Real Child Abuse

2008-08-01 12:40:16

By Donald Richter

Our public officials need to stop wasting their time and the taxpayers’ money searching for nonexistent crimes among the FLDS when the very people they have been relying on for their misinformation are guilty of criminal child abuse themselves. The most glaring example is Dan Fischer.

To say that I was shocked by what I discovered about Dan Fischer’s abuse of his own children would be an understatement—horrified would be a better word. All of the instances of child abuse described in this article are substantiated by sworn affidavits filed with the Senate Judiciary Committee in the week following Dan’s testimony before the Committee on July 24, 2008. My previous article on Dan Fischer quoted portions of several of these affidavits. I have since received considerable additional information and feel that a shorter article focusing only on the child-abuse issue would be appropriate.

The following are the major documented instances of child abuse by Dan Fischer:

►Both boys and girls were punished by being beaten on their bare bottoms, the girls with a hand and the boys with a leather belt. Alma Broadbent, Dan’s son by his third wife Marcia, was repeatedly beaten for wetting the bed. At least two of these beatings were public humiliations before the employees of Dan’s company, Ultradent Products, Inc. Alvin Fischer refers to Dan’s repeatedly spanking his children or kicking them so hard that the child would be thrown several feet.

►Alvin Fischer, Dan’s younger brother, alleges in his affidavit, “I witnessed his young child writing on the wall. He came up behind her and jerked her so harshly back that it had a whiplash effect on her. Then he commenced to spank her over and over. It didn’t matter if extra family or friends were around; he often humiliated his children in public. In general everyone feared to cross his path or challenge him in any way.”

►The affidavits of Melinda Fischer Jeffs, Alvin Fischer, and Rolene Fischer all testify to Dan’s brutal discipline of a crying infant. He would repeatedly spank the child then place his hand over the child’s mouth with his thumb covering the nose until the child quit crying or passed out. If crying continued, he often slapped the child’s mouth until its nose bled or placed the child alone in a room for hours at a time. Rolene adds, “That’s how he ‘broke’ them.”

►Several affidavits refer to Dan’s allowing minor children access to alcohol. According to Jennifer Fischer, children as young as nine years old drank beer at a party at Dan’s home. Orlin James Black says, “The fridge was always full of alcoholic drinks, and we could help ourselves whenever we wanted as long as we didn’t get caught. I saw his underage children help themselves to beer and wine.”

“At the parties Dan threw he’d set up a wet bar,” claims Lyndon Fischer, “and anyone, any age, could have whatever they wanted to drink. When it came out in the media that that was what he was doing, he stopped the public parties. He still throws private parties, offering alcohol to minors to get them to say what he wants against the FLDS.”

Alvin Fischer refers to Dan’s wife Leenie giving alcohol to Alvin’s one-year-old daughter at a party until the child became intoxicated. “She then was given her chocolate cake to make a mess of while everyone laughed.”

►Alvin Fischer also relates the following: “I watched his young son about 3 years old go behind a bush and use the bathroom. Dan immediately came storming out of his house and began kicking him. He would kick him so hard the child would go up into the air 4 or 5 feet. This he repeatedly did up to 8 times.”

►Affidavits by Melinda Fischer Jeffs, LaRena Bistline, and Carla Jessop all describe in graphic detail a beating Dan inflicted on his daughter Melinda when she was 17 years old. She was beaten by hand and with a leather belt for three or four hours, first with her dress down, then with her dress over her head, and finally with her underpants down. All the while Dan was yelling and shouting vulgarities at her. The next morning she was black and blue from her waist to her knees and felt so hated and humiliated that she wanted to die.

It is interesting to observe how similar the behavior of Dan Fischer is to the “Merril” character in Carolyn Jessop’s novel Escape. Even Carolyn’s description of “Merril’s” water-torture technique for “breaking children,” given in talk-show appearances after the publication of her book, is a carbon copy of Dan’s abusive behavior. Anyone familiar with the real Merril Jessop knows that he resembles Carolyn’s character in name only. Since Carolyn stayed a time at Dan Fischer’s home after her “escape,” it is likely that she observed some of Dan’s abusive behavior and heard about other instances of it from those of Dan’s children still remaining in the home. She then attributed these same behaviors to her former husband. Dan’s wife Leenie also is, in many ways, a model for the “Barbara” character in Carolyn’s book. Not very honest, but it does help sell books.

Allegations of criminal activity among the FLDS have provided a convenient excuse for attacking an unpopular religion. If such public officials as Mark Shurtleff really are interested in protecting children and rooting out child abuse, they do not have to look far.

Links to the affidavits:

Marcia Barlow (Broadbent)

Melinda Fischer Jeffs

Miryam Darger

Miryam F. Holm

Orlin James Black, Jr.