When I was released, I thought the worst surely must be behind me, and shortly after, I wrote an essay titled “The January from Hell” about what had happened; I based much of the previous chapters on that essay. Things did settle down with the P\u0010FA order for most of the next two-and-a-half years. However, it turned out to be just the start of trying to convince the courts I was not a danger to my kids or anyone else. It was also just the start of the battle to keep Rita from moving the kids to Michigan.<\/p>\r\n
The probation department assigned Kyle Jordan as my probation officer. When I finally met him, he had me fill out a ton of paperwork and tried to intimidate me, so I understood who had the power in the relationship. On the paperwork, it asked where I “hang out.” I left the question unanswered because I didn’t (don’t) hang out anywhere. He saw this and started harassing me about it. He said, “You don’t go to any bars or anything?” I told him I hadn’t been in a bar in years. He then said, “I see you’re a professor; what would happen if a student left an answer blank?” I said, “I guess I’d mark it incorrect and give it back to them.” He then said, “But it would be unacceptable for a student to do that.” I responded, “They’re college students; if they want to submit an unanswered question, I’m fine with that.” He then realized this analogy was going nowhere and said, “Well, it’s unacceptable to me, and if you don’t want to cooperate, I can put you in jail.” I again said, “But I don’t go anywhere besides my home, my office, and shopping occasionally.” He insisted I need to put something, so I put “Wegmans,” a local grocery store.<\/p>\r\n
The next time I met him, he told me that because I’d had two PFA violations, I would need to attend “Actions.” When I asked him what that was, he told me it’s the “Batterer’s Intervention Program” about domestic violence and anger management; I scoffed. He jumped up out of his chair and said, “If you think this is funny, I can have you sent right back to jail.” I told him I didn’t think it was funny but didn’t see the point since I hadn’t done anything remotely violent or abusive, nor did I have anger management issues. He then reminded me I had to do whatever he said, or he would put me in jail. Thus, I spent the next 21 weeks in an anger management class for two hours and $30 each week.<\/p>\r\n
The class was supposed to last for 30 weeks, but the woman who was teaching it with her husband, Cindy and Marty Brumbaugh, got into a severe car accident. It turns out that the person driving the car was a student from the class with whom she was having an affair. Likely trying to save her marriage and business, she lied to the police and stated that the relationship with the student was not consensual. The following is the Affidavit of Probable Cause from the arrest warrant and part of the transcript from the hearing at which she pleaded nolo contendre<\/em>; they\u00a0describe in detail the facts of the case according to the state.<\/p>\r\n On 08\/03\/13 at approximately 10:35 PM, the accused arrived at the Bellefonte Borough Police Department to report that she was a victim of a sexual assault. While there, the accused spoke with Officer Andrew T. Berry. The accused advised Officer Berry that she had been sexually assaulted by Dwayne E. McClellan, a person known to her. The accused specifically advised that McClellan had forced her to get into a vehicle with him, and he then drove them to a motel in the Shamokin Dam area. While at the motel he had threatened her and forced oral sex upon her.<\/p>\r\n The accused reported this incident after her husband discovered she had been in a car wreck with McClellan in the Shamokin Dam area and that the two of them had been taken to a hospital for treatment.<\/p>\r\n On 08\/04\/13 the accused provided a 4-page statement to Officer Berry detailing her encounters with McClellan.<\/p>\r\n On 08\/20\/13 Dwayne McClellan was interviewed at the PSP Rockview barracks. He advised the following: He began seeing the accused in March of this year after he was court-ordered to attend counseling at Actions Counseling, which is owned by the accused and her husband. He had private counseling sessions with the accused as well as group counseling sessions.<\/p>\r\n Sometime in June in one of the private counseling sessions, the accused had told him that she loved him and the two began kissing each other. Shortly after that, on two separate occasions, he drove to the Howard area and picked up the accused in the middle of the night. The two of them would go to a boat launch where they would sit on his car hugging, kissing and massaging each other. The accused was not a good sleeper and they would schedule these romantic encounters together.<\/p>\r\n Eventually the accused suggested that the two of them plan a weekend away together, which they did. On 07\/26\/13 McClellan picked up the accused at her office and the two of them drove, eventually ending up at an Econolodge in the Shamokin Dam area. While at the Econolodge the two had sexual relations with each other and at no point did the accused tell him to stop or no. The next day they ended up being involved in a crash and they both were taken to a hospital for treatment.