 days, after a judge ruled there was a danger she might repeat the alleged offense, but eventually she was released on April 21st, 2009, after German and other European AIDS groups complained about her treatment.

The arrest of such a high profile person for infecting another person with the HIV virus has opened a HUGE can of worms. To me, this is a simple case; Did Nadja Benaissa have the right to protect her career by not informing her lovers that she was HIV positive? Even she doesn’t believe that, as we can plainly see by the statement she read on the stand during her trial, where she admitted to the charges and apologized to all three of her “victims”.

“I’d been told the likelihood of infecting someone or that I would develop the illness [Aids] was more or less zero. For that reason, I kept the news, even from my close group of friends, [as] I didn’t want my daughter to be stigmatized. I told the band members because I trusted them but I never made it public because I feared that it would mean the end of the band.”

“I am sorry from the bottom of my heart. No way did I want my partner to be infected.”

She gets no points from me for this pretty speech. In my book, anything you say or do after you’ve already been caught loses a major portion of its credibility. If Nadja Benaissa had made a similar statement in, say, 2008, well now that would have taken some courage.

But AIDS activists couldn’t resist the opportunity to criticize this prosecution as contributing to the stigmatization of people with HIV, and demanding that all laws that criminalize anything to do with HIV or AIDS be overturned. Many went so far as to, that’s right folks, suggest that the victim, Mr. Smith, was partly responsible for his infection.

OK, so I believe in practicing safe sex myself, but I don’t know, maybe I’m naive for expecting this, but if my partner has a disease as serious as HIV, she’d have the common fucking decency to let me know about it. Especially, ESPECIALLY if we were about to engage in unprotected sex.

So please, to all you AIDS support groups out there who are using this incident as a chance to get a little free publicity for your respective agendas, please, have some compassion for a 34-year-old man whose life has just been turned upside down through no fault of his own, and shut the fuck up.

Thank you.

To Nadja Benaissa, I have this to say. I understand that you were young, and that you literally went from rags to riches. I also understand that protecting your career must have seemed like the most important thing in the world. But lying by omission to these three men was not your only option, nor your first one. What you chose to do was beyond selfish. It was reckless, premeditated and evil.

Perhaps I’m being too hard on Nadja Benaissa. After all, she has admitted in court that her actions were irresponsible and cruel, and she has apologized directly to the man she infected, along with her other two ex-boyfriends. Maybe it’s wrong to condemn someone for actions taken 5 or 6 years ago. I’ve thought a lot about these two points.

But I keep coming back to this; Nadja Benaissa chose to have unprotected sex with three men because she was afraid that if she was exposed as HIV positive, it would endanger the popularity of her band No Angels and ruin her chances to remain rich and famous. She decided her career was more important than the health and well being of these men.

That’s what this case is about. It’s about that poor slob who is now HIV positive and will live with that for the rest of his life – as someone who lives with heart disease, I understand all to well what living with a chronic, fatal, incurable disease does to your peace of mind. While HIV is not the death sentence it used to be, there’s no doubt this man’s quality of life has taken a huge hit.

And where are the AIDS advocacy group’s support for him? Why is there no righteous indignation over the treatment he has received? Perhaps if these groups pulled their heads out of the politician’s asses long enough to take a couple of breaths of fresh air, they’d remember the PEOPLE who are suffering out here with HIV and full-blown AIDS.

Anyway, life goes on. The prosecution in Nadja Benaissa’s trial for inflicting grievous bodily harm has just stated in their closing argument that they are not asking the court for jail time for the singer, just two years probation. My idea about Nadja’s actions in court being part of a well orchestrated plan is sounding better and better.

UPDATE: August 27th, 2010

Nadja Benaissa was found guilty as charged today, as a panel of three judges and two laypersons convicted her of one count of causing grievous bodily harm and four counts of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm. In addition to serving a two-year suspended sentence, Ms. Benaissa was ordered to perform 300 hours of community service.

A former Camp Lejeune Marine corporal who killed a pregnant colleague to save his military career will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Cesar Armando Laurean, 23, was found guilty by a Wayne County jury in the 2007 bludgeoning death of 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach. The jury deliberated for less than three hours before reaching its verdict based on testimony from 49 witnesses over a two-week period.

With his mother crying in the background, Laurean was shackled by bailiffs and led away after sentencing by N.C. Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith.

“I am extremely satisfied the jury made the right decision in this case,” said District Attorney Dewey Hudson, who called Laurean during closing arguments “a coward who hit a pregnant woman in the back of the head with a crowbar.”

Chief Assistant District Attorney Ernie Lee said Mary Lauterbach lived a parent’s worst nightmare for 28 days beginning Dec. 14, 2007, when she last spoke to her daughter.

“On Jan. 11, 2008, Mary Lauterbach’s nightmare became a reality when her daughter’s body was found buried in the defendant’s backyard,” he said.

Mary Lauterbach said after the trial that she intended to continue to push for sexual assault reporting reforms in the military.

“Maria will always be my hero,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes.

She thanked Onslow County Sheriff’s Sgt. T.J. Cavanagh.

“He was the first person I spoke to here that knew something was wrong,” she said.

During a two-week trial, prosecutors painted Cesar Laurean as a Camp Lejeune Marine corporal willing to kill a pregnant colleague to silence their adulterous affair while the defense countered that he was a good Marine caught in the vindictive trap of a female subordinate he had reprimanded.

Laurean and Lauterbach worked together aboard Camp Lejeune as personnel clerks until she accused him of rape in May 2007. A DNA test later revealed Laurean was not the father of her unborn child. She was in her third trimester of pregnancy when she died.

Lee said Laurean was well aware of the detrimental effect Lauterbach’s allegations would have on his career, regardless of whether their relationship was consensual. Adultery is a crime in the Marine Corps, which could have damaged Laurean’s career, Lee reminded the jury in his closing argument.

He said Laurean told a fellow Marine that he planned to trick Lauterbach into going to Mexico, discrediting her and salvaging his career. But Laurean’s plan was far more sinister, Lee said.

“The defendant wanted to be a good Marine, but as long as Maria Lauterbach was still out there he couldn’t,” Lee said. “As long as she was out there he would be looking over his shoulder.”

Lee said Lauterbach thought she was going to Mexico to live a happy life with the father of her child; instead Laurean sent her to a cold, dark grave in his backyard.

