The rest of the interviews went very much as the first one did. When they were almost done they said they had a few more questions for Tony. They had asked him if he was sure he would want to continue. He held his head high and said, “I want him in jail. No more kids hurt.” Stephanie left the room crying. It was how we all felt.
Tonka said they would start a surveillance of Jeffrey Motter. They would do some garbage pulls to ascertain if he was throwing out any pornography that Douglas and Tony had seen on his computer. It was the start, now the police had to do their jobs and gather all the evidence needed to convict Motter.
* * *
Tonka did the garbage pulls since he worked in town and he had done pulls before and knew whom to contact with the garbage company. As most people set their garbage out the night before pickup, the Motters did not. They placed their garbage at the curb the day of pickup, only hours before the truck arrived.
Tonka contacted Meyers Garbage Company security office to advise them he wanted the driver to pick up the garbage and deliver it to him. He would be waiting down the street. Meyers said they would cooperate any way they could.
As Tonka sat in a rented van down the street he observed Patricia Motter walk the garbage out of her house. He then saw Jeffrey walk out two bags from his garage and office area.
About forty minutes later, after watching that nobody else touched the garbage Meyers Company picked it up. He drove to the end of the block and quickly exchanged the garbage from one truck to the other.
Once back at the police station came the good part, going through the garbage piece by piece. Tonka found which bags were Jeffrey’s by all the business papers being discarded. After three hours of looking, however, there was no new evidence. He would do this three more times with similar results.
* * *
Several months had gone by and even though I was kept up to date with the investigation some frustration was setting in. “When are they going to do something?” Stephanie would ask.
To be followed by Tony’s, “Yeah, when?” It was hard to tell them how the system works. Even though you know he was guilty, you had to be able to prove it in court. Sometimes that was not as easy as it seems.
“It will happen. It just takes time. If we can get more on him he will probably take a plea bargain and we won’t have to go through a court hearing. This would save Tony from having to testify and be cross-examined by Motter’s attorney.” I continued to talk like it did not bother me, the delay in the arrest, but I wanted action as much or maybe even more, than anyone else.
Tonka waited outside Motter’s house. He was waiting for him to make some kind of mistake. Although, he didn’t know precisely what he was looking for. Anything outside of normal, but then again, how normal was Motter. As Tonka watched the house he remembered how I would tell him about small boys working for and playing games with Motter. Now as he watched, Motter had no children visitors. Did he know they were watching? Was he tipped off? Did he see Tonka in any of the assortment of vehicles he used?
Tonka followed him to various locations to do electrical jobs or to the airport. When going to the airport Tonka had learned Motter would fly to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to one of his condos. He sometimes would be gone for two to three weeks.
Tonka called Hennesey at the Children’s Center to let him know things had come to a stand still. Hennesey said, “Maybe we should have a meeting and go over what we have and decide whether it’s enough to go with.”
“We have plenty.” Tonka said.
“I think so too, but we have to play devil’s advocate and attack what we have like his defense will,” Hennesey said. Tonka knew he was right. They would have one shot, it better be a good one.
“How about Friday morning around ten?” Tonka asked.
“Good by my schedule, ten it is.”
Tonka hung up the phone and started to look at the file in front of him. It was already about an inch thick and almost certainly going to get fatter. Picking up the papers and looking at them he realized this would be a difficult case. Not because of the evidence, he felt he had plenty of that, but because it was personal, this victim was not just a name. He was his friend’s son. Sometimes he wished it hadn’t happened in Lakeville, he hoped he wouldn’t let anyone down.
* * *
It was ten thirty Friday morning when Tonka’s phone rang, it was Hennesey, “Hey Evan, running late, had a bad one last night, a little girl was raped by her brother, she then took a mountain of pills. She’s in the hospital now; don’t think she’s out of danger yet. It could go either way.”
“I’m here waiting, no rush. I put everything aside for the morning,” Tonka said. It just doesn’t stop Tonka thought. He was also working on a case that involved a man forty-eight years old trying to pick up a twelve-year-old girl via the Internet. The man would be surprised that the twelve-year-old girl was a detective who was looking to put him away. That’s what he did it for, police work, the satisfaction of taking bad people off the streets and putting them in jail. Unfortunately you have to go through the heartache to get to that point.
Hennesey walked into Tonka’s office. He placed his file next to Tonka’s. “Mines bigger than yours,” Hennesey said.
Tonka smiled and shook his head, “Not on your life.” Tonka was sitting at his desk; besides the Carver file he had numerous other papers lying about. Hennesey took off his beige jacket. It was warm enough outside to go without one but it helped conceal his weapon. He was wearing a polo shirt, slacks, brown shoes, and had his badge attached to his belt.
Tonka was dressed in a suit and tie, but had his suit coat hanging over the back of his chair. His tie was undone and hanging low around his neck. His gun was placed in its gun locker above the cabinet along the sidewall. “Where do we start?” he asked Hennesey.
