A Silence of Mockingbirds

by Karen Spears Zacharias

  The Oregon State Bar disciplined Clark Willes, the defense attorney who opened up his case files to me, in 2008 for fraudulent behavior. Willes had his client sit in the gallery and put another person at the counsel table in an attempt to keep the state’s witness from positively identifying the defendant. Willes disclosed the ruse himself following the testimony of the state’s witness.

  Detective Mike Wells left the Corvallis Police Department after a distinguished career. He now works as a special agent with the Oregon Department of Justice. In 2007, he received DOJ’s Officer of the Year award. He has traveled around the nation, telling Karly’s story and instructing others in the field how to avoid the pitfalls that led to her death. Throughout the investigation of Karly’s murder, Detective Wells was disturbed by Sarah Sheehan’s actions. “I have never lost one hour of sleep over whether Shawn Field killed Karly, but I have lost sleep over what role Sarah Sheehan played in Karly’s death. Rightly or wrongly, the decision not to charge Sarah with anything was made early on.”

  On the first anniversary of Karly’s death, most of the jurors gathered together to remember the little girl for whom they’d rendered justice. They thought it would be an annual event but it hasn’t been.

  One juror wrote recently to say that he had thought the trauma of the trial was all behind him, until he was called to serve on yet another jury. “It wasn’t at all emotionally charged, simply awarding financial damages, but once I sat in the same courtroom, in the same jury box, looking out of the same windows and seeing the similar fall colors in the leaves, I teared up and had such an anxiety attack that I asked to be removed, which was quickly granted after they learned I was a juror for the Karly trial,” he said. “It kind of surprised me, since I rarely think about the trial or any of the key players.”

  Flashback moments like this juror experienced are referred to in military circles as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. You don’t have to go to war to suffer from it.

  Karly was one of eighteen children who died in Oregon in 2005 because of child abuse. Two years after Karly’s death, and due in part to the tireless efforts of Representative Sara Gelser of Corvallis, the Oregon State Legislature unanimously passed a bill in support of child-abuse victims.

  Karly’s Law mandates that if a caseworker or law enforcement officer interviews a child with suspicious injuries, they must take photos of those injuries and the pictures have to be shared with the Child Abuse Response Team. Additionally, a previously designated medical professional with specialized training in child abuse must see that child within forty-eight hours.

  These safeguards were put in place as a direct result of what were deemed the failures in Karly’s case. While Matthew Stark conferred by phone with Dr. Carol Chervenak on Karly’s case, the doctor never examined Karly herself. Instead, Karly was seen by her family physician, who did not have the tools necessary to make the correct diagnosis.

  Joan Demarest has opened her own practice, focusing on criminal defense, victim advocacy, and family law. Additionally, she devotes time each week to helping OSU students with legal problems. She also worked alongside Representative Gelser in the push to get Karly’s Law passed. “Gelser approached me after Karly’s trial and wanted help drafting meaningful legislation that would make it less likely that this could happen again,” Demarest said.

  “Rep. Gelser had been told by DHS that the real problem was that they weren’t able to access people’s criminal histories,” Demarest explained. “I told Gelser that was nonsense. Shawn Field had no record of note.” Demarest told Gelser that the failure was that Karly was never seen or treated by a trained child abuse specialist like Dr. Chervenak. “As you may recall, we had a patrol officer concluding that Shawn Field’s explanations of Karly’s injuries were valid,” Demarest said. “Representative Gelser did an amazing job working with different factions and getting Karly’s Law passed. David Sheehan and I testified at the hearing.”

  Rep. Gelser says that Demarest came to those hearings with a baby in arms.

  “Most prosecutors move on to the next thing after a case is done, Joan did not.

  “Her willingness to come to the capitol multiple times with a newborn didn’t go without notice. I specifically remember checking before the hearing on where there would be a comfortable place for breast-feeding while Joan was in the building, because her son must have been only about three or four weeks old at the first hearing. She came not only for the hearings, but she sat in the gallery when the bill was voted for on the floor.”

