Texas Girl Says Abuse Claims Were Coerced by Mom

Discussion in 'Ethics, Morality, & Justice' started by StrangerInAStrangeLand, Aug 10, 2014.

  1. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    15,396
    Jan. 6, 2006


    Sixteen-year-old Stephanie Arena longs for a normal girl's life, but she is haunted by the fact that she sent her teenage cousins to prison for a crime she now says they didn't commit.

    The sordid story began when Stephanie, just 7 years old at the time, was caught in a bitter custody battle between her parents, LaVonna and Stephan Arena. Worried that she'd lose her daughter, LaVonna took Stephanie and her brother from their home in Texas to a Florida homeless shelter. She then justified the abduction by telling social workers her kids were being molested.

    Stephanie now says her mother used her as a tool to pry her family apart and to get her father to drop his custody claim.

    "I am responsible for putting them in prison, and now that I am older and I can understand the consequences of my actions, I need to step up and do what I have to [to] make things right," she told "20/20" in an exclusive interview.

    Her cousin John Arena, 17 at the time of the trial, was released on parole after serving five years of a seven-year sentence. Michael Arena, then 16 years old, is currently serving a 20-year sentence in a Texas prison.

    Trying to Make Things Right

    Stephanie has been trying to "make things right" since she was 11, writing letters of apology to both brothers in prison.

    But perhaps her bravest moment came when she went public with her story and returned to court, two years after accusing her cousins. She faced the same judge and prosecutor and told them she had lied to them when she said her cousins molested her.

    She hoped her honesty would bring real justice to her family. Instead, she says, they treated her like a criminal.

    She said they were "grilling me on whether I wanted to plead the fifth or not, and just really rude to me. I was like, 'Wait a second. You're a judge. You're supposed to serve justice. And now I'm telling you the truth, and you don't care.'"

    In fact, Judge Edward Johnson of Bell County, Texas, warned Stephanie repeatedly that she could face felony prosecution for perjury and a possible 10-year prison sentence if she recanted her original charges. Johnson refused "20/20's" request for an interview.

    Even at her young age, Stephanie refused to back down and was willing -- as the judge warned she might -- to go to prison.

    "I really do think that two-to-10 years is a small price to pay," she said.


    Mother Now Spending Time With Convicted Pedophiles

    And perhaps this is the strangest twist in Stephanie's story. While her mom still maintains John and Michael molested her daughter, she allowed a twice-convicted pedophile to live with her and Stephanie. A judge found her mom's judgment so poor he awarded sole custody of Stephanie to her father, Stephan.

    When "20/20" caught up with Stephanie's mom, she was living with a boyfriend in Muscatine, Iowa.

    She spoke briefly with "20/20" on the street. She said the reports that she exposed her children to a sexual predator are inaccurate.

    In her brief sidewalk interview she at first stood by her story that John and Michael Arena had molested her daughter. "I did not frame those boys and my children asked me to take them out of there. In fact, they begged me," she said.

    It appears, however, that LaVonna's accusations are part of a troubling pattern. Police records and family testimony suggest that on three different occasions she has falsely accused other family members of abusing her kids, including a charge against Stephanie's father, Stephan Arena.

    "I believe it was in 2000 she accused me and John and Michael again -- while they were incarcerated," he said.

    LaVonna Arena asked "20/20" not to use its sidewalk interview with her, suggesting a more formal interview later. She apparently decided against that and stopped taking "20/20's" phone calls. Her live-in boyfriend dropped a bombshell, however, explaining to "20/20" by phone that LaVonna would like to tell the truth and explain why she made Stephanie lie. But, her boyfriend said, "LaVonna is afraid she would go to jail."

    Stephanie says it's that kind of attitude that leaves her bitter.

    "When I realized she manipulated me, that was when I was like, I really don't care about you anymore. ... I can honestly say I hate her," she said.


    Boys Need Lawyers or Intervention from Governor

    Stephanie's cousin John submits to an annual polygraph test administered by the state as part of his parole agreement.

    Peter Heller, who recently conducted the test on John said he feels confident that John is truthful in saying he never had sexual contact with his cousin.

    Heller said, "In my opinion he was truthful to the relevant questions. If I was to testify in court, my opinion would be that he did not molest Stephanie."

    Despite Stephanie's assertion that she was not molested and other evidence that supports her claim, County Attorney Rick Miller wrote in a letter to "20/20" that "all of these matters were thoroughly vetted on appeal after appeal, and the evidence remained what it was: convincing."

    Wrongful conviction expert Paul Ciolino, whose private investigative work has resulted in the release of dozens of death row inmates, says there is just one route for the Arena boys.

    "Without a crew of high-priced lawyers, the governor's going to have to step in here and do the right thing. ... These are two kids who don't have resources… and no one's helping them," he said.

    And young Stephanie Arena is a victim too, not of molestation, she says, but of guilt.

    She says she thinks every day about the devious plots she says her mother masterminded. Her hope now is that somebody will step in and help her cousins.

    "Just for somebody to care," she said. "Just for somebody to realize, 'Hey, what happened to those boys was wrong.'"
     
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  3. andy1033 Truth Seeker Valued Senior Member

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    1,060
    The people whom make up horrendous stuff about people are disgusting pos.

    I will never understand how people can do such a thing, but they are disgusting. The net has given rise to more of these types, using the net to ruin lifes.
     
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  5. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    Court Orders Michael Arena Freed

    Man spent a dozen years in prison for a sexual assault even the alleged
    victim now denies

    By Jordan Smith, Fri., June 8, 2012

    After spending nearly 13 years behind bars for a sexual assault that even the alleged victim says never happened, Michael Arena is now home with his family in Bell County, having been released to his father's custody on June 1 per court order.