Laurean fled Onslow County on Jan. 11, 2008, hours before authorities discovered Lauterbach’s charred remains and those of her unborn child buried beneath a fire pit in his Half Moon community backyard.

Lee said not only did Laurean plan Lauterbach’s death, he tried to cover it up afterward. Lee reminded the jury how Laurean cleaned the crowbar, painted the garage walls, folded a blood-stained raft and put it away in the days after Lauterbach’s death.

“He then held a Christmas bonfire on the very spot he buried his victim,” Lee said.

Laurean’s attorney, Jacksonville lawyer Dick McNeil, said he was disappointed in the verdict and that the judge did not allow certain evidence and that second degree murder was not offered to the jury as a possible verdict.

“We will be in appellate court within six months,” McNeil said.

During the trial, McNeil told the jury there was no question that Lauterbach was buried in the Laurean backyard; the real question is why she went to 103 Meadow Trail in the first place and who actually swung the crowbar the state maintains is the murder weapon.

McNeil painted his client as a good Marine who became the target of Lauterbach’s vindictiveness after he counseled her for being habitually late to work. She accused him of rape out of spite and later showed up at his home troubled, distraught and in violation of a protective order.

McNeil also said his client’s wife, Christina Laurean, had motive and opportunity. He said Christina Laurean, as a trained Marine, was totally capable of lifting and swinging the crowbar.

He questioned why the state — which learned just 19 days before his client’s trial began that Christina Laurean’s DNA could not be excluded from being found on the crowbar — had not pursued her as a suspect.

Lee said Christina Laurean, who he referred to as a cooperating witness, was not the one accused of rape. He said Christina Laurean did not buy cinderblocks and dig a hole in the backyard. He said it was also not Christina Laurean captured on surveillance footage trying to remove cash from Lauterbach’s bank account, an additional charge — bank card theft, but not armed robbery — the jury found Laurean guilty of.

Laurean was on the run in Mexico until being arrested there in April 2007. He was extradited in 2009. The state could not pursue the death penalty against him for Lauterbach’s death as part of an extradition agreement with Mexico.

The trial was held in Goldsboro after a judge moved proceedings out of Onslow County earlier this year due to pretrial publicity in Jacksonville.

Se ya Cesar, have a nice life without parole. It’s too bad the United States and North Carolina made a deal with Mexico during the negotiations to extradite you back to the US which saved your baby killing, woman murdering butt from the death penalty, or you almost certainly would have a date with the needle.

But I’m betting you won’t live a long, happy life in prison, especially when your “colleagues” discover you’re responsible for the death of a nearly full term fetus. Oh boy, won’t that be a sight to see, and it won’t be good for you Cesar, not good at all.

That’s what dogs do. And they don’t judge. I could rob a bank, cheat on my spouse, hijack a bus filled with kindergartners and my dogs would love me. Even Hitler’s dog loved him. And even Allan Dwayne Schoenborn’s dog loved him.

Take a look at Schoenborn’s mugshot. I double dare you not to make a judgment about his character based on how he looks. Would you give him a job? A ride? A quarter? But to be fair this was probably taken after he had a really tough couple of weeks. Regardless how he looked, though, his dog loved him.

There had been others who loved Allan Dwayne Schoenborn. Probably not so much his former common law wife Darcie Clarke. She didn’t seem overly fond of him when she accused him of sexual assault and got a peace bond against him to stop him from being near her when he was drinking. But he was undoubtedly loved by his three beautiful children, Kaitlynn, Max and Cordon. They would probably still love him today if he hadn’t gone and murdered them in April, 2008.

Kaitlynn was all of 10 years old. You can see from her photo that she was a lovely, lovely girl. Max was 8, a good looking boy, and Cordon at 5 was absolutely adorable. I find if absolutely incredible that someone as frickin’ fugly as Allan Schoenborn could have fathered such a lovely family. Thanks to him, though, this world has been deprived of those charming children, but is still cursed with his repulsively evil and malevolent presence.

In September 2007 his former common law wife had moved the family from Vancouver to Merritt, British Columbia to get away from him. She had been afraid that he’d harm her since he accused her of cheating on him. The increasingly confrontational arguments they were having, the sexual assault and Schoenborn’s declining mental state didn’t make for happy families, so she made the wise decision to get away.

Clarke subsequently made the unwise decision to drop the sexual assault charge and allow Schoenborn to have continued access to the children.

Allen Dwayne Schoenborn had been diagnosed as paranoid in 1999. Kaitlynne had already been born, but regardless of this diagnosis Clarke had two more children with him.

Even after he crashed his truck trying to get Kaitlynne to the hospital when he mistook her sleeping as a symptom of illness.

Even after he accused her of putting drugs in Kaitlynne’s teething gel.

If it had been me, I would not have chosen a mentally ill man to be the father of my children. Just sayin’. Especially not one who refused to be treated for his mental illness — except for self-medicating with booze.

Allen Dwayne Schoenborn never sought medical help. Not when he heard voices. Not when he thought he had a transmitter in his brain or his teeth. Not when Clarke asked him to get help.

So Clarke and the children moved to Merritt, and Allen Dwayne Schoenborn knew exactly precisely where they were. Indeed, he and Clarke continued to have an on again, off again kind of relationship although she refused to have them all live together as a family again. “He didn’t like it, but was willing to accept it,” Clarke testified. Really? I don’t think so.

Whenever Allen Schoenborn came to visit the kids, Clarke would stay with her mother. There was nothing in his demeanor that triggered any alarm bells for her in regard to the children’s safety. I’m thinking she didn’t look too hard.

Personally I would have been alarmed by his threatening of a student and an adult in authority at his daughter’s elementary school. He apparently got it into his noggin that the child had been picking on his daughter, and his threats left this little person shaken and in tears. The police came and hauled his ass to jail. It was the third time in a week he’d been arrested. The other two times were for an outstanding warrant and for being intoxicated outside the police station.

Judicial Justice of the Peace Fraser Hodge presided over the bail hearing, and Allen Schoenborn put on a great performance. He gave Mr. Hodge the impression that he and Clarke were a couple looking to patch their lives back together, that they were eventually planning to move to the Okanagan to start a new life.

“I’m a responsible adult just trying to work my way home,” Mr. Schoenborn told the hearing. “It’s really hard to be without the ones you love.”

