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Archives > Volume 7 Issue 53 - September 25, 2009 Mackenzie Phillips admits 10 year sexual relationship with her father..."Don't hate my father," Mackenzie Phillips tells People Magazine. MSNBC News story here 
But in a tell-all book out Wednesday, the former childhood actress reveals that her dad, musician John Phillips of the '60s band the Mamas and the Papas, engaged with her in a long-term incestuous relationship.
Phillips, 49, who has survived drug addiction, arrests and divorce, writes in the book "High on Arrival" that she was already a star playing a boy-crazy teen on the TV sitcom "One Day at a Time" when her father had sex with her on the night before she was to marry Jeff Sessler, a member of the Rolling Stones entourage, in 1979. "On the eve of my wedding, my father showed up, determined to stop it," writes Phillips, who was 19 and a heavy drug user at the time. "I had tons of pills, and Dad had tons of everything too. Eventually I passed out on Dad's bed." "My father was not a man with boundaries. He was full of love, and he was sick with drugs. I woke up that night from a blackout to find myself having sex with my own father." "Had this happened before? I didn't know. All I can say is it was the first time I was aware of it. For a moment I was in my body, in that horrible truth, and then I slid back into a blackout." Phillips told Oprah Winfrey she confronted her father about the rape, but he characterized their relationship as romantic. ABC News story here "After the first experience, I went to my father and said we need to talk about how you raped me. My dad said: 'Raped you? Don't you mean made love?' In that moment, I thought I'm really on my own here." In 1980, soon after she'd been fired from "One Day at a Time" because of her out-of-control drug use, Phillips began to travel with her father's new band, the New Mamas and the Papas. It was during that time, she said, that she began regularly doing drugs and having sex with her father. "It didn't happen every day, it didn't happen every week, but it certainly happened and happened many times," she said. "It became a consensual relationship over time. I can't believe I'm the only one this happened to," she said. "No matter what kind of incest, it is an abuse of power...a betrayal of trust." "I was a fragment of a person, and my secret isolated me," she writes, according to People. "One night Dad said, 'We could just run away to a country where no one would look down on us. There are countries where this is an accepted practice. Maybe Fiji.'" Since Phillips' public admission this week, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN http://rainn.org/) has reported a 26 percent jump in its hotline calls and an 83 percent increase in traffic on its Web site. ABC News story here It is not unusual for such a public confession to spur others to seek help, said Ajia Meux, a supervisor at RAINN, which is based in Washington, D.C. "You know, whenever a person hears another person's story about being assaulted, that gives them the courage to come forward," Meux said. "So I imagine that hearing a celebrity disclose their abuse, that gives so many other people the courage to do it." People are looking for support and guidance, said Meux, who has answered some of these calls. "Anything from, 'This is the first time I've told someone' to 'I'm looking for help, resources, available counseling services, how to confront the family, how to confront the abuser,'" Meux said. During her appearance on Oprah Winfrey's TV show this week, Phillips, 49, said more attention needs to be drawn to this issue. "I know that I can't be the only one this has happened to," she told Winfrey. "Nobody's talking about this, and someone needs to put a face on not only nonconsensual incest but consensual incest." If you or someone you love is struggling with recovery from incest, visit Survivors of Incest Anonymous at http://www.siawso.org/ and eGuide/recovery from incest. Florida dad admits killing wife and 5 kids... A Florida man admitted to reporters that he killed his wife and five "innocent" children, adding that he wants to be executed "right away" so he can be buried with them on Saturday. CNN story here 
Mesac Damas, 32, said he wanted to take his own life, but did not have the courage to go through with it, "because if you kill yourself, you're not going to heaven."
Damas made the statements to a Naples Daily News reporter as he was being led into a Haitian police vehicle in Port-au-Prince. Damas was returned to the United States late Tuesday following his capture in Haiti. Damas faces six counts of premeditated first-degree murder in the deaths of his wife, Guerline Damas, 32; and the couple's five children - Michzach, 9; Marven, 6; Maven, 5; Megan, 3; and Morgan, 11 months, police have said. The six bodies were found Saturday in the family's North Naples, Florida, home after relatives called police saying they had not been heard from. Asked by the reporter in Haiti why he killed his family, Damas responded, "Only God knows." Questioned further, he blamed the crime on his mother-in-law. "Her mom pretty much made me do it - the devil, her spirit, whatever she worships," he said.  Watch what Damas has to say »
Damas added, "When I did it, [my] eyes [were] closed but right now my eyes are open." He repeatedly asked the reporter, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ," and stated, "The devil exists." Police said an arrest warrant was issued for Damas on Tuesday "based on information and evidence collected thus far in the investigation and statements made by Damas to a federal agent after his detention in Haiti." Police have not said how the five were killed, but Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk described the scene as "horrific." The Naples Daily News, citing the warrant, reported that the woman and children were stabbed and their throats were slashed. See more on this story at vol7_iss52. In other news... 
The Jersey City Police Department says a 12-year-old girl was abducted over the weekend, but she managed to escape and get help. WABC story here Police arrested the suspect and charged him with kidnapping and sexual assault. A 12-year-old girl told police Luigi Pandolfo snatched her from her bicycle, took her into an apartment at 82 Colgate Street, handcuffed her, and then tried to sexually assault her Saturday night. The girl found her chance to escape when, police say, Pandolfo moved her to a vacant apartment behind his mother's house. He left, and when the girl heard Pandolfo arguing with his mother back at the apartment, the girl squeezed out of the cuffs, climbed down a fire escape, jumped on her bicycle and raced home to tell her parents. Large quantities of pornography, as well as sex paraphernalia, handcuffs and a body bag were found at his home. Star Ledger story here The items, particularly the body bag, prompted police on Sunday to search the Colgate Street home of Luigi Pandolfo, 33, with cadaver dogs, but no bodies were found.
Jaycee Dugard will testify against the couple that allegedly held her captive in an elaborate compound hidden in their backyard for 18 years if there is a trial, a lawyer for her family said at a news conference Thursday. CNN News story here Attorney Scott McGregor admitted it has been a difficult transition for Dugard and her two children - who police say were fathered by her captor - given her captivity spanned more than half her life and was the only world she knew for so long. "But there is no question that she knows that terrible and wrong things were done to her and that those people must be held accountable," McGregor said. He acknowledged Dugard would have to relive the "trauma" in court by sharing the "very, very sordid tale." But McGregor said the family is trying not to focus on any of that and instead work on building a new life together. McGregor said Dugard's daughters, who police said never went to school or a doctor, were receiving tutoring. Dugard has been participating and observing. "This is a woman whose [own] formal education ended in the fifth grade," he said. "She has a brain that she wants to develop, so it's a very positive thing." The family received medical attention and counseling beginning the day Dugard and her children were discovered, McGregor said. He also said they had received donations of more than $100,000 from the public, which would help the girls as they get older. He praised law enforcement and family members for helping protect Dugard and her children after her discovery. See more on this story at vol7_iss48, vol7_iss49, vol7_iss50, vol7_iss51, and vol7_iss52.
A former Kansas City area woman and the man she lived with in Blue Springs pleaded guilty in federal court to the sex trafficking of the woman's daughter. Kansas City Star story here Todd Barkau, 37, started training the daughter at age 12 to be a dominatrix and engage in sado-masochistic sex acts. He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Kansas City to commercial sex trafficking of a minor. He will be sentenced to 25 years in prison as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. The girl's 45-year-old mother pleaded guilty to the same charge. Her plea agreement calls for a 15-year sentence. The Star is not naming her to protect the identity of her daughter. The mother was the first parent in the United States to be charged with the commercial sex trafficking of their child in a human trafficking case, prosecutors said at the time charges were filed last year. When the girl was 12, Barkau began training her to engage in acts of sexual bondage, domination, sadism and masochism with him and others, according to prosecutors. When the victim was 14, Barkau set up an online business, marketing her as Mistress Alisha in both online and in-person sexual encounters. The girl's mother assisted in the business and received financial compensation, prosecutors said. The victim, who is now 22, attended the plea hearings and told the judge that she approved of the plea agreements. For more on Trafficking in Persons, read the 2009 Trafficking In Persons Report prepared by the US state department online at http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/#.
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