Salon.com > Kevin Giordano

The chemical knife

Wed, 01 Mar 2000 17:00:00 +0000

On Jan. 8, Shannon Coleman, a convicted sex offender, circumvented a 21-year prison term by agreeing to be chemically castrated. A self-described sex addict, Coleman had used the Internet to strike up chats with two Florida girls. He managed to visit one, a 12-year-old, at her house, where he fondled her and then masturbated. The other, a 15-year-old, invited him over to her house, where they had sex.

At his trial, Coleman, his lawyer and his psychiatrist, Fred Berlin, seized upon Florida's 1997 sex offender law, which gives the court discretion to sentence people convicted of sexual battery to undergo drug treatment to stop and/or reduce testosterone production. With help from Berlin, Coleman was able to trade prison time for a life under the chemical "knife." (Coleman admitted in court that he had a sex addiction, was labeled a pedophile and pleaded guilty to six felony charges, including child molestation.)

Jack Orsley, Coleman's lawyer, says that Berlin was instrumental in getting his client help, not to mention out of prison. "Because of the Florida law and Fred Berlin, we used it as an alternative," Orsley says. "The thing is, Coleman is motivated."

False memory syndrome

Wed, 22 Dec 1999 17:00:00 +0000

Valerie Jenks grew up in Rigby, Idaho. Her father owned a roofing company
and her mother worked for an accountant. She describes her family life as
happy, filled with camping trips, outings and annual vacations. But
when Jenks was 14, she was raped by a 19-year-old. She never reported
it to authorities and the man went free.

Jenks didn't appear to suffer from the trauma. She graduated from high school in the top 10 percent of her class, worked on the newspaper and played on the bowling team. She finished high school with dreams of being a journalist. But at 17 she became pregnant. "I had a
misconception of what love and marriage and sex were supposed to be like," she says now. "I had no other sexual experiences besides being raped."

She married and had a baby boy. Her husband, seven years her senior, worked construction and was often out of town. Jenks worked part-time as a
waitress but money was tight. That was when things
got bad. "Right after I had the baby I had a hard time," she says. "All my
friends went off to college, I had no support, I was 19 and I had weight problems." Around this time, Valerie decided to enter therapy.