Victims

[Tom Cole]

Ed Foote wrote:
>    To some degree, I have to disagree.  Even in  the Boy Scouts, we leaders
> now must always have two adults present. The legal ramifications of young
> boys accusing a solitary adult leader of abuse were too great to allow.
>     The same holds true of the adults going into homes.  If there is a 13
> year old, having a bad day, and they accuse you of raping them while you were
> in the home with them,  you have just spent a fortune, (perhaps your life
> savings!) to pay for the legal defense that you will need, regardless of your
> innocence.  This is a tremendous liability.
>     I will never put myself in a position of risk.  If there is an under 18
> child in the house alone,  I will not schedule a first time tuning at the
> same time.  It hasn't cost me any work, and I am never in jeopardy of a real
> mess that can arise.  ( My father is a judge, and has seen the ruination
> caused by poor foresight in a case like this.)
>     I hate it, but I am also determined not to be placed in an indefensible
> position.
>
> Regards,
> Ed Foote
>

Ed:

Yes, there are always going to be cases of innocent people wrongly being charged with a
crime. Many years ago, a first-time customer called me up, the evening after I had
serviced her piano, and accused me of stealing the top 20 dampers out of her grand piano.
I returned them immediately, of course <g>! But, I did not then adopt an attitude of
worrying about every little possible legal hassle I might have every time I entered
someone's home. You can have an attitude of: if you run, the dog is going to chase you.
Or, you can have an attitude of: if you don't act fearful, the dog will not notice you.

There is a congruity between having a concern for being falsely blamed and wanting to
stay out of risky situations. I can understand your position. I wonder, though, if your
father has done you a favor by relating what happens in the courtroom. If it happens to
only one person in a million, he's the guy that appears before the judge.


--
Thomas A. Cole, RPT
Santa Cruz, California