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Baby Raped: Will Justice Be Served?
The Seattle Times ^
| 12-15-03
| Nicole Brodeur
Posted on 12/16/2003 7:56:39 AM PST by sherim
Tuesday, December 16, 2003 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.
Nicole Brodeur / Times staff columnist Baby raped: Will justice be served?
The lights are up, the Christmas Ships are out, but dark things churn in the waters this season.
On Sunday, this newspaper unveiled a yearlong investigation that found that 159 school athletic coaches have been reprimanded or fired for sexual misconduct in the past decade. Of those, 98 continued to coach or teach, while schools, the state and even some parents looked the other way.
I hope no one looks the other way in the case of another predator.
Last month, Joseph Lehman Jr., 38, pleaded guilty to raping his girlfriend's 2-month-old daughter last December. Because of his plea, the state's standard, seven- to 10-year penalty likely will be suspended when Lehman is sentenced Friday at the King County Regional Justice Center.
Instead, Lehman may receive just six months of jail time, three years of treatment for sexual deviancy and a lifetime of supervision. A court psychologist has deemed him "amenable to treatment."
Court officials stress that this improbably light sentence has nothing to do with the fact that Lehman's father, Joseph Lehman Sr., heads the Washington State Department of Corrections.
Roxanne Crowder wonders.
She is the mother of Lehman's victim (she says the baby is his, making the unthinkable even worse) and the one who walked in on Lehman that day. Crowder has held nothing back about Lehman or about her worry that he will get special treatment. That has meant naming her baby and describing her abuse on radio and television and to me.
"I will do whatever I have to do to ensure that another child is not hurt by him," Crowder said. "He already robbed my daughter of some of her innocence. I am not going to let that happen to another child."
She asserts that Lehman is manipulative and that his family hasn't acknowledged that what their son did was wrong.
"I agree Joe needs counseling," she said. "But he needs counseling in prison."
On that day, Crowder was resting at their Auburn apartment when Lehman went to change the baby's diaper. Crowder heard the baby screaming, went to investigate and saw what she can't forget.
It took her three weeks to call police.
"I will always feel guilty that I didn't break up with him or kick him out for all that time," she said. "I just couldn't process it. It's almost like a movie you saw."
A year later, the baby still wakes up screaming and pushes her mother away. Crowder has to turn on a light so the baby will know it's her.
The whole thing makes me sad, for someday it will be too easy for this baby-turned-woman to connect the dots.
I hope then that she sees her mother's crusade as The Right Thing to Do, especially in a society where schools and churches turn their heads, witnesses clam up and judges go easy, not realizing that in doing so, they create more victims.
That could change Friday. One man sentenced, a baby's purity somehow restored and unknown others spared.
And if that doesn't happen?
Crowder sighed: "I take some relief knowing he will have to face God someday."
Nicole Brodeur's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@s....
More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists. Save her a seat in the courtroom.
Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company
More Nicole Brodeur headlines http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nicolebrodeur/2001816040_brodeu r16m.html
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TOPICS: Announcements; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Miscellaneous; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: babyraped; childabuse; evil; perversion; rape; wicked
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To: Bikers4Bush
He and the mother. She for neglect.
To: anniegetyourgun
well, how common is it for "girlfriends" ( as in live-ins or unmarried partners) to be perps in cases of violence of all types....not very many....the vast number of these cases are done by the boyfriend/father/stepfather etc....
you would think that men would make the connection, and not live with women they are not married too...but alas...so many are too stupid....
you could have made your point better by not slamming an entire gender, or at least sharing blame with the gender that does most of the violence.....
102
posted on
12/17/2003 10:01:47 PM PST
by
cherry
To: keri
Keri....she said she wanted him to get counseling in PRISON, as opposed to what he might get ....counseling on the outside....
103
posted on
12/17/2003 10:03:29 PM PST
by
cherry
To: TC Rider
"In '98, she was a total kneepadder for Clinton. I guess we've learned what it takes to get her attention"
there are issues where all right thinking and decent people of all political persuasions should agree....like protecting babies and children from this evil.....
I'm glad she wrote this story....perhaps it will make a differance....
I do think society is maybe turning the corner on "forgiveness" and the "feel-good" criminal justice system.
104
posted on
12/17/2003 10:10:53 PM PST
by
cherry
"he will burn with unquenchable fire for eternity"
105
posted on
12/17/2003 10:12:52 PM PST
by
cpforlife.org
(The Missing Key of the Pro-Life Movement is at www.CpForLife.org)
To: cgk
Jeepers...
To: sherim
Forget sending him to jail....let the mommies of the world have a chance at him. I'm not a violent person, but I would gladly beat this 'person' to death.
I'm so sickened by this.
107
posted on
12/17/2003 11:17:51 PM PST
by
kimmie7
(fa la la la la la la la la fa la la la la la la < breathe!!! > fa la la la la la la la la fa la la!!)
