1st Chapter of My Book

      You can access my entire book, Falling on the Deaf Ear, at http://fathersmanifesto.net/falling.htm .


CHAPTER 1


MY PERSONAL NIGHTMARE


In the summer of 1985 I was 24 years old and naive to the workings of our legal system. I was unaware of the subtle conspiracy against men by the radical feminist movement. I am from a middle class upbringing in California and had a stable family life. In school I had been in a program for mentally gifted minors (MGM), and upon graduating from high school I joined the Air Force. After the service I guess I wouldn't be considered a "choir boy," and had been arrested for several minor alcohol related misdemeanor charges.
 I moved to Alaska and worked hard as a commercial fisherman. I played hard, sometimes too hard. I occasionally spent a couple days in a county jail somewhere for a minor alcohol related charge.
The summer of '85 I met a young woman in an alcohol treatment center I had checked myself into. We became friends and on our last night there we had sex. This innocent sexual encounter of so many years ago would change my life forever, take me places I never dreamed I would go, and show me injustices I could never imagine existed. This woman I had sex with would turn out to be sick and would falsely accuse me of rape. Four years later, I would find myself in front of a jury as they pronounced me guilty. I would go to a maximum security prison to serve ten years for my "crime." I would escape, be recaptured and given even more prison time. I would have numerous articles written about my wrongful conviction and I would start a national organization for innocent men in prison. I would even get the attention of the Governor of Oregon who may commute my prison term.
 In that summer of 1985, I had been staying with a relative of mine in Oregon. Things were not working out for us. We did not get along. I had been drinking too much and not acting very responsible.
 I decided to leave my relatives, visit my parents in California and then return to Alaska. Before I left for California I checked myself into an alcohol treatment center for a five-day detoxification period and then I planned to enter a long-term treatment center. I believed I may have a problem with drinking and decided to get help before seeing my parents.
 I checked myself into the detox program located in Salem, Oregon. It was one large building, actually portable trailers that had been attached together. It contained offices, a large living area, and a number of sleeping rooms that patients shared, one side for men and across a hall, the other side for women. As I recall, there were about 20 men and 10 women. I was assigned to a room with three other men.
 The five-day treatment consisted of lectures, films, and group discussion on alcoholism. I had decided that my drinking had become a problem and I decided to enter a 90-day treatment center in Grants Pass, Oregon, after my five-day detox treatment and before visiting my parents.
 There were a number of women in this "detox." I was 24 years old, unattached, and never had a problem attracting women. One woman began to flirt with me, and not being one to pass up the opportunity to get to know a good-looking woman better, I flirted back. On the third day of my treatment, this woman and I went to the back of this detox building to lie on the grass. One of the alcohol counselors "caught us" giving each other back rubs and we were "reprimanded." While in treatment it was forbidden to fraternize with the opposite sex. This was said to interfere with treatment. This woman was due to leave the next day, so I gave the "reprimand" little thought.


