Whoever coined the phrase “it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up” must have had a ghastly situation in my hometown of Charlotte in mind. A Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer is charged with molesting a young relative over a three-year period. If it could possibly get worse than that, police have evidence that some of the victim’s other relatives, as well as members of her church, actively discouraged her from coming forward–meaning that a sexual predator could have been allowed to stay on the streets for 15 years.
Reginald “Rock” Harris, a 26-year veteran of the force, was arrested on Wednesday on three counts each of first-degree sex offense with a child, taking indecent liberties with a minor, and crime against nature. His wife, Dia, was also arrested on Wednesday; according to police she was complicit in the abuse. She faces three counts each of felony child abuse, first-degree sex offense with a child and crime against nature. According to police reports, the Harrises molested the victim from 1999 to 2002–from the time she was eight until the time she was 11. The victim, now in her 20s, filed a complaint with police in July. Officer Harris was placed on paid administrative leave once the investigation began, but after his arrest he was suspended without pay. However, that change in status is somewhat academic, since he is now in jail on $90,000 bond. Dia Harris is also in jail, on $120,000 bond.
Now here’s where this story gets hideous. Investigators learned that the victim reached out to members of her family and members of her church when the abuse started, and they all discouraged her from reporting the abuse to the police out of fear that Officer Harris could lose his badge or be sent to jail. She finally summoned up the strength to tell a social worker about her ordeal in 2009, who encouraged her to go to the police. However, the victim recanted under pressure from family and church members, causing parallel criminal and internal-affairs investigations to stall. Deputy chief Kerr Putney put it bluntly–“all of those institutions failed our victim.” While we often say that anyone who comes forward about being molested is truly brave, for this woman to come forward in the face of this kind of pressure is the definition of courage.
The Harrises had their first appearance on Thursday afternoon. Dia Harris’ mother, sister, daughter, and son asked Judge Regan Miller to reduce the bonds. However, Miller refused, saying that given the seriousness of the charges, he wanted to hear all of the evidence at the formal bond hearing on August 18 before deciding whether to lower the bonds. He was particularly blunt about Officer Harris, saying that he faced charges only one step below first-degree murder.
If convicted on all charges, the Harrises could both spend the rest of their lives in prison; the sex offense charges alone carry a minimum sentence of 25 years per count. From where I’m sitting, they’re not the only ones who should be in orange jumpsuits. Putney said that investigators gave serious thought to charging several members of the victim’s family and church with obstruction of justice. Unless police are gathering more evidence, I have to wonder why they didn’t bite the bullet and file those charges. It’s one thing to simply ignore a child when he or she tells you that something bad happened. But to actively discourage a child from going to the police is absolutely heinous. The picture I got when I read about this was of Aaron Fisher, better known as Victim 1 in the Jerry Sandusky case. According to his book, “Silent No More,” when Aaron finally broke down and told the principal of his high school, Karen Probst, that Sandusky had been molesting him, Probst actually had the gall to tell Aaron and his mother, Dawn Daniels, that they just needed to “go home and think about it” rather than go to the police. There are certain things that society cannot even appear to tolerate, and this is one of them.
While I suspect that police are dangling the threat of obstruction of justice charges over the victims’ relatives in order to get them to talk, that doesn’t go far enough. Everyone responsible for pressuring this brave woman from coming forward–and I mean EVERYONE–needs to go to prison.
Let us know your thoughts at the Liberal America Facebook page. Sign up for our free daily newsletter to receive more great stories like this one.
Darrell Lucus is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
