The Observation Deck

Admitted pedophile Phillip Distasio of Rocky River introduced a bizarre defense Wednesday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court to the 74 charges lodged against him.

He said sex with under-aged boys can be therapeutic, and is an element of a religion he established in his apartment where the suspected crimes occurred. By bringing the charges against him, Distasio said, the state is violating his civil rights and his freedom of religion.

"I'm a pedophile," Distasio, 34, told Judge Kathleen Sutula during a hearing. "I've been a pedophile for 20 years."

Distasio argued that the law against adults engaging in sex with children is wrong, and he intends to base his defense on that claim at trial, which is scheduled to begin September 11.

"The only reason I'm charged with rape is that no one believes a child can consent to sex," said Distasio, a self-proclaimed friar in his church, Arcadian Fields Ministries. "The role of my ministry is to get these cases out of the courtrooms."

Sutula told Distasio it's his right to challenge the constitutionality of the law, "but we're going to follow the laws of Ohio in this courtroom. You are on trial, not the ministry."

http://www.cleveland.com/newslogs/plaindealer/index.ssf?/mtlogs/cleve_plaindealer/archives/2006_08.html#167891

What a sicko.

Best case scenario: He'll be convicted and sentenced. But, oh-no, what will he do then? Claim his representation was incompetent and point a different finger at himself or boo-hoo because the jury (likely) will not be comprised of his pedophile peers .

Nice aspect of the case: Judge Sutula.

His fellow prison inmates will use a similar defense...or pick up line.

Podcasts of the trial would be REALLY interesting....

While it might be interesting to watch, there's usually a LOT of down time during a trial, but a podcast could cut out all the delays, sidebars, etc.

Jeff

If someone could manage to stream/present the trial via podcasts, heck, I'd even pay to access - just to hear the perp's plethora of "pick up lines" .

Lakewood Library is cited in this report:

http://www.nbc10.com/news/9621055/detail.html

"....Cuyahoga County Bill Mason said Distasio was arrested after he wanted to write a blog for the Lakewood Library. Officials noticed something was wrong and notified Rocky River police...."

Maybe NBC10 will get some footage during the trial. Yippeeeeeee!

Anne

That is a quote from one of the original newscasts; Curtis Jackson WEWS...and of course, what actually occurred was the Friar's trying to enlist the Lakewood Observer in his scheme....the Library had nothing to do with it, other than our director participating in the drill down that resulted in calling the River Police.....but for some reason none of the mainstream media ever gave any credit to the Observer for the eventual arrest....

When I asked Mr. Jackson about the issue he stated

If the
information he [Prosecutor Mason]provided and I reported was some how inaccurate, and I
don't
believe it was, an apology is in order. But given its context, I would
think the library (and the citizens it serves) would be proud that it
helped
bring justice to two, innocent boys who so clearly deserve it. Hope
this
answers any concerns you may have about inaccuracy.

Cheers,

Curtis Jackson

and so, somehow, once reported in an inaccurate fashion, the inaccuracy self replicates...

Jeff

So much for the adage that "accuracy is fundamental to journalism"; maybe it should be "accuracy is fundamental to some journalism" .

It's a shame that misinformation is still being spread and also that the reporter that Jeff quoted so fundamentally misunderstands the error.

Distasio never had any connection whatsoever with the library.

While I've missed the story on CNN, Phil's old pals haven't, and at least one of them thinks he's giving pedophiles a bad name.

I'm going to make a daring--not really--prediction that Nancy Grace, or one of her kind from the 24/7 sensational news cult will come calling.

Would it not be paramount to construct an accurate timeline?

In the Phoenix instigation, which followed the Friar's popping up and trolling for patrons and funds, it was Jim, then, quickly, Ken who connected up the dots that Distacio baldly and naively presented. As I remember this proceeded from classcutters to church forming to marijuana parties to kiddie sexual liberation, and, those dots weren't hard to color in with the darkest of pictures.

Slife got a gander at the perp's drivers licences, while, over the next few days a lot of web research was done, Lakewood was notified and then Rocky River. Then things slowed down. But, at the same time, various interactions and observations came to light to further flesh out the picture. Then the suicide and computer evidence and arrest dropped Distacio from the heights of slacker Jungian Shamanism into his cell.

It is a bit surprising that the LO Feature hasn't served as the platform for accurate journalism by those who soon latched onto the story. This reminds me of the party game where you pass around a sentence and it becomes mangled by the last pass.

Jeff, I'd be curious to learn if the defense proposition has ever been used before.

Anyway, this is more than a lurid enough crime to attract the cable media crime reporters and I would be surprised if 15 minutes of national infamy weren't in the offing.

There's copious documentation and more than enough recall power to build a timeline with which to track the media's deviations from it.

One other point; it would be both accurate and satisfying to have the citizen engagement, instigation, and forensics highlighted. This would be more 60 Minutes type attention because it takes an order of cognitive capability and subtle inquiry to, alas, see the obvious events on the ground at the time.

Events that were volunteer, collaborative, focused, imbued with vigorous debriefing processes, and, above all coordinated by a sense of civic responsibility and civic defense.

dl meckes wrote:It's a shame that misinformation is still being spread and also that the reporter that Jeff quoted so fundamentally misunderstands the error.

Distasio never had any connection whatsoever with the library.

While I've missed the story on CNN, Phil's old pals haven't, and at least one of them thinks he's giving pedophiles a bad name.

DL/Stephen

They are so far off base on Phil it is almost sickening when you think what the wrecking crew did in weeks!

No one has ever spoken with the 4 other schools in the area that Phil worked at and was moved around, then "let go." No one has done any work in Columbus the scene of the murder and Phil living, Kentucky, St. Louis, California, etc.

A self proclaimed friar, that preaches sex with kids for 20 years, and he is only up on 74 counts that revolves around a couple kids!

We know for a fact that a gaming business in Lakewood where you had to sign in to use their computers, had a list of between 14-22 kids that would frequent it with Phil. That list has never surfaced. also the home of fund raising parties for Phil. What happened with that?

It would seem for some reason the powers to be want to sweep it under the mat and get it over. This guy, and his friends went so far over the line it should be front page, nearly everywhere.

Yet no one has gotten it right!


.

Stephen

A couple of points

I don't believe that the Friar's defense has ever been used before, per se. However, there are a good number of similar situations, usually involving "religious" drug use that have come before the courts. Also, there's the polygamy issues that were presented by Mormon factions. Generally, a court would look to whether there is truely a religion presented (peyote use by some native americans), or merely a dodge to engage in otherwise illegal behaviors. Gee, which way do you think a court would come down here?

As to the citizen journalism component, I couldn't agree more that this would present a wonderful opportunity for 20/20, Sixty Minutes, or the like to talk about the changes in news media, with a pediphile as the hook. But, I doubt it would happen, as traditional media would rather not focus on something like the Observer, for fairly obvious reasons, not the least is the competition for advertising monies.

AS to the inaccuracies, we're hoping, when the the Friar has been fried, to run a story that uses this whole episode as a platform to discuss the problems inherent in news sources whose main mission is a sound bite and not accuracy in the story. In this regard I believe that there already exists the timetable of events.

Jeff

It would seem for some reason the powers to be want to sweep it under the mat and get it over. This guy, and his friends went so far over the line it should be front page, nearly everywhere.

Jim....probably an accurate assesment. They figure that they have enough to put him away forever, so why do a bunch of investigation when the net result is only cummulative. Plus, you would be further traumatizing children whose identities you unearth.

Jeff