friend arrested for video voyeurism and sexual contact with minors. And it happens to be with boys, high school aged. I'm in my 50's. Though I'd never known him to have a steady girlfriend in our younger days, it had never occurred to me to speculate if he was gay or not, though that's not really an issue here. Us guys on the softball team probably wouldn't have cared about that much anyway. We didn't when another buddy came out.
He did have a tendency to like to hang out with kids though, even as a young adult. I kind of chalked that up to a couple of them just being neighborhood kids he grew up with and was still friends with. I remember thinking it was stupid of him to party with them though. Even in the early 80's, buying alcohol for them was probably trouble.
Then he was gone for like 25 years and moved back. He came by and told me he had been in some trouble and was getting his life back together. Cool as far as I was concerned and he even mentioned being religious and all that. Good for him if that was what it took as far as I was concerned. He even came in and began donating blood where I work.
Then one day going to work I saw him. He was walking along with what looked like could be a high school aged kid. I got a bad vibe there. Ironically, one of my nicknames for him years before had been, "Uncle Al The Kiddies Pal". That was just a dig for hanging out with the kids years before. I had no idea it was prophetic.
Then not long after, I come out of a little grocery store and there he was getting out of a kids car. We spoke but I really got the feeling he didn't like me seeing that. Then I was suspicious that he was up to his old tricks. But still thinking he was just the cool old guy being a hero to his little buddies because he could buy for them. I still would never have thought what he was going to be busted for.
He'd been back in our old neighborhood, living at home and taking care of his ill mother. Hanging out at the local pool, getting involved with his church youth group and making friends with a number of the area kids. A concerned parent blew the whistle on him. The cops investigated and busted him. They even got a video of him having sex with what appeared to be an underage male that may have been passed out.
So there you have a case where I know that every possible clue was right in my face. I should have called the cops myself when I saw him at the store. Maybe if I had circled around and went back in and asked the woman working if he'd bought alcohol. I freakin' know he did! But instead, it takes his mug shot on tv for me to know I knew!
I feel bad in a way I guess. It's still hard to abandon an old friend. He was still an honest and nice guy to all of us all the years we knew him. It could have been a lot of things but not this. He could have been Walter White with the meth lab and I still would have visited him and asked, WTF Al?
The word is that once nailed, he cooperated and is yet to go to trial. I can totally see that. He was always honest and straight forward when he knew he fucked up.
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