He painted himself a simple and responsible man. “I have a very good sense of sorrow on what’s happened,” he said.

Mr. Hodge had “grave concerns” about Allen Schoenborn, but chose to give him the benefit of the doubt. “I know we’re close to the line here on this one, but I am going to give Mr. Schoenborn a chance,” he said. “I have grave concerns about both your record, and your behavior . . . and particularly as (one of the current charges) relates to a young child,” Mr. Hodge continued.

“I’m giving you a bit of a break,” Mr. Hodge decided, letting Mr. Schoenborn go on $500 bail. This was three days before the slaughter of the innocents.

That very day social workers warned Darcie Clarke they would intervene if she did not take adequate steps to protect the children from Schoenborn’s increasingly strange and alarming behavior. Still no alarms going off in her head.

Two days later Clarke told Allen Schoenborn that their relationship was over, done, finito.

The very next day, April 5, 2008, Allen Schoenborn was allowed to spend time with the kids at the family’s trailer home. Clarke went to her mom’s for the night. Schoenborn made the most of their time together. The children were tired after a long day of flying kites, watching TV and playing games, and were tucked into bed.

Their doting father targeted the oldest first, striking at Kaitlynne’s neck with a knife. When Allen Dwayne Schoenborn testified at trial, he describe the attack:

“It just bounced off her. She woke. I swung at her, I was already through with it in my mind. She may have put her hand up. She said, ‘I’m sorry, Daddy.’ I swung it again, something quick at her neck. I thought this was the quickest way to give her up. I told her to go to the white father. She gave up.”

Allen Dwayne Schoenborn went next to the sleeping 5-year-old Cordon. He put a pillow on the boy’s face and his hand behind his head:

“He fussed a bit. I moved the pillow away and put my hand there. I laid on top of him, with all my weight.”

It took about five minutes for Cordon to die. He said he felt little gasps of air slip between his fingers as Cordon’s chest heaved.

“And then he didn’t. He laid quiet.”

Finally, Allen Dwayne Schoenborn turned his murderous attention to Max, 8, who fought hard when Schoenborn put a plastic bag over his head and drew it tight at the back of his neck:

“He fought me, he fought me. I told him it was daddy, ‘shhh.’ He settled down right after I said that. He was still there, he heard me. Maxie was about two minutes.”

Schoenborn took the time to clean the blood off Kaitlynne’s body in the bathtub, then wrap her up in a blanket and put her on her bed. He arranged the boys together on the couch.

Allen Dwayne Schoenborn wrote “Forever Young” in blood on a pillowcase and “Gone to Neverland” on the flip side. “Forever Young” was also written in large letters on a living room wall above the TV.

Allen Dwayne Schoenborn then fled the scene, taking the family dog with him.

Clarke arrived home at about 2 p.m. and she saw her boys Cordon and Max lying on the couch. She thought it was odd that both would be napping.

“I looked closer. They weren’t alive.”

Clarke wept as she described finding Kaitlynne.

“I went to her bedroom and she was all tucked up in a blanket. There was a huge gash from her ear to her mouth and a cut on her wrist.”

Clarke said she kept repeating to herself that it wasn’t happening, it couldn’t be real. “I started running around screaming, ‘no, no, no!”

Allen Dwayne Schoenborn and the dog eluded capture for ten days. He was finally caught in the wilderness by trappers Kim Robinson and Pat McCoy. Allen Dwayne Schoenborn seemed worried that Robinson, who was armed with a rifle, was going to shoot him. Robinson testified:

“He asked three to four times if I was going to kill him. I said if I’d seen him killing his kids I’d have blown his brains out, no doubt about it.”

Allen Schoenborn seemed surprised to learn that Darcie Clarke was still alive and had not killed herself, Robinson said.

“He asked, ‘Isn’t she dead?’. He was surprised she wasn’t dead. I saw agitation when I said that.”

Allen Schoenborn was arrested and taken to hospital and treated for dehydration. He had some minor cuts on his arms. He did not resist arrest. His loyal dog was unharmed.

While in jail awaiting trial, he wrote a self-pitying letter to Clarke detailing how he’d tried various methods to kill himself while on the lam — including slashing his wrists and freezing to death (in April?) — in an attempt to “join” the children.

“I was not running from my doing or police. I was running toward my children,” he wrote. He was singularly unsuccessful as a suicide. He was afraid even that Robinson would shoot him. Why didn’t he beg Robinson to finish him off if he wanted to join his children?

Clarke visited the killer in jail to find out why he had murdered their children, and heard for the first time his “belief” that the children were being molested. He didn’t say who was abusing them, but believed it was his duty to kill the children to “protect” them — to save them from a “life of humility.” Yeah, right.

“And it just came on me in one big flood. And I realized there’s nothing I can do about it, no matter how hard I try. So I put them where they’ll be safe … and stay young and innocent.”

And dead.

Allen Schoenborn then told Clarke he didn’t torture the kids despite what she’d been told.

“I didn’t torture anybody, Darcie,” he told her. “I thought it was going to be quick. I thought it was going to be quick and when it, it, it didn’t go quick … Not like I knew what I was doing.”

Too bad his determination to murder was greater than his determination to die.

The prosecutor’s office didn’t buy this kill-to-protect crap. It just seemed too coincidental that his ex tells him the relationship’s over and they won’t live as a family again, and the very next day the children are murdered.

If it looks like vengeance and smells like vengeance, it’s vengeance. And never, ever at any time was any evidence found of any sexual abuse inflicted on the children. The only sexual abuse in this situation was perpetrated by Allen Schoenborn himself upon Clarke.

In February, 2010, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Powers, who heard the three-month trial in Kamloops without a jury, found that the killings were deliberate and planned by Allen Dwayne Schoenborn, and found him guilty of first-degree murder in their deaths BUT that he was not sane at the time. Guilty but not criminally responsible was the verdict. That’s right, deliberate and premeditated murders, and a subsequent ten-day flight from police, but he’s not responsible.

“I find on balance of probabilities he was suffering from a disease of the mind,” Justice Powers told the court Monday. Hmm, a balance of probabilities, he said. That’s justice? Why couldn’t that balance weigh in favor of the victims, past and future, for once?

Justice Powers rejected the Crown’s assertion that Allen Dwayne Schoenborn killed his children as revenge against their mother.