To: sherim; EdReform
**On Sunday, this newspaper unveiled a yearlong investigation that found that 159 school athletic coaches have been reprimanded or fired for sexual misconduct in the past decade. Of those, 98 continued to coach or teach, while schools, the state and even some parents looked the other way.**
Ping!
108
posted on
12/17/2003 11:21:18 PM PST
by
Salvation
(†With God all things are possible.†)
To: 2nd amendment mama; A2J; Agitate; Alouette; Annie03; aposiopetic; attagirl; axel f; Balto_Boy; ...
On that day, Crowder was resting at their Auburn apartment when Lehman went to change the baby's diaper. Crowder heard the baby screaming, went to investigate and saw what she can't forget. It took her three weeks to call police. "I will always feel guilty that I didn't break up with him or kick him out for all that time," she said. "I just couldn't process it. It's almost like a movie you saw." A year later, the baby still wakes up screaming and pushes her mother away. Crowder has to turn on a light so the baby will know it's her. It would have taken me three-tenths of a second to cross the room and start ripping parts off him. Please read this article, we have contacts for the judge who will be sentencing him.
ProLife Ping!
If anyone wants on or off my ProLife Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
109
posted on
12/18/2003 8:34:42 AM PST
by
Mr. Silverback
(Pre-empt the third murder attempt-- Pray for Terry Schiavo!)
To: Politicalmom
I would have killed him. DEAD. On the spot. Concur, absolutely. Completely justified, and what jury would convict me? Three weeks to call the cops? Try three-tenths of a second to fly across the room and kill him deader than Disco.
110
posted on
12/18/2003 8:37:23 AM PST
by
Mr. Silverback
(Pre-empt the third murder attempt-- Pray for Terry Schiavo!)
To: SarahW
I had nightmares about this last night. Couldn't go back to sleep for over an hour. This is one of the most disturbing stories I've ever read - and all I can say is your post made me feel a little bit better.
However, this monster will get off lightly with his dad as Head of Corrections, or whatever he is.
111
posted on
12/18/2003 9:10:39 AM PST
by
cgk
(Kraut, 1989: We must brace ourselves for disquisitions on peer pressure, adolescent anomie & rage.)
To: Canticle_of_Deborah
Thank you for this post. This, too, may calm some of my nightmares. I had a hard time getting around this part of it. That the baby could still be alive if it was actual rape, as opposed to physical sexual abuse. He still deserves to be put down, imo.
112
posted on
12/18/2003 9:13:40 AM PST
by
cgk
(Kraut, 1989: We must brace ourselves for disquisitions on peer pressure, adolescent anomie & rage.)
To: sherim
This has got to be the most horrid crime perpetrated by a man upon his own infant. I just can't get over it. I would pick up the nearest implement and club him to death if that were my baby.
113
posted on
12/18/2003 10:02:47 AM PST
by
stanz
(Those who don't believe in evolution should go jump off the flat edge of the Earth.)
To: Bikers4Bush
Over 20 years ago a friend worked in the emergency room of a hospital. Someone brought in a 9 mo. old girl who had ben raped. The family wouldn't cooperate with the police but just a few days later the uncle turned up murdered.
114
posted on
12/18/2003 10:23:12 AM PST
by
tiki
To: tiki
If a family isn't going to cooperate then that's the type of ending you hope to hear about.
115
posted on
12/18/2003 10:28:45 AM PST
by
Bikers4Bush
(Bush and Co. are quickly convincing me that the Constitution Party is our only hope.)
To: sherim
It took her three weeks to call police. "I will always feel guilty that I didn't break up with him or kick him out for all that time," she said.
Romans Chapter 1: "(31)... without understanding, coveantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: (32) Who, knowing the judgement of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."
Not exactly the Biblical context, but still well put. She should be tried with him for failing to protect her child and by NOT reporting it. Not breaking up with him and willfully placing her child in grave danger is inexcuseable.
It would have taken me less than a second to take care of him.
116
posted on
12/18/2003 10:47:43 AM PST
by
GrandEagle
(I would like to say a hearty, heart felt THANKS to those who served in our nations armed forces.)
To: MD_Willington_1976
tied to a whipping post outside the courthouse so that anyone passing by could have a fair shot at him.
Minor correction.. in a San Francisco back alley with his paints around his ankles.
117
posted on
12/18/2003 11:43:25 AM PST
by
GrandEagle
(I would like to say a hearty, heart felt THANKS to those who served in our nations armed forces.)
To: sherim
She asserts that Lehman is manipulative and that his family hasn't acknowledged that what their son did was wrong. HMMM! Is this any surprise? Sounds like another child sex abuse case in the news lately...
118
posted on
12/18/2003 1:47:37 PM PST
by
Terriergal
(Psalm 11: 3 "When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?")
To: Bonaparte
It's obscene that this unrepentant whore so self-righteously invokes the name of the One Applies as well to you as well, Oh Self Righteous One.
To: Politicalmom
I would have killed him. DEAD. On the spot.Absolutely.
While his pants were still down.
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