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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[sherim]

If you find the above news disturbing I would encourage you to flood the judge with letters and e-mails between now and Friday, the day of sentencing 12/19/03. The info is as follows: Judge Ronald Kessler Regional Justice Center 401 4th Ave. N., Room 2D Kent, WA 98032 Fax # 206.205.2585 E-Mail-(not as good)ronald.kessler@metrokc.gov Also, the link to the on-line petition against this creature is at: http://www.gopetition.com/online/3140.html Time is running out and we need to keep this animal caged so he does not have the opportunity to do this to another child. Thank You, Happy Holidays and God Bless, Sheri Miller (Author of petition and mother of 3)

[wizardoz]

It took her three weeks to call police.

???????????????!!!!!

[Bikers4Bush]

This guy shouldn't be going to prison, he should be going to the morgue in more than one bag.

[hopespringseternal]

It took her three weeks to call police.

...

Crowder sighed: "I take some relief knowing he will have to face God someday."

So will you.

[newgeezer]

There are no words. But, there is a special place.

[keri]

I agree with you. He should die, and the mother ought to be put in prison and there receive what she recommends for her demon boyfriend: counseling.

I hope she never has another baby, or boyfriend.

[Halls]

This is sick!!!!!!!!!

[Bikers4Bush]

I couldn't agree more.

[r9etb]

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.

Good Lord. This tells me it happened more than once. Poor little kid.

[eastforker]

Let me get this straight. The mother walks in and sees the baby's father raping the child and it takes her three weeks to turn him in. 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. If the story is true she is as guilty as he is.

[Dante3]

This is an outrage. Something is dreadfully wrong with the system if he and that mother from hell get away with a slap on the writs such as Amy Grossberg and her lover boy got.

[Politicalmom]

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

[MHGinTN]

They would still be searching for his body, if that happened in my home!

What amazes me daily is the ability to disconnect truth the way liberals do ... a 2 months old baby is cherished, a two months prior to birth baby is discardable. Astonishing disconnect, don'tcha know!

[MD_Willington_1976]

This guy shouldn't be going to prison, he should be going to the morgue in more than one bag.

I agree. That piece of excrement should be tied to a whipping post outside the courthouse so that anyone passing by could have a fair shot at him. Then after about a day of whipping, put one in his head and send the body to the rendering plant.

[Cicero]

Well, OK, I'll say a few words on behalf of the mother. She seems to have been a normally sinful woman, far enough into evil to have an affair and a baby with a pathological man, and not to realize it.

But I will say in her behalf that she may have been so deeply shocked by what she suddenly saw, and also so shamed and guilty for her own up to then unwitting part in bringing this terrible thing about, that it took her a week to recover and do the right thing.

No, she's certainly not innocent, but I wouldn't downplay the horrible shock she must have gotten at that devastating moment, and maybe the time it took for her to sort it out and come to grips with it. I'd leave her to heaven. The boyfriend should get the chair, but of course that's not possible in our present rotten judicial system.

[Bikers4Bush]

"Last month, Joseph Lehman Jr., 38, pleaded guilty to raping his girlfriend's 2-month-old daughter last December."

This is how we know she didn't just make it all up.

[eastforker]

Notice Crowder says she describes her abuse as well on the air waves. The fact the perp pleaded guilty to lessen the punishment could also mean one of two things, he didn't have money to fight it or he thought a jury would convict him anyway. Without any concrete evidence other than the mothers testimony I can't imagine him not going to trial. There is IMHO more to this story than is being told. If the guy did it fry him,thats a given,but something don't smell right about this story.

[mamaduck]

six months of jail time, three years of treatment for sexual deviancy and a lifetime of supervision.

Just think of all the jobs created by these tactics.

Filth like this should be put out of this world and into the place it belongs!

[cubreporter]

No, no, no, no, no. I don't agree with that at all. Most mothers would have reacted to protect their child. Real mothers would have. Sorry, doesn't cut it with me nor others I would imagine by reading the posts.