“Any reasonable or rational person would know that was wrong,” Justice Powers said. “However, due to his psychosis at the time he was not able to make that decision.”

Once again the courts have given Allen Dwayne Schoenborn the benefit of the doubt. He possibly was in a delusional state when he murdered three innocent children, but possibly he wasn’t. The court psychiatrist said it was impossible to tell what his state of mind was.

Outside the courthouse, Kim Robinson pulled no punches when asked by reporters what he thought about Allen Dwayne Schoenborn being found not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder. “That’s bullshit. He’s an asshole. He’s not insane.”

So instead of prison, Allen Dwayne Schoenborn was sent off for a psychiatric review to determine where and how he’ll be spending his future.

The British Columbia Review Board at the Forensic Psychiatric Institute in Port Coquitlam ruled that Allen Dwayne Schoenborn poses a serious threat of violence to the public. Despite his plea to be freed immediately, convicted child-killer Schoenborn will remain in psychiatric care.

Upon hearing the board’s decision, Allen Dwayne Schoenborn said he agreed. “I think you decided right for me and the public,” he told the panel.

He also asked panelists not to allow the children’s mother to make a victim impact statement, calling it hysterical.

The panel disregarded the request and did hear a statement from Clarke. She told the panel that she’ll never be able to get the image of her dead children out of her head.

“I fear if he ever gets out, I will have to go into hiding for the rest of my life,” Clarke said in her statement, parts of which were read out to the panel.

All that separates Allen Dwayne Schoenborn from freedom is the panel of experts. And if he ever convinces the panel he is sane, he could be walking the streets a free man. I am praying that he is never given the benefit of the doubt again, as long as he lives.

And what about Darcie Clarke? She made some very bad choices in her life, but instead of going to hell she is living it each and every day.

His wife’s sister gave birth nine months ago to a beautiful baby girl, making Michael and his Missus a newly minted uncle and aunt.

His sister-in-law and her husband, fresh to the parenting game, must have been grateful to have the opportunity to avail themselves of the Schmidts’ offer to babysit their angel.

Ask any parent about the importance of making “couple time” and they’ll likely tell you that it is essential Dad and Mom remember that they were once husband and wife first before the pitter-patter of little feet.

Of course, finding a reliable and trustworthy babysitter isn’t an easy task, especially in today’s world. The news is full of horror stories. It’s enough to make you think of putting “couple time” on hold for eighteen years. And who is more trustworthy than people with whom you share a blood relationship and their spouses.

Those of us with large extended families are familiar with the practice of having our relatives look after our children – it is a way of developing relationships for us and for our children. It is a socialization process as well. The more exposure children have to new faces and new people (that we adults approve of and trust), then the better the chances are that our children will develop strong social skills.

As I said, relatives have an edge on strangers in terms of trust – we assume that those tied to us by blood will have our best interests at heart. By proxy, it is assumed that they will have our child’s best interests.

On April 24, 2010, the nine-month old infant was dropped off at the Schmidts’ abode around 3:00 p.m.. The new parents must have felt secure in leaving their little bundle of joy with the Schmidts.

Too bad they didn’t know of those skeletons rattling around the Schmidts’ collective closet like a Calypso band.

At some point in the evening, Michael Schmidt claimed that the girl “messed” her diaper and he had to change it. Unfortunately, he chose the couch to do the task. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her rolling off the couch. He grabbed for her tumbling form, but the diaper wipes had made her skin slippery, he said, and he believes that while trying to catch her, he must have cut her with his hangnail and caused a scratch which would not stop bleeding.

Michael Schmidt told his wife what happened and at around 10:00 p.m., they decided to take the baby to the local hospital, but first Tracy Schmidt called the father to let him know that his daughter needed stitches and that they were transporting her to the hospital.

To say Tracy Schmidt was economical with the details is an understatement.

The father and mother wasted no time in reaching the hospital.

Once there, the couple were told that a woman (identified as Tracy Schmidt) had arrived with a nine-month old female infant who had extensive vaginal and anal bleeding. The doctors and nurses were utterly shocked at the trauma the infant had sustained.

Due to the severity of her injuries, the doctors felt she needed surgery immediately, so they obtained the necessary permission from the parents and immediately sent the baby to St. Paul Children’s Hospital for surgery. She was transported via ambulance.

At the St. Paul location, the baby was whisked into surgery. Medical staff was outraged at the extent of the damage done to the tiny infant.

Fortunately, the surgeon was able to repair the tears made in her flesh and she will eventually heal. The baby has been released from the hospital into her parents care. She is recovering nicely despite the horrendous nature of the attack.

After he completed the necessary repairs, the surgeon pulled the father aside to tell him that his daughter’s injuries were the result of a brutal sexual assault and included:

“…superficial tears in her anal sphincter, and a tear which gaped widely at the girl’s perineum, and extended through the girl’s hymen, continuing the length of her vagina to her cervix…”

Both the father and the police were told that Michael Schmidt’s account of how she sustained the injures was “highly inconsistent” with the nature and extent of the girl’s injuries – internal and external injuries which added up, in the words of Hastings Police Chief Mike McMenomy, to a ”horrendous” rape.

And not, as so sworn by Michael Schmidt, the result of an errant hangnail.

Chief McMenomy said the attack itself was devastating to the whole department as it was one of the worst cases of sexual assault he had seen in over thirty years on the force – and without a doubt, the youngest victim he had ever encountered.

It is worth noting that when Tracy Schmidt brought the baby to the emergency room, she repeated the twaddle story Michael Schmidt gave regarding the injuries, but she had no more luck in being believed than her lying sack of shit husband did.

Interestingly, Michael Schmidt’s past includes several convictions indicating a pattern of violence that his in-laws were completely unaware of. He has convictions for the following items:

2002 interfering with a 911 call in Dakota County

2002 driving with a canceled license in Dakota County

1999 misdemeanour domestic assault in Dakota County

1995 child endangerment in Red Wing, Goodhue County

1994 fleeing a police officer in Hennepin County

Catch that one for child endangerment? That’s a whole lot interesting and grounds for Tracy Schmidt joining her hubby in the cell block She had to have known what he was doing. The baby’s screams would have been heard throughout the house.

