USA  :: Teen Suicide as a result of religious cops :: (1888 Reads)

Posted by gayteens on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 06:14 AM

The parent of a teenager who killed himself, allegedly because police threatened to out him to his family, has settled a lawsuit against the borough of Minersville, Pennsylvania. Madonna Sterling will receive $100,000 from the borough of Minersville, a town of 4,500 about 50 miles from Harrisburg, as out-of-court compensation for a suit alleging that her son's rights to privacy were violated by police.

In April 1997, Marcus Wayman, Sterling's 18-year-old son, was arrested while drinking in a car with Matthew Adamick, then 17. After finding condoms in the car, the two arresting officers claim the teens admitted they had stopped to have sex. Adamick denies either boy made the statement. Wayman and Adamick were arrested for trespassing and underaged drinking.

In her lawsuit, Sterling alleged that officers Scot Willinsky and Thomas Holban lectured the boys about the biblical prohibitions on homosexuality. She claimed Willinsky threatened to tell Wayman's stepgrandfather that Wayman was gay unless the boy came out to his family on his own, which prompted Wayman to tell Adamick he planned to commit suicide. Wayman shot himself in the head upon his release a few hours later.

Willinsky and Holban deny this version of events, but Willinsky admits he called Adamick's house and told Adamick to state to his mother that he was gay. Wayman, who was a football player in the small Pennsylvania town and the stepson of a former military police officer, was not gay, according to the testimony of his family, friends and girlfriend.

In 2001, a jury in Allentown, Pa. ruled that the officers had not violated the teen's privacy rights, the basis of Sterling's case. The verdict was overturned by U.S. District Judge Arnold C. Rapoport of the Eastern District in Allentown on appeal in June 2002. In October 2002, Rapoport ordered a new trial, which was also confirmed upon appeal in January 2003.

Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the case saying, "As the plaintiff's evidence in this case shows, enormous harms can arise, particularly among lesbian and gay youth." Wayman's case was also cited by the ACLU in a 2003 letter to an Arkansas school warning against the possible repercussions of privacy-rights violations.

The Associated Press reported that Kyle Quandel, a family friend and publicist, said that the family was devastated. This is not what they wanted, Quandel said.

In 2002, Sterling and her husband attended a tribute to Wayman by the local gay community, according to the Pottsville, Pa. Republican Herald. Wayman's stepfather, Mark Sterling, stated, It didn't matter if Marcus was gay or straight, as long as he was safe and happy. You never know what you have until you lose it.