Baby Raped: Will Justice Be Served?

The Seattle Times ^ | 12-15-03 | Nicole Brodeur

[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

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[CajunConservative]

Um, don't you think they did a physical examination of the baby before charges were brought? Why would any man willingly admit guilt to this knowing what happens to them in prison?

[jwalsh07]

Death by hanging.

[Pontiac]

So all we have is her testimony, when she could have immediately taken the baby to the hospital,verify it,collect forensic evidence etc. How do we know she didn't fabricate the whole story.

The man raped a two month old child. The damage he did to a two month old vagina is more than like likely permanent and most certainly would still be evident after three weeks.

[eastforker]

Read my post 18.Not everyone that accepts a plea bargain is necessarily guilty. Has it occurred to you that he might just think probation is better than 6-10 years if found guilty? I have never reasoned why plea bargains give such lighter punishment over a jury conviction. It just makes it too convenient to cop a plea and walk rather than prove a case and incarcerate the guy.

[headsonpikes]

Just think of all the jobs...

That's what it's all about - the scavengers have to eat, too.

Not everyone can be a parasite - the gubmint needs to provide opportunities for scavengers and predators, as well.

It's called Ecological Management.

[eastforker]

The article says it took her three weeks to call police.Not much evidence left after that amount of time.

[Diamond]

I'm not sure I would believe my eyes if I saw my husband do something like that

The key word there is HUSBAND.

Cordially,

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

...Lehman may receive just six months of jail time...

Plenty of time for justice to be served from the inside.

There are people on the inside that don't take kindly to this kind of perp. This fresh fish will be getting married soon after he gets inside. I hope it's a long wedding night.

[Durus]

Agreed, a rope is re-usable.

[CajunConservative]

I imagine there is plenty of evidence to warrant charges in a two month old infant. No man I know would willingly admit to these charges if they were not guilty. Even with a plea bargain, six months would be a LONG time to survive the prison justice system for baby rapers.

[keri]

I don't buy that she was so influenced by shock and hormonal changes that she allowed this guy three weeks to breathe good air.

Sorry if I sound cruel, here, but most mothers would claw your eyeballs out if you touch their child, especially new mothers.

[chuknospam]

Shoot, shovel, shutup.

[americanSoul]

I would have killed him. DEAD. On the spot.

The best post re this monster so far. On the spot is right.

[eastforker]

Since you posted this article, could you get some follow up from the reporter that authered this story? Like if there was any forensic or physical evidence.All to often stories are posted without enough facts to go with it. The main question in my mind is, is the womans testimony the only evidence.

[SarahW]

He did plead guilty, after all. He probably confessed.
And believe me, there would be "forensic evidence" even three weeks later.

[exmarine]

This is just one more sign of the exceedingly wicked times we live in. JUSTICE will be served when the KING returns, and the wicked will be punished. There is no escape.

[eastforker]

I also noticed that the person that posted this article and pushing this petition has failed to respond to anyone here and it has been an hour.I would like some more info before I would sign a petition ,wouldn't you?

[BabsC]

If the story is true she is as guilty as he is.

I agree, if I walked in on that and it wasn't even my child I would still have killed that animal where he stood. That is the only thing I could have lived with afterword. The child is forever scarred.

[proud American in Canada]

"The main question in my mind is, is the womans testimony the only evidence."

Not with a two-month old baby.

[SarahW]

MOre info at this link.

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:5jHO-IRb4RMJ:www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/120932+%22Joseph+Lehman+Jr.%22+baby&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

He was sexually abusing the infant, but I'm not sure if it is alleged that he inserted his penis or not.

From the article above (local coverage of the story)

"Police said Lehman Jr. admitted having oral and manual sexual contact with the baby for about 10 minutes. He stopped, he said, because the child ``wasn't very happy about it,'' according to charging documents.

A doctor who examined the baby said there were no physical injuries"