See, back in 1994, Michael Schmidt was charged with an incident regarding an 8-month-old infant he was caring for. The little boy suffered extensive genital bruising and purple, swollen testicles. The boy had large bruises on his inner thighs. The doctors could not determine whether the child was sexually abused. Although the Goodhue prosecutor Carol Lee still thinks about the case, she said her priority was to make sure the boy was safe. The infant was sent away to live with a relative.

The domestic assault convictions involved his wife, Tracy Schmidt – at the time she was just his girlfriend – she was present during the times Michael was abusing the infants, but she refused to cooperate in 1994 and has refused to cooperate again in 2010. The two later married.

The 8-month-old infant was her baby boy and she is the aunt of the nine-month old baby girl. Seems to me Tracy Schmidt is an oxygen-thief and waste of space.

So it seems that once a pedophile, always a pedophile. Although, Michael Schmidt seems to be one notch worse than a pedophile as he has a predilection for infants, making his paraphilia technically nepiophilia (also known as infantophilia). It is when someone has a sexual preference for toddlers and infants, usually ranging from 0 to 3 years of age.

My term? SICKO!!

Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom is pushing for the longest possible sentence they can against Michael Schmidt. They have filed a motion to “enhance” the sentence based on key factors:

- vulnerability of the victim

- abuse of a position of trust

- multiple forms of penetration

- suspect’s prior crimes against children

- “particular cruelty”

Michael Frederick Schmidt was booked on charges of sexual assault and bond was set at $200,000 without conditions or $100,000 with conditions, including one that he have no contact with any children except for supervised visits with his own children. Yes, that’s right. This ass-hat has children – plural. I want to puke.

I cannot in any way fathom that any human being would be able to defend this piece of shit, but I’m sure he’s already had an offer or two.

As for his wife, well, I think she should be charged with something – obstruction of justice, contributing to the harm of an infant, failure to warn or inform of a predator, wearing white after Labour Day – anything! Tracy L. Schmidt is his enabler and actually helps him try to evade justice.

The baby girl will heal but one hopes she never again is subjected to her uncle’s perversions.

Schmidt has been remanded for a pre-trial hearing at 1:30 p.m. on November 24, 2010, in Dakota County District Court; currently he is residing in the Dakota County Jail.

Michael Frederick Schmidt is charged with criminal sexual conduct in the first degree (a felony), and, if convicted, Schmidt faces a maximum sentence of thirty years in prison and a $40,000 fine.

It is the least one can hope for.

The criminal complaint states that on or about April 24, 2010, in Dakota County, Minnesota, Michael Frederick Schmidt, engaged in sexual penetration with another person , the complainant is under 13 years of age and the accused is more than 36 months older than the complainant. Victim is 9 months old, perpetrator is 41 years old or 492 months old. Yep, I think he qualifies.

To View The Criminal Complaint Against Michael Schmidt, Click Here

Back in the fiasco of 1994 and with the assistance of his future wife, many of the child abuse and child neglect charges were dropped. As a result, of the one year sentence he received for injuring Tracy Schmidt’s son, he served just fifteen days, with two years spent on probation.

The cover-up and support he has received from Tracy Schmidt is as valuable as money in the bank. When he abused her son, he was 26 years old. When he allegedly raped her sister’s baby, he was 41 years old. There is fifteen years of unknown activity that bears scrutiny. It is not that much of a stretch to assume that there were other actions taken that never came to light due to a perfect cover.

In the words of Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom, child abuse is rampant in our society today, and that in the United States alone, it is estimated that “one in four girls, and one in six boys, will be sexually abused by the time they reach 18.”

Sadly, as Backstrom also indicated, a large percentage of these abuse cases are never reported – for various reasons – shame, guilt, vilification of the victim, family pressures to keep quiet, fear of not being believed, fear of reprisals, and so on.

Cases like Michael Frederick Schmidt’s come to law enforcement’s attention due to the obvious nature and severity of the physical trauma. So in a way, our young victim was a martyr who gave up her body for a higher cause – that cause being the capture of Michael Schmidt.

The fact that people like Michael Frederick Schmidt get away with crimes against the most helpless among us is indeed sad and disturbing. It is only by recognizing abuse when it happens and going forward to prosecute these animals can we reduce the number of damaged adults these self-serving sick mutants create.

If we mean what we say, then it is time to give people like Michael Schmidt the recognition they so richly deserve.

One mother and father did not know what lurked in their own family circle and their little baby girl paid one hell of a price. Physically she will heal, but the trauma is likely to leave some imprint on her subconscious. As for her parents, it is unlikely this betrayal will ever be forgotten.

There are some things that can never be forgiven.

What happened on April 24, 2010 is one such event.

On August 19, 1982, a genetic mistake was slithering around in his pus-filled skin suit masquerading as a human male – David Joseph Steffen. He came across pretty 19-year-old Karen Range, and decided that she was just the victim he was looking to rape. Stalking her to her Roselawn home, he knocked on her door posing as a door-to-door cleaning supply salesman.

He forced his way in when she answered, and began his vicious assault on her. The battering her body withstood was remarkable. Armed with his fists and a paring knife, he nearly decapitated the poor girl. Her half-stripped bloodied form was later discovered by the one person who loved her more than life itself – her mother, Laurie.

Laurie called the police and she was told not to approach her daughter’s body – it was now a crime scene, you see.

The detectives and the crime scene crew arrived; they did their CSI magic and Karen’s body was taken away in a black body bag. She was delivered to the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office some time around midnight on August 20, 1982, to await the coroner and his morning autopsy routine. She would be analyzed and clues would be tweezed from her remains.

Karen was booked in to the county morgue by one Kenneth Douglas. Kenny had been working at the morgue since 1976 and supplemented his income by moonlighting at various local funeral homes. He would continue to work in this rather gruesome field until 1992. In fact, he was working part-time at Jamison & Jamison Funeral Home in addition to his job as morgue attendant at the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office.

In the morning, the coroner performed his autopsy as required by state law for all murder victims, on what was left of Karen Range. In his examination, he noted the multitude of knife wounds piercing her body, in particular, drawing attention to the devastating neck injury which had left the head precariously attached to body by the slenderest proportion of cartilage and tissue.

Her body sustained large garish bruises, and blood was dried and caked over her remains. Karen Range, he noted, had been sexually assaulted at some point and he used the standard rape kit to gather evidence in the form of seminal fluid from Karen’s body. In 1982, the best law enforcement could expect from forensic science at this point was identification of the contributor through blood typing of the bodily fluids.

