The victims’ attorney, Tom Petersen with Black, Chapman, Webber & Stevens, said they are all to blame for the alleged molestation of two local girls.

Joel Heller, a former teacher at a Little Butte Elementary School, is accused of sexually molesting multiple students.

Petersen said Heller and some Jackson County School District 9 employees knew of prior similar accusations against Heller. “I brought a civil rights lawsuit in federal court essentially alleging that Mr. heller, Ms. Scott and the others named, the district and the superintendent, failed to take action,” said Petersen.

The attorney representing two of the alleged victims said his clients, now in high school, aren’t looking for a reward. He said they just want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. Petersen said his clients weren’t the first victims. “In the mid 2000s, I’m aware of four or five,” said Petersen.

Peterson said accusations like these need to be reported, by law. “You can be prosecuted for not reporting,” said the attorney.

He said authorities were never told. “The principal shut down the investigation from what I understand. I’ve got affidavits to that effect and so no police reports were made. It never made it to the District Attorney’s office,” said Petersen.

Then, according to Petersen, in 2011, a mother overheard her daughter and her friend sharing stories of how the suspect had touched them, inappropriately. “The girls in talking were overheard by one of the mothers who then contacted another parent, and another parent as well police were called,” said Petersen.

Concerned, their parents notified police, but when the case was handed over to the Jackson County District Attorney, Petersen said Heller was not prosecuted due to “[...] insufficient evidence. Now all that means is the D.A. made a calculation that the case cannot or might not be won in a court of law,” said Petersen.

The victims’ attorney said if reports of the accusations in the mid-2000s had been made, Heller may have been prosecuted. “If he or they had known back in 2005, 2006 and seven that Mr. Heller was touching girls in ways that made them feel uncomfortable, and which was after the fashion that he was touching them in 2011, which is the case I’ve got in court now, the D.A.’s decision-making process might have been different,” said Peterson.

The attorney said responsibility doesn’t just fall on the suspect, but also on the district, the superintendent and school principal at the time of the alleged molestation, for not ensuring the children’s safety. “They knew essentially that Heller could not be trusted with young females, put the girls into a situation that was dangerous for them and then they suffered when they didn’t have to,” said Petersen.

The trial is scheduled for February 24.

News 10 spoke with Jackson County School District 9. The district said it is following legal advice to not comment on the lawsuit.

Tom Petersen said as of now, he knows of five alleged victims. One of them, said Petersen, was not a student of Heller’s, but an old acquaintance.

By Jessica De Nova/KTVL.com

A former Little Butte Elementary School teacher and counselor being sued for allegedly molesting young girls had a history of inappropriate behavior, according to sworn statements made by two former female students and a parent.

The legal documents will be used as evidence to support a federal civil suit that alleges Joel Heller molested two young girls in his classroom in fall 2011 and that school administrators knew Heller had a pattern of abusive behavior and failed to protect the students, said Tom Petersen, a Medford attorney. Petersen said the incidents involving the former students occurred between 2005 and 2007.

Petersen filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Medford in December 2012 on behalf of two other unidentified girls alleging that Heller repeatedly restrained and molested them during class and recess time in 2011.

Eagle Point School District Superintendent Cynda Rickert said Tuesday afternoon the legal documents were received last week. Rickert is named as a defendant in the suit, along with the district and school Principal Lynn Scott.

Rickert said she is checking into the allegations, but offered no comment. The district’s attorney, Kim Hoyt, also declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. Calls to Heller were not returned Monday.

Heller, of Ashland, no longer works for the district. He denied the suit’s allegations in December, stating he was cleared of the charges by police and school investigators after the initial complaints about him surfaced in fall 2011.

“Fifth-grade girls made something up, and I’ve been suffering ever since,” Heller told the Mail Tribune. Heller said in December he was a school counselor for 20 years and was never previously accused of inappropriate behavior but has been unable to work in schools since the allegations first arose. Petersen alleged Tuesday that statements from the new victims, who are now in high school, detail a pattern of abusive behavior on Heller’s part and a pattern of denial on the part of the district and its administrators.