“At the beginning,” Hennesey replied. “We are going to have to articulate exactly how this started and how we developed it. Do we only have the victim’s story? Is it plausible? Why would he make it up? What’s his gain? These are some of the questions we must ask and be ready to answer.”
Tonka had known Tony for all of his eighteen years and had never known him to lie. Well, unless you call Tony’s account of the broken vase a lie. Tony had been in the house alone when he was around seven, sitting in the family room. When Stephanie and I walked in we saw a glass vase on the floor below the mantle of the fireplace. It was in a thousand pieces. “What happened here?” I asked in a somewhat disgruntled voice.
Out came a soft voice, never a quiver of dishonesty in it say, “It just flew up to the ceiling then came crashing down.” Tony sat on the chair looking up at us and at one point I thought I could see a halo forming around his head. His eyes were so full of ‘please believe me’ that I then asked him if he had gotten hurt when it fell.
But that was Tony, so full of childlike beauty. He then came back with, “No daddy, I didn’t get hurt.”
“What we have is a girlfriend telling her boyfriend, who has confided in her his God-father, molested him, and he should tell his parents. They try several times but it doesn’t come out. Finally one night, he tells them. What do the parents do?” starts Hennesey.
“After the shock wears off they ask their son what he wants to do. Is this conceivable for a veteran police officer?” Tonka answers his own question, “For Carver it is. As much as he would want to tear that asshole’s head off, he’d go along with his son’s decision.”
“But would he taint or contaminate his view to get a better story?” Hennesey asked.
“I’ve known him for twenty years or more and even though he would want everything to go just right for Tony, he would never have him lie or change the facts. He doesn’t have to, the guy is guilty as hell.” Tonka was getting, to some extent, upset with Hennesey. “You don’t know him like I do.”
“That’s right I don’t. That’s why I’m asking. And you better be able to take these types of questions better on the stand because they’re going to get
a lot harder.”
Hennesey was right but Tonka didn’t like the doubt Hennesey had about me. “Besides, we have no reason to doubt Tony’s accusations. Even if Motter hasn’t done anything to reaffirm the statements as of yet, we have no reason to disbelieve Tony.” Tonka said.
Tonka continued, “Remember how the parents told us about the trouble they had with Tony wetting his bed during that time. It’s a known and proven fact bed-wetting is a problem that can occur during a sexual abuse case.”
“Well, for that matter, the way Motter tried to take control and use all those “toys” to get the kids to come over. Typical,” Hennesey agreed. “All ways a pedophile can work and without having the victim’s trusting folks understand what’s really going on.”
“How can you deal with this all the time?” asked Tonka.
“You have to hope and pray for a win. That’s the only thing that’ll get you through. But yeah, it’s hard.” Hennesey had dropped his head. Tonka felt bad he asked the question. He realized Hennesey only wanted a flawless case to get this guy locked up.
They went over all the evidence they already had and played out all the scenarios they could think of. It was time to confront Motter, but first Hennesey had one last question. “Do you think Tim could take care of all this by himself?”
“I don’t think he would, but it could happen,” Tonka said. He hoped he would not have to be in the middle if it ever happened.
* * *
It was one-fifteen in the afternoon when detectives Tonka and Hennesey walked out of the Lakeville Police Department. Hennesey was wearing his jacket to conceal his Glock automatic handgun. As they were entering Hennesey’s unmarked car he asked Tonka, “You don’t have your suit jacket on. Isn’t your gun showing?”
“You know what? I was thinking so much about what we could say and how we could say it, I forgot my weapon.”
“Want to go back and get it?”
“No. It should be all right. I know Motter, I don’t think he’ll be any problem.” Tonka sat on the passenger side of the car and shifted a little as he had spoken. He knew he should probably get his weapon but wanted to confront Motter so badly he decided to forego having his weapon.
It was only a short drive to Motter’s parent’s house. They sat outside for a few minutes waiting to see if they would locate him in his yard. Just then Motter came from behind his garage. He was with two small boys, about six and four by Tonka’s guess.
“This is weird, due to what we are here for,” Tonka said.
“Well, let’s roll,” and with those words they pulled the car next to the front driveway about twenty feet from where Motter now stood.
Motter watched as the car came to a stop and the two detectives exited their vehicle. He recognized Tonka as he worked with him at Lakeville Police Department. He had also seen Tonka numerous times at my house for parties. As they approached Motter greeted them with, “Hello. What brings you here?”
“We have some questions for you,” Tonka said.
“Would you mind if I took my nephew and his friend inside?” he asked.
“No. That’s fine,” Tonka said.
They watched as Motter walked towards his house. He opened the screen door and called out to his mother, “Mom, the kids are coming in. I’m going to talk to a couple guys out here.” He then walked back to the detectives. A neighbor two doors down was watching from her front yard. “Now, what’s this about?”
