Public Enemy

The following is an excerpt from Part Two:

What the public perceives for me and Sid is what the media projects. We “operated a massage parlor for gay men.” The reality is that we offered massage services for people of any orientation. Equally available on the Web was “Healing Ministries of New England,” a curing modality for people and pets. That, however, didn’t make the news—it was not juicy or incriminating enough to qualify for “what sells.”

Prolifically mentioned was “rape,” “gay,” “abuse,” “scandal.” The masses would go bonkers to learn that we would be “getting away with something.” Ours was a very high profile case. Emotions and perceptions were based on information presented in the news, as inaccurate as much of it was. What was accurate was only that we were accused of child molestation. Following the mistrial, agreeing to a plea became our only viable option. That is not nearly the whole story, nor was justice or any version of it served.