  Putting Shawn Field away was not enough for Joan Demarest. She continues in her efforts in helping improve the lives of children.

  “Over the years since the case, I’ve watched as Joan continues to talk about ABC House,” Gelser said. “Joan encourages people to make contributions or to serve on their board. I’ve seen her urge contributions to child abuse-related causes instead of gifts to her children on their birthdays.”

  A few months following the Karly Sheehan trial, Joan Demarest gave birth to a healthy baby boy. She is now the mother to four children— three boys and a girl. Joan Demarest loves being a mother.

  I asked Representative Gelser why, of all the issues brought before her, she latched onto Karly’s Law and has fought so diligently for it. A mother of four, Gelser followed the news reports on Karly’s death closely. She was mortified that such a tragedy happened right in her own backyard.

  “The right thing to do is often a hard thing to do,” Representative Gelser said. “Child abuse is grossly underreported.” Too often people see children as property and parents as owners of that property, Gelser said. Onlookers are reluctant to interfere. “I can’t imagine how many people have seen something and wondered but failed to take the difficult step of reporting it.” As is too often the case, people do not get involved until child abuse affects them personally, and even then they remain reticent.

  Gelser has been fielding phone calls from officials in other states, wondering how they might also implement Karly’s Law. It should be a federal law that any child with injuries be photographed and seen within forty-eight hours by a medical professional trained in child abuse. But most doctors lack the training to correctly make such an assessment.

  “On average a medical provider gets less than fifteen hours of training concerning child abuse issues in medical school. That is not enough,” said Karen Scheler, director of ABC House. If Karly’s case had been handled correctly, as Dr. Chervenak testified, she would have identified Karly’s injuries as classic signs of abuse. A doctor with specialized training in child abuse is twice as likely to correctly diagnose abuse as one who hasn’t received the appropriate training.

  “Karly’s Law is making a difference,” Representative Gelser said. “It’s been quite effective at getting these kids identified a lot earlier.”

  Abuse centers throughout the state are seeing a jump in the number of children they assess. The first year Karly’s Law went into effect, ABC House saw a jump of 150 additional child abuse referrals. Dr. Chervenak was called in on each of those. On average, the ABC House serves 350 children in-house and an additional 150 through consultation.

  Rarely does a law receive the support of the full legislature the way Karly’s Law did. Representative Gelser was elated that the bill passed unanimously— understandably so, since she had put her formidable shoulder to pushing it through.

  But passing a law is easy enough for any legislative body. The real struggle is funding such mandates. The budget for the ABC House is cobbled together from a variety of sources, including grants, medical billing, specialty funding from the state, and private donors. Rep. Gelser worked hard to find funding to support the impact of Karly’s Law on centers like the ABC House. At her urging, Oregon legislators dedicated a million dollars toward funding Karly’s Law. But then the recession hit and that money went to help backfill harsh cuts made to the Child Abuse Multidisciplinary Intervention (CAMI) funds.

  Karly’s Law brought an additional
workload to ABC House and other child abuse centers throughout the state. “We in Oregon are dedicated to doing better and Karly has been the inspiration for that,” said Karen Scheler. “But it is a struggle every day. This year our agency had 160 consults for physical abuse alone.”

  Finding the resources to meet the needs is difficult. Taxpayers will pay to lock people like Shawn Field away for life, but when it comes to funding the people who are working “boots on the ground,” our state’s Child Abuse Response teams or Child Abuse Intervention Centers, those positions are considered expendable. Just another strike-through on a line-item budget.

  Rep. Gelser agrees that the funding issue remains a problem for cash-strapped states. But Oregon’s legislators took the bold move of dedicating funds to Karly’s Law, even when they could least afford to do so. “It was a good-faith effort on their behalf,” said Rep. Gelser.

