Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell (25 page)

A No. . . . There is medical ethics among psychiatrists and psychologists wherein they prescribe sexual therapy. I can't fathom it doing anything but harm. . . .

Q In your opinion, as a small town doctor in Lovell, is that a desirable therapy?

A Not only in Lovell, but anywhere, I can't see where it is. . . . There is a very special relationship a physician has with his patient. I am sure you have heard, and it's true, that women fall in love with their doctors. . . . There is no question that the doctor is allowed to do things that no one else on earth could do to them, sometimes even including their husbands. And that would be the greatest abuse of that trust, and that's what it is, that I can imagine. First of all, because a woman who comes to a doctor with a problem is vulnerable because she has a problem in the first place, be it physical, be it sexual, be it emotional or whatever, and . . . the only way it can be is damaging. . . .

Q What type of implements or instruments would you use in conducting a pelvic examination aside from your own hand?

A Okay. I expect the way to make you understand this would be—a pelvic examination means that first of all you feel abdominally, see if you feel any lumps or masses in the lower part of the abdomen. Then the patient is put in the stirrups with the nurse in the room. She scoots clear down to the end of the table or as near as she can get. Sometimes physically it won't allow them, then I use a plastic speculum with a disposable light attached to it. . . .

Then I always tell the patient I'm going to be touching you, and because it has been, in my experience, a big shock to touch that area first, I always touch with the back of my hand on the side of her. Then we manipulate the labia, insert the light. If I need to do the Pap smear or any other kind of things where I have to look and examine, that takes . . . thirty seconds to sixty seconds. Then I withdraw the speculum. Then I do a bimanual examination wherein I insert the left hand, two fingers, in the vagina, put the four fingers on the lower part of the pelvis and then between the two fingers feel all the organs inside. That usually, I would say, almost never takes more than three to five minutes. Three minutes, I would say, is most. . . .

Q During the course of a pelvic examination, if a doctor said, I think I better dilate you, what would that mean? Why would he do it and how would he do it?

A The only reason that one would need to dilate would be because the opening to the vagina for the pelvic examination would be too small, and when it's too small, it hurts like blazes. ... I never use the word dilate. . . .

Q Have you ever had a patient come and say, Doctor, that pelvic was so painful I hurt for three days? I was very uncomfortable for three days?

A Patients don't come back to you if they do that. I'm sorry to be a little flippant. I have had examinations that are painful. But no, not for three days. If they are having three days of pain, then something's wrong.

Q ... Would you ever attempt to insert the speculum from the rear?

A Rear of what?

Q Come in and have her turn around and see if you can get it in from behind? . . . Have you ever had to have the patient turn over on the back or squat On the floor, doctor?

A I have never done it. There may be some value gained from that, but I can't imagine what it might be.

Q ... Is there anything else, doctor? . . .

A No. I just hope it's not true. I really think he's a good doctor. . . .

q
(By
Loretta Kepler
) Did you ever ask Dr. Story whether he had done any of the things that rumors had said he had done?

A No, I have not. I basically am a coward and 1 was afraid of the answer.

Q Okay.

A A man is still innocent until proven guilty.

DEPOSITION OF JOSEPH C. BROWN (Excerpts)

Q (By
Kathy Karpan
) When you took over in 1979 as [hospital] administrator, did you receive any files or any written or unwritten complaints against Dr. John Story that would involve sexual misconduct?

A I had no transmission of any complaints in writing.

Q Is that true to today? Have you at this point in time ever received—

A I have never received a written complaint on Dr. Story.

Q ... Have you ever carried out an investigation, formally or informally, about Dr. John Story and allegations of sexual misconduct?

A I have carried out a formal—informal complaint at the request of the board. . . . Prior to this time I had no complaint except hearsay. And so there was no reason for me to follow up anything. ... [I met with] Minda and Mrs. McArthur.

Q Did you contact anyone else?

A ... No.

Q The September First meeting was the sole investigative work you did on Dr. Story?

A ... Well, I couldn't tell you it all because it's kind of been kind of informal, just assisting people with names or with possible questioning that might come up. I can't—it's—you know, if you ask me a specific question, I might be able to answer it. ... I gave a report verbally.

Q At a board meeting?

A At a board—at—I can't remember if it was a formal meeting or it was kind of a—I really didn't say much because it was sexually oriented. We have men and women. And I merely gave my feelings as to the board's—what I felt was the case.

Q And what were those feelings?

A My personal feeling was that [Minda] was not a reliable witness. She evidenced other problems. I am not a psychologist nor a psychiatrist, so I can't say. I can only say my own personal observation, my own personal feelings here. But having had many years of experience in the field of health and dealing with mental health situations, I felt that she was unreliable as a witness and she was somewhat—her character was somewhat questionable. . . . And the mother was also fairly contradictory in her statements.

Q ... You had doubts about [Minda's] credibility or her reliability because of possible mental problems, and?—

A No, I didn't say mental problems. . . . Don't say mental problems because I am not a psychiatrist.

Q ... Well, what kind of problems? . . .

A Oh, I really don't know what her problems are. I have heard a lot of hearsay and I don't like to quote hearsay. She has been involved with—it's my understanding from hearsay—the throwing out of a coach for what they claim to be teaching sexual things. . . . And she became pregnant, it's my understanding. . . .

Q Did you go and talk to anyone at the high school to confirm whether or not this hearsay was true?

A I did not want to involve myself in that hearsay.

Q But you did conclude that Minda Brinkerhoff would not be a reliable witness because of this problem without checking it out?

