Posted
A cast member playing Tigger at Disney World allegedly groped 13-year old girl and her mother while they were posing for a picture. Michael Chartrand, 36, was charged with one count of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child between 12 and 15 years old and one count of simple battery.
Read more from The Orlando Sentinel.
This sounds kinda fishy/odd to me. If this was my daughter, we'd have gone right to the cops that night, not wait a week... And what's up with the mom not being there?
People make stuff up, I don't doubt that (see: Kobe's gold digger). But while the mom and daughter in this case might have wanted to just forget about it, all it takes is a break down and the father/husband would go nuts. I'm sure I would.
"The Defendant admitted that he might have 'inadvertently' touched the breast of the victim. ... I asked the defendant if he would like to write an apology letter to the victim and he said he would. The defendant said he was very sorry for everything that had occurred. He also hoped that the victim would forgive him for what he had done."
Now note, that is the policeman's synopsis of what he wrote, those are not even the defendant's own words.
Also, he told the officer "that he has someone take photographs of him while he is in character. The defendant told me I could see the photographs if I wanted to."
Sounds like he isn't afraid to have the officer look into this.
I wonder what the proof is, because if they are just going on testimony, it's a he said/she said situation with no evidence going either way.
I'm not saying he's innocent, but give me more proof before everyone goes lynching the guy. Who knows in 3 months he could be exonerated but unfortunately, it won't make the news and will be a two sentence story buried on page 23 of the paper. Meanwhile, the guy's life is ruined...
I can only assume you were tired and not really thinking about this statement Jeff. Nobody knows what happened yet, but certainly you would agree that people "make up" false accusations/stories all the time. It is not really a reach to think a family might be making up a story to shakedown Disney is it? I assume there could be a civil settlement coming their way should they get a sympathetic jury and have even a crappy case.
Again, I make no claims of guilt or innocence. But I certainly would not feign shock that anybody could “make up” a story like this.
P.S. I note that you try to redeem yourself by citing Kobe and admitting people make stuff up. Does this no contradict your whole post, and thus neutralize any point you tried to make?
hope i didnt offend anyone...............*** This post was edited by coasterbruh 4/5/2004 11:45:47 PM ***
What annoys me is that any time a park or one of its employees gets into trouble, people come running to their side absolutely positive that there was no wrong doing. Despite being an overly-litigious culture, there are, believe it or not, when the law should get involved.
*** This post was edited by Jeff 4/6/2004 8:18:30 AM ***
I just have issues and questions about the story from the girl. There are just some inconsistencies that have me (and my wife) scratching our heads... All we know is if my daughter told my wife that Tigger touched her inappropriately, we'd call the cops and the park immediately...not wait a week, and then not have the mom there who also was allegedly groped too.
All I have commented on is what I have seen in the police reports, I have said nothing about, "Oh, this is Disney, nothing like this could happen there!" or anything of the sort.
*** This post was edited by redman822 4/6/2004 8:50:34 AM ***
Too many people here have already ruled out the possibility that it just can't be true, and that's ridiculous.
Besides, Jeff, what happened to being presumed innocent? If I was on this jury, with the information given, I would not have sufficient evidence to convict this guy.
I see no way this does not end up with a civil implication unless criminal court throws this out without merit. At the very least there is a small threshold to prove negligence on the parks behalf. You need one prior patron or fellow employee to say that they saw this happen before and then... Time will tell who is correct on this matter.
I can only speak for me personally, but I know I have not claimed any guilt or innocence. Some seem to automatically take the parks side and others seem to automatically take the claimants side. You seem to be in the second camp in the sense that you quote the merits of your past counseling activities as some sort of indication that this particular claimant is telling, or could be telling the truth. I agree that we should not automatically disregard what the claimant has to say just because she waited for a period of time. However, it certainly will be used by the defense to weaken the accusation.
I prefer to see this as innocent until proven guilty. I’ll give the guy the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. The burden falls upon the plaintiffs in the court of law and in the court of my mind!
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