(Lauren Book)
Posted on 10/02/2009 5:55:11 AM PDT by IbJensen
As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, Lauren Book is the face behind some of the state's toughest sex-offender laws -- laws she says have had unintended consequences.
Lauren Book walks among grimy tents, wooden shanties, cardboard boxes, rusty cars and piles of garbage. On this day, it's quiet under the Julia Tuttle Causeway, except for the deafening drone of cars and trucks barreling over the bridge above.
``This is Homer's house,'' Book says, standing in front of a small wooden door on a wretched shack that looks more like an outhouse than a home. Homer isn't there because he is back in jail. But a handful of other sex offenders and predators who harbor here are busying themselves cleaning up trash and human excrement.
Book has visited this dark and foul-smelling encampment over and over again, about a dozen times in all. Most residents know her name, and she knows many of theirs.
What is remarkable about Book's visits to this world of outcasts is that for six years, starting when she was 11, she was a victim of sexual abuse. She later embarked on a legislative crusade against sex offenders, lobbying the state Legislature with her father, Ron Book, one of Florida's most powerful lobbyists, to enact stricter laws against convicted molesters.
The legal frenzy prompted local communities to enact more restrictive laws, creating an international public embarrassment over the bridge's rodent-infested squalor in the shadow of Miami Beach. At one point it was home to almost 100 sex offenders.
Lauren Book, 24, now realizes that forcing predators to live in inhumane conditions will not protect children; in fact, she fears it may do the opposite.
``It's a terrible situation under there, it is awful,'' she admits. ``I don't think them living under a bridge or absconding keeps children safe. I don't want them so desperate that they go out and find a child.''
Book, working with her father, is now trying to help the same kind of people she fought so long to erase from her childhood memory.
YEARS OF ABUSE
Book was 11 years old when her nanny, Waldina Flores, angered because the little girl was chewing gum, disciplined her in a bizarre way: She stuck her tongue in Book's mouth and pulled the gum out with her tongue.
Soon thereafter, Flores was forcing her to have sex at night when her younger brother and sister were asleep, in closets, bathrooms and other private places. If Book refused, she was beaten, punched, kicked, defecated upon and thrown down a flight of stairs.
The physical and sexual abuse would last for years.
``It went on every single day, morning and night,'' Book said. ``She had brainwashed me into believing that we were in love and were going to get married.''
Though Flores was formidable, at times she could be caring and loving. Book admits she was dependent on Flores, who combed her hair, picked out her school clothes, helped her get dressed and even decided what type of feminine hygiene products she would use.
``I was scared and confused, but she explained it in a way that made sense to a 12-year-old,'' Book said. ``She provided a shower curtain around my life. I didn't have to see any terrible things because she took care of the problems, which made her seem really appealing because you have someone who is listening to you, someone who loves you, who is there for you and has not left.''
It would take years before she could talk about the abuse to her father, who was working long hours in Tallahassee as a lobbyist. Her mother, Patricia, also worked tirelessly, tending to her new chocolate-shop business.
Up until then, Lauren Book was too ashamed and afraid to tell her parents, which experts say is common among children of sexual abuse.
Instead, she confided in her then-boyfriend, Kris Lim, now her husband. She also told her therapist, who, in turn, told her father. Ron Book removed Waldes from their Plantation home and contacted police.
A PARENT'S PAIN
Book weeps as he talks about those dark days.
Until this day, he has not been able to read the entire police report.
``There were some tough things for a parent to read. The detail that went into the report was very painful . . . you're telling your child to obey somebody, to treat that person with respect, to deal with the day-to-day care of your child and all the time they are raping your kid,'' he said.
Both he and his wife tried in vain to find signs they missed. Book pored through box after box of family photographs and videos to took for something that was out of kilter. As part of their family, Flores was in most of the photographs and videos.
``It was a very secretive type of thing,'' Patricia Book said. ``Lauren was told that if she said anything, `I will hurt your mother and father; somebody is going to get killed.' Waldina was very good at what she did.''
Toward the end, however, Flores because increasingly confrontational with Lauren's mother.
``She was roughing me up and getting too obsessive with the children. I fired her twice,'' Patricia Book said.
The day she found out about Lauren's abuse, Patricia Book left her business and never went back.
In 2002, Flores was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Two years later, she was found guilty of violating an order not to contact Book after writing her letters from prison. Ten more years were added to her prisonterm.
The traumatic experience left the Book family frustrated with the state's failure to protect children by better monitoring sex offenders.
The state already had banned sex offenders and predators from living within 1,000 feet of areas where children congregate, like schools and playgrounds. But the dynamic duo -- a heavyweight lobbyist and his petite young daughter with a harrowing story of abuse -- helped persuade politicians across South Florida to set stricter perimeters of 2,500 feet.
The Books now admit that the restrictive boundaries had unintended consequences: it banished many predators from living in almost every city and town.
`THERE ARE PLACES'
Ron Book, however, is unapologetic, and still believes molesters should be prohibited from living 1,750 to 2,500 feet of where children play.