In the 2011 incidents, Heller would call one of the girls to his desk and allegedly hold her and grope her, often in front of the class, the girls’ statements claim. In other instances, the abuse occurred while Heller was alone with one of the girls in the classroom during recess, Petersen said. The suit also claims Heller had special counseling sessions with one of the victims to glean information about her and her family that he later used to abuse her.

The lawsuit claims Rickert and Scott knew Heller had “prurient interests in minor female students.” Petersen said the statements from the two new girls and from one of the girl’s parents support that allegation.

“There are regulations for teachers,” Petersen said. “Teachers are taught not to cross those boundaries.”

The new victims claim Heller took them into a windowless office, closed the door and slid his hand up under their clothing and rubbed their thighs during counseling sessions, according to the sworn statements.

Heller’s actions frightened and confused the girls, their statements said, but Heller told them what he was doing was “OK.” The girls’ testimony states other girlfriends later told them at the time that Heller had “done similar things to them in the past.”

Heller put his hand down the back of one student’s shirt in a hallway. He also showed up at her home unasked, insisting he be allowed to counsel her, the documents state. In February 2007, the girl’s father and stepmother had a meeting with Heller, Scott and the girl’s teacher in Heller’s office.

“While the door to the office was closed, I stood outside and could hear yelling inside, particularly my father, who I could hear telling Mr. Heller that if he ever touched me or my friends again that he would do Mr. Heller physical harm,” the girl said in her statement.

The student closed her statement by saying she hoped “someone would hear what children have to say about Mr. Heller’s conduct with them so that he won’t do it to any other child,” and that she wanted administrators to take reports of inappropriate touching seriously and alert authorities. ”There should have been a neutral police investigation,” Petersen said. “That’s what should have happened.”

Instead, the girls who recently came forward were told they were troublemakers, Petersen said, adding one girl had recently lost a sibling to cancer, and a close family member of the other recently had been murdered at the time of the alleged molestation.

“He picked out kids who were different or who were vulnerable,” Petersen said. Heller’s alleged behavior toward the girls in the lawsuit came to light when the two friends were talking about Heller’s actions in fall 2011, Petersen said.

One of their parents overheard them, Petersen said. That parent telephoned the other girl’s family, and they immediately reported it to Eagle Point police, he said. The police conducted an investigation and forwarded it to the Jackson County District Attorney’s Office, which declined to prosecute Heller, Petersen said.

Petersen, a former prosecutor, said the DA might not have been so hesitant to proceed if Heller’s previous alleged contact with the two students who have now come forward had been documented and investigated. Instead it was brushed under the rug, Petersen said.

“What are (the district officials) doing?” Petersen said. “Who are they supposed to be protecting, if not the students?”

The federal suit alleges that the girls’ civil rights were violated. The suit seeks unspecified economic and punitive damages for both girls, listed in court documents only as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2. Petersen said he also will seek to have Heller banned from working in schools.

Reach reporter Sanne Specht at 541-776-4497 or email sspecht@mailtribune.com.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony on Monday apologized for the way the L.A. archdiocese dealt with priest child abuse claims after a new round of documents were released.

“I am sorry,” Mahony’s statement concluded.
-
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/01/cardinal-mahony-priest-abuse-details.html

Tom Petersen focuses on civilly prosecuting people who sexually abuse others. Mr. Petersen believes that justice was served by a jury that worked diligently to understand the effect that this type of activity can have on people.

$750,000 awarded for abuse by chiropractor - Medford Mailtribune

If you have had a similar case, call Tom Peterson today!

ODOT coordinated with law enforcement between July 9-14 in a concentrated effort to ensure that commercial truck drivers were following the mandates on hours of service.

Because the classification is defined as any vehicle more than 10,000 pounds, commercial trucks include some passenger vehicles, log trucks and trucks carrying hazardous materials, among others. The requirements about how frequently trucks are required to stop and for how long vary between vehicle types.

