There is an interesting case out of Florida where a dispatcher for the Palm Bay Police Department is accused of having a sexual relationship with an 11-year-old boy. Amanda Chandler, 40, is married and a mother of two young children ages 10 and 8. What caught my eye was the account of her husband.
Chandler reportedly tried to commit suicide with pills and ended up in the hospital. It then came to light that she was allegedly having sex with the boy and possibly other children. She was arrested Monday night at a local hospital and charged with eight counts of capital sexual battery and five counts of lewd and lascivious molestation. That could give her life in prison due to the aggravating element of having sex with a child under 12.
In the coverage, the following line struck me as a bit odd: “Her husband told police he would sometimes catch the boy in Chandler’s bed, kissing each other on the cheek and as he put it ‘hanging all over her.'” What I fail to understand is how you can “catch the boy” in her bed and not be a bit more than suspicious. He is also quoted as saying that he would come home occasionally finding his wife resting or sleeping in her bed with the boy and at least once believed that he came in after they had been kissing. News stories also report that the husband grabbed her iPad and found various suspicious messages between his wife and the boy. However, he still expressed shock when the charges were brought against his wife.
There is really too little in these stories to judge the husband and he may have only reached these conclusions in hindsight. However, putting aside this case, there is an interesting question of what inaction can be viewed as culpable conduct in such cases. If a husband or wife believes that a spouse may be raping a child, the question becomes when that knowledge is significant enough to make the husband or wife a co-conspirator or criminal actor through inaction or a failure to report.
Once again, there is too little information to accuse the husband of any collusion or conspiracy. Indeed, he may have simply been clueless. This is a very difficult thing to believe about any person, let alone your wife. I think that there has to be substantial evidence of both knowledge and collusion to support a spousal charge in such a case. The husband has been open about his concerns and has clearly cooperated with police. As for Chandler herself, her counsel is likely to immediately explore the possibility of a plea. If not, there could be a fight over whether the prosecution can introduce her attempted suicide in the trial. It is clearly prejudicial since jurors will assume that it is an effective admission of guilt. Yet, I cannot see how they would be able to keep it out, particularly since she was arrested at the hospital. A plea seems the logical move for the defense in light of such evidence.
Yeesh, parenthesized list belongs after “older woman.”
Alter boy as opposed to altar boy is a play on words and was intentional. The pedophile priests want to alter the children to their way of sex.
BarkinDog – you were way too subtle with the play on words because you did not know what you were talking about with the rest of your rant.
If I recall correctly and dementia is not setting in, Stephan Molyneau claimed that some astounding number, maybe 80 or 85%,(aunt, babysitter, neighbor, teacher, school cook, etc.) of convicted rapists (not necessarily child rapists) had been seduced by an older woman during their childhood. Just a little factoid.
Barker: way too subtle for my liking. Alter boy. *cringe*
@stevegroen
Thank you!!! I am glad you liked it! I can’t wait to tackle the penal implant story. . .
🙂
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Been traveling and just got back to the blog.
Really disappointed with the level or commenting on this column.
I like the debate/challenges, but these personal attacks (by several commentators) got ugly very quickly.
Let’s try to keep it civil.
The pedophile priest activity in the United States is by far the biggest sex scandal that has ever occurred. When they pass the plate at your church and you put money in the plate you are paying for this conduct by these criminals. This is kind of like the Mafia extorting money from people. The people pay because they fear. The catholics in America are in fear. They fear Hell, they fear complicity in the actions of their priests. When they go to Hell they can go to a service down there and listen to their priests.
Jeb Bush is a Catholic. He is from Florida. This topic should come up on the debate tonight.
JT ponders the question regarding the husband of the female porker of male child who failed to notice or report the conduct of his wife. My reference to the pedophile priests has parallel aspects. If the congregation learns that a priest in its Parish or Archdiocese has committed pedophile acts and the members do nothing then they seem to be liable and should be held accountable for the perp with the cloak which they put onto the altar. If the head of the Archdiocese does nothing to report a pedophile priest to the police then he too has a dirty poker. Both should be shot.
If you are a Catholic and a priest in your region has committed such felonies then you should be held accountable for not stopping him, not reporting him, not castigating him, not insisting on a criminal prosecution.
If you are a Catholic and have a child and you encourage him to be an alter boy then you have done a bad thing. If you allow him to be an alter boy you have done a bad thing. Look, folks, you cannot trust any priest because they are all suspect. If a priest attends a cathouse and has sex with women it does not mean that he is a not a pedophile.
To learn more about this problem in your own state go onto Google and look up: Pedophile Priest Database. There is a website with long lists of the names of priests caught or charged with crimes in each parish of each diocese of each state. Florida has a long list.
If you are a catholic what have you done to stop these crimes against humanity? Go prey on that one. Pun intended.
BarkinDog – first it is ‘altar’ – alter means to change. Second, Catholic parishes do not select their pastors or assistants. This is the job of the Diocesan bishop. He makes the assignments. You can say the same for principals who allow teachers to resign rather than fire them for molesting their students. The teacher just goes on to another school and molests other students.
The situation you are speaking about occurs in Protestant churches, which have always had their own problem with molesters in the clergy.
I wonder how many pedophile bent Cat O Lic Priests have been charged with felonies in Florida for sexual contact by the male priest with a male or female child under age of consent.
I wonder if there are any Catholics who comment on the blog who think that pedophile priests who operate in their diocese or home state should be given longitude and latitude to prey (not pray) on children.
A male pedophile priests who preys on a male child should be a candidate for the death penalty. The priest is using his religious cloak to poke his dagger.
I think that someone should write a novel about a cloak with a dagger who poked.
Do any of you have children who are alter boys? If so, think long and hard. No pun intended.
Different strokes for different folks is a phrase which implies that we have tolerance for evil doers. The bent thing between two consenting adult males or two consenting adult females is a whole lot different than a male adult porking a child. The two should not be equated–even in Equador.
BitchinDog has some comments to make on this topic but says she is reserving comment.
BarkinDog – pass on to BitchinDog that woman adults pork children, too.
Now, back on topic – – – Hmmm. 40 years old. How many years is that??? AHA! Here is an Irish Poem!
She Lived To Score???
An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm
Her number of years was two score!
But her impulse control was quite poor.
In an Oedipal scene,
She jumped a pre-teen-
Which can get you ten years, maybe more.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Girl Reporter: witty poetry, and appropriately Irish: a tribute to the resilience and bravado of the line in the face of humiliating circumstance.
Well, crap! I got my internet updated in the music room here today, and while I was experiencing all that downtime, all this fun fighting and personal stuff was going on! In the future, can you guys please wait for me before you do stuff like this???
Thanks!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
“Game Over”,
The WW2 pictures I posted were obviously not my father, each one was of a different man. I was poking fun at the person who was suggesting my father was a Nazi, with absolutely no reason to assume he was. If you couldn’t figure that out by yourself, you are amazingly lacking in intelligence and a sense of humor.
To be clear, the husband turned her in…as in to the authorities. Many of the local stories have inaccurately posted the facts of this case, but let me be very clear, the husband surrendered as much evidence as he could gather and has since fully cooperated with authorities. Spin whatever you want about the wife, but the husband did the right thing, regardless of how it is being reported or interpreted.