In this case, a suspect was found and the blood typing indicated that David Steffen was potentially the contributor of the semen inside Karen Range’s body based on the results.

When the case went to trial in 1983, it was anything but easy for Laurie Range to attend and tolerate as the defense attorney did his best to vilify her daughter and basically re-victimize her all over again. Difficult to hear was the carnage Steffen wrought on Karen. And then there was the rape evidence, the motive for his attack. But Steffen denied the rape, it was all part of the defense’s “SODDIT” strategy (Some Other Dude Did IT).

Thankfully, the defense didn’t work. By murdering and raping Karen Range, David Steffen became eligible for Ohio’s death penalty under its “special circumstances” provisions which states that anyone convicted of committing a murder and one other felony can face the death penalty in the punishment phase.

Steffen was found guilty and the jury decided he should pay for his crimes: he won the death penalty.

Steffen felt that he didn’t deserve the judgment and so he would spend the next twenty-five years fighting the death penalty conviction on the grounds that, hey, yes, he admitted murdering Karen Range, but he never raped her. It seems that once she was dead, he just couldn’t follow through.

The tough break for him is that no one believes murdering psychopaths. He was sitting on death row and it was due to the fact that the blood test they used with the semen could not exclude him from being the contributor to the specimen found.

David Joseph Steffen OWNED that special circumstance.

Or he did until March 1, 2007. It was on this date that the test results were back. As part of Steffen’s many appeals against his death penalty conviction, the prosecutor’s office ran the DNA sample from Karen’s crime evidence against the DNA sample Steffen provided.

The results were sent to the lab and came back to the prosecutor. And guess what?

It said David Steffen was not the contributor of the semen found in Karen Range. So I guess the murdering psychopathic piece of shit was telling the truth.

Indeed, the results were a real puzzle now, so much so that they decided to take the DNA sample from Karen’s fiancée and run them against the sample – again, no match.

Steffen’s lawyer is now demanding a whole new trial for his client. I mean, if he was telling the truth about the rape, then maybe he could start saying he didn’t really kill her, right?

Fortunately, Laurie Range has been assured that Steffen isn’t going to get a new trial as the bastard had already confessed, in detail, to murdering her daughter. He’s only going to get a new trial on the penalty portion of his punishment and the worst would be that he didn’t get the death penalty again but rather sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Those are his only two options.

But you know what? There is always a silver lining. In the state of Ohio, if you commit and are convicted of murder and one other felony, then you are eligible for the death penalty. Okay, so he didn’t rape Karen, but he’s still guilty of attempted rape, and oh, yes, he was convicted of aggravated burglary as well. So there – he’s still guilty of murder and a felony still despite years of whining and bitching.

He could still get another death penalty judgment, and I’m going to be optimistic and hope for the best. :-)

All of this background is necessary to set the stage for our latest candidate of hell-worthiness. It concerns the mysterious contributor of the DNA.

Karen Range had been a virgin when Steffen murdered her. She was a sweet girl who was saving herself for her fiancée – her mother knew it, her family knew it, her friends knew it. The defense scum, I mean, defense lawyer implied that Karen was a loose lady, that she had, in fact, been sexually active, despite evidence and testimony to the contrary.

Well just how do you explain the semen found? That’s the kicker.

And it totally sucks that Karen Range would have to be victimized twice.

Enter Kenneth Douglas, Hamilton County Coroner morgue attendant. He looks pretty average, wouldn’t you say? Of course, given his vocation in life involves working with the dead, one would expect these people to somehow look morose all the time — how else can you work surrounded by death every day and not look sad?

Heck, I have to say I am glad that there are people out there who don’t mind working with the deceased. Think about it – morticians, coroners, pathologists, mortuary workers, funeral directors, and all sundry personnel who make the business of death a thriving industry. There was a cable reality show on a few years ago to let America know that these people have screwed up lives just like everyone else. It was called Family Plots.

And heck, leave it to Hollywood to put a rather stylized spin on the daily drama one would supposedly find in a coroner’s office with Quincy, M.E. And neither of these televised shows covered Kenneth’s problem, but I suppose that would be too much even on a cable station. But honestly, working with the dead is definitely not for everyone.

You see, Kenneth Douglas is the proud depositor of the semen found in Karen Range. Kenneth Douglas is a necrophile. I’ll wait a few minutes while you ponder this edifying revelation.

Yes, Karen Range had been brutally and viciously attacked by David Joseph Steffen only to fall prey to another piece of evil after death.

Once the crime scene team had finished their stint in Karen’s home and placed her in the body bag, they transported her remains to the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office shortly after midnight, August 20, 1982. It was 29-year-old Kenneth Douglas who booked her into one of the refrigerated slabs in the morgue to ostensibly wait for the medical examiner’s morning autopsy.

Well, that was the plan anyway.

The morgue was under the tipsy stewardship of Dr. Frank Cleveland. He ran the place for thirty years (1964 to 1994) prior to retiring to Florida. During his tenure, it was fairly common knowledge that he had a drinking problem and bottles of 40 proof courage stuffed in his office desk.

Hiring like-minded employees to work for him, he soon had a full complement of less than honorable employees. Parties (!) were often held, with morgue workers frequently having females come to the work place and have sex with them. Drugs and alcohol flowed freely and many irregularities occurred.

In the state of Ohio, this one little county morgue has cost the taxpayers big time. In 2001, they paid $5.25 million in settlement because of the coroner’s policy of removing corneas from bodies without family permission.

In 2007, $8 million was paid to make a lawsuit go away: the coroner allowed a photographer access to the bodies in his possession for his art project. He posed ordinary objects on/next/in dead bodies and took photographs of the resulting image. Picture it: an automobile accident victim, your daughter, on a morgue slab with a telephone placed on her stomach. Page 25 of this yo-yo’s art book.

In 2007, $6 million was paid to make another lawsuit go away: this was over whether the coroner could take body parts without permission from family members. Many people do not realize a black market exists where dead bodies are sold, in parts or whole, to medical research facilities throughout the world and that a “prime” cadaver can fetch over $100,000.

But as crazy and as far-out as most employees were, Kenneth Douglas was without question one-of-a-kind. At least, that what the Prosecutor Joe Deters is hoping for. What’s Joe’s opinion of Kenneth Douglas?

