The tickling incident
In “The Legend of Robert Halsey,” Cheit discusses the
fact that Halsey was removed from
the bus route a year before the twins made their accusations. The
official reason given,
was that some parents had complained Halsey had tickled their daughter.
Cheit
says that this is just a cover story; that Halsey was really removed
because of serious
abuse (choking and threats). He says there was, in fact, a “cover-up”
and the complaint
was “never properly investigated.” “How the word
'tickle' came to describe choking and
other physical abuse is a classic example of how much easier it
is for society to use words
that minimize abuse,” he moralizes.
Cheit starts with the fact that the little girl in question did
accuse Halsey of choking her when she testified at trial. By the
time Cheit is through, his story involves the wholesale betrayal
of the town’s parents and children, complete with a rueful
police officer testifying that he “used the word “tickle,”
.... with a clear sense of euphemism.”
Cheit is completely mistaken about this incident. This is a striking
example of how an allegation spark can turn into a flame. The facts
are as follows: Halsey was accused of tickling. There’s no
evidence of a cover up, and the incident was investigated. Cheit’s
police officer is a figment of his imagination. All of this bears
explaining at some length.
First, was it a tickle or a choke? The police reports on the incident
(which Cheit never
refers to) say that the parents reported tickling and that the mother
“did not think anything
else occurred.”1 A policewoman
interviewed the girl (M.K.) in her home. M.K. only spoke
of tickling.
Prosecutor Shugrue, when discussing M.K., referred to “tickling”
in his opening statement
and throughout the trial. And he was hardly a man to minimize child
abuse. Rather, he
presented the situation in dramatic terms -- She was “distraught”
when she got off the bus
after being tickled and her snowsuit was unzipped, he said. When
M.K. testified, he asked
her:
“Did Bob do something that made you feel uncomfortable?”
“Yes.”
“Okay honey, tell me what he did.”
“He waved a knife around at me and L.C. in the field, and
-- “ (the transcript shows that
Shugrue interrupts her).
“Did he ever tickle you?”
“Yeah, right here.” (1053)
Shugrue asks her to confirm that Halsey tickled her and that she
told her parents. M.K.
told the jury “My mom and my dad was tickling me after dinner,
and I told them
somebody was -- I got tickled enough today. And then they asked
me who tickled me, and I said ‘Bob.’” (1055:7-10).
This is the same description the mother gave to police when she
reported the incident.2
The original police report states that M.K. was asked about her
snowsuit and she said she
had unzipped it herself, because she was hot. She was specifically
asked if Bob “had ever
helped her do this.” She said “no.” The policewoman
asked M.K. several times and in
several ways, if anything bad had happened on Halsey’s bus,
if he had touched her other
than to tickle her, if he had stopped the bus anywhere he shouldn’t.
M.K. said no, nothing
had happened and she said that her bus driver “is a very nice
man.”3 Shugrue didn’t
mention any of this to the jury. Rather than minimizing the incident,
Shugrue presented it
in the worst possible light.
Another erroneous statement is Cheit’s remark that “The
police officer who used the word
“tickle,” testified that he did so with a clear sense
of euphemism.” This testimony was said
to occur at trial transcript pages 1745-56.
The bus company owner is testifying on the pages in question, not
a police officer. None
of the police officers who testified in this trial, testified about
the “tickling” incident,
euphemistically or otherwise. The owner complained that the police
hadn’t told him any details of the incident, so he felt he
didn’t know what his bus driver had even been accused of. (1754-56)
Cheit repeatedly accuses the Lanesboro police force of engaging
in a “cover up” of some
kind, but the reader is left in the dark as to how he knows that
a cover up occurred.
He says the incident was never properly investigated. It was investigated.
The district
superintendent, the school principal, the chief of police, a policewoman
and the bus
company owner were all involved. The chief of police personally
spoke to the owner of
the bus company and to Halsey. The police suggested that child be
taken for a medical
exam (there’s no indication if the parents followed through
with this, but the point is it's ludicrous to suggest that the Lanesboro
police were lackadaiscal in their reaction to the report that a
bus driver tickled a child.).
It’s true that the police chief suspected more. He did not
“encourage” the bus company to remove Halsey from the
bus route, as Cheit has it. He insisted. What more could he have
done with the evidence at hand?