  Funding issues aren’t the only problems that arise during a recession. Domestic abuse and child abuse rates rise during times of economic hardships. Twenty-two children died in Oregon in 2010 as a result of child abuse— nearly twice the number of children who died in 2009. Most of those children had never been reported as potential victims or evaluated at a Child Abuse Intervention Center, like the ABC House.

  Nobody was issuing a cry for help on their behalf. There was only the silence of people who suspected but never spoke up.

  Dr. Chervenak serves Linn and Benton counties— one doctor to assess all those cases, all those children. And when she is on vacation or sick, she reviews cases via the Internet.

  The medical assessment component of Karly’s Law has been a huge challenge. “When the law was envisioned, we thought a lot more doctors would advocate for this. But they don’t like to be involved in these cases. It can take up a lot of time— all the training, plus the possibility of having to appear in court,” Representative Gelser said.

  Every five hours, a child in the U.S. dies from abuse or neglect, according to a 2011 investigation by the BBC journalist Natalia Antelava. The U.S. has the highest child abuse record in the industrialized world. America’s child abuse death rate is triple Canada’s and eleven times that of Italy. High rates of teen pregnancy, high school dropout rates, violent crime, imprisonment, and poverty are some of the contributing factors, said Michael Petit, president of Every Child Matters.

  Here in America, a report of child abuse is made every ten seconds. Here in the land of the free, an estimated 906,000 children are victims of abuse and neglect every single year. That’s nearly a million children. Here in the home of the brave, 1,500 abused children die annually, usually from injuries sustained in their own homes.

  In Oregon alone, there were 11,090 confirmed victims of child abuse during the most recent reporting year. That’s more than thirty a day— and those are just the confirmed cases.

  What we are doing for abused children in this nation isn’t nearly enough.

  In 2011, Miami-Dade county law enforcement officials found Nubia Docter’s ten-year-old body in the back of a truck, doused with chemicals. Her twin brother, his body also badly burned by chemicals, was convulsing in the front seat of the truck. “Systematic failure,” the term Heiser used for Karly’s case, was the same excuse offered by Florida state officials to explain how years of repeated complaints to the Department of Children & Families (DCF) were ignored, even when those complaints came from reliable sources: teachers and principals. Nubia told her teacher herself that her father was touching her inappropriately.

  Nubia’s adoptive parents dismissed the laundry list of complaints— hair loss, sexual abuse, starvation, obvious bruises, reports of torture, all of it. Nubia’s adoptive mother worked at a pediatric clinic. Perhaps that affiliation made it easier for Florida’s DCF workers to conclude that Nubia’s problems were a result of her “hyper” personality.

  Instead of spending the money necessary to protect the children, the state is now shelling out considerable funds to incarcerate the offenders. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the man and woman who adopted these twins and tortured them.

  Yet getting people to put the dollars on the front end to prevent child abuse is a lot harder to do. “I find it disturbing that we don’t have designated funding for child abuse,” Karen Scheler said. “Kids like Karly do slip through the cracks. No one wants that to happen— no one. But it’s hard when there’s no funding. I think that funding should come on a national level. I find it appalling that our federal budget includes $28 million in designated funds to sponsor NASCAR as a recruiting tool for our military but we do not adequately fund child abuse to help intervene, support and protect our children.”

  Note to Readers

  Please join the efforts to put an end to the epidemic of child abuse in our nation. Contact your state representatives and urge them to pass Karly’s Law in your state. Educate others by giving a copy of this book to every elected official, every childcare worker, every teacher, every doctor, every law enforcement official, every pastor, every social worker who comes in contact with children.

  Learn the signs of child abuse. If you have a feeling something isn’t quite right with a child, don’t be so quick to rationalize it away. Don’t wait to ask yourself, “What more could I have done?” Instead ask, “What will I regret not having done if this child turns up dead?” Then, whatever that thing is, do it. Don’t wait on someone else to intervene, because chances are, you are the only one who can save that child.