<\/p>\r\n McClellan went on to say that the relationship between him and the accused was consenual. He provided PSP with his cellphone and showed numerous text messages that he had received from the accused. The text messages were both sexual and personal in nature. Some of the messages even told the accused to delete them after he was done reading them. One specific message the accused sent stated “No you didn’t say anything wrong. I just don’t know how we can keep this up without Marty, my kids, the legal system and just plain gossip finding out and then all hell breaking loose for me”.<\/p>\r\n McCiellan also provided PSP with a card the accused had given to him. On the inside of the card the accused tells McClellan that her special name for him is “Teddy Bear”.<\/p>\r\n On 08\/29\/13 the accused was interviewed at the PSP Rockview barracks. The interview consisted of the accused, Tpr. Ebeck and me. The accused was asked about how she and McClellan had met. She advised that she was the counselor for the Centre County Domestic Violence Program and McClellan had been ordered to attend counseling because of a domestic violence issue he had with his brother. The accused went on to state that she had been counseling McClellan since he entered the program on 03\/06\/13.<\/p>\r\n The accused was then asked about the incidents involving McClellan. She then advised that McClellan had been threatening and groping her. She stated that McClellan had been making her send him sexual text messages and forcing her into a relationship. McClellan told her that he would ruin her by telling everyone that she was the one that initiated their relationship. Finally one weekend McClellan had forced her into his vehicle and drove her to a motel in Shamokin Dam. While at the motel McClellan had forced oral sex upon her and attempted to have sexual intercourse with her. She went on to say that she did not want any of this and was being threatened.<\/p>\r\n I then confronted the accused with the numerous text messages that she had sent to McClellan, some very sexual in nature and some very personal in nature, and a personal card and pictures of herself that she gave McClellan. Upon discussing the text messages and other evidence with the accused, she admitted that she was not forced to do anything by McClellan and the relationship they had was consenual. She admitted that she was the one that paid for both nights at the motel due to McClellan not having any money. When asked if McClellan had forced her to go with him to the motel she specifically stated “No”. When asked if she had told McClellan no to his sexual advances and the sexual encounters she specifically stated “No”. The accused then spoke about how she was going to lose her business and that her career was over.<\/p>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div>\r\n THE COURT:\u00a0 … Would you state the facts upon which the Commonwealth relies and would prove if the matter was presented at trial? Next page…<\/p>\r\n I’m sure the reader doesn’t miss the irony of this, and if it wasn’t for McClellan keeping the text messages, as the district attorney says, he could have been in grave legal trouble. The state had just paroled him from prison for making terroristic threats. I could not find details about this besides the threats being toward his brother. Thus, I am sure the district attorney would not have given him the benefit of the doubt when it came time to determine who to believe. He had spent six months in jail awaiting his day in court for the terroristic threats–he pleaded guilty–so I am sure he would not have been able to afford whatever bail the judge assessed on a rape charge.<\/p>\r\n I very much wonder what happened after Cindy–and Marty–made their allegations. \u00a0There were 17 days between the claims and when the police interviewed McClellan, which seems like a long time. \u00a0It was then another nine days before Brumbaugh was interviewed again and confessed. \u00a0Hopefully, the police investigated the allegations, and I hope they would have been suspicious of them given the events and details Cindy provided. Since the police interviewed McClellan at the police barracks, I suspect they did not arrest him. It would be great to get his side of the story and understand how law enforcement treated him.<\/p>\r\n I am\u00a0shocked that the\u00a0district attorney\u00a0allowed\u00a0her to plead\u00a0nolo contendre<\/em>, as she was undoubtedly guilty of making false reports. I’m not sure what her defense would have been, besides maybe saying her husband pressured her into producing the information. My second attorney, Stephanie Cooper, represented her, but confidentiality prevents her from discussing things. Regardless, Stephanie got Cindy a pretty good deal, in my opinion.\u00a0 The judge sentenced Cindy to 100 hours of community service and 30 days to 18 months in county jail. The order states she would only spend 30 days in jail and the rest of the 17 months on parole.\u00a0 The judge also fined her $2500.<\/p>\r\n I have mixed feelings about this, as I often do when learning about other people’s sentences. Stephanie has told me more than once that each case is unique, and I shouldn’t compare. However, the court sentenced me to 30 days in jail for sending a period in a text message. Cindy tried to ruin a man’s life by accusing him of rape so she could preserve her business.