Throughout my stay, up to this point I had been talking to another woman who had arrived the same day as me. We ate some meals together, would sit together on one of the couches and talk. I was reprimanded again after we were "caught" laughing too loudly together. I was told I could be kicked out of the program for fraternizing and told not to sit with her again.
 We continued to see each other in the back laundry room secretly and soon began to make out and kiss. She told me she was addicted to "crank," was in hot water with her mother, and may not have a place to live any longer. I felt sorry for her, but I had my own problems.
 On our last night there with our "treatment" to be completed the next day, I went to her room. She had been sharing a room with a woman who left that day. When I opened her door and went inside she had been reading. She put her book down and we began to talk. Soon we were kissing and petting heavily. We both undressed and I crawled in bed with her.
 We started to have sex on the old hospital bed, but it began to creak noisily. The walls of this building weren't actually walls but more like partitions. We spread a blanket on the floor and continued to have sex, trying to be as quiet as possible since we didn't want to get caught and kicked out. Afterward, we got dressed, said our good byes and I left. I wanted to get back to my room before the hourly bed checks that were made. I got back to my room and went to sleep.
 In the morning this woman and I ate breakfast together and said our good byes. I would be leaving for Grants Pass and she was going back to her mother's, if her mother would let her in her house. I remember her giving me her mother's phone number. She said she wanted me to call. I packed up my belongings and left. I never called. To be honest I didn't think of this woman until many years later when she changed my life forever.
 After the 86 days I was kicked out of the treatment center in Grants Pass, Oregon, for drinking beer. After that I went to California to visit my parents. After a few months there I went back to Alaska. For the next few years I lived in many small fishing towns on the coast of Alaska and led a rough and tumble life. Just the way I liked it. I was never a 9 to 5 man. I didn't see eye to eye with a time clock. But I always worked hard while I was at sea. I continued to drink from time to time and every now and then would end up in jail for the night. In all my arrests I had never spent more than 20 days in a row in jail and that was only once.
 The summer of 1988 found me on the Kenia Peninsula, which is world famous for having the world's highest concentration of bears per square mile. I was living in a tent with my new girl friend, a slightly older woman who was as rough around the edges as I, but extremely good looking. She was also as big a drinker as I, if not bigger. We were in love, but drinking caused its problems between us.
 Because we were living with so many bears around, I had bought a shot gun for protection. I would leave it with my girl friend as I went to look for a new boat to work on. I sawed off the barrel and stock to shorten it so that it wouldn't get caught in the heavy bush just in case I needed it quickly. This was a major mistake.
 My girl friend and I broke up. We had grown apart and it was time to move on. One night while drinking in a local bar, I was arrested for having a weapon. I didn't have any shells on me, nor was the gun loaded. It didn't matter, though. I was arrested and taken to the county jail.
 The next day I went in front of the judge to be arraigned for "possession of an illegal weapon." Not only did I have this charge, the judge told me, but I was also wanted as a fugitive on a first degree rape warrant from Salem, Oregon. I was shocked. I would never force a woman to have sex with me. It must be a mistake. It wasn't.
 I plead guilty to the weapons charge and was sentenced to 14 months of which I would serve 8. I was then extradited to Oregon to face the rape charge and 20 years in prison.
 I had no idea who was claiming I raped her, or why. After four long months in the Kenia County jail, I finally found out. It was that woman that I had long since forgotten that I had sex with at the detox program I was in so many years earlier. I was contacted by a civil attorney working for the treatment center. This woman had claimed I raped her so she could file a million-dollar law suit for "damages" against the detox center. Money had been her motive! To be honest, I was relieved. At least now I knew who was accusing me of such a horrible crime. The civil attorney wanted a statement from me on how the sex between this woman and I was in fact consensual instead of the wild and bizarre "story" this woman was telling. The civil trial was to begin in a month to see if this woman was raped, and to see if she deserved money from the detox center. This attorney told me a detective would be coming to see me soon.
 A few days later, a private detective came to see me in the county jail. I, being innocent, had nothing to hide, and felt I should talk to this man. He was an older gentleman and seemed quite concerned. I spoke with him for over an hour and a half. He said he would make a full report. He seemed sympathetic to me and told me not to worry.
 A month later when I called the civil attorney he told me the woman had won her case and I was guilty of rape. He wanted nothing more to do with me and got what he wanted, my statement for him to use in court. He didn't want to hear of my innocence any more and hung up the phone. I was in shock. How could this be? I did nothing illegal!
 I phoned my father and related the news to him. He had earlier told me on the phone that since I was innocent I had nothing to worry about. He, too, was now beginning to see how the legal system really works. He hired an attorney for me as soon as he could. He called our relative in Oregon and asked her to find me an attorney. She, in turn asked one of her close friends, a male attorney, if he could handle the case. He said he would and needed $10,000 up front. I phoned him and he said he would start the case as soon as I was returned to Oregon.
 After serving eight months in jail in Alaska I was extradited to Oregon. I was shackled and taken aboard a commercial airline with two Oregon detectives as escorts. Throughout the flight I remained chained like an animal. It was a very humiliating experience. In Oregon I was taken to the Marion County jail. After my father somehow scraped together the money for my bail, $2,000 ransom to be paid to the state of Oregon, I was released and free until my trial. As soon as I was out of jail I went to see my new attorney.
 He was about 40 years old, over weight, and reminded me of a used car salesman. He was not what I had in mind as a go-getting, hot shot attorney, that my relative assured me he was. He talked fast and always seemed to be sweating. He told me the civil trial meant nothing, but it may to my jury and he wouldn't mention it in court. He also said in civil trials the burden of proof is much lower than in criminal trials. He then said that since this woman had won her money, her goal all along, that she didn't want to go through with the trial, but a rape crisis counselor had put pressure on her to proceed and worked her into a man hating frenzy in which she screamed, "Let's get that bastard!" This rape counselor and her buddies at the local rape crisis center also put pressure on the DA and judge to continue with the trial.
 My attorney then relayed the following to me: the "victim's" testimony in the civil trial testimony was very convincing and tears flowed easily. The rape crisis counselor had coached her on her testimony and rehearsed with her how to act like a real "victim" of rape. Also on how to squeeze as much sympathy out of a jury as possible and cry on cue.


This woman also had a history of filing false accusations of rape and even accused her own brother on one occasion when she was mad at him. This woman was forever being sexually assaulted, in her eyes. A jury would never believe such a woman.
 I was shown her psychological reports from years before I ever met her. She was one sick woman. I would have never gone near her or talked to her had I know she was so mentally ill. Among her psychological problems were border line personality disorders, amnesia, and organic brain damage (presumably from drug abuse). She fantasized about suicide, liked to view herself as a victim, hated men, was an alcoholic and a drug addict. No jury would believe such a deranged woman.
 I learned she had been kicked out of this detox center for not being willing to enter long term treatment, and she was accusing me of rape to get back at this center and to sue them. Also, how could her mother refuse to let her in her home after she had been "raped"? She was a desperate, homeless woman who did the only thing she could think of: cry rape, which had worked for her in the past. She was also known to "hang out" at her local court house and view trials for nothing else better to do and learned all about how accusations of rape and rape trials work.
 There was no evidence other than my saying the sex was consensual. This would be used against me. All the staff were to testify on my behalf. The "victim's" report of the "crime" was so bizarre that no jury could believe her. Besides, she had changed her story several times. My attorney also said this woman was going to sue me for "damages" and for child support. She was claiming her kid was mine! My attorney said he would ask for blood tests to disprove this insane accusation of my fatherhood.
 My attorney wouldn't let me see the transcript of the civil trial and other information, saying it would be too hard to look for. He said to trust him, not to worry about anything, and to go on with my life until the trial. He would take care of everything.
 I believed him and was not too worried. I decided to go to California. Along the way I met a Canadian woman and we stayed together until my trial. I visited my parents with my new friend and then went on a mini vacation with her, touring northern California. I returned to Oregon three weeks later with her, bought a suit, and was ready for my trial. I planned to go to Canada with my new friend after my trial, and then back to Alaska.
 Little did I know that my future plans were unnecessary. In two weeks I would be in Oregon State Maximum Security Penitentiary to begin serving a ten-year prison term and fighting for my life.