Hennesey said to Motter, “Jeff, it has come to our attention that you have molested a boy some years ago. He came into the police department and reported it.” As Hennesey spoke Motter’s shoulders started to drop and his head began to fall. “Jeff you know who reported you, right?”
Both Hennesey and Tonka were hoping for him to admit to Tony Carver. Motter spoke without raising head. In a soft voice he said, “Yeah, I know. It would be Sammy Bowlinger.”
Even though both detectives had been speaking with Motter, neither could now speak, both were speechless. They looked at one another then Tonka spoke, “Actually it was Tony Carver.” Motter appeared to have his shoulders fall even more.
“I’m so sorry. I can’t help myself,” Motter said. “What can I do to make it up to him?”
Hennesey said, “I think we should go back to the station and talk about it. Would that be all right with you?”
“Sure,” Motter said, barely audible. He started to sniffle as he walked with the detectives to the police car. The neighbor that lived two houses down was still watching. She had walked to the end of her driveway. Motter looked at her as Hennesey opened the front passenger door and Motter got in. “I guess everyone will know soon, huh?”
“Let’s get to the police station, then we can talk about everything,” Tonka answered.
Tonka rode in the back seat of the car directly behind Motter. Motter was not handcuffed or was being restrained in any way. During the five minute drive Motter didn’t say anything.
Hennesey parked in front of the police station. All three opened their doors and walked towards the police station. They were walking three abreast. Tonka held the front door open while Motter and Hennesey walked in. Tonka followed then walked pass the other two to unlock the secured door going into the police station.
Once they walked through the door they were in an interview room. There was another door, which was also secured, going further into the police station. The door they had just come through was not secure going out. The room was in the region of fourteen by fourteen feet. It had one desk with nothing more than a telephone and a pad of paper on it. There was a window looking out to the front parking lot. You could see Hennesey’s car parked right where they had just left it. The only wall hanging was a calendar. There were three office style chairs sitting across from the desk. Tonka sat at the desk with Hennesey and Motter sitting across from him. Hennesey sat next to Motter. Tonka asked Motter if he wanted anything to drink. To which he just shook his head “no”.
“Okay Jeffrey, just so you know, you are not under arrest and can leave at any time. Do you understand that?” Tonka asked.
Motter shook his head yes and muttered something.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.”
“Yes, I understand.” Motter was being very compliant. He appeared as a man who has been caught doing the worst addiction possible and feeling like it was the end of the world.
Tonka continued the interview, “You know we told you Tony Carver was the person accusing you of molesting him, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Do you deny that statement?” Tonka asked.
“No. Tony never did lie. He was always a good boy. Is he messed up because of this?”
Motter looked up at both Tonka and Hennesey. “I never meant to hurt him. Is he all right?”
“He has been seeing a doctor, but you know how it is, sometimes these kids think it’s their fault.”
“But it’s not. Someone should tell him that”
“Maybe we can arrange that later but for now let’s concentrate on what happened. Do you remember how old he was when this all started?”
Motter thought for a while then answered, “Seven maybe eight. It was a long time ago.”
“Do you remember where this happened?”
“Yes, mostly at my house…”
“You mean your parent’s house, right?” Tonka asked, clarifying the location.
“Yes, my parent’s house. My bedroom is in the basement and I would ask his parents if he could spend the night to play games and go to the show. They would always have his brother, Douglas, come along. But, I never took them if their parents didn’t say it was all right.”
“Any other places you took them?”
“We went to my places in Florida. We also went to California, Minnesota, and Texas. We would go to the amusement parks. I would normally drive them on these trips.” He continued to talk as if it was a cleansing for him. He started giving a very descript account of what happened and where.
When it was over he virtually told the same story Tony had told. It was at this time Hennesey asked if he would want to make an audible tape in reference to the incidents.
“If that would help Tony, I’d do anything,” Motter replied.
Hennesey went out to his car and retrieved a tape recorder and returned to the police station. Since he walked out of the room unassisted he pulled on the door from the lobby. He had forgotten that the door was locked from the outside; but it wasn’t secured from the inside. Tonka called out to wait a minute as he got up from his chair and opened the door for Hennesey.
Once back in the room Hennesey placed the recorder on the desk with the microphone facing in the opposite direction of him. He asked Motter to pull his chair up to the desk and asked him to speak loudly. Hennesey started out by telling Motter he was going to be placed under arrest for molesting Tony and that Hennesey would read him his Miranda rights once the tape was turned on.
“Are you all right with all that?” Hennesey asked Motter.
“Yes, I’m okay.”
Hennesey turned the recorder on. “This is investigator Paul Hennesey. I’m with detective Evan Tonka from the Lakeville Police Department and Jeffrey Motter. Mr. Motter, I’m going