Entry 19811124-3 - Elizabeth Petra Loucks

_November 24, 1981, Rutherford, Ohio_


"Who convinced you to agree to go to the clinic?"

"Mikey did," Liz sighed. "And he made me promise not to fight our parents, but I did."

"How did he do that?"

A tear ran down Liz's face and she shook her head, "That's what made them accuse him of doing terrible things to me."

"You said before that you said it because you wanted Mike's help."

"I did," Liz replied, sobbing softly. "And he made me promise to tell them."

"Why would he do that?"

"Because he loves me! He told me I had to tell them everything!"

"Did you ever, at any time, tell Doctor Orosco that Mike had touched you inappropriately, or that you two engaged in any kind of physical relationship?"

"NO!" Liz screeched. "Never! She tried to force me to say it! She tried to trick me into saying it! But I never did! I told over and over that it never happened!"

"Liz," Doctor Mercer said gently, "if you want to help Mike and you want to go home, you need to be careful about overreacting."

"But that bitch is trying to destroy our family and ruin my brother's life even though he's the one who helped me!" Liz wailed.

"And if you want to prevent that, you need to calm down, please. If you respond like that in the courtroom, they're going to disregard what you say."

"They're already doing that!" Liz protested, though a bit more calmly. "The judge let them take me away from my parents!"

"That's part of her job, Liz. When Family Services has sufficient evidence, and Doctor Orosco's evaluation is sufficient, the judge has to act. But you get a hearing, which is what we're preparing for. Let's take a short break, you can use the ladies', and then we can discuss what you talked about with Doctor Orosco."

"OK," Liz sighed, deeply.

She got up and went to the washroom to blow her nose and wash her face. While she was gone, Fran wrote several lines in her notebook. She was reticent to say that Doctor Orosco had fabricated the report she'd given to Family Services, but Fran's gut and everything she'd heard from Mike and Liz pointed her in that direction.
`
Fran had seen a situation like this once before, where a teenager was pressured to say she was abused when there was no physical evidence, and nothing from any of the interviews which Fran had done indicated any kind of abuse, sexual or otherwise. In that case, she'd managed, with no margin for error, to clear the allegations. This one might be more difficult, as Liz's mother had apparently been tricked by word games into agreeing with the accusation.

That was what bothered Fran the most. She'd never use the 'what if I told you...' construct to try to elicit a pre-determined answer, and it was fairly clear from everything that Doctor Mercer had reviewed that that was what had happened. And based on THAT deceptive practice, the judge had issued the temporary order and scheduled the hearing. Fran was convinced that the kids were telling the truth; now the task was to get the judge to see that.

That wouldn't end the ordeal, but it would likely get Liz home, and that was the best possible short-term outcome. Fran was certain that forcing Liz to live with a foster family would worsen her situation, and very likely lead to her running away or even attempting suicide. The report from Columbus Health Services had showed that Liz had been sedated, restrained, and kept in what amounted to solitary confinement because they felt she was a suicide risk, as well as that she'd violently react. To Doctor Orosco, that had confirmed her suspicion of abuse, but to Fran it was a normal reaction to be expected of a teenage girl under extreme stress.

"Feeling better?" Doctor Mercer asked when Liz came back into the room.

"No, but I can finish our talk."

"Let's pick up with Mike convincing you to go to the clinic. What did he say?"

"That he loved me, that he thought I needed help, and that they could help me."

"So what happened?"

"I talked to my mom and told her I'd go to the clinic."

"Did you know you were pregnant at that point?"

"I thought I might be, but I wasn't sure."

"You had a pregnancy and VD test, right?"

"Yes, but they were before I started having sex with guys to get drugs, and they were negative."

"What did you write on the forms about having sex?"

Liz sighed, "I lied. I just wrote about Paul. And I said we used rubbers every time, but we didn't that first time."

"When did you find out for sure you were pregnant?"

"When I went to Columbus. The first thing they did was a complete physical, plus VD and pregnancy tests."

"And when they told you were pregnant, what happened?"

"I cried, and then Doctor Orosco said she was going to do an abortion. I wasn't sure, but she said my parents had signed full medical power of attorney, and that I didn't have a choice."

Doctor Mercer frowned, but quickly tried to have a more neutral look. She didn't agree with that policy, though she was certain that it had been in Liz's best interest. But the thing to do was talk it through, not perform an abortion against the will of a confused and distraught young woman. That was especially true if Liz had been less than a month along - there would be plenty of time to deal with the situation.

"How did that make you feel?"

"I didn't like being told I had to, and I was worried about what Mikey would think, but I couldn't have a baby at fifteen. I cried a lot, before, during, and after."

"And now?"

Liz shrugged, "It's done, and like I said, I couldn't have a baby."

"How did Mike react?"

"The way he always does - he told me he loved me and that he understood."

"He's against abortion?"

"The church considers it a sin, so Mikey won't even think about it."

Doctor Mercer suppressed a laugh, because like many religious kids, Mike certainly thought sex was a sin, but still engaged in it. Hormones were a very powerful force, and resisting them was quite often a fruitless struggle. Fran didn't agree on the sin aspect, but understood Mike's behavior as typical of a religious, introverted, nerdy teenager who was presented with the opportunity to have sex.

