Peter Yarrow - Convicted Sex Offender Performing at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation
CALL TO ACTION:
Peter Yarrow will be performing at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation next Saturday evening - April 29, 2006. Please contact Rabbi Rex D. Perlmeter and Jo Ann Windman, Executive Director at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and let them know about Peter Yarrow's past.
Peter Yarrow plead guilty to taking "immoral and improper liberties" with a 14-year-old girl back in 1970.
As reported at the time, the girl and her 17-year-old sister went to Yarrow's hotel room seeking an autograph. Yarrow answered the door naked and made sexual advances that stopped short of intercourse. The 14-year-old resisted his advances but did not call for help. Yarrow served three months of a one- to three-year prison sentence and was pardoned by Carter in 1981. Peter Yarrow was married to the niece of Democratic Senator Eugene J. McCarthy at the time of the pardon.
The singer has acknowledged the incident as "the most terrible mistake I have ever made."
posted by Jewish Survivors at Saturday, April 22, 2006
10 Comments:
Sounds like he made a dumb mistake in much more permissive times. And it sounds like he acknowledged his mistake and did some time. Nothing since then? No pattern of abuse in the last 36 years? Doesn't sound like abuse as much as a "rock star" getting carried away.
Why harp on this when there is so much real stuff out there?
How often do convicted sex offenders get presidential pardon's for raping teenage children? This is a highly unusual case. If he wasn't married to McCarthy's niece he would be on the national sex offenders registry today.
How do we know that Yarrow never assaulted another person? Perhaps if he did, the victim/survivor felt it was useless to go after him, especially since he had already received a presidential pardon for his last assault. Yarrow is still highly connected politically. He could get away with anything. Just look at Michael Jackson. Also why is he so attracted to performing to children?
Is Peter Yarrow just another Shlomo Carlebach? Everyone close to him were aware of his sexual indiscretions, yet did nothing.
Question,
Did Peter Yarrow ever enter into sex offender treatment? Does his therapist no longer believe he's a threat to children or teenage girls? Did Peter apologize to his victims, or pay restitution for what he did? Who paid for the girls rape counseling? How are the two sisters doing today?
If the sisters are doing OK today then it's a moot point. But if the sisters are still having flashbacks and or experience what other survivors of rape or childhood sexual abuse experience -- then Peter should NOT be performing to children.
Since when is attempted rape or rape "a dumb mistake"?
Were the 1960's or 1970's MORE permissive then today? I think NOT!
When a person says no, IT MEANS NO!
I don't care if the offender is or was a "rock star" or even if they were the Queen of Sheba, an adult forcing him or herself on a child or an adult is wrong. It is also crime.
How do you know the girls said "NO"?
Maybe they thought it was so "cool" or "far out" up until the point of intercourse, then it got "too real".
He didn't rape them,right?
Where is the line drawn between a mistake that was clearly based on more permissive times, probably some alcohol or marijuana and bad judgement and aggressive sexual assault that indicates a real problem?
There is no excuse for sexual violations or the violators, but why think the worst about a guy for one mistake years ago?
I just don't get where the line is drawn or is everyone just guilty for life?
I used to be a peter, paul and mary fan. I've been to many of their concerts, and have many of their records. I never knew that he plead guilty to a sex crime. Now I don't know what to do. I don't think I can't listen to their music anymore.
I can't get the image out of my head of a 32 year old man attempting to have forced sex with my 13 year old daughter, or a 17 year old.
I don't care if Yarrow was high. There's NO excuse for this sort of behavior.
I just read the old articles about him on The Awareness Center's site.
Read the following quote. Not once did he apologize to the girls. He plead guilty, yet no apology.
"Im deeply sorry for what I've done," Yarrow said after sentencing in district court. "I've hurt myself deeply, my wife and the people who love me.""
I watched a PBS program about depression today. Peter Yarrow spoke & sang about his experiencing of depression. Then I remembered how my 16 year old daughter came home from a concert at Town Hall... while requesting an autograph he groped her and asked if she and her friend wanted to go to the after party. Fortunately she was smart enough to walk away. That was in 1986!!! I believe he has/had a problem. Today we might call it sex addiction. Then it was good old fashioned ego gratification.
I'm quite sure that none of you leaving comments know the whole story. Why pass judgment on a man when clearly the whole truth is not know.
Why is no one here asking where these girls' parents were? What parent in their right mind would let their two teenage daughters go to a grown man's hotel room for an autograph? I mean come on. Apparently the times WERE more permissible then, either that, or parents in those times were just as irresponsible as the parents of today's teens who get into sticky situations because they go places where minors don't belong.
Unlike most child molesting monsters, Peter Yarrow had the income to pay off other families and victims. I can assure you, from personal knowledge that there is at least one more victim out there, however, by confidence I cannot state the name.
Keep your children and grand children away from this monster.
I am 57 years old now, I never filed charges but for the record, I was raped by Peter Yarrow in 1968, I was about 15 years old at the time.It was before he was married. The incident occurred at his home where I had been invited (in NY). I am sure there are a lot of vulnerable girls who were taken advantage by Peter Yarrow over many years. I was young, vulnerable, and trusting of this person who I had sung "Puff the Magic Dragon" with as a child just a few years before. Haddasah Magazine once published a glorified article about Mr. Yarrow. It was about how he helped young run away girls...Now you may have a better idea about what he was doing...It is not easy to come for with accusations about a famous person when you are a young girl.
With the deepest respect for all those who have posted, and as one who was knew Peter and the others who were at the forefront of the fight to end discrimination in the South, a dangerous time, it was thought by many of us, as well as legal experts, that Peter was "set up" as it was well known there were many groupies around and it was a time of sexual promiscuity across the board (I am not in favor of that but it is relevent). Many 14 year old girls are barely discernible from a 17 or 18 year old, and I doubt that most, including Peter, would have stopped to ask how old they were if they looked older. There were thousands of hippie look young people...differentiating was a diffiult thing, in all fairness, to do. Peter was either engaged or married at the time, and his apology was to family and the woman he loved for having breached her trust. Something he was ashamed of. Only that, serious as it was, and he indicates he fully understands that.
They have been married for a good 40 years now.
As for the accusations of child molestation or pedaphelia, they are terribly unfair. Especially from this organization, which I highly respect.
This is a man who has spent his life in the cause of human rights such as yours. I truly believe there is a misunderstanding here and the facts are muddled.
Why would he apologize to the girls when he had no knowledge of their ages...especially if it was a setup. What are the chances that of all the sexual encounters in the wild, drug infused sixties when age differentiation such as that of a 14 or 17 year old were difficult (look at the pictures) that it was Peter Yarrow, civil rights activist, who was accused? Additionally, if you re-read history, it was when Eugene McCarthy, uncle of his wife, who was at the Democratic Convention when Mayor Daly's Police viciously attacked peaceful demonstrators, most of whom were in the movement to end racism in this country and supported McCarthy. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Once again, it was a dangerous time. And it was people like Peter Yarrow who put themselves at the front of the fight. Did he make a mistake. Yes. But it was not the heinous one you are accusing him of.
Bless you. And Peter Yarrow. You are on the same page.
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