If you are a DIGGing kind of person, I strongly encourage you to digg this story I wrote about Megan Crouch. Thanks.
Category: Right and Wrong
Ascension Parish DA Screws up a Child Abuse Case..and a 13 year old girl dies
Last week, I made a post about the 13 year old girl named Megan Leigh Crouch who committed suicide. Here is the video that the mother made about her:
Apparently Megan Crouch’s mother has made a website about the injustice surrounding Megan’s case. Apparently, Megan was abused sexually at an early age by her stepdad. Even though the mother reported it to the police in Ascension Parish in Lousiana and even though the girl gave videotaped testimony, and even though the stepdad was arrested, and even though charges were filed, the man was set free after bail was paid by his mother. She writes:
In January 2005 we moved to Kentucky. We decided that we were going to make a fresh start. Megan wanted to put the past behind her and move forward like a normal little girl her age. I agreed but also explained to her that we still had the upcoming trial. She said she understood but until that day she wanted to move forward without having to think about everything in the past. The DA’s office would schedule the trial and we would receive the summons for court only to be told days before the date that it had been canceled. This went on about 5 times. Each time this happened, my little girl was scared to death to face him in court and would work her courage up for it only to be let down again. It was devastating her.
I was told by the courts that I had to let my ex see my youngest daughter because there were no charges against him for her, only my older daughter. I was forced to drive to Louisiana once a month for a two hour supervised visit with my youngest. Of course, I had to take both children to the visitations. I couldn’t leave Megan home alone. She had to endure taking her sister to see HIM! I was also told I had to let him call my house to speak to my youngest regularly. Megan sometimes answered the phone and had to hear his voice. I had no way to stop his calls or visitations. It was silently killing her and I didn’t realize how bad.
In January of 2007 my ex didn’t show to reschedule the next trial date and a bench warrant was put out for him. The police and the DA’s office had his home address, all phone numbers, and his work address. He was never picked up. Instead, he has been walking the streets possibly molesting who knows how many other children.
If this weren’t bad enough, this is how the mother was treated after Megan’s suicide:
My ex called again a few nights later (Robert adds: after the suicide) and told me I was violating a court order by not letting him talk to Regan. When I told him she does not want to talk to him because of what happened to Megan his response was, “Megan didn’t shoot herself because I molested her.” He has accidentally admitted it to me on several occasions by things that he says when he’s angry. After he called, his mother called stating that I was violating a court order. My husband told her that until her sick son was put in jail NO ONE was talking to Regan. Her response was, “There isn’t going to be a trial now, charges will be dropped – Megan is dead!” After she called his sister called screaming that we were being rude to my ex and her mom! HELLO! WHAT DOES SHE EXPECT!?!
I received a letter on the 25th of July regarding an upcoming “Status Trial” for August 28th at 9am. I took off work and drove down to Louisiana only to find out they had sent me the wrong papers. It was for another man with the same name. I sat in court for two hours to find this out. I met with the prosecutor on my case while I was there and found out that the bench warrant that was supposed to have been issued in January of 07 had NEVER been signed by the judge before it was filed with the court house. Another mistake made regarding the whole situation. Maybe if things had been done right from the beginning and my ex had been forced to stand trial within a reasonable amount of time then my daughter might still be here. I truly believe she needed closure and needed to see him go to jail for what he did. Waiting so long for justice silently destroyed her.
Personal Note: I stumbled upon this youtube video quite by accident and another video by one of Megan’s friends. It is a shocking video to see because the presentation of facts is so straightforward. I have looked very skeptically at this video (as I do all Youtube videos claiming to be true). The basic facts check out about Megan’s death check out (see this obituary and this obituary). Also, I have exchanged a few emails with the mother, who seems credible and reasonable (as reasonable as you’re going to find under the circumstances). I have not talked with her nor have I met her, nor have I verified that these charges did occur nor have I made an attempt to hear the other side of the story. But it’s hard to believe a person would go to all this trouble to stage this kind of story. This story sounds very credible.
Here is the problem. Megan’s mom is predictably outraged by how the DA office refused to prosecute the child abuser. She is outraged that the DA office kept telling Megan that the trial would come, and then it never did. Based on the mother’s account of events, Ascension Parish’s DA office deserves a huge amount of blame for the hell they put the daughter (and her family through).
Once again, we are presented with these questions: a Louisiana man is charged with sexual abuse of a child. Why has it taken 4 years for this case to go to trial? Why should he have the right to see the other daughter (when there are allegations he abused her as well). Why is this man still free?
See also: my thoughts on the tragedies of dying young.
Sept 1 Update: Apparently, the latest video names the person accused of child abuse. The person’s name is: Danny Dewayne Wallice
April 18, 2009 Update. Unfortunately I did not update with the latest news. Apparently, the mother’s video has now been removed from Youtube, and in December, 2008, the judge refused to allow the videotaped evidence Megan gave into the trial. When I last heard from the mother, she did not know if the DA’s office would be able to continue with the trial. I have had a brief email exchange with the mother, but nothing I can report here. Unfortunately, this may turn out to be one of those stories that never really ends; it’s simply a neglected case which the justice system didn’t get to.
The Perils (and Benefits) of Sad Knowledge
Today has been one year since Haley Paige’s death. (I wrote an obituary to her a few months ago–warning NSFW photo). Over time, the father has provided more details of her tragic ending (which I reprinted in full).
