Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III
First things first
By Eileen McNamara, Boston Globe Columnist August 30, 2006
Memo to members of the ministry: When the accusation against an employee is rape, 911 is the first number to dial, not the last.
Alerting police to an alleged sexual assault does not preclude praying with the accuser, launching an internal review of hiring practices, or purchasing surveillance cameras to keep an eye on employees. It does ensure that the appropriate authorities are in full command of a potential criminal investigation from the outset.
The account offered by the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III of the aftermath of the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl at a youth center he founded in Dorchester leaves one wondering whether the broader religious community learned a fundamental lesson from the sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. Transparency means not only following the letter of state law that requires clergymen, teachers, and social workers to report a suspicion of sexual abuse; it also means avoiding any appearance that institutional self-preservation trumps the protection of children.
Rivers, who is president of the board of the Ella J. Baker House on Washington Street, says the first thing he did when informed of the allegation was go to the girl's home to pray with her and her mother. He says he then sought out the accused, 32-year-old Derrick Patrick, and had a ``long conversation" with him. The Baker House notified authorities of the rape allegation the next day, a timeline that Rivers's defenders say puts him above reproach.
Patrick was arrested last month in connection with the case and charged with paying for sex and inducing a minor into prostitution. The young woman, who says she had consensual sex with Patrick several times at Baker House before the alleged assault, contends that he raped her there after she refused to submit to anal sex. Additional charges could still be filed against Patrick, who has denied any wrongdoing.
A fuller investigation, now underway, will determine whether Rivers simply was offering pastoral care, as he contends, or trying to derail the charges, as the accuser maintains. What is certain is that his first impulse was not to notify police or the state agencies that provide services to at-risk teenagers in Massachusetts and substantial funding to Baker House. A social worker with the Department of Youth Services told the Herald she learned of the rape allegation first from the victim and her mother and only later from officials at Baker House.
As troubling as the rape accusation is the girl's contention that she routinely accepted rides home from Patrick and had consensual sex with him in Baker House, long a highly regarded haven from the streets in this city's most violent neighborhoods. Did no one on the staff question the relationship between this girl and Patrick, an administrator for a program for preadolescent boys? Were there no safeguards in place to prevent such fraternization?
Rivers's candor about governmental indifference to poor people of color might be more responsible than his considerable ego for the mixed reviews his ministry sometimes gets in Boston. He is a vigorous advocate for a constituency easily overlooked, and because he pushes the envelope -- hiring ex-convicts to work with troubled kids on the theory that they speak the same language, for instance -- Rivers is a liability to a Republican governor with presidential ambitions. That, as much as anything that happened at Baker House, accounts for the precipitous decisions by the state Department of Youth Services to cut ties to the youth center after a 10-year association and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety to withdraw a $350,000 grant.
No urban program for vulnerable teenagers can afford to lose that kind of money, but there is a potentially greater loss for Rivers in credibility if it turns out that he tried in any way to put the brakes on a rape investigation.
Eileen McNamara is a Boston Globe columnist. She can be reached at mcnamara@globe.com.
By Eileen McNamara, Boston Globe Columnist August 30, 2006
Memo to members of the ministry: When the accusation against an employee is rape, 911 is the first number to dial, not the last.
Alerting police to an alleged sexual assault does not preclude praying with the accuser, launching an internal review of hiring practices, or purchasing surveillance cameras to keep an eye on employees. It does ensure that the appropriate authorities are in full command of a potential criminal investigation from the outset.
The account offered by the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III of the aftermath of the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl at a youth center he founded in Dorchester leaves one wondering whether the broader religious community learned a fundamental lesson from the sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. Transparency means not only following the letter of state law that requires clergymen, teachers, and social workers to report a suspicion of sexual abuse; it also means avoiding any appearance that institutional self-preservation trumps the protection of children.
Rivers, who is president of the board of the Ella J. Baker House on Washington Street, says the first thing he did when informed of the allegation was go to the girl's home to pray with her and her mother. He says he then sought out the accused, 32-year-old Derrick Patrick, and had a ``long conversation" with him. The Baker House notified authorities of the rape allegation the next day, a timeline that Rivers's defenders say puts him above reproach.
Patrick was arrested last month in connection with the case and charged with paying for sex and inducing a minor into prostitution. The young woman, who says she had consensual sex with Patrick several times at Baker House before the alleged assault, contends that he raped her there after she refused to submit to anal sex. Additional charges could still be filed against Patrick, who has denied any wrongdoing.
A fuller investigation, now underway, will determine whether Rivers simply was offering pastoral care, as he contends, or trying to derail the charges, as the accuser maintains. What is certain is that his first impulse was not to notify police or the state agencies that provide services to at-risk teenagers in Massachusetts and substantial funding to Baker House. A social worker with the Department of Youth Services told the Herald she learned of the rape allegation first from the victim and her mother and only later from officials at Baker House.
As troubling as the rape accusation is the girl's contention that she routinely accepted rides home from Patrick and had consensual sex with him in Baker House, long a highly regarded haven from the streets in this city's most violent neighborhoods. Did no one on the staff question the relationship between this girl and Patrick, an administrator for a program for preadolescent boys? Were there no safeguards in place to prevent such fraternization?
Rivers's candor about governmental indifference to poor people of color might be more responsible than his considerable ego for the mixed reviews his ministry sometimes gets in Boston. He is a vigorous advocate for a constituency easily overlooked, and because he pushes the envelope -- hiring ex-convicts to work with troubled kids on the theory that they speak the same language, for instance -- Rivers is a liability to a Republican governor with presidential ambitions. That, as much as anything that happened at Baker House, accounts for the precipitous decisions by the state Department of Youth Services to cut ties to the youth center after a 10-year association and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety to withdraw a $350,000 grant.
No urban program for vulnerable teenagers can afford to lose that kind of money, but there is a potentially greater loss for Rivers in credibility if it turns out that he tried in any way to put the brakes on a rape investigation.
Eileen McNamara is a Boston Globe columnist. She can be reached at mcnamara@globe.com.
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