"But he accepted it?"

"Because he loves me and he'd never, ever do anything to hurt me."

"So you had your medical evaluation, then they performed the procedure, then what?"

"I was locked in a room and they put me in restraints."

"Why?"

"Because I said I wanted to leave and I refused to take the drugs they wanted me to take."

"What were those?"

"I don't even know what they gave me, but it made me feel completely spaced out."

"For how long?"

"I don't know, maybe a week. Then I decided I'd cooperate because I was sure it was the only way I could go home."

"What do you mean by 'cooperate'?"

"Answer their questions. But every time I told Doctor Orosco that Mikey and I had never done anything, she told me it was OK to tell the truth. I was telling the truth, but she never, ever believed me. She tried to trick me, trap me, and even promised that if I admitted it, I could go home. I know THAT was a lie because she helped that lady from Family Services take me away from my parents! And she's going to try to put my brother in jail!"

"Tell me what she said, if you can remember."

"First she asked me about stuff my mom told her, and then about why I agreed to them checking me in. That's when I told her about what I said to Mikey and what he said to me.  That's when she decided Mikey and I had actually had sex."

"But you didn't?"

"No! Never! I never even kissed him except on the cheek, and that was mostly when we were little."

"Did your family kiss on the lips?"

"No. I always kissed my mom and dad on the cheek, and they wither kissed my cheek or forehead."

"What did Doctor Orosco say, specifically, if you can remember."

"That I was safe, that nobody would be able to hurt me, and that if I told the truth she'd help me go home."

"And you believed her?"

"I guess it didn't matter because I _was_ telling the truth. But she didn't believe me."

Doctor Mercer smiled, then spoke gently to Liz, "I understand that point."

"Sorry," Liz replied, chagrined. "Anyway, for that first week, every time I said it didn't happen, she kept saying I was safe, and protected, and that if I told what happened, she'd help me go home. After the first week, though, she started asking why I was trying to protect Mikey. That's when I got even more upset and they gave me even stronger drugs which made me totally out of it and all I wanted to do was sleep. After a few days, I just decided to not fight anymore."

"And then what happened?"

"Because I cooperated on everything else, they stopped giving me drugs, and then, one day, Doctor Orosco told me she knew about what happened, that my mom had confirmed it. I told her she was lying because it never happened. That's when she started accusing me of trying to protect Mikey again and asking why I would do that."

"Did you ever say anything that indicated that something might have happened between you two?"

"No way! She asked me every possible question you could imagine about Mikey."

"Such as?"

"If I had seen him naked, or he had seen me naked, or if he knew my bra size, or if I knew how big he was, you know. And it was always the same - I told her it didn't happen and had never happened. But I was calm and answered her questions and didn't yell, and followed the rules, so she had to let me go home. One of the orderlies told me that was the case, so I just cooperated, but never, ever said that anything happened."

"And you never told anyone, not a friend, or anyone else, that anything like that happened?"

"No. Nobody knew I was raped, and only Emmy knew I was with Paul."

"I think we're finished."

"Do you believe me, Doctor Mercer?"

Doctor Mercer nodded, "I absolutely do. And I'll say that tomorrow at the hearing."

"Thank you!" Liz gushed and started crying again.

"May I give you some advice, please?"

"Yes," Liz replied, dabbing her tears with a tissue.

"If you are called to testify tomorrow, be calm and respectful. If you call Doctor Orosco names or raise your voice, you'll only hurt your chances of going home."

"Do you think they'll let me?"

"I think if you and your brother are calm and respectful, there's a very good chance. I'll take you back to Mrs. Laramy now. Just hang in there, and don't discuss anything we talked about, please. For your own sake. I'll see you tomorrow at the hearing."

"Thanks."

Fran led Liz out of the room to leave her with Mrs. Laramy, then went to find Laura Paulus, who had completed her interview with Mike. The two of them got coffee and went back into the room where Fran had done her interviews.

"What do you think?" Doctor Paulus asked.

"I think those kids are caught in a system designed to find abuse. I don't know Janet Orosco, but this tracks almost exactly with that case you helped me with right after I began working on my own."

"My thoughts exactly," Laura replied. "There are no indicators and no warning signs."

"Some girls do engage in sexual activity at that age, and when it's with close-in-age friends or acquaintances, it's risky and ill-advised, but not necessarily a sign of abuse. Add in experimentation with drugs, and then introduce college-age men, and everything lines up. You remember our discussions about Bethany - she was thirteen and was ready to engage in intercourse. She had the unfortunate situation of running into a serial rapist, rather than just a normal jock."

"OK. We've reached the same conclusion separately. We should each write up our findings and we'll present them tomorrow. I spoke to Doctor Hart, Mike's advisor and counselor at school, as well as the family physician, and they both agree there is no evidence to suggest anything happened beyond what the kids admitted. It was an extreme cry for help and an extreme response, but it did crack open the details of everything that had happened."

"It does present a significant problem, but I believe Mr. Winston has a strategy to deal with it. Our problem is that Family Services often defers to the State and the bar of 'proof' is fairly low."

"But in this case, there is none, except for the kids' statements, which in context, make perfect sense. Hopefully, the judge will see that."

"Hopefully. Dinner at Lou's Diner?"

"Sounds good to me."