“This guy’s just a pig. I can’t explain why someone would do something like this. … This is off-the-charts weird.”

Still, Joe’s feelings are in line with Assistant Prosecutor Mark Piepmeier, who said:

“He ought to be tortured and put to death.”

Harsh words, yes.

Kenny liked to party with women, booze and drugs too. It’s just his women were dead.

Who knows when it first started? Kenneth claims he doesn’t remember as he has said that his years spent working with the dead are a hazy alcohol-filled zone in his memory. Convenient. And, psychologically speaking, untrue.

On August 20th, shortly after midnight, Karen was ensconced in her slot, but she was not to be left “resting in peace.” Ol’ Kenny decided that Karen Range looked good enough to him and had sex with her corpse.

The girl, lovely in life, was covered in blood. Gaping wounds, still fresh from the frenzied attack mere hours before, marred her body.Her head remained attached by the slightest of tendons as Steffen had nearly decapitated her.

Douglas, however, seemed to be unperturbed by the trauma her body had sustained. Or maybe, as some have speculated, it was because of the trauma her body had sustained that he had an overwhelming desire to have sex with her.

It turns out that Karen Range was not the only body on which Kenneth Douglas released his perversions.

Kenneth Douglas worked for the coroner’s office from 1976 to 1992. During that time, he was moonlighting at several funeral homes in the area. Such dedication to his job is not surprising for those afflicted with necrophilia.

And despite protestations to the contrary, the paraphilia presents itself as early as age 10 or 11. If it is undetected and left untreated, then the necrophile develops into a serious threat for the community in which he/she lives. You see, necrophilia is a sexual deviation and perversion that cannot be cured and sure as hell isn’t normal.

It is next to impossible to detect the disorder because the person will appear completely normal. There are no obvious behavioral clues to look for, no behavioral patterns that provide a clue such as one can observe with pedophiles. As one would expect, there are precious few studies in this area as the subject is even more taboo than pedophilia.

Like pedophilia, it is incurable. It can be controlled, but it can never be eradicated. Medical professionals insist that the person afflicted must undergo intense therapy to understand what motivates the “drive” and only then can the person learn to control it.

According to criminal psychologist Dr. Stuart Bassman, necrophilia is a serious mental disorder:

“Necrophilia is a subset of a paraphilia … mental disorders that are typified by someone engaging in behavior where they take advantage of an unsuspecting victim…..[and necrophiles are like]..chameleon(s) where they’re able to adapt and assimilate into the community…when they’re in a position where they have access, they take advantage and they exploit and abuse someone…”

Necrophiles can be treated, but the disorder is forever. Dr. Bassman says that it is a variation of pornography.

“There is a sense that the person in their mind is having a very endowed fantasy life. So, to a great extent, in their mind they are having an intimate sexual relationship with someone.”

Dr. Bassman added that necrophiliacs act out their fantasies because it’s a protection against being rejected or abandoned.

“This person is not going to leave them. This person is not going to report them.”

Asked if a person could commit multiple offenses of corpse abuse, he said “definitely.” This is a repetitive compulsion that someone acts out over the course of their lives. This is a very serious mental disorder that is treatable, but not curable.

To give you some idea of the strength of paraphilia and what it would be like for Kenneth Douglas to work in funeral homes and morgues, it is the equivalent to having a male pedophile in charge of a pre-school day care center with absolutely no monitoring at all and victims that cannot speak.

Nice picture.

To those who feel sorry for him, forget it. He refuses to own up to the fact he’s even got a problem. Kenny says he doesn’t remember and that he only did it because he was using alcohol and drugs. He not only denies he has any problem; he stated in court that had he not used drugs and alcohol, then he would never have done such things.

We know Kenneth Douglas was a little odd, so it should be no surprise that he did not quit his job in the usual way either. In 1992, one day he just left work and never came back. No call. No letter saying he was quitting. Nothing. At the age of 39, he just stopped showing up to work and that was it.

So how did they know about Kenneth Douglas being the contributor?

We know he up and quit in 1992 at 39 years of age, so he must have gone on to other work, right? I mean, no one can exist in this day and age without some sort source of income. He did not win the state lottery, inherit from a long-lost relative or invent something worthwhile. He did get married in 2005 to Brenda Simmons, but it wasn’t a marriage for money.

The clue as to how he was making ends meet may be in his criminal charge and conviction on March 17, 2008: it was for drug trafficking.

As part of his conviction, he was ordered to provide a DNA sample to the state of Ohio’s DNA database. That’s how they caught him.

Whenever the database is updated, there are hundreds of “pending” samples that get run against the new data. The DNA from Karen Range was one of those “pending” samples and BING! We have a hit.

Now I’m sure that they were wondering like heck as to HOW his DNA got inside Karen Range. In 1982, Kenneth Douglas would have been 29 years old. It is extremely unlikely he would have been dating Karen, but I’m sure that the possibility must have been at least something to consider.

But no. It wasn’t a dating thing. Laurie Range was correct: her daughter had been a virgin and she had died a virgin.

At first, when he was being interviewed by Prosecutor Joe Deters, he was asked how his DNA could show up from evidence collected from a murder victim. Kenneth volunteered that he did work at the county morgue as an attendant in 1982. Well, they knew that much already.

So again, they asked him if he could think of a way as to how his DNA could get there. After all, DNA technology was not available in 1982, but it was certainly a respected science by 2008. He was told that basically the finger of God was pointing at him as the contributor of the DNA.

Wall of silence.

Deters explained about the DNA sample and that it was semen collected from inside Karen Range.

Still nothing.

Finally, tired of the silent treatment, Prosecutor Deters told Kenneth that either he was there with Steffen when Karen Range was murdered, or something happened at the morgue.

Kenny decided to tell the truth. Funny what it can take to get people to open up.

When asked how often he may have done this sort of thing, he assured them that no more than half a dozen time, at the most, in all the time he worked there and at the funeral homes.

So Deters had the answer to the mystery DNA. He sent two detectives to Laurie Range’s Florida home to tell her that her daughter’s reputation would no longer be sullied by Steffen’s legal dogs – Karen Range had died a virgin. She was pleased that they could prove it, but what about the semen – how did it get there?

Now there’s a job I wouldn’t want. Telling this poor mother that once her daughter’s body was in the city’s custody, a city employee sexually assaulted it.

