Four days before being scheduled to appear before the Ann Arbor district Court to face questions in regards to his accusation that Ken Gourlay molested him,
Justin Berry winds up in the hospital.*
This story gets crazier every day. Apparently, the problem is "emotionally related".
I don't know what to think, so I'll let you chose from any of the likely scenarios:
- Justin's actually lost his mind. Possible. I can't imagine what it's like to go from teenage porn producer to national face of exploitation who shows up before Oprah and Congress in less than a year. Throughout this whole story, I've always advocated that Berry is essentially a pawn. An opportunistic pawn, but a pawn nonetheless.
- Justin's lawyers made a big boo-boo. I speculated at one point that Justin demanded Gourlay be subpoenaed in exchange for his Congressional testimony. You know, as payback. At the time, it seemed like a good idea, not realizing that this would prompt the Detroit D.A. to pick up Gourlay. Suddenly faced with defending the accusations Berry made before Congress, counsel realizes that the story is, as I've been saying all along, way more complicated than it appears at first glance- that Berry is not the wide-eyed innocent victim he's been made out to be and that putting him on the stand would be nothing short of a disaster. This is the problem with turning victims into symbols of a cause.
- Justin's lawyers are stalling for time. Most likely.
So- what happens next? The question really hinges on whether Berry's lawyers can create a cogent case against Goulray. If they think they can, expect this hospitalization thing to drag out for a week or so. The real problem is- can they actually put Berry on the stand against a hostile questioner? My feeling is that they can't and that Berry's lawyers know it. Oprah (two liars on her show in a year!) , Eichenwald and Congress (who are seriously considering naming legislation after Berry) have too much invested in Berry as a symbol of child exploitation for the sordid and contradictory details of Gourlay and Berry's relationship to become a matter of public record. Berry's case has the potential to blow up in everyone's face now. His counsel may be considering a strategy where they'll tell the court that Berry's abuse and emotional stress are too much for him to testify (before the court, as opposed to, you know- Congress) and have him quietly bow out, all the while howling if Gourlay is dismissed because Berry won't testify. It's shady, but it's better than having Justin on the stand.
This is where things get dangerous. Gourlay is being held on a $500,000 bond, which the judge
won't lower because of a diary entry on Gourlay's computer where he says he that he's considering suicide right after raping a bunch of children. Now, this could be a diary entry along the nihilistic lines of "Everyone thinks I'm a child molester now. I should kill myself, but before I do I should rape a bunch of kids just to prove everyone right" or he could actually mean it. If we never find out because Kurt Eichenwald rushed to turn Justin Berry into a symbol of child exploiation instead of presenting a more nuanced, objective, but less ya know- Pulitzer prize garnering account of Berry's story, then the American public will have been done a great disservice.
Let me just pause for a minute and say that this has got to be one of the most bizarre real life stories I have ever run into.
*Thanks to the anonymous blog commenter who pointed this out.
