Witness Tells Of Abuse
Posted Courtesy of The Post and Courier (http://www.charleston.net)
Published on 4/27/00
BY TONY BARTELME
Of The Post and Courier Staff
In a halting voice, Shaw Simpson told a jury Wednesday the painfully intimate story of how Eddie Fischer sexually abused him when he was a senior in high school - and how this generated feelings of terror and shame that remain years after the abuse ended.
"It's difficult to explain the ways being molested affects you," Simpson testified in the third day of the Porter-Gaud trial. "But it's like someone has taken your life without killing you. You have to suffer through it every single day. And it affects everything you do."
Simpson is suing Porter-Gaud, alleging that school officials knew Fischer was a pedophile but recommended him to other schools anyway, including James Island High School, where Simpson was a senior in 1989-90.
Also Wednesday, Porter-Gaud's former headmaster, Gordon Bondurant, took the witness stand and acknowledged he was warned twice about Fischer, once in 1994 and again in 1997.
During that period, Fischer was still teaching at James Island High.
Asked if he could have phoned the public school's principal and warned him about Fischer, Bondurant replied, "I could have, and I regret (not doing) it to this day."
Much of Wednesday's testimony, however, was devoted to Simpson and the effects he suffered at the hands of Fischer, who has admitted to molesting at least 39 boys in Charleston's public and private schools.
Simpson's testimony was a key part of the case - both for the plaintiffs and Porter-Gaud.
Porter-Gaud attorneys have suggested that Simpson's involvement with Fischer was consensual because Simpson was 18 when the contact took place.
Simpson spent about three hours on the witness stand. Though he shook uncontrollably and cried several times, he testified in a deliberate manner, often pausing 20 seconds or more to consider his answers.
Simpson testified that Fischer invited him over for dinner in late 1989 or early 1990. "I was shy and small in stature, and he said he could help me on those things."
That night, the two talked about weight-lifting and other subjects. Before Simpson left, Fischer asked him to take off his shirt so he could take a Polaroid. "He said he would take a Polaroid every time of me to show my (weight-lifting) progress."
Simpson testified that the second visit to Fischer's house "went like the first visit" - for a while. Then Fischer started making sexual references and took Simpson upstairs to a room where he showed him pornographic magazines.
During that visit, Simpson mentioned that he had injured his shoulder or arm playing tennis. Fischer responded that since he was a trainer and coach at school, he knew how to treat the pain. He found a vibrator and began massaging Simpson's arm.
"He was making light of everything," Simpson told the jury, wiping away tears. "He said it was no big deal, that he had done this before with other boys, 'you're a friend, you can trust me.' "
Fischer then moved from Simpson's arm to his genitals. "I didn't know what to do."
Simpson testified that he froze, his hands at his side and his body rigid. "The only thing I could do is pray ...I have never been as scared as I have been in Mr. Fischer's bedroom."
Simpson testified that after that night, Fischer kept calling him at home, trying to arrange future meetings. Simpson said he was so confused and devastated that he lost any sense of self-control. "I felt like I had no other alternative when I saw him. I was that afraid of him." He said that Fischer molested him between six and 12 more times.
Simpson testified that the psychological effects were overwhelming. The shame was so great, "there was no way I was going to tell my parents what happened ... I always wanted to make them happy. The last thing I wanted to do was disappoint them," he said, as the judge handed him a box of tissues. "And then Mr. Fischer comes along, and he destroyed that trust and bond with my parents ... It's never been the same since."
Before the abuse, he also had been extremely religious. "That was the most important thing to me," he testified. "I never thought that God would let this happen to me, and I always trusted that God was going to take care of me ... I was betrayed, I felt, by God."
He said the abuse left him confused about his sexual identity. Before, he had always assumed one day he would get married and have a family. After, he wasn't sure whether he was a heterosexual or homosexual. He became severely depressed and developed health problems, he testified. He said he was in such dire emotional straights that he considered suicide.