But it was about to get worse.

To the first crime identified, the assault on the remains of Karen Range four hours after she was admitted into the morgue, Kenneth Douglas plead no contest. The judge found him guilty as charged to abuse of a corpse and also violation of his parole. He was sentenced to three years – one year for the abuse and desecration of a corpse and two years for violating the terms and conditions of his parole stemming from the drug conviction.

This is when the citizens of Cincinnati discovered that the dearly departed were afforded very little in terms of protection against any kind of abuse. It was a fifth level felony – the lowest classification – and the maximum time for those guilty was one year in prison.

Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones was so outraged that he campaigned until one Democrat and one Republican drafted a bill for the state’s legislature to amend the penalty to at least five years in prison.

It must have crossed the mind of someone, but exactly how gross did everyone feel once they realized that this Kenneth Douglas was the same Kenneth Douglas that worked in the coroner’s office in 1982?

Once the prosecutor had the information regarding the DNA match to Karen Range and Kenneth Douglas, his team went back over the years Douglas worked at the coroner’s office and determined if any of the cases had viable bodily fluids which could be checked for DNA. Due to decomposition and the time elapsed, it turns out that there were just twelve such cases that could be tested – of these, two were covered in Douglas’s DNA.

One victim was 23-year-old Charlene Edwards Appling, who was 6-months pregnant when she was strangled by the drug dealer she was with, Mark Chambers, who mistakenly thought she had taken his crack cocaine. Of the family she left behind, her little boy was taken in by her sister, who also had the unpleasant task of identifying her body. She was delivered to the morgue, and violated, on October 1, 1991.

Oh, and Chambers was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Charlene’s death and was released on parole in 2000.

The second victim was 24-year-old Angel Hicks. She died of blunt force trauma to the head, and although her death was ruled a homicide, the defendant in that case walked – acquitted at trial. She was delivered to the morgue, and violated, on December 8, 1991.

So let’s see now, Karen Range was violated in 1982 and these two women were violated in 1991. That leaves nine long years of questions.

Investigators went back to Kenneth Douglas for a more frank and detailed discussion. Based on what he eventually told investigators, they know he violated dozens and dozens during his 16-years of unlimited access to the dead.

He told them that he was out of control and, if his frank confession is to be believed, then victims number over one hundred. It is, however, a matter of proof. As the prosecutor said, it is one thing to have a criminal confess; it is another thing to prove it in a court of law.

Kenneth said he was out of control and that sex with corpses happened all the time and any chance he could get. In essence, exactly what psychologists state will happen with this disorder actually happened. It is an overwhelming compulsion that cannot be managed by oneself. It can take over a person’s life, and from Kenny’s confessions, it sounds as though that is exactly what happened.

The court date for the crimes on Appling and Hicks meant another appearance for Kenny. In 1991, it just so happens that the punishment for corpse abuse was reduced so when Kenneth was sentenced,, he was asked if he wanted the harsher sentence or the reduced penalty. Well, DUH, he chose the lower sentence as punishment.

At this hearing, he pleaded guilty to both counts. He said he wanted to spare his family and the families of the victims further trauma that a trial would entail. He used this court appearance to state that:

“There is no excuse for my crime. If I wasn’t under the influence, this never would have happened.”

Nope. No excuse. And then he gives one.

Aside from giving an excuse, thereby sidestepping acceptance of responsibility, he is denying the problem he has. It isn’t merely a case of someone being too inebriated or too high to know what they are doing. He was having sex regularly with the corpses he was entrusted with. Kenneth Douglas was, for at least sixteen years, a practicing necrophiliac.

While in jail, he has been receiving alcohol and drug counseling, but absolutely no help for his necrophilia. As we know, it is a strong drive which is dangerous if left untreated.

The truth is that there are many, many victims, but the prosecutor cannot charge him for these crimes – there is no evidence. Deters said that estimates from Kenneth went as high as a hundred, so he’s sure that there are more victims, but the bottom line is that they would need to have samples from every female victim that he ever had contact with from 1976 to 1992, and there is just no way that they could possibly get that evidence. Aside from decomposition and the time involved, there would be the logistics of exhuming all those bodies and getting legal releases and the lab work and so on.

It is a monumental task just thinking about the victims – and for what? Re-traumatizing the families?

The media frenzy did not parlay into frank discussion of a long-taboo subject. Only a handful of articles attempted to delineate the problem the community was grappling with. Those articles often left more questions than answers with regards to a necrophile working at the county morgue. Deters was left with nothing to say when his phone was ringing off the hook from people calling and asking, “Was my loved one violated?”

All he could say was, “I honestly don’t know.”

But for this little notorious coroner’s office, the end result is a little more than bad news – it’s a financial catastrophe.

Once the families had time to process the news, they got angry. When they investigated a little more, they learned that the tenure of madcap Dr. Frank Cleveland had created a thoroughly despicable atmosphere to which they had unknowingly subjected their loved ones’ remains to. And that it was public knowledge. Booze flowed freely, late night escapades with girlfriends and hookers alike dropping by to have sex with workers on the premises, drugs bought and sold, and, more troubling, Douglas having sex with female corpses.

In Laurie Range’s words, “How dare he!”

As such, the families who share this unwanted distinction of being victims of Kenneth Douglas, have joined forces to sue the pants off the county – the retired coroner, Kenneth Douglas and the Coroner’s office have all been named in the suit and they are seeking unspecified damages for the pain and suffering Douglas’ actions have caused. Furthermore, the workplace environment created by Cleveland allowed this type of abuse to happen, so he is named front and center as being the root cause of the dereliction of duty scenario that occurred.

The families are seeking unspecified damages, and while they say that money is not the concern, the end result should be. They had faith that the county would care for their loved ones and prepare them for final internment. Their faith was betrayed in a most vile manner. Their trust has been broken and they want to see something changed, something done to prevent this from ever happening to anyone else’s loved ones ever again.

At the sentencing for abuse of Edwards and Hicks, the judge gave Kenneth Douglas the maximum sentence possible under current legislation: three years (1.5 years per corpse). The judge summed up the community’s feelings when she said:

“There’s a reason we say ‘the dearly departed’ and ‘may they rest in peace.’ What happened he(re) isn’t even primitive. It’s depraved and inhumane.”

We can only hope it is a little more rare occurrence than it turned out to be in Ohio.