The father has provided remarkable insights into the nature of the tragedy and has put up with the X-rated spam on a fan site to communicate with those who still care.
But are you ready to read it? There are tragedies everywhere, and yet if you let your emotions get too caught up in things you cannot alter or control, you become another victim. No, the human condition is not to be masochists, but we must open our hearts when things change. The Buddha lived a happy life until he confronted the sight of the sick and suffering. There is a time to laugh and a time to cry. Just because our eyes open to the suffering of the world doesn’t make laughter irrelevant; maybe in fact the ability to laugh becomes more precious as we burden ourselves with knowledge of the world’s inadequacies.
I am reading a remarkable book, How Proust Can Change your Life by Alan de Botton. It offers insights:
Why is this painful journey so indispensable to the acquisition of true wisdom?…It is as if the mind were a squeamish organ that refused to entertain difficult truths unless encouraged to do so by difficult events. “Happiness is good for the body,” Proust tells us, “but it is grief which develops the strengths of the mind.” These griefs put us through a form of mental gymnastics which we would have avoided in happier times. Indeed, if a genuine priority is the development of our mental capacities, the implication is that we would be better off being unhappy than content, better off pursuing tormented love affairs than reading Plato or Spinoza. (Proust writes) A woman whom we need and who makes us suffer elicits from us a whole gamut of feelings far more profound and more vital than does a man of genius who interests us.
It is perhaps only normal if we remain ignorant when things are blissful. When a car is working well, what incentive is there to learn of its complex internal functioning? When a beloved pledges loyalty, why should we dwell on the dynamics of human treachery? What could encourage us to investigate the humiliations of social life when all we encounter is respect? Only when plunged into grief do we have the Proustian incentive to confront difficult truths, as we wail under the bedclothes, like branches in the autumn wind.
Strangely this year I have been struck by a sense of mortality. No, I do not have any fatal diseases (not that i know of!), but last year a friend told me about a serious diagnosis of cancer which turned out to be unfounded (because of some error). My friend and I were both the same age, and suddenly, death and deterioration we started to worry about. A few weeks ago I saw the remarkable Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (and the shorter coda which is all the more dramatic). He said, “We don’t beat the reaper by living longer; we beat the reaper by living well and living fully. The reaper will come for all of us. The question is what do we do between the time we are born and the time he shows up? When he shows up, it is too late to do the things you always wanted to kind of get around to.”
Pausch knew the truth, but on the other hand, he had a fuller life than most people. And yes, if I were to look backwards for a moment, I have had a relatively full life (more or less). But how can anyone’s life be completely content when you learn about young person being brought down by hatred or violence. War… it not only seems barbaric….it seems inhuman. Humans were meant to have crappy jobs and crazy girlfriends and weird finances and silly passions and stupid arguments and personal traumas… that is part of being human. But humans aren’t put on this planet to be abused or killed by a stray bullet or to suffer from hunger or pain without the possibility of being helped. Nobody should have to deal with that. That’s not part of the job description. That’s out of scope.
First, there is the question of the unfairness of everything, then there is the question of, what are you doing to alleviate the suffering of the world? There is also the lingering fear that maybe the victim deserved the tragic end (read this terrible story). But no, that is a rationalization. No one can be pure evil. In middle school I knew a boy who had not an iota of human feeling; he beat everyone up; he was cruel and even enjoyed beating people up. In college I knew a woman who treated men terribly –terribly. At the time I could not understand it. How could a woman be so vindictive? Where was her humanity? Later, with the benefit of wisdom, I began to figure things out. The boy had an abusive family life which he took out on other people; he had totally lost that unguarded innocence that most middle schoolers still possess. The woman had anger issues toward males, perhaps because her father sexually abused her. At the time I knew something was seriously wrong with these people; I just didn’t understand why. Not all of us are victims, yet a certain segment of the population faces hardship and suffering; our job is to try to help these people…knowing that for some we will never succeed.
Parts of the world are crying….are we listening? are we listening?
How to Spot a Man who is an Asshole
i hesitated about linking to this article titled "16 Commandments of Poon", but I think the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. (Btw, don’t bother reading the comments). Occasionally I stumble upon pages about how alpha males should behave. I don’t know how seriously to take well-written nonsense like this. Perhaps it was written ironically.
To my female readers: if you meet a man who follows any of these rules, run away! run away!
For the men, I posted some cynical rants by Heartless Bitches in my semi-defunct Unsolved heart weblog. For future reference, I’ll look around for something less cynical to post about relationships.
Horray for George W. Bush! (and to hell with poor sick people)
A sad shocking story. (Discussion here and tastefully done CNN video here).
An indigent patient is checked into the publicly-financed psychiatric ward in New York. She lay dead on the waiting room floor for 48 minutes before a staff member notices what happened. She had been convulsing on the floor for 30 minutes unnoticed. (the surveillance videotaped captured it though).
She had been waiting in this room for 24 hours to see a doctor and never saw one. Imagine that. Imagine spending your last 24 hours in pain and distress, dying in this hellish place.
I don’t know the implications for private health providers.
Here is what she looked like when alive. She recently lost a low-paying job and had been evicted from her home. A neighbor describes her as “a beautiful person… She has a good heart. She loved people, and she loved children.” She sang in the church choir.
In other news, the decision of the US to elect George W. Bush to start an unnecessary war cost Americans $137 billion in 2007, enough to provide a year of health care coverage for 40 million people.
When you talk to people who voted for George W. Bush, think about that.
