Cape Cod Today
April 8, 2011
http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/2011/04/07/scott-brown-s-nightmare?blog=69
The tragic events of April 6th at Camp Good News mark the latest development in a story that has unfolded since Scott Brown's book "Against All Odds" was released on February 21st. As our readers will recall, Senator Brown revealed in his book that he was molested when he was a ten-year-old camper at a religious summer camp on Cape Cod. It was later revealed that he attended Camp Good News in Sandwich the summer he says he was abused.
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| His compass needs some serious adjustments. |
Charles R. Devita, 43, apparently killed himself at the camp yesterday following this week's filing of a complaint about sex abuse alleged to have occurred many years ago. Apparently three more people came forward with allegations that they were abused at Camp Good News following yesterday's events. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian is representing the former campers. Readers will remember Garabedian as working with many of the victims in the child sex abuse scandal that plagued the Archdiocese of Boston and led to the downfall of Bernard Cardinal Law whom he finally got on the witness stand for the world to witness his waffling excuses for allowing young lives to be destroyed during his watch.
The child molestation account in Scott Brown's book created a firestorm of controversy here on Cape Cod. Many of our readers believed that Brown had cynically chosen this particular time to reveal his molestation in order to get ahead of the story about his licentious behavior during his years as a Cosmopolitan centerfold and male model during New York City's disco era which might be remembered during his re-election campaign by other at the club.
Neither Left nor Right, simply ethics and morality
Others believed Brown's account was a fabrication. Those on both the left and right who were concerned with the welfare of children wondered why Brown wouldn't name his abuser and worried that the pedophile might still be plying his trade with innocent victims some 40 years after he molested young Scott Brown. How could this prominent, powerful man - this officer of the court, a one-time Army Judge Advocate, a member of the Massachusetts Senate and now a United States Senator , a man sworn to uphold the law and honor-bound to protect the innocent - withhold the name of the man who abused him and who knows how many other innocent children?
Now this week we learned that other victims have started to come forward, some accusing the late Mr. Devita of abusing them when they attended Camp Good News. Clearly, Mr. Devita is not the right age to have victimized Scott Brown, but Devita is the correct age to have been abused by the same pedophile during his own childhood attendance of Camp Good News.
So now we wonder... Was there a serial child molester plying his trade at Camp Good News, passing on his legacy to another generation and sending at least one of those victims on to abuse countless more children? Mr. Devita is deceased so neither the District Attorney nor the victims will ever get a chance to question him.
When this story first evolved we scorned Senator Brown for lobbing a literary grenade at Camp Good News with no way for them to redeem their reputation. We heard rumors that there might have been more abuse at the camp, though nothing beyond the whispers of anonymous sources.
All of this changed Monday when Mitchell Garabedian went public with the first complaint he filed on behalf of a Camp Good News alumnus. If anyone in New England is skilled at vetting child molestation accusers it would be Mr. Garabedian. His extensive experience with the Arch Diocese scandal brings tremendous credibility to his clients' allegations.
This week's revelation of pornography found on a computer in 2002 brought the matter to a head, apparently ultimately resulting in this morning's suicide.
What a nightmare for Senator Brown! If one can write a textbook on how a politician's biography might backfire, it will be written on the wreckage of Scott Brown's political career. Even one of our most conservative readers told us today that she couldn't imagine how she ever again could vote for Scott Brown "with his broken moral compass."
What if Brown had talked to others rather than his book publisher?
Today we wonder if Senator Brown had made his first report of molestation to anyone other than his editor at Harper, perhaps things would have played out differently. Brown had his entire adult life to do something about what appears to be a disturbing pattern at Camp Good News but failed to do so.
Had Brown acted sooner, perhaps Mr. Devita would be alive and in custody, ready to answer the many questions that the alleged victims want to ask. Perhaps those victims would be able to get some form of closure from a criminal or civil trial. Perhaps the good Christian families who send their kids to summer camp would know if it is at all safe to send their children to Camp Good News.
Senator Brown is alive. He is capable of telling our District Attorney absolutely everything he knows about what went on at camp that awful summer. This might lead to other victims who could fill in more parts of the story. If he has any moral courage in his heart, he simply must do that today! If he cannot, then he is not fit to represent this state in Washington.
The simplest answer is always the best: Maybe the reason Brown is unwilling to name his abuser is because he wasn't abused. All the young boys at Camp Good News knew what was happening there, and perhaps Brown just used his knowledge to get worldwide press attention with his book.
Meanwhile, we are left with the incredibly naive statements from those associated with Camp Good News. One spokesperson described Mr. Devita to the Cape Cod Times as "...willing to do just about anything" and wondered how he got any sleep? Meanwhile, referring to the pornography allegations of 2002, an official with the Sandwich Community School revealed that they had to terminate Mr. Devita's employment because "we can't take any chances with that stuff." Apparently Camp Good News decided to roll the dice with "that stuff" and lost spectacularly if Mr. Garabedian's clients are successful in their claims.
Meanwhile, our readers have some questions that merit answers:
* Did District Attorney O'Keefe's investigation of Camp Good News start before or after the claims initiated by Attorney Garabedian?
* Did Senator Brown ask District Attorney O'Keefe not to investigate his own molestation or the camp in general?
* How many other alleged molesters from Camp Good News are under investigation?
* How many alleged victims have approached the Cape & Islands District Attorney's office?
* Will Camp Good News be shut down by the authorities pending further investigation?
* Can Mr. Garabedian or other lawyers in the civil actions subpoena Senator Brown and compel him to testify about his own experiences at Camp Good News?
Whatever one may believe about our Junior Senator's revelations, his personal integrity or his "moral compass", this week's developments at Camp Good News clearly comprise Scott Brown's worst nightmare come true.
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