Michael Kruse of the St. Petersburg Times is reporting that a 16-year-old
Florida girl used the Otep song "Jonestown Tea" to tell her mother that she
and her half sister were sexually abused by the man they called "Daddy."
The first few years it was happening, Jessica Kelley — who is now 19 — says
she didn't even know it was wrong. Neither did her half sister. Cassie
LeBlanc, 15, thought it was the way daddies showed their love.
[NOTE: The girls wanted to tell their story to the St. Petersburg Times so
that others who have been sexually abused might feel more comfortable coming
forward. They wanted their names used, too, for the same reason — even
though Times policy in cases like these, almost always, is to omit the
identities of the victims due to the nature of the crimes.]
Later on, when he kept coming under the covers, they said, and doing what he
would do, and telling them not to tell, they knew more. They knew they
wanted it to stop so bad they sometimes peed their pants.
In March 2003, finally, Cassie said something to her mother. Then Jessica.
Then they went to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office. And not quite three
years later — some dozen years after the abuse started, more than five years
after it ended, and after the divorce, after he had moved to Massachusetts,
after one prosecutor closed the case and another one opened it up again —
Clarence LeBlanc, 46, last month got life in prison without the possibility
of pa
role.
Otep's "Jonestown Tea" lyrics (excerpt): "Look what he did to me! Why did
you do it to me? / How could you do it to me?! Why did you do it to me? / I
will not cry ... I will not cry / I prefer to die!"
Read more at
| |
|
