By: Dr. Jerry Bergman
Montpelier, Ohio
Marrying a Convicted Rapist
One of the most unusual cases I became aware of when working for the court turned out to be a fascinating, although unlikely, story. I will begin with the court trial. All of the names and places have been changed for obvious reasons.
Court
The next case is the State of Ohio v. Bill Smith, who is charged with first-degree rape. After the normal preliminaries, the victim testified.
“Could you explain what happened on the evening of September 3rd?”
“I was getting caught up on household bills, and my fiancé was working late. I heard the doorbell ring, and this man, whom I had met briefly and casually at a friend’s house several weeks ago, was at the door. He then rushed in, grabbed me, and forcefully raped me. He wore dark sunglasses, but I recognized him anyway. I was terrified but felt fortunate to be alive, so I called the police to report what happened and explain my fear that he was the serial rapist discussed everywhere in the media.”
The State then put on the stand the next witness. “Could you tell the court your name and profession?
“My name is Professor William Smith. I teach corrections at the local state university and specialize in rape cases. I am the author of the leading textbook in this area.
“To determine the general area where the rapist resides, we pinpoint where each rape occurred. The rapist usually lives in an area central to the set of rape locations. In this case, the accused rapist lives close to the center of the rape location map. Rapes are divided into two classes: incidental, where a lone female is walking to a store late at night, or to class on a college campus, and is observed by the offender.
“A similar example is a prostitute who is picked up by the rapist for work and is found dead a few days later. The second class is a person who lives near the rapist and is observed by him to determine the times when she will be alone. Often, the offender has met her and may have talked with her briefly, as was true in this case.
“Rapists, especially serial rapists as claimed in this case, are looking for an opportunity to find the women alone, and it is unlikely that family, workmates, or others will encounter them when committing the crime. Most rapists are not stupid, just driven.”
Bill’s attorney objected to the accusation that his client was involved in other rapes that occurred recently, stressing there was no evidence that Bill committed them. The judge responded by instructing the jury not to act on this unproven claim, which was made several times during the trial by several witnesses.
He stressed that the jury was to disregard that claim. After several hours of additional trial testimony, the jury found the defendant guilty of rape. He was given the maximum sentence allowed in his state, 15 to 30 years confinement in the state prison.
Shortly after the trial, the victim learned she was pregnant. Her fiancé, now her husband, was unable to conceive a child. They thus knew that the child was fathered by the rapist. The husband pressured her to abort the baby, but she was strongly pro-life and refused.
She also realized this may be the only child she will ever have. She birthed the child, a son, described as a very happy baby, whom she named Billy. He rarely cried and displayed an infectious smile to anyone who looked his way.
Her husband, she discovered after several years of marriage, could only be described as a very angry man, a trait he did not display when they were dating. He was very impatient and demanding with Billy and people in general.
The result was that Billy, now age six, was a very unhappy child requiring counseling. He also now kept asking to see his real father. Billy’s mother finally visited the prison and asked about the possibility of a visit. Bill was a model prisoner and had never encountered a single infraction in prison.
The warden explained this had been a rough year for Bill. Both his parents, who were in their late 80s and in poor health, died, and his older sister was killed in a car accident about a year ago. He now had no living relatives.
Bill was now in the minimum security prison (the three levels were maximum, medium, and minimum). The meeting was arranged between Bill and Billy, and to say that Billy and Bill immediately bonded would be an understatement.
Billy talked non-stop, and Bill listened with obvious interest. Billy loved sports as did his father. This was the first of several visits, and, although Bill was turned down for parole twice, this time the victim testified at his third parole hearing.
She explained, “I was not entirely honest in court. I was fearful, for good reason, if I related what actually happened, I would lose my fiancé, so I had to embellish the encounter.
“Claiming rape would absolve me on my unfaithfulness. I did not lie; I just did not tell the entire story. I would describe the encounter as he was very aggressive and clearly was strongly attracted to me, but it was not actually rape.
“I appreciated the attention and did not respond to him as I probably should have. The DNA evidence, which was not available back then, cleared him of the other three rapes. Now that my marriage did not work out, I greatly regretted that it was my testimony that landed him in prison. Distorting the truth turned out to be a horrible decision, hurting me, Bill, Billy, and my ex-husband.”
The parole board granted parole this time. I admitted to Bill that what I did for my own selfish reasons was cruel and backfired. Amazingly, Bill did not show any open resentment toward me. He was a wonderful father, and Billy’s life changed for the better. To make a long story short, I divorced my husband and married Bill.
“It has been over a decade, and we are now a happy family. He told me he greatly appreciates that he now has a wife and a son, so, to him, each day is a blessing. His court experience was a nightmare, now that his wife has worked hard to compensate for.”
“Bill was hired by the prison as a guard, went to night school to complete his degree in corrections, and was eventually promoted to work directly with inmates. His interaction with them and everybody else has made it clear where our son got his pleasant, easy-going personality from. Bill, my most unlikely groom, has gone from being a model prisoner to a model husband and father.”
In Matthew 18:22, Jesus tells Peter to forgive not just seven times, but seventy times seven.
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Dr. Bergman is a multi-award-winning professor and author. Has 9 degrees and has taught at both the graduate and undergraduate level for over 40 years. His over 2,100 publications are in both scholarly and popular journals. Dr. Bergman’s work has been translated into 15 languages. He has spoken over 2,000 times to college, university and church groups in America, Canada, Europe, the South Sea Islands, and Africa. He lives in Montpelier and is available to present in churches and schools. Jerry can be reached at JerryBergman30@yahoo.com