Twenty-six percent of commercial truck drivers, or 256 drivers, were put out of service because of these violations.

Read More in The Statesman Journal

DOT said Wednesday that the ESC systems could prevent 56 percent of crashes that involve a truck or bus rolling over, and 14 percent of accidents where a truck or bus driver loses control behind the wheel.

“The Department and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have long recognized the potential impact of stability control technology in reducing deaths and serious injuries that result from rollover crashes,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement announcing the new proposal. “Today’s proposal is a major step forward to improving the safety of large commercial trucks, motorcoaches and other large buses.”

The DOT’s proposal will have to be reviewed for 90 days, and the agency said a public hearing will be held by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which will enforce the new requirement if the rule is finalized.

The Arlington, Va.-based American Trucking Association’s American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) said last month that it had identified the most likely locations of rollover truck accidents in an effort to reduce them itself.

“This research is not only important to the trucking industry, as it informs drivers of potentially dangerous locations, but it should also jumpstart the dialogue between industry and government to work together to improve safety at these sites,” Vice President of Safety Policy and Regulatory Relations for ATRI member Groendyke Transport, Steve Niswander said in a statement.

NHTSA Administrator David Strickland said the electronic systems proposed by DOT would improve safety even further.

“We’ve already seen how effective stability control can be at reducing rollovers in passenger vehicles — the ability for this type of technology to save lives is one reason it is required on cars and light-duty trucks beginning with model year 2012,” Strickland said in a statement Wednesday. “Now, we’re expanding our efforts to require stability enhancing technology on the many large trucks, motorcoaches and other large buses on our roadways.”

DOT proposes electronic stability systems on trucks, buses to prevent rollover accidents
By Keith Laing – 05/16/12 05:42 PM ET

You can see the video and the whole story at KTVL CBS Channel 10 

http://www.ktvl.com/shared/news/top-stories/stories/ktvl_vid_1663.shtml

Alleged Abuse Victim May Sue Klamath Co. School Dist.

Written by Craig Smullin, Posted in Local, Posted: Wed, July 11 2012 at 4:40 PM, Updated: Wed, July 11 2012 at 4:45 PM

Updated at 1:50 p.m ET: Lawyers for Jerry Sandusky abruptly rested their case Wednesday morning without calling the former Penn State University assistant football coach to the stand.

It was an unexpected end to the defense phase of Sandusky’s trial on 51 counts alleging that he abused 10 boys over 15 years.

Without explanation, defense attorneys requested a recess during testimony from one of their own witnesses. Then — after an unusually long break during ,which both legal teams joined the judge in his chambers amid speculation over whether Sandusky would take the risky step of testifying — defense attorneys said they were done.

The defense decision came after the witness, David Hilton, 21, reacted with surprise when he was asked whether he knew that his uncle had called the defense team Tuesday night. Sandusky attorney Karl Rominger then asked for a recess.

READ MORE AT MSNBC.com

By Tim Ghianni

NASHVILLE | Tue Jun 12, 2012 7:45pm EDT

(Reuters) – The Amateur Athletic Union on Tuesday announced measures to protect young athletes from sexual abuse after allegations of abuse were raised last year against a former president of the nation’s largest youth sports organization.

The steps resulted from six months of study by two task forces.

They require all adults involved in AAU activities – from volunteer coaches to AAU staff – to undergo detailed background checks. This includes all current members of the staff or volunteers as well as those who come to the organization in the future.

“These new steps are not being implemented because we suspect anyone – rather, we must make these changes because we expect everyone to be willing to help us build a deeper trust and culture of safety,” AAU President Louis Stout said at a press conference from its headquarters in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

The new policy says young athletes should never be left alone with individual adults, according to Ron Sachs, president of Sachs Communications, a spokesman for the AAU.

Under the new policy, “anyone who is prohibited from participating in an organization that serves youth or who violates the AAU’s child protection policies should be barred from participating in AAU activities, even if they have not been convicted of a crime.” Such individuals will not even be allowed to be spectators, Stout said.

Read more at Reuters.com