Saturday, August 7, 2010

Two stories and many lives.

This week in Louisville there were two stories all over the paper.

The first ended Friday about Noon when a woman was convicted of lying to the FBI when asked about phone calls made to the university basketball coach, swearing eternal silence about his indiscretion with her if he paid what was asked for. She knew who made the calls. She had asked the man to make the calls. She told the FBI she didn't know who did it.

The indiscretion had happened seven years before. She went to a local restaurant where it was well known the basketball coach would be with his buddies. To hear a description of this group of friends, I'm reminded of the famous "Rat Pack" though with bit players instead of famous men. She wanted a job working at the university and being intelligent she intended to become friends with the group and use that to get employment.

By the end of the evening she was in the basement of the restaurant with the coach. They had sex or she was raped. Being alone together it was she said he said. She did not go to get a rape test done. She went home. Months later the coach gave $3000 cash to another employee of the university and that man took the woman to a city 100 miles away for an abortion.

Between that time and the point where she lied to the FBI, she married and divorced the man who took her for the abortion. Before the divorce however, she told him the child she aborted was a product of rape. She asked another man to make calls to the coach demanding money for silence. That didn't work. She asked her soon to be ex-husband to give the coach a list of monetary demands for her silence. That didn't work. She asked her divorce attorney to write a letter to the coach asking for $10 million. That didn't work. The coach went to the FBI with the mess.

She was indicted for several things, basically lying to the FBI.

That was in 2009. In July 2009 she went to the local police and told them she was raped in 2003, and the circumstances of the rape. The SUV detective video taped the interview at the police station.

That same detective went to the coach's office and in the presence of his personal attorney interviewed him about the incident. No video or audio was used to record the interview.
There have been newspaper stories published; all the local television stations have covered every aspect of the case. At trial the Federal prosecutor called all the men involved in the case; her x-husband number one and the father of her children, the x-husband number two and former university employee, the coach, the divorce attorney and a man she had an affair with for several years during this time.

Her attorney called no witnesses. In his closing arguments he said the efforts to get the coach to pay money were all the idea of her second x-husband and former university employee. The verdict was guilty. The woman is not in jail, released on her own recognizance waiting sentencing in October. It is said by loads of lawyers and former federal prosecutors that she will get about seven years in the place Martha Stewart served her time.

The second story involved a new family now living in Louisville.

In 2000 a nine year old child came to our city. He was part of a group of children from Sudan sponsored by a Lutheran church. These kids had a terrible existence in Sudan and were known as The Lost Boys. He got an education, began working and going to a community college. As time passed he became an American citizen and got his degree from WKU. He got work with a local bank and reconnected with his mother and sister, still back in Sudan. In 2006 he went back and was introduced to his sister's friend. In 2008 he and she married. She stayed to work on her eventual immigration. He came back to Louisville.

Since then they have been apart. It's expensive to pay the fees to get the paperwork done, as well as the airfare and additional fees required by the Sudanese government.

She had a baby girl he has never met or held. He still works at the bank and has a second job, sending money back to support his mother and sister, as well as his wife and baby. Last year he spoke to a Rabbi here in town. The cleric was moved by the fact that this man and his family were apart. He asked the congregation at his synagogue what they thought should be done. They raised the money to pay for the plane and the fees. Yesterday afternoon he met his child at the local airport for the first time.

Members of the synagogue were there as was the rabbi and several local television cameras.