``Residency restrictions do work,'' says Ron Book, who, as executive director of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, has helped find homes for about half the people under the bridge. ``If you look, there are places for them to live.''
The first time Lauren Book visited the encampment under the bridge it was in a torrential downpour. She remembers driving away with her windows down and the rain falling.
``You can't really understand what it's like unless you go there. You can't capture it in words or pictures. Being there, hearing it, seeing it, smelling it -- it's all part of understanding the situation under the Julia Tuttle Causeway.''
At the time, she was a member of a Broward County task force examining residency restrictions for sex offenders and she believed she needed to see the conditions to be more knowledgeable about the issue.
She concedes that the visit was difficult.
``I can tell them, `I really don't condone anything you've done . . . but I don't think you should be living under a bridge.' ''
TOUGH BUT FLEXIBLE
But make no mistake: Lauren Book has no sympathy for sexual predators and offenders, especially those who argue that they served their time, and therefore, they should not have to live a life sentence in exile.
``I say to them, `Well, you're damn right you're serving a life sentence -- and so am I,' '' she said, her eyes blazing. ``The things that Waldina Flores did to me will always, always be there. I was never given the luxury of saying, `Hey I don't want this life sentence.' ''
Lauren has immersed herself in the issue of protecting children from sexual abuse. She talks openly about her abuse in public forums, and she has launched her own foundation, Lauren's Kids, a nonprofit that works to educate the public about child sex abuse.
``There's something about her kindness -- her love for others. Whenever she walks into a room, it makes a room a lot different. It makes the room brighter,'' said her husband, a professional golfer. ``She's a driven girl.''
Now, despite her bad days, Lauren Book is smiling with a cheerful veneer that almost masks the pain in her soul.
``I still have flashbacks,'' she says. ``I walk through a broken life every day.''
(Lauren Book)
Umm, where were her parents?
Is it just me?
Maybe I should go back and read the article a second time but I don’t have the time. It’s full of holes.
‘I fired her twice...’ Why did she hire the nannyback again?
Just because these *&$$@# can’t live within 2,500 feet of a school why do they have to go live under a bridge and sh$t on the ground?
Journalism, journalism, where art thou?
Believe it or not they actually covered that in the article.
I agree with this point; the laws can be too restrictive. Especially considering how little it takes to be named a predator. (I recall something about an adult male using the urinal (properly) in a bathroom with kids got him on the list.) Now if they are the more serious offenders, something has to be done like execution or permanent incarceration.
Amazing huh? What a coincidence this comes as the Roman Polanski thing happens.
bingo
Her mother probably will never recover from the guilt of valuing her chocolate business over raising her own children
I agree with the young woman's contention that the residency restrictions has unintended consequences. Released offenders are driven to despair because they can't find a place to live and work and this creates a marginalized group of people living on the streets with no hope but who are free to prey on children everywhere and who are also, tragically, off the radar of law enforcement since they have no address where they can be tracked down.
Really the only solution is to keeep them locked up for life or create some sort of penal colony. How about Iraq?
That’s right — lock them up, throw away the key. No misplaced sentimentalism, thanks anyway. I think a nice desert island would do.
You are RIGHT! It was released at the same time the Polanski thing came to light. Well, waddya just know? The press has an agenda.
I think this gal has survivor’s guilt.
Here’s the other thing — she is walking among perverts and predators. All it will take is just ONE who hasn’t owned up and is still in predator mode for it to happen all over again. Stupid stupid liberals.
She sounds like she thinks this is counterproductive and could hurt more kids. She doesn’t have any sympathy for them, the story says.
I believe that sometimes people "speed read" articles and miss pertinent details. I've seen at least two comments so far that suggests that.
The old canard about throwing them in with the general population and let Bubba have a go at them just doesn't work any more.
As proof of that check out the local sex offender list, the one for my county is full of names of people who have served time for sex offenses and lived through it quite well.
“Speaking of her mother’s guilt re: her choclate business, isn’t there a candidate for Governor who is being criticized for an essay he wrote years ago that stated in some cases children have suffered from mother’s carreers and this has been to the detriment of our nation? Just sayin’... “
I don’t know how to be the type of mom I believe I need to be for my children’s sake AND participate in a job at Wal-Mart much less independent business owner/career person. One parent needs extreme flexibility to be on top of the children’s guidance and involved knowing what is going on. I do feel sorry for this mom but I am happy she was able to quit. Single parents have an almost impossible task without extended family support.
I have two grand children in my care and every morning you will see old Graybeard standing at the bus stop with them, even though the bus stops in front of my house. My wife works and I am retired.
They are 9 (boy) and 10 (girl) years old and may not care to have gramps standing with them, though they have never complained, that's just the way it's going to be.
That’s only 1/2 mile. In many places the law is 1000 ft. It’s not that hard to find a place to live where you are more than 1/2 mile from a school.
But, we forget, the child rapists are the victims.