<\/p>\r\n I also have strong opinions about someone making false allegations. The state charged Cindy with one Unsworn Falsification to Authorities count and two counts of False Reports to Law Enforcement Authorities. The unsworn-falsification charge and one of the false-reports charges are 2nd-degree misdemeanors and the other a 3rd-degree misdemeanor. \u00a0If she got the statutory maximum for each charge, and they were to run consecutively, the sentence would be five years in prison. \u00a0However, like most states, Pennsylvania has sentencing guidelines judges use, so there’s some uniformity across the state. \u00a0I talk in detail about these in a later chapter, but judges take two factors into account. \u00a0One is the Offense Gravity Score, and the other is the Prior Record Score. \u00a0The 2nd-degree misdemeanors have an OGS of two, and the 3rd-degree one has an OGS of one; they all have a PRS of 1\/2. With no prior record, the sentence for OGSs of one and two is community service. However, it’s not clear how these are combined when there are multiple charges.<\/p>\r\n In this light, it doesn’t seem like Cindy got such a great deal because, no matter how a judge would have combined the charges, her sentence should not have been more than two months in jail and a year of probation. My take on this is that Cindy got a poor deal from a legal perspective; she also likely lost her license as a therapist and probably her business. Marty’s name is now on the door, and there’s no record of a divorce, so I suspect he upgraded his license and took over the business. I’m pretty sure they lost their contract with the county, though.<\/p>\r\n What troubles me the most is how few consequences someone making false reports faces. \u00a0Someone can accuse someone of rape and will probably not even face jail time unless they have a substantial prior record.\u00a0 Making false reports is one crime that lengthy sentences would act as a deterrent since it is premeditated. \u00a0If people knew they could face serious jail time for falsely reporting a crime, I suspect they would be very much less likely to make the accusation.<\/p>\r\n Law enforcement officials and the courts seem to think that someone making the false report is simply guilty of wasting their time.\u00a0 Wasting government time may be the only effect when a person does not explicitly accuse someone else. \u00a0In Pennsylvania, there is a distinction in the law; a false report that falsely incriminates another is a 2nd-degree misdemeanor, while a fictitious report to law enforcement is a 3rd-degree misdemeanor. The distinction only makes sense if “another” means a specific person or persons.\u00a0 Thus, the state does seem to recognize that it’s worse to accuse someone specific, but a 2nd-degree misdemeanor is still a minimal charge for something that could have grave consequences for an innocent person.<\/p>\r\n When someone incriminates a specific person, or the police have identified a suspect, the punishment should depend on the accusations. Consider the turmoil this would cause the accused. \u00a0Most inchoate–primarily “attempted” crimes–have gravity scores of one point less than if the criminal had successfully executed the crime. In many regards, falsely accusing someone of a crime could be as traumatic as an attempted crime to the victim. Falsely accusing someone of rape or sexual assault should have far more significant consequences than what comes with a 2nd-degree misdemeanor.<\/p>\r\n Next page…<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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MS. PARKS MILLER:\u00a0 Yes, Your Honor. The facts that we allege and were prepared to prove today are that the defendant in this matter was counseling with, pursuant to court order, the victim in this case, Dwayne McClellan. They started counseling — he was sent to her. She was counseling him beginning in March, 2013. She began a romantic relationship with him. Most notably, the defendant and the victim, Dwayne McClellan, went away for a weekend on July 26 and 27, and– July 26 and 27. Mr. McClellan\u00a0picked the defendant up at her office and the two of them drove to Econo Lodge in the Shamokin Dam area, where they engaged in consensual sexual relations. The Commonwealth would have been presenting ample evidence of their relationship prior to and after this consensual sexual relationship. The defendant participated quite heartily in this texting relationship, texting engagement, where she called him her teddybear, where she talked — professed her love for him on a regular basis. After the weekend away — after the weekend away, the next morning —
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MS. PARKS MILLER: The next morning the impetus of this case and what ended up being the trigger for the false reports is that she gets caught with him. The evidence we would present today is that she told her husband that she was going away with a girlfriend and, in fact, she was leaving with him. He wrecks the next morning on the way home and there’s a car accident.
