Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell (28 page)

Q I hate to be logical at a time like this, but you have been worried for two and a half years and yet you only caught on and it had been going on for eight years. You know, there is a certain illogic here, Mrs. Brinkerhoff.

A No. He was doing the exams the exact same way from the time I went in.

Q And you don't remember in your examination of saying you raised up to see his penis?

A No, I don't. But it may be there. But I don't remember.

Q You don't remember that? Do you remember that you did raise up?

A I raised my hand up.

Q Oh, your
hand
up. Not your head?

A And I turned my head to the side to see.

Q I don't think I have any more questions. Thank you.

Kathy Karpan smoothed out a few points with some extra questions, and then asked if the incidents with Story had affected her marriage.

"Yeah, it has," the middle child answered. "It's terrible. Well, I would never tell Scott, but sometimes during intercourse, I think about—it feels exactly the same way it did in Dr. Story's office. And I think about it and it makes me not want to be around Scott." She swallowed hard. "And I try to get over it. And I've never told Scott that. I would never. I'm sure he would be offended."

For once in her life, she was talked out. Kathy Karpan asked, "Mrs. Brinkerhoff, if you had it to do all over again, would you have written that letter to the Medical Board?"

"I would have done it sooner."

"No further questions."

She was just starting to leave the witness box when she saw Kepler rising to his feet. Criminy, she thought, not more!

He asked her a few mild questions, then held up a sheaf of papers. "On your deposition," he said, "you will be pleased to know that I have found, and you are correct—this is what you said. 'I laid there as this thing slipped through between my fingers. And then I decided it was time to look and see when he was pushing on my stomach. So I looked and he had his arms over my head and was pushing my stomach. And I turned my head and I pushed my hands out of the way and there was his penis lying on the table.' I apologize to you. I remember reading that, that you raised up. I just want you to know that I did find the passage and I'm in error."

Minda thought, Well, gol, I've just learned to hate this guy and he turns out to be a gentleman! "Okay," she said in her most forgiving voice. "I was really scatterbrained then."

Scott testified next, and Minda joined Meg in the witness room along with Aletha Durtsche, Irene Park and Carol Beach, all LDS sisters from different wards. While they waited, Minda helped Meg talk away some of her nervousness. Meg said a high school classmate had called and told about going to Story for acne and being ordered to strip for a pelvic. "She told him where to go," Meg said. "Don't you wish we did?" Meg said that a lot of the Lovell Mormons were still avoiding her, even in church. "It hurts, Minda," she said.

Minda said, "That's why we moved."

Scott finished at
11:57 a
.m
. He reported that they'd questioned him about the meeting at the hospital and Story's olfer to wipe out their bill. He said Story had listened to the testimony with a smartass look on his face, "and I wanted to get up and knock him off that chair."

Minda said, "Shoot, why didn't you?"

38

THE RECORD

BEFORE THE WYOMING STATE BOARD OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS In the Matter of the License of JOHN H. STORY, M.D. (Excerpts)

TESTIMONY OF IRENE PARK

Q
(By
Assistant Attorney General Margaret White)
When you were a child, Mrs. Park, did you go to Dr. Story . . . for a tonsillectomy? A When I was sixteen . . . Q And then, did you have a checkup? A ... To have my throat checked so I could go back to school. . . . For some reason he did a pelvic on me. Q Did he ask your parents' consent before he did this? A No.

Q Was there a nurse present? A Not that I remember.

Q What was your reaction to this pelvic examination? A Well, I was a little startled. ... I thought about it . . . and oh, four or five days, maybe a week later, this kept gnawing on

THE RECORD

me all the time and I thought that wasn't right, something is wrong. And so I finally told my folks what had happened and they were a little upset.

Q Why is that?

A Well, that's—tonsils and a pelvic is a long ways from one another. . . .

39

MEG ANDERSON

When Meg's name was called for the afternoon session, her lips moved in prayer. She would have to tell the
whole
truth, and she was terrified that someone would ask about her years in Utah—the men, the "courts of love," the years of unworthiness and guilt. Kathy Karpan had promised that the proceedings would be secret, but that wasn't much consolation. Meg didn't want to be stripped to the bone in front of anybody, least of all a bunch of strangers in vests.
Ugh!
Only Danny knew the details—she'd never confided in another soul.

Kathy Karpan opened with a series of biographical questions and Meg tried to relax. She couldn't understand the deep emotion that welled up when she was asked to describe her feelings toward Story as a doctor. "I cherished the man very much," she said, and started to cry.

It was almost a relief when Kathy led her through the incidents in Examining Room No. 2—her "ugly black feelings," the cold sweat on her forehead, the sharp stabbing pain between her legs.

Q Now, Mrs. Anderson, you've testified that at this point you felt intercourse had occurred. Did you ever go back to Dr. Story's office after this?

A No.

Q Did you ever take your children back?

A Well, I took the children back, yes. I didn't go in for me.

Q Will you tell us how you came to take the children back?

A Well, Dr. Story is the only doctor I trusted with my baby. He's the only doctor I trusted, period. And I knew he was a good children's doctor. And I still didn't want to believe what was happening had happened. I, to this day, I don't want to believe that that's what happened. . . .

Meg kept hoping it would get easier, but it didn't. She stopped often to compose herself. She was relieved when Kathy Karpan said she had just one more question: "If you had it to do all over again, would you still write the letter to the Board of Medical

Examiners?"

"I don't have any choice," she began, chewing on her lower lip. "I can't live with myself if I don't. I've lost enough self-respect, I couldn't lose any more. It just wasn't a matter of choice."

She took a deep breath. "After I heard that people had been offended for five years, I didn't have any choice. It was like the choice was then lifted from me and the burden was on my back. I just couldn't sit back." She stammered out the last few words and began to cry again.

The burly defense attorney named Kepler stood up. "I'm not sure I understood you, Mrs. Anderson," he said. "Did you say you taught public speaking, dramatics, or just took a course with it?"

The rest of his cross-examination went by in a blur. Kepler established that she was "rather ignorant of sexual matters," that intercourse had been painful till the birth of her second child, and that she'd had "an ugly feeling" in the examining room.

Q You're kind of in a dilemma. You hold Dr. Story in extremely high repute and you love to have your children see him and you feel that he is a good doctor for your purpose. Now, have I analyzed and stated correctly your feelings about this?

"DOC

A Yes.

Q You cherish him for one reason, but you're willing to have his license removed for the other reason? A I can't hate the man.

She admitted that she'd been shown Dr. Story's office records and found no entry for November 8, 1982, the date he'd violated her for the second time.

Kathy Karpan took her back for a brief redirect examination. "The important question, Mrs. Anderson, is are you sure you had a pelvic examination—"

"Oh, I'm positive," Meg interrupted. "—By Dr. Story in November?" "I'm positive I did."

Driving north toward Lovell across the badlands, Meg wondered if the Medical Board members could tell that some of the entries on her charts were faked. Or did doctors always take the word of other doctors? Story certainly fought dirty. How did that square with his religious beliefs? She was getting some new insights into the man she couldn't hate.

40

THE RECORD

BEFORE THE WYOMING STATE BOARD OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS In the Matter of the License of JOHN H. STORY, M.D.

(Excerpts)

TESTIMONY OF CAROL BEACH

Q (By
Assistant Attorney Margaret White
) Would you please tell the Board the circumstances under which you visited Dr. Story in 1961?

A Well, before you go on a mission, you have to have a physical .. . and then he gave me a pelvic examination.

Q How old were you . . . ?

A I was twenty-one.

Q Had you been sexually active at that time?

A No.

Q What happened during the examination, Mrs. Beach?

A Well, as he finished the pelvic and was turning away, he turned back and I think it was his left hand, as I remember the position, and he stimulated the clitoris. And he asked me if that

was sensitive there. And I said, "Well, no." And he did it again and he said, "Are you sure?" And I said, "Well, no."

Q ... Did you ever go see Dr. Story professionally again?

A ... [In 1976] I was getting married and needed a premarital examination. . . . And I had been going to Dr. Christensen in Powell at that time, and I believe that he was either ill—I don't remember if he was deceased at that time. . . .

Q So in 1976 with no other doctors available, you went to see Dr. Story? What happened during this exam, Mrs. Beach?

A He inserted an implement to begin the pelvic and then removed the implement and examined me with one finger. . . . And then he said, "Now I'm going to insert two fingers." And he held the fingers up for me to see, like this. And he repeated it again. He said, "Now two fingers, I'm going to insert two fingers." And then the examination started to become painful. ... I finally said to him, "I don't know what you're doing down there, but you got to quit. That's hurting me too bad."

Q What did he say?

A He said something like, "Well, this will just take a few seconds more." And then when he got through, he said, "Oh, I didn't realize." I said, "Well, I haven't been promiscuous, if that's what you mean."

Q ... Had you been sexually active up to that point?

A No, I hadn't.

Q So when you went in, you were a virgin?

A Yes.

Q When it was painful, did you have any thoughts or feelings on what was happening?

A No, not at that time. I don't think I probably realized what was happening until after I got married. ... I told my husband, "That feels just exactly like that pelvic examination that Dr. Story gave me."

41

ALETHA DURTSCHE

The letter carrier hated waiting, but when her name was called late in the afternoon she wished she could just put the ordeal off for a day or two—or forever. She'd never been in court. It gave her goose bumps.

Every head in the room seemed to turn as she entered. She felt like Dorothy leaving Kansas for Oz. The only sound was her footsteps as she passed the doctors, the judge, then Dr. Story. She glanced at him and thought she saw a challenging look.
You'll never get me,
he seemed to be saying.
I'll get you first. . . .

She liked the way Kathy Karpan opened the questioning by asking her to spell her name and then saying, "Thank you. I think I just won a bet with my cocounsel on how to spell your name. I feel pretty good about it." Aletha realized that the assistant attorney general was trying to defuse the tension.

The direct examination was easy, all about where she'd lived and worked and the incidents with Dr. Story. It helped that Kathy seemed sympathetic and the doctors leaned forward and seemed to be listening carefully. She wondered what she'd been so frightened about. She noticed Story and his lawyers whispering.

Then the one named Kepler stood up and began peppering her with questions. He got her to admit that her first suspicions had been in 1968 and yet she'd kept going back.

Q You were so convinced in 1967 and '68 that you did go to Dr. Story again in 1970 and '71 and you were convinced in 1970 and '71, but you still went to see Dr. Story numerous times including the Friday, February 12th examination of '83? I mean, you were convinced, but you still kept going back?

A I—yeah, I was convinced in 1968 and '71.

Q And kept going back?

A But I really didn't believe—I figured he had to have some instrument that was so similar to a penis, because I didn't think he would ever do something like that, and I just wouldn't believe it so I never thought of it.