Given that we have homeless veterans, and also homeless children, what’s the problem? Personally I don’t know why we ever let sex offenders out of jail in the first place, better yet they should be executed.
And do it retroactively, thereby eliminating the problem forever. The constitution isn't worth the paper it's written on anyway.
Desperation is not what drives them to 'go out and find a child'.
And Sarah Palin was busy with her career while her teenage daughter was hooking up with the local drug dealer’s scummy son, and while Todd was often away in the oil fields for weeks at a time. But somehow 99% of the people on FR worship Sarah Palin and won’t criticize *anything* that she’s done.
What?
The question is....why did we let them out of jail in the first place?
People who rape children should be put to death. Solves all the “problems”/.
Oh come now......every teenage girl, once in her lifetime has dated the “King of Loserville”. My honest opinion as a mature woman....it helps them learn the “hard way”......I hope.....it did me anyway...............
If your daughter is sleeping with the King of Loserville, you need to make d*mn sure she’s using contraceptives. Parading pregnant Bristol and scummy Levi in front of the world at the Republican convention, and telling the media how they were going to get married (and had been planning to get married even before the pregnancy — yeah, right!) was flat-out disgusting and exploitative.
In another case a person had a party at their house and all parties were of age. Both male and female were drunk ended up in bed together and when she sobered up, said she was raped. The judge ended up dismissing the case and got in some trouble with the NOW crowd. If he had been convicted, he could have been classified as a sex offender.
I also believe there are cases where the age difference between an 18 year old and a 16 year old.
So I guess my point is there needs to be differentiation on the offenses that are included in putting these types of restriction on people and/or giving people the ability to appeal inclusion on the list.
I'm sorry, but WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU AND THE MRS DURING ALL THIS?????? I know abuse happens and can happen under peoples noses, but your child was crapped on and pushed down the stairs and being raped NIGHTLY in your own home, and you had no idea???????? And, after everything she endured, you can't even read the entire police report???? WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU???
First of all.....no...I don’t want my daughter sleeping with the King of Loserville.....but I want her to know the damn difference! She will not always be with me! If I run off every boy she brings home all that says to all the boys is “don’t take out her daughter her mother will run you off” (would you believe wisdom from my Grandmother!!!) The key here is to allow her to see that he is the King of Loserville without me telling her “that boy is the King of Loserville don’t bring him around here again!!!” Then in the future she avoids boys like that!!! (Oh dear God...I hope so) Glenn Beck talked about boys like this! Only he did not call them the “King of Loserville” those are my words.
Out being too busy with their jobs to raise their kids.. that’s where. And these weren’t folks who NEEDED to work to jobs, they chose to, and handed off their kids to someone else.
I know they covered it. I cannot imagine being that out of touch with my kids that I didn’t have an inkling of what was going on in my own house, or that they wouldn’t come to me.
Trust me when I say this. It's a lot easier than you think for these monsters to worm their way into a family and do tremendous damage. Believe me. I know.
Exactly. And parading King of Loserville across the stage at the Republican convention alongside pregnant Bristol, and smilling from ear to ear while telling the media how the lovely couple are looking forward to get married, is NOT giving Bristol the message the Levi is the King of Loserville. Frankly, I don’t think Sarah knew much about Levi at all, because she was too busy climbing her career ladder to pay any attention to what her teenage daughter was doing. And she hadn’t delegated the job to Todd, because he was away from home for long stretches of time. She didn’t even tell him she’d learned the baby she was carrying had Down Syndrome for 2 weeks, because she was waiting for him to get back from the oil fields. The only message Bristol seems to have been getting from her parents was “Run off and do your own thing — just like us!”. So she did.
Good point!
bonged?
Nice try, but nobody’s buying that Sarah’s responsible for a teenage girl’s faux pas. Kids keep secrets, Girls date jackasses, and things get by any parent.
BTW, how many days were the kids living alone, and abandoned, while Sarah ignored them, and Todd was completely gone?
You look like a rube, and Mitt sucks.
I don't know, but Todd was gone a lot, for long stretches of time in parenting terms, so either the kids were left to a nanny a lot (or on their own), or Sarah was not anywhere close to meeting her responsibilities as Governor.
And yes, even very attentive parents can still have a kid make some huge mistakes. But when a parent then treats the mistake like a wonderful thing, and advertises it to the whole country as such, the parent is at fault. I'm as fed up as anyone with scummy Levi's tell-all-with-embellishments media interviews, but it was Sarah's choice to make him a nationally known "celebrity" who the tabloids and gossip magazines and white-trash TV talk shows are eager to interview/publish/broadcast.
And now every time he gives one of his trashy interviews, she runs to the media herself to holler that he isn't telling the truth. He should be firmly ignored, but she seems to have some compulsion to keep bringing herself down to his level. The trash media naturally *loves* this -- having ditzy-hypocritical Sarah and scummy Levi duking it out in a public war of words sells *lots* of trash publications and draws *lots* of viewers to trash TV.
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