    As teens, Michael and his brother, John, were each accused of sexually assaulting their young cousin, Stephanie Arena, when she was just 7. Before long the young Stephanie recanted; she still vociferously denies that any assault ever happened and says she was coerced into accusing her cousins by her mother, LaVonna, who was embroiled in a bitter divorce battle and had illegally removed Stephanie and her brother from the state of Texas in violation of a court order. Nonethe*less, both Arena boys were sent to prison; John spent seven years behind bars, while Michael served nearly 13 of his 20-year sentence.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!


    Michael Arena (pictured in frame) returned home after 13 years in prison. Brother John Arena is holding the photo.

    After years of appeals, the Texas Supreme Court last month ordered a new sentencing hearing for Michael, ruling that Williamson County psychologist Charles Willoughby had given false testimony during Michael's trial, leading jurors to believe he'd ascertained that Michael, who at the time of the alleged offense was just 14, was actually a pedophile and would be a threat to society if given probation. As it turned out, the "test" Willoughby used was not validated for use on adolescents. The state has maintained that Wil*lough*by's testimony did not influence the jurors, but the Supremes disagreed, throwing the case back to Bell County to decide whether to spend time and money on a new sentencing hearing – one without Willough*by's false and misleading testimony. Whether Bell County officials would go through with such a hearing is unclear, but it's unlikely.

    On Friday, a judge signed off on the order to release Michael, pending a decision by the state on how to proceed. Michael's father, Robert, quickly set out by car from the family's home in Harker Heights to bring Michael home. Had you been on the road heading to South Texas on Friday afternoon, he said, "you would watch a grown man crying as he's going down the road."

    Although Michael is now free, the battle to exonerate him and his brother John – just 15 at the time of the alleged assault – is far from over, according to their father. Indeed, the homecoming is sort of bittersweet, he says, because both of his sons now have to register as sex offenders, which further constricts their freedom as punishment for a crime that the family insists simply never occurred. Robert says the family will fight the registration requirement and will push on in any way possible to clear both of his sons. "We're fighting everything. We're not going to give up," he said. "You don't have to have an army [to prevail]; you just have to be strong."
     
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  7. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    22,087
    There is a reason that few refer to it as a "justice system", and why I never do. It is profoundly not one. Instead, it is about quiescence. Quietude. Filing problems away.

    The masters, you see, do us a favour by their existence; the exercise of their craft - for it is not a science, or if it is it is like that science of "12 Monkeys" in which fools make progress over the bodies of the lost - in our service is a positive liberty. The nerve of the common man, demanding that elusive truth when the educated, the lifted have more important ends to serve! - patronage, social and career mobility, let alone political or party considerations. How dare they, you see, how dare they impose their petty needs - on our neatly arranged narratives. That file was closed, girl, closed! and neither God nor truth crack its manilla open again.

    Communism is a boot on a human face. Theocracy, a boot on a human face worn by God. Capitalism, a boot on a human face filled with excrement. But no boot will serve until we fix the nature of the wearer.
     
  8. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    8,466
    Have you known people who could never admit that they had been wrong? Aside from children, of course.
    It seems that many such immature fools have made a home in the "criminal justice system", and other branches of government.

    I laid out a corner for our shared road a few years ago. I wanted to add a drain so water wouldn't pool on the road and form ice in the winter.As part of the process, I re-surveyed the corner from the initial datum point of the original government survey, and discovered that the government boundary marker laid out in 1952 when the core of engineers delineated the boundary of the corp land was 3 feet too far north(interfering with my corner). I wanted to put the drain head almost exactly where that marker was. So, I backtracked their measurements to their starting point, and found the error. I drew up a correct map showing the correct placement of the markers, and showing my work, and contacted the corps representative. The response... "We don't make mistakes"!

    Neither do I. So we pulled up their marker and put it where it should have been. First, though, I told a ranger who seemed reasonably sane what I intended, and he said: "Please don't ask me, if you ask me, I have to say "No", just do it."
    The corner drains well now, and people have stopped sliding into the guard posts on the ice.

    Has anyone in here never made a mistake?
     
  9. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    33,264


    Only the dead can make no mistakes or lie.
     
  10. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    22,087
    It's more than than in this case. The kid who made the claims - assuming she hasn't changed her story for the wrong reasons - was the one who made the mistake. The judge and prosecutor did nothing inherently wrong - they merely complied with her claims. But they fought a reversal that was, to all appearances, true justice (again with the above proviso). One asks: why? I suspect I have the right of it.
     
  11. Bells Staff Member

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    24,270
    A variety of reasons. It is very difficult to overturn a conviction. They will need to investigate that this is not just another change of story from the girl. In short, they should be re-opening and re-investigating the case. Going on just the say so of the victim, a young and obviously very impressionable girl who, by all appearances, looks to have changed her mind.. They should be looking at what happened, questioning the mother, the son and the girl. The other disturbing aspect of this was the use of a test which should not have been used on the two who were convicted of it, because of their age and their level of maturity and the misrepresentation by a supposed specialist in court about the findings of those tests.

    Should.. would.. could..

    A more disturbing aspect is one where the prosecutor and the judge who heard the original trial, are refusing to accept it or refusing to order a new investigation based on this girl's claim because it would not look good on their record and it isn't a good look that they, two professionals and people who are meant to know better, were deceived by a child who was led to the deceit by her mother - which opens the way for a flurry of appeals by others the prosecutor prosecuted successfully and the cases heard by the judge. But if that can of worms needs to be opened to ensure that two men were not wrongly convicted and imprisoned, reason dictates that it should be opened.
     

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