Chadwick Center Interview 2008 Excerpts
This interview was conducted just after they came back from hiding when Damon was 11 years old.
The videotape from this interview was supressed by Judge Alksne, so it could not be used
as evidence, especially of Damon's credibility. This is despite the statement of the Chadwick Center that,
"This report is not intended as a substitute for viewing the entire videotape."
“Damon knew that he was at the Center for an evaluation. It was a sexual abuse evaluation because his father sexually abused him. People first found out about this because Damon told his mother, when he thought he was 6 years old. Ryan actually brought it up first when they were at the dinner table. Ryan told their mother about their dad coming into their bedroom in the middle of the night and getting up on Damon’s [top bunk] bed. Damon then told his mother about how he had felt a hard thing on his back. Damon reported that at first things were going good because the court put supervised visits on his dad, but that after a while, the judge gave all visits to his dad and ‘I didn’t like it.’ Damon reported that after that, his mother ran away with him and his brothers because the court wasn’t protecting him from the ‘hard thing’ and she wanted to.”
“Damon reported that he felt the hard thing “plenty” of times on his back, of the nights he was at his dad’s house, over a year’s time. He recalled the first time as occurring when he was visiting his Grandmother Julie’s house in Salinas, CA with his father and brothers. Evan and Ryan were sleeping on the couch and Damon and his dad were sleeping on the bed. Damon indicated that he really didn’t remember much about this because he was only 4 years old, but it was dark and something was on top of him and was heavy. He does not know what was on top of him, but he felt ‘the hard thing’ on his lower back. He did not know if the heavy thing was a person or not, as he did not see anyone/anything. Thereafter, Damon reported that the hard thing would occur in all three of his dad’s houses, which he referred to as the old condo, the new condo, and the house. He thought that it happened like 80’s times in each place. At the old condo, Damon reported that the hard thing would occur in his dad’s bed. He slept with Ryan in his room; however, his dad would come into his room, take him from his bed/room, and take him to his (dad’s) room/bed. When attempting to get additional information about this, Damon reported ‘I don’t really remember much from the old condo.’ In regards the new condo, Damon recalled several aspects of the layout of this condo, to include it having a 2-sided fireplace, several stories, and the he slept upstairs with Ryan, and across the hall from his dad’s room. He slept on the top bunk and Ryan on the bottom bunk. In regards to the house, Damon indicated that he recalled that best because he was older. He shared a room with Ryan in the house, too, though they no longer had the bunk beds, but instead, 2 individual beds. He reported how his father would come into the bedroom at night, take Damon up two flights of stairs by holding or pulling his hand, and into his bed, the closet, or the shower, where the ‘hard thing’would happen. When in the closet, his father would do it standing up. Damon would be facing against the wall and his father behind him. Damon indicated that his father would then ‘rub his penis up and down my back.’ Damon was asked if anything happened to his clothes when this occurred. He responded 'I am pretty sure they’d sometimes get wet, but not very often, because I’d get wet.’ He didn’t have his shirt on at the time, just his underwear, because his dad would take his shirt off. He normally slept in his pajamas though he couldn’t recall how they got off. Someimes when he put his clothes back on, they’d get wet too. Usually by the next morning, the wet would be gone, ‘probably dried up.’ Damon reported that his dad would take him in the shower, with no water running, with Damon facing the wall and his father behind him, like the closet. He would feel the hard, warm, hurting go up and down his back. Damon thought that the hard thing also happened sometimes in the beer cellar, while against the wall, as described above. When asked where his dad’s hands were when this was going on, Damon wasn’t sure. ‘I think he put his hand over my moth a couple of times to stop me from yelling, I think I tried to yell a couple of times.’ When asked if Damon ever saw his dad’s penis, he said ‘I might have.’ He then went on to say that he thought that he’d seen it once in the past because he had a picture of it, though he didn’t know how he saw it or the context in which he saw it. He just remembered that it was really hairy because he didn’t have any hair. Damon was unsure what if anything would happen to his dad’s clothes when the hard thing would occur. Likewise, he didn’t know what his dad would have on when he led him to his room.
Damon further reported that he’d feel the hard thing both when he sat on his dad’s lap and when in line for wall ball. One time specifically, he was in line for wall ball at the new condo and his dad was behind him. Others were playing, to include Ryan. His dad stood behind him and rubbed the hard thing on him by lifting up his shirt, though he wasn’t leaning on anything this time. Damon reported that ‘lots of times’ when he was sitting on his dad’s lap, he’d rub the hard thing up and down his back. It would be his lower back and his dad would bounce him so that he could do it better. He may be sitting on his dad’s lap while watching a movie or just sitting on his lap in the living room.
Finally, Damon reported that the ‘scariest’ time the hard thing happened was when his father took him outside to the canyon in the nighttime. The kids had a ‘club’ or fort there, where they’d cleared the brush. His dad made him lay down in the dirt, sticks and twigs on his stomach and his dad was lying on his back. The thing that made it the scariest was all the animals, like snakes and spiders, which would come out at night. Damon thought that they were down in the canyon for 2-3 hours and that his dad abused him the whole time.
Damon denied that his dad ever said anything when the above incidents were going on. He further denied that he heard anything, like noises or sounds He thought that he said something to his father, though couldn’t remember what. He knows he said something, though, because his dad didn’t listen and would punish him for saying something. He couldn’t recall what the punishment was. Damon denied that he ever asked what the hard thing was. The only thing his dad said was that if he told, he’d kill him. Damon reported that sometimes he didn’t want to go with his dad, so he’d hide (didn’t remember where) before his dad would come into his room. As punishment, his dad would put him outside and wouldn’t let him in until like 4 a.m. and he’d freeze outside. He knew this was a punishment because it would happen every time he hid. He denied that his father told him so or said anything as such, but rather, that it was ‘probably an inference I made’. Once his father would let him back in, Damon would go to his bedroom and go to sleep for the next few hours. He denied that his dad would do anything to him then.”
“What cannot be ignored are the concerning details that Damon did provide, to include multiple incidents, in multiple, detailed locations, the punishment technique Damon indicated his father used when he’d hide from him to avoid the abuse, the specific, ‘scariest’ incident that occurred in the canyon, and his father’s threat to kill him if he told.”
“It is the belief of this evaluator that Damon truly believes that he was sexually abused by his father.”