  To see photos & videos of Karly, visit:

  www.patheos.com / blogs / karenspearszacharias/

  To contact the author: karenzach.com

  Twitter: @karenzach.com

  zachauthor@gmail.com

  For more information on Karly’s Law:

  www.saragelser.com/karly

  Child Abuse in America

  • The U.S. has more child abuse and neglect deaths than any other industrialized nation, ranking highest in both the total number of deaths and deaths on a per capita basis.

  • Nearly five children die every day in America from abuse and neglect.

  • In 2009, an estimated 1,770 children died from abuse in the United States.

  • Over 40% of all child abuse is inflicted by the mother acting alone. Eighteen percent of child abuse is the father acting alone. Neglect makes up for over 75% of all reported abuse.

  • In 2009, approximately 3.3 million child abuse reports and allegations were made involving an estimated 6 million children.

  • In 2010 Children’s Advocacy Centers around the country served over 266,000 child victims of abuse.

  • Nearly 80% of children who die from abuse are under the age of 4.

  Signs of Child Abuse

  (PreventChildAbuse.org)

  • Has unexplained burns, bites, bruises, broken bones, or black eyes.

  • Has fading bruises or other marks noticeable after an absence from school.

  • Seems frightened of their parents or others and protests or cries in their presence.

  • Reports injury by a parent or another caregiver.

  • School attendance is sporadic.

  • Begs or steals food or money from classmates.

  • Lacks needed medical or dental care, immunizations, or glasses.

  • Is consistently dirty and has severe body odor.

  • Lacks sufficient clothing for the weather.

  • States there is no one at home to provide care.

  Signs of Sexual Abuse

  • Has difficulty walking or sitting.

  • Suddenly refuses to change for gym or to participate in physical activities.

  • Demonstrates sophisticated or unusual sexual knowledge or behavior.

  • Becomes pregnant or contracts a venereal disease, particularly if under age fourteen.

  • Runs away.

  • Attempts suicide, or expresses a desire to die.

  For More Information:

  NationalChildrensAlliance.org

  ChildH
elp.com

  EveryChildMatters.org

  ChildWelfare.gov

  With special thanks to these musicians for ministering to me as I wrote:

  The Band Perry

  If I Die Young

  Allison Krause

  Jewels

  Jesus Help me to Stand

  Aqualung

  Brighter than Sunshine

  Johnny Cash

  Jackson

  Ring of Fire

  Belshazzar

  Celtic Woman

  Away in a Manager

  Chris Rice

  Come to Jesus

  Civil War

  My Father’s Father

  Dave Barnes

  Carry Me Through

  Dixie Chicks

  I Believe in Love

  Top of the World

  Eva Cassidy

  Fields of Gold

  Hillsong

  From the Inside Out

  Fernando Ortego

  Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

  Jeff Buckley

  Hallelujiah

  Merle Haggard

  Folsom Prison Blues

  MercyMe

  Finally Home

  NeedtoBreathe

  Girl Named Tennessee

  The Heat

  Norah Jones

  Seven Years

  Nickel Creek

  Sweet Afton

  Nichole Nordaman

  How Deep the Father’s Love

  Regina Spektor

  The Calculation

  Author’s Note

  Ann Rule told me that I should write this story. “It is your Ted Bundy story,” Ann said. But she also warned me that few publishers would have courage enough to print such a book. David Poindexter at MacAdam/Cage did. I am indebted. Thank you, David.

  Dorothy Carico Smith took Karly’s story and translated it into the stunning artwork that is the cover and the heart of this book. Thank you, Dorothy.

  If it is possible for someone to believe in a book more than the writer, my agent, Alanna Ramirez at Trident Media, did that. Alanna took the first manuscript of this story and told me to rewrite the entire thing. I was terrified, but I did as she suggested. What you are now holding in your hands is the result of Alanna’s vision and insight. Thank you, Alanna.