A Pineville man scheduled to go to trial later this month on 12 felony sex charges is suing McDonald County Sheriff Donald Schlessman...and taxpayers will foot the bill for the lawsuit.
Jerry Don Chrisman, 34, is scheduled to go to trial Tuesday, Feb. 28, in McDonald County Circuit Court, on four counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child, two counts of child abuse, promoting prostitution, sexual exploitation of a minor child, and four counts of statutory rape, three of them, involving children younger than 14, according to court records.
Chrisman claims he has been traumatized by Schlessman and Deputy Don Ruby, whom he accuses of keeping him in a cell with no lights, taking their own sweet time about mailing his letters and sharing information from his correspondence with his lawyers with other inmates.
This is being done, Chrisman claims, because "the alleged victim of crime is Schlessman's family, putting the plaintiff in obvious danger of attack and injury at the hands of fellow inmates." Chrisman does not explain why his fellow inmates would be so happy to do the bidding of the sheriff who locked them up.
It apparently won't take much to alleviate Chrisman's trauma. He is asking that Schlessman and Ruby both be fired and that each of them pay him $1 million.
Chrisman received permission today to file as a pauper, meaning that taxpayers will take care of his legal bills.
According to published reports, Chrisman allegedly forced minors to perform sexual acts that were shown live on the Internet. The alleged victims were three girls and one boy ranging in age from 13 to 16, according to a KSN report.
A pre-trial hearing for Chrisman is scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15.
Not to stand up for the "perverts," Randy, but you know you can't use that word in a newspaper. What kind of journalism teacher are you, anyway???? Also, just in case you ever write for a newspaper again, the use of the word "alleged" is dangerous and does not adequately protect the news media from libel charges. You should, instead, repeat the charges - and not insinuate that the person committed the crime, at least not until proven guilty.
ReplyDeleteIn paragraph three, you state "Chrisman claims," but fail to give the source. Bad journalism. You must always give the source, otherwise people will wonder if you were in the next cell over, listening to the guy talk. You continue doing this throughout, and it is very bad reporting for crime. You have editorialized so much in this piece, the judge may have the Chrisman case thrown out of court for jury tampering......Shame!!!!
You are correct about one thing. I neglected to mention that the claim was from a lawsuit filed in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, although I am sure that it was readily obvious to readers that I was taking the information from court documents. I used the word alleged absolutely correctly. If those charges are true, he is a pervert, so he is an alleged pervert. And in case you have not noticed this is news and commentary and has always been labeled as such. Nearly all of my readers have the intelligence to be able to tell which is which. They also have been reading my work long enough to know that nothing irritates me more than the public paying for frivolous lawsuits filed by prisoners charged with the most heinous of crimes. That is an opinion in case you couldn't tell. As for his trial, there is nothing in this blog that would cause his trial to be moved. That is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteAs for words that cannot be used in newspapers, readers would benefit if more people would write like I do and add a little bit of life to them. For some reason, our local newspaper editors seem to have taken a blood oath that stories have to put readers to sleep or they won't make the cut. My writing's not perfect by any means, but I learned a long time ago how to keep the readers' interest and how to keep their trust.
I have no pity for convicted sex offenders, especially those who prey on children.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I find your headline to be juvenile at the best. No, your blog isn't a newspaper and yes, you can say what you want, I suppose.
However, you do go on and on, virtually ad infinitum, about local journalism. So, if you truly know journalism the way you claim to, perhaps you should set the example by rising to the occasion.
Hundreds of men convicted of murder have been set free from Death Row in virtually every state as a result of DNA testing. For all I know this guy may be innocent.
Of course, this is a BLOG and you can write the way you want to, but you did write it to look like a news story. Never assume your reader knows where you are getting the information. That is sloppy, and you know that.
ReplyDeleteAs for "alleged," my editor taught me not to use it. At first, I argued, then my editor explained that it was not a good idea. And this was for a major metropolitan newspaper, so it wasn't just some local quirky guy talking, not that there's anything wrong with that.
The word "pervert" is a fighting word. It carries a lot of weight. You should not use it in a news story; and even in a blog, I would be careful.
OK, so you have a blog here; but you also set yourself up as being a journalist and a teacher. That means you are held to a higher standard. I'm just holding you to it.
Oh, and another thing -- You say reporters should sensationalize their writing??? That is exactly why libel laws were enacted. We can't do that. Not without getting sued, anyway. Of course, his trial wouldn't be moved by what you wrote, but if a news reporter were to go on a rampage and write many articles before it went to trial, inflaming public attitudes, the trial would be moved and the newspaper and the reporter would be the reason. This is not responsible journalism.
ReplyDeleteI just found your blog for the first time and I am glad that someone is finally saying what needs to be said the way it needs to be said!! I am so tired of all the bad pablicity that McDonald County is getting. I have a business trying to provide a safe environment for the families aroung here as well as for my own and everytime you turn around there is someone stupid in the news. Since I moved here 4 years ago, there has been several "perverts" in the news, drug deals gone bad - shootings 1 mile from my home. The only way to get this changed is for someone like you to actually tell the truth about all of this stuff but lets not forget the good also.
ReplyDeleteAs far as jury tampering goes, people are smart enough to know when there is something going on - common sense!! Shame on the closed minded. They only hear what they want to and usually side with the ones that think like them reguardless of the facts. Keep telling it likeyou are!
well you guys say alot but for me i personally now the guy and the girl that was mixed up in this and personally they both hate waht happened and wish it would be over and they could get on with there lives she is almost 18 and i know for a fact she does love him but would never let it happen again
ReplyDelete