Dec 1, 2009 5:34 pm US/Central
Father Of Son Acquitted Of Rape Speaks Out
BURR RIDGE, Ill. (CBS) ―
It was a case that garnered national and international attention. A 16-year-old girl says she was gang raped at a party in an upscale Burr Ridge home. Now the father of the accused is speaking out. He talked exclusively to CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot about the impact the case had on his family's life.
"This is what the prosecutors called the estate in Burr Ridge where it all occurred. Our little slice of heaven," said Damir Missbrenner, while walking in front of the place he once called home.
Missbrenner says the sanctuary this house held for him was shattered seven years ago.
A 16-year-old girl said she was gang raped by Missbrenner's son, Adrian, and two of his friends. A third friend videotaped everything.
Now, nearly a decade after the incident, Missbrenner has written a book. It's called "Cry for Justice."
"I believe that the methods employed by the detectives and the prosecution exceeded normal course, and it was heavily slanted in favor of strictly soliciting a guilty verdict, regardless of what evidence might have existed," Missbrenner said.
Missbrenner says the evidence came in the form of a videotape.
"She initiated this, and I just find it hard to believe that a participant would be classified as being victimized," he said. "I don't think they actually thought the tape would be viewed by anyone."
Missbrenner also writes about Adrian fleeing to Serbia while on house arrest. He became one of the FBI's most wanted. Missbrenner says those who helped his son ended up holding him for ransom.
Two men showed up at his front door and demanded a ransom of $100,000 for his son's release.
"I was ready to do the unthinkable," Missbrenner said, choking back tears.
While the two men were inside his home, he was carrying a gun. Missbrenner said he was ready to use the gun, at any moment.
"It's really the thought you have afterwards, what you could have done and almost did and the repercussions that would have followed," he said.
Missbrenner also revealed for the first time, his son Adrian tried to kill himself. He spoke of pushing in his son's door. He looked in Adrian's closet. He saw that his son had taken several of his own belts and fashioned a noose to hang himself.
"I don't wish any parent to ever have to see that," Missbrenner said. "It was a struggle to get to him, during what could have probably been his last moments, and someone was watching over him."
Missbrenner says his wife would like to start a fund to help those who are wrongly accused of crimes.
While Adrian was acquitted in the rape case, he has a felony on his record for fleeing to Serbia.
One teen reached a plea deal. Another was acquitted and the fourth was recently released from prison.
The attorney for the victim, the Cook County State's Attorney's office and Sheriff Police have all said Missbrenner's book is an insult to the victim.
The following is a statement from the victim's attorney, George Acosta:
"Considering that his son together with his 3 friends sexually victimized an intoxicated/ drugged 16-yr. old girl, added insult to injury by videotaping the acts and then ran away to Europe to hide, the book's title is as ironic as it is revolting. A more apt title might have been Running From Justice.
"In short, the apple clearly doesn't fall far from the tree in the Missbrenner family. The elder Missbrenner picks up spinning the reality of this sexual assault where the younger one left off. He quotes [and misquotes] numerous self-serving statements made by the criminal defendants in an obvious attempt to paint the assailants as the naive victims of a crafty and brazen woman driven to seduce these otherwise morally upright boys. Nothing could be further from the truth.
"After several hours of allowing underage drinking under his own roof while he himself was home, Missbrenner is the last person who should be lecturing us on the flaws of our legal system. In his testimony in the civil case, he claimed complete ignorance of the fact that a dozen teenagers were liberally consuming large quantities of hard liquor (some of it reportedly from his own liquor cabinet) for hours right down the hall from where he sat. The factual record also suggested that underage drinking and "partying" at the Missbrenner house occurred frequently in the year leading up to the assault with little or no parental intervention, supervision or concern.
"As to our client's motivation, no one involved in the case showed more courage in trying to bring about justice. While she herself did not even initiate the charges against the defendants [the state's attorney's office decided to charge them after viewing the videotape they obtained independently], she demonstrated tremendous courage in refusing to be intimidated by news cameras, a judge's threatened contempt order or the infamous notoriety she risked in fully cooperating with the prosecution despite having no memory of significant portions of the events and never having seen the video. She stood up and spoke up for hundreds and thousands of girls who find themselves facing the repulsive choice of either re-living their ordeal several times through the legal system before sometimes uncaring and doubting strangers, or running away and refusing the repeated victimization the system unfortunately requires, even if it means that the assailants will walk away unscathed. As to suing the boys, individually, our client felt that it was important on principal for them to personally contribute to any disposition of the civil case, which they all did. In fact, the settlement of the civil case not only spared her from watching the video, it also spared her from even giving a deposition in the case and having to relive the entire matter again at the hands of the Missbrenners' [and other] attorneys.
"The author's spin of these facts at best does no favor to these girls and, at worst, indirectly encourages those who may seek to take advantage of a girl in a compromised state of consciousness that they might avoid being held accountable. Instead of developing excuses for his son's conduct, the elder Missbrenner might have spent his time more productively advocating more personal responsibility among our teenagers in general, and his own son in particular.
In short, a book seller would do well to classify this as a work of fiction, perhaps placing it near the Twilight Saga series of books. Readers may have a hard time, however, deciphering which of the two is about a group of young male vampires."
The Cook County Sheriff's Police issued the following statement:
"The Cook County Sheriff's Department strongly stands behind the officers who investigated this horrific crime committed against a 16-year-old girl. Throughout this years-long ordeal, the testimony of our officers never changed, nor did the victim's story. She never wavered about what happened that night. After Adrian Missbrenner fled the country to avoid prosecution, it's incredibly disturbing to think that someone victimized as a child is now being re-victimized by the Missbrenner family so they can profit financially from what was done to her."
The Cook County State's Attorney's Office issued the following statement:
"It is the responsibility of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office to seek justice for victims and their families in a court of law and that is exactly what happened in the prosecution of this disturbing crime. The only misconduct that occurred in this case was at a home in Burr Ridge where this appalling attack took place. To make such baseless accusations in an effort to sell or promote a book is an insult to law enforcement and, more importantly, to the victim of this horrific crime."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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