But what about the choking? Cheit says that M.K. testified that
Halsey “’choked’ her and
she told her grandmother and her parents. That complaint led to
Halsey’s sudden
reassignment.” This is a grossly inaccurate rendering of the
testimony.
As we have seen, both the original police reports of the incident
and the trial testimony
make it clear that the incident was about tickling.4
The choking is a later elaboration by
M.K., and either arose spontaneously on the stand or during the
pre-trial interviews. (She
also said Halsey waved a knife at her.)
At trial, Shugrue asks her if she told her parents about the choking
“right away.” He’s
clearly expecting her to say something to the effect of “no,
I was too afraid.” But she
doesn’t. She says she told her parents at the time it occurred.
Shugrue instantly corrects
her. He knows that what she has just said is not true and throws
her credibility about the
choking and the knife-waving into jeopardy. He tells her -- she
does not tell him -- that she delayed telling her parents. He asks
her if she is “still afraid.”
“Did he ever do anything to you besides tickle you and wave
the knife around?”
“He choked me.”
“He choked you?”
“Yeah.”
“And do you know why he choked you?”
(Shook head)
“What were you thinking when he choked you?”
“I don’t know.”
(Defense lawyer) “Please note my objection.”
(The Court) “Yes. Overruled.”
“Go ahead. Were you scared?”
“Yes.”
“Did it hurt?”
“Yes.”
“Now, did you tell your mom or anybody about that right away?”
“Yeah, my grandma first and then my mom and dad.”
“You told your mom and dad over time; is that right?”
“Yes.”
“Are you still afraid to talk about things?”
“A little.”
“What is it about him that makes you afraid?”
“I don’t know.”
M.K. damages her credibility again on cross-examination, when she
discusses the guns and
knives that she allegedly saw on the bus. (1071- 1074) She says
“when the first day I saw
them, I told my parents.”
“The first day that you saw them?” asks the defense
attorney.
“Yeah, I told my parents.”
Twice Halsey’s lawyer asks her if she means that she told
her parents back in
kindergarten, a year and a half ago, that she saw guns and knives
on the bus. She says yes.
She goes on to say that her parents asked her, “What did he
do with the knives and guns?”
to which she replied, “Nothing.”
She adds that when her grandmother came to pick her up at the bus
stop, she pointed the
guns out to her grandmother, as well.
Shugrue bounces up on re-direct and corrects her again.
“Did you -- when you started to talk about this, did you
start to tell -- did it take you some time to talk about this
stuff? All right. Is that yes? You’re shaking your head.”
“Yes.”
“Have you told your mom and dad more recently the stuff that
has been going on?”
“Yes.”
“And did you start to talk to your mom and dad when you and
I talked a little bit more?”
“Yes.”
“All right. Is that when you started to tell them what was
really going on on the bus?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t have anything further.” (1076)
This is one of many examples in this trial when Shugrue does not
“Believe The Children.”
When he disagrees with what they’re saying, he corrects them,
or he asks the question
again, or prompts them for a different answer, or ignores what they're
saying and
changes the subject.
As stated, Halsey was taken off the midmorning bus route because
he tickled M.K. The
reason was not trumpeted all over town because Halsey was accused
of no crime. Yet, the
secrecy around the event gave rise to rumors and suspicions in Lanesboro.
The twins’
father testified before the grand jury that when Halsey was taken
off the bus route, Mr.
and Mrs. W. “suspected” that he might have been a molester.
Mr. W. said that his sons “seemed to really like” Mr.
Halsey, and he thought that was suspicious, too.
(grand jury transcript, p. 8).
-----------------------------------------------------
1 Report to the Chief, Lanesborough Police Department,
#91-020, Subject: M.K., states:
“Mrs. K. told me that recently her husband, J. was tickling
M. and she (that is, M.)
became very agitated and asked her father to stop tickling her,
because the bus driver Bob
has been tickling her all day.”
2 Report to the Chief, Lanesborough Police Department,
#91-020, Subject: M.K
3 Report to the Chief, Lanesborough Police Department,
Report #92-020, Re: M.K.,
February 14, 1992
4 After M.K. was removed from Halsey’s bus
route, Halsey saw her at the bus stop on
anoher bus and went and said “hello” to her. Her parents
were upset about this and James
Zarvis, the bus company owner, told Halsey that this was his “last
chance.” This incident
took place in a public area and Halsey certainly acted inappropriately
under the
circumstances, but not criminally.
(continued -- the other children testify)
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