THE COURT: He, meaning Mr. McClellan?
MS. PARKS MILLER: Yes, Your Honor. He wrecks the vehicle, and so she is taken to the hospital, and her husband discovers that she is not with a girlfriend. She is with Mr. McClellan. So over the next week, between 7\/27, when she is discovered with Mr. McClellan and not a girlfriend, and the time she makes the false report, the pressure is upon them as the affair is being discovered. Their text messages are very loving. She’s telling him she loves him, wants to be with him. He’s saying — Mr. McClellan is saying he wants to be with her. But the evidence today would show that she is feeling pressure at home as it’s obvious she wasn’t away with a girlfriend. The evidence today would include things like text messages from the defendant to Mr. McClellan, like: I just don’t know how we can keep this up without Marty, the kids, the legal system finding out and then all hell breaking loose. She recounts how she feels about the sexual encounter. It was positive, that she wants to be with him. The victim is visiting her at her home, and at certain instances she is having her husband leave to go get them pizza and they are cuddling, so everything that we would present today shows a consensual relationship. What then the Commonwealth would prove is that at some point their relationship begins to dissolve because of the pressure of being found out. The text messages would show that she starts to realize that Mr. McClellan had kept their text messages, and she starts to worry about him exposing her because she will lose her counseling license. She says: You’re scaring me. I’ll lose my business. And her business represents $35,000 or more a year of her income. And then you see in the text messages we would present that she’s saying: You need to call me. You need to call me and my husband. We need to talk about this. And we would present evidence that her husband gets on the phone and threatens him and says that, essentially, if you don’t quit this, we’re going to tell on you and get you in trouble. Within minutes of that kind of interaction, they run to the Bellefonte Police Department and accuse him — she signs a statement — of committing a rape back from their lovely Shamokin Dam weekend, the getaway where she has consensually had sex with him. The others would also show that she packed a bag to go with him; she gave him money to buy wine for the trip, and so forth. So this was essentially an extramarital affair which the Commonwealth should have heard nothing about except that it ended in a very serious consequence, one of which a man could have actually been prosecuted for rape, and it was done to save a business reputation once the extramarital affair fell apart. That’s what this case was. That’s why the charges arose. And but for us getting the text messages, we may not have known who to believe. That’s what this case is about.
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THE COURT: Yes. Very well. The Court will accept the defendant’s plea of no contest. The order is entered as follows:\u00a0
And now, July 10, 2014, Defendant appearing before the Court for purposes of entering a plea of guilty (sic) to Count 1, Unsworn Falsification to Authorities, a violation of Section 4904(a)(1) of the Crimes Code, a misdemeanor of the second degree, Count 2, False Reports,\u00a0 Falsely Incriminating Another, a violation of Section 4906(a) of the Crimes Code, and Count 3, False Reports, Reporting an Offense Which Did Not Occur, a violation of Section 4906(b)(1) of the Crimes Code, the Court accepts the defendant’s plea of no contest. The defendant will appear before this Court for sentencing on August 14, 2014, at 8:30 a.m. The Probation Department of Centre County will update its presentence information, which will include a recent submission from a mental health practitioner. The department will also investigate potential intermediate punishment sanctions. By the Court.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n