He testified that when he learned in 1997 that Fischer had once worked at Porter-Gaud, and that Porter-Gaud had recommended Fischer to James Island High, he contacted a lawyer.
"They could have stopped him from teaching at my school...and none of this would have ever happened to me," he told the jury.
During cross examination, Porter-Gaud's attorney, Bobby Stepp, suggested that Simpson consented to having sexual contact with Fischer.
Referring to Simpson's testimony that he prayed while Fischer was on him, Stepp asked whether he asked God to make Fischer stop.
"Yes," Simpson replied.
"Did you ask Mr. Fischer to make it stop?"
"... I couldn't do anything," Simpson said.
"... Were you physically restrained?" Stepp asked.
"I was physically restrained by fear," Simpson answered.
In an attempt to counter Porter-Gaud's assertion that Simpson's actions with Fischer were consensual, Simpson's attorneys introduced a sworn deposition taken of Fischer.
In the deposition, Fischer said several times that he was responsible for the abuse. "Even if he was 21, I was responsible."
Fischer, 72, is serving 20 years in prison on 13 molestation and sexual abuse charges.
Later Wednesday, Simpson's therapist, Cary Weber, took the stand and said Simpson suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and other emotional problems because of Fischer.
Weber testified that people often wrongly assume sexual abuse is about sex. Instead, it's about power.
He said that because Simpson returned to Fischer's home, people shouldn't think that his client enjoyed sex. "It was repulsive to him," he said, comparing the situation to a woman who is beaten by a husband and returns home. "She does not enjoy being beaten."
He said sexual abuse victims often feel tremendous guilt and shame, especially if they become aroused. This can wreak havoc with a boy's sexual identity.
He added that the shame can be so powerful and the social stigmas involved with a man abusing a boy, it's normal for victims to take 15 years or more to report what happened to them.
He said because Simpson was small and shy, "he needed a mentor, someone to support and guide him. He was hoping it was Mr. Fischer." Instead, Fischer "left him traumatized and abused and forever dealing with it."
During the trial, Simpson's attorneys also called Bondurant - Porter-Gaud's headmaster from 1988 to 1999 - to testify.
Bondurant acknowledged that he met Guerry Glover, a former Porter-Gaud student, in 1994 and 1997. During those meetings, Glover said that Fischer had molested him when Fischer was teaching at Porter-Gaud.
Bondurant said he verified with James Bishop Alexander, a Porter-Gaud principal, that the school had asked Fischer to resign in 1982 because of a claim of sexual misconduct.
Bondurant said he took no other actions to investigate Glover's claims and that he wasn't willing to go to police unless Glover also reported the matter. Bondurant said Glover didn't agree to do that.
Simpson's attorney, David Flowers, showed Bondurant a job recommendation that Alexander wrote for Fischer.
Alexander said Fischer had above average teaching and social skills and no physical or emotional defects.
The recommendation is a key part of Simpson's case because it doesn't mention why Fischer resigned from Porter-Gaud.
Flowers asked Bondurant whether he would have written a positive recommendation about a teacher accused of sexual misconduct.
Bondurant said no, and that he would have mentioned the misconduct.
Flowers presented Bondurant with a copy of the school's "mission statement," which said a guiding principle is "the supreme importance of the pursuit of truth."
Flowers then showed Bondurant a press release issued by the school after Glover independently went to police, prompting Fischer's arrest.
The press release said the school had no "direct knowledge" of what happened to Glover or "any other former students."
Flowers then asked Bondurant why the press release didn't mention Glover's two meetings with him.
"I didn't put it in there," Bondurant replied.
During cross examination, Stepp asked Bondurant whether he ever intended to harm any of Fischer's victims.
"I pray not," Bondurant replied, "I don't want to hurt anyone more than the horrendous hurt that has already been done to the victims."
The trial in the Charleston County Court of Common Pleas is expected to end today or Friday.
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