I will call the kid “JD” for “John Doe.” He is an adult now and may still live in the area. I do not know if he committed more sex offenses or if he straightened himself out.
I was assigned to CID as a Juvenile Investigator for Plano Police Department. The other Juvenile Investigator was Jeri Love. I got a call from a concerned parent who had become suspicious that her toddler daughter may have been sexually abused by a teenage boy from her church. The boy, JD, babysat for a number of church families.
Because the victim was a girl, I asked Jeri to go with me to interview the little girl. We had just obtained a set of anatomically correct dolls for use in interviewing toddlers.
At the home, we talked briefly with the mother while the little girl played on the floor. After a few minutes, Jeri got down on the floor with the dolls. She and the baby played with the dolls for a few minutes, then Jeri said “Let’s play babysitter. This is you (handing the girl a female doll) and this is JD (handing her a male doll). What do you and JD do?”
The little girl took the female doll and mashed its face into the genital area of the male doll, then threw the male doll across the room as she screamed, “JD go home!”
Talk about a graphic result!
We found out JD also babysat for neighbors not in the church. By this time, JD’s parents had lawyered up. I asked for a complete list of kids he had babysat and abused, but of course the lawyer would not provide it.
I began knocking doors in the block where JD lived, asking simply if JD had ever babysat for them, nothing more. At the third house, the man who answered invited me in and showed me a shotgun leaning in the corner behind the door. The man said he had heard from other neighbors what was going on.
The man said, “If that kid so much as walks down the sidewalk in front of my house, I will kill him.” I begged him not to do that, but call the police if there were any problems and let us handle it. “No,” he said. “I’ll kill the kid.” I couldn’t budge him.
A house or two further down the block, my pager went off. It was the chief. JD’s lawyer was on the phone. I explained to the chief I was only asking if JD babysat for them, nothing else. I told the chief the lawyer could stop me from knocking doors by giving me a list of families JD had babysat for. We got our list.
Jeri and I interviewed every family and found evidence of abuse in each case. We filed the case in juvenile court. JD was put on probation with mandated counseling. We also urged each of the families of victims to seek counseling for the kids JD had abused.
One thing I concluded from that case was that a boy going into puberty is a risky bet for a babysitter. That may be a sexist thing for me to say, but when hormones and curiosity override a young boy’s judgement, the consequences can be devastating to both himself and his victims.