A Oh, I had enough people tell me as hearsay to give me adequate knowledge that it actually occurred. . . .

Q When you use that phrase "questionable character," were you referring to this incident in high school?

A No. I was referring to her conduct [during the interview] . . . things she did, the way she acted.

DEPOSITION OF JEAN ANDERSON HOWE (Excerpts)

Q
(By
Loretta Kepler
) Are you positive about how old you were?

A No, I'm not. ... I had to have been anywhere from eight to ten.

Q ... Would you describe from the beginning what happened?

A Okay. I can remember being in the room and the nurse and the doctor talking. I can remember the nurse saying that she needed a shot—the doctor said I needed a shot. So they both went out of the room. He said that he would give me the shot. And then I can remember him coming back in and closing the door. He stood at the table and was preparing something. And I can remember him tugging and playing with his pants. And then he was still messing around with the shot at the table.

And then I remember him turning around. I can't remember if he had the shot in his hand or not. And then that's when his penis fell out of his pants. And that's when he asked me the question whether I was okay. . . . And then that's when he pushed his penis back up inside because I can remember seeing something brown. That's all I remember, was that it was something brown that fell out of his pants.

And I turned back—he turned back to the table and picked something off of the table and turned back around and he asked me another question that I can't remember, walked over to the table. He said that he had a kidney machine that he was going to put underneath me and that he wanted me to lift up the lower part of my body. And he slipped that underneath me. And I can remember it was nice and soft and warm.

And I can't remember how long that lasted. And he gave me the shot and then I guess I got my pants up and then we—he helped me sit up, and I can't remember anything after that. . . .

Q So what did [your mother] do?

A She took me home and I stayed with my dad. And then she went down to the police department and reported it. . . . And they said they couldn't do anything about it. . . . And she wrote a letter to the Medical Board. . . . She said they didn't do anything.

Four other witnesses were deposed. A Lovell housewife named Carol Beach testified that she'd been contacted by a relative and informed that a case was being made against Story at the Medical Board. She'd then written a letter about her own experience.

She testified that she'd told her husband on their wedding night, "This hurts just exactly like that pelvic Dr. Story gave me." She also charged that Story had manipulated her clitoris.

"DOC"

Her schoolteacher husband confirmed the wedding night conversation.

Kay Holm, housewife, substitute teacher, and wife of another Lovell Bible Church elder, deposed that Dr. Story had been her personal physician for seven years. She insisted that the charges were all gossip and lies—"Here goes Lovell again, another scam, another snowball, everybody jump on the bandwagon type thing. Lovell is pretty famous for that."

Peggy Rasmussen, a rural mail carrier and a Mormon, deposed that she'd been seeing Dr. Story for twenty-three years, that he'd given her frequent pelvic examinations, including one a week during a difficult pregnancy, and that she'd written a letter of support to the Medical Board. Her daughter Rhonda worked in Dr. Story's office as an aide.

33

DIANA HARRISON

Poor Diana. She's had a rough background. When you look at her, she wears that mask. Her hair's always perfect, and inside she's just a hurtin' lady. I would love to be able to set down and present Christ to her.

—The Reverend Kenneth Buttermore

Diana Marie Beal Harrison, five-two in her flats, was in a quandary. She'd worked for the man she called Doctor for six straight years, starting when she was nineteen, discontinued to follow her husband Bill to Cody and Cheyenne, then resumed part time in the last few years. She could honestly say that she idolized both him and Marilyn.

She could also honestly say that he'd violated at least two of his patients. One was her aunt, Emma Lu Meeks, a seventy-five-year-old widow, and another was one of Emma Lu's closest friends, Julia Bradbury. Aunt Emma was a Mormon pioneer, devout, lively, and as alert as most thirty-years-olds. Her husband Ted had served as town cop. If she said Doctor did it, Doctor did it.

But she'd told Diana in strictest confidence. Aunt Emma hadn't even told her bishop. She said she would die of shame if her secret got out, but she had to warn Diana so Story wouldn't do the same to her. "You trust that man too much," the old woman warned. "I trusted him and look what happened."

Diana's head weighed a ton these days. Her family's medical insurance came through the clinic, and her daughter's latest operation for a congenital urethral problem had cost $10,000. She and Bill would have lost everything if it hadn't been for that insurance. And the Storys had always been so good to her, lent her money, given her days off when she needed them, treated her like family. She couldn't just dump them.

But she also had obligations to her aunt and the other victims. Some of the names ricocheting around town were friends, fellow Saints, former classmates at Lovell High School. She'd gone to Mutual with them, prayed with them, shared seats on temple excursions.

One evening when Bill came in from the malt barley that he raised for Coors and Budweiser on their six hundred rented acres, she told him, "I feel so bad about those poor women. Especially Minda. I'm the one who talked her into coming in. And then she was raped!"

Bill was a darkly handsome man, built like a cannon and just as soft and yielding. He was a studious scriptorian who looked with favor on the oldest teachings of his church, including polygamy. He instructed her to stay out of the controversy. It didn't concern her or the church. As far as men like Story were concerned, didn't the book of Nephi say, "Satan has great power over Gentiles"?

When an assistant attorney general arrived at the Harrison home to ask questions, Diana retreated into her standard defense of bubbly amiability. But in her nervousness, she let slip the basic information about the two unknown victims.

"Oh, Bill," she said afterward, "I'm so naive. That woman let me go on and on and then she told me I could be subpoenaed and forced to tell the truth. I've never been in court. Honey, I'm scared to death."