Victims’ Rights Group Up in Arms Over Filmmaker’s Willingness to Indentify Sandusky Victim

The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape has launched an offensive against controversial filmmaker John Ziegler. This comes after a day after Ziegler released his interview with convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky. During an appearance on NBC’s Today Show Ziegler suggested he might reveal the name of Victim 2. Now, advocacy groups are preparing to defend the young man’s privacy.

Today, Ziegler released a statement on his website, FramingPaterno.com. In that message Zieger said he will keep Victim 2’s name a secret — if — Victim 2 agrees to speak with him. Kristen Houser is Vice President of Communications and Development for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR). Houser says Ziegler’s statement is blackmail and perpetuates the culture of blaming and shaming victims. 

It impedes their road to recovery, Houser said. Victim privacy is an important part of that process and something that PCAR has advocated for in its 40 years of working with and for victims of sexual abuse.

“Thank God he didn’t do it,” Houser said. “The way sexual abuse works, it happens in private and inherent with sexual abuse is the fear of what will happen.

“The threat of being exposed, the fear of being blamed, those are powerful, powerful weapons to keep people silent,” Houser said. 

Houser said Ziegler’s actions are unethical and demonstrates a lack of compassion for victims of sexual abuse. 

“Ziegler’s threats to expose Victim 2’s name, blackmailing Victim 2, is frankly abusive behavior. By engaging in that, he is sending a message to any surivor out there, reminding them this is still a culture where we are willing to drag a victim through the mud,” she said. 

In his statement, Ziegler said he believes Victim 2 already “outed” himself, by “having written published letters to the editor in support of Sandusky after allegations first surfaced.” 

In his statement, Ziegler said: 

“If this was not the case and, if his biography was not both so incredibly central to the case as well as different from what is publicly known, we would never consider breaking the accepted rules of victim anonymity.

“It should be noted that I have consulted with several high-profile experts in this area, including the “Paterno Report” sex crimes expert, Jim Clemente, who agree with me that there is a solid case to be made here that “Victim 2″ does not have the same right to anonymity here that would be normally afforded alleged victims of sex abuse.”

According to the statement, after consulting with Jim Clemente, Ziegler decided to hold off on releasing the identity of Victim 2, but issued an ultimatum. 

“Jim Clemente called me last night to tell me that he had reconsidered his position on this issue because he had been told that “Victim 2” was upset about this prospect and he asked me to reconsider. I told Jim that if “Victim 2″ agreed to speak to me and explain this to me himself, that I would gladly consider not releasing his identity,” Ziegler wrote. 

Ziegler said he’ll make his decision whether to release identifying information on Victim 2 Tuesday night. 

Houser said PCAR hasn’t taken any action to combat Zieger’s yet, but will act accordingly if counsel for Victim 2 says his client wants it. One of the things PCAR may do, she said, is issue a “statement of facts” on sexual abuse in an effort to debunk myths she says Ziegler is perpetuating. 

“He doesn’t know anything about being raped. Trauma is not just “fight or flight,” there’s a third “F.” It’s to freeze. Time after time after time again, victims of all ages, of all experiences tell us when they’re recounting stories, ‘I froze. I wanted to scream, and couldn’t. It was like I was outside of my body,’” Houser said. 

Before Ziegler’s interview on the TODAY Show aired Monday morning, the Paterno family released a statement, distancing themselves from his self-proclaimed efforts to “exonerate Joe Paterno.”

“This man has put his own agenda in front of respect for these men who came forward. He put it in front of the State College and Centre County community healing, too. He has [opened a] wound and he’s being disrespectful to all surviovors of sexual abuse,” Houser said. 

On Monday, attorneys for Victim 2 released the following statement: 

“Jerry Sandusky is a convicted child predator giving interviews from prison. Our clients, including Victim 2, have heard enough from Jerry Sandusky. They are focused on healing and holding Penn State accountable for choosing to protect Jerry Sandusky and themselves instead of protecting children from years of horrific sexual abuse.”

Attorneys for Victim 2 did not return calls for comment.