By Susan Saulny
New York Times
November 17, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/us/18family.html?_r=1
BATES CITY, Mo. — On a dead-end dirt road, through frosted crops and bales of hay in this sleepy town about a half-hour east of Kansas City, state investigators spent much of last week excavating the yard around a farmhouse, looking for decades-old evidence of sex crimes against children.
Their search was prompted, law enforcement officials say, by a 26-year-old woman who went to the police in nearby Independence, Mo., in August and accused her grandfather, father and three uncles of sexually abusing her and her siblings as children, beginning in the winter of 1988 and continuing for seven years.
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| Burrell E. Mohler Sr. arriving in court last week in Missouri. Photo by John Sleezer |
According to criminal complaints and other court papers, the woman said she had recovered suppressed memories of mock weddings, sexual acts involving children, rape and a sex act involving an animal that took place in and around the secluded old Bates City farmhouse, a wooded 55-acre property formerly owned by her grandfather, Burrell E. Mohler Sr.
The sprawling case has roiled this rural community, on the rolling bluffs above the Missouri River. And it is especially controversial because it involved what are said to be the years-old repressed memories of one woman.
Family and friends of the Mohlers are questioning the reliability and validity of such memories, which legal experts also debate.
The authorities, though, say they have physical evidence to back up at least some of the claims. Five siblings of the 26-year-old woman, four girls and a boy, have also come forward with similar accounts of abuse, law enforcement officials say.
Mr. Mohler, who has been characterized by prosecutors as presiding over the abuse, has been charged with forcible rape and the use of a child in a sexual performance. His sons — Burrell E. Mohler Jr., 53, Jared L. Mohler, 48, Roland N. Mohler, 47, and David A. Mohler, 52 — were also charged with various felonies, including rape.
On Tuesday, a sixth family member, Darrel Mohler, 72, a brother of the elder Mr. Mohler, was charged with rape, and prosecutors filed new charges of child sexual abuse against Burrel Mohler Sr. and his previously accused sons.
None of the Mohlers has entered a plea. On Tuesday, the men told a judge that they were still organizing their defense.
When asked if he had a lawyer, Burrell Mohler Sr. told Judge John E. Frerking of Lafayette County Circuit Court, "My family's been working on that possibility."
Shackled at the wrists and ankles, the four Mohler siblings, their father and his brother searched the courtroom for friendly faces, and in return got some waves and thumbs-up from at least a dozen supporters among the spectators.
"The charges seem to be so absurd, they're unbelievable," said Robert Bruch, a friend and former employer of the elder Mr. Mohler. "Everybody's in total shock."
Mr. Bruch said he worshiped with Mr. Mohler at the Community of Christ Church in Bates City. "There was never a question about his loyalty to the church or Christ," Mr. Bruch said. "Never one complaint about his behavior."
A spokesman for the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Sgt. Collin Stosberg, pressed on the question of "recovered" memories leading to criminal charges, said, "We feel like we have enough evidence, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten to this point."
Bob Ramsey, a retired chemistry professor who lives next to David Mohler in Lamoni, Iowa, said that he had been close to the Mohler family for 20 years and that he had worked with David Mohler and his wife at Graceland University.
Mr. Ramsey, 71, said he had never had concerns about suspicious behavior or abuse in the Mohler family. "My reaction was absolute unbelief," he said. "It just does not fit the character of David. He has been a super helpful, kind individual."
Late Tuesday, The Associated Press reported that a search warrant filed in the case said three of the children told the authorities that they had observed "several murders" and had been forced to help kill and bury a man in April 1988.
An investigator said in a court document that at the old farmhouse he found a broken glass jar, glass fragments, other jars and a bone, although it remains unclear what type of bone was recovered.
Law enforcement officials had been looking specifically for glass jars with written statements inside. The complainants, they said, told them that as children, they had written what happened to them on pieces of paper and buried them in glass jars in the backyard, hoping that once buried, the memories would go away.
When asked if investigators had found any written statements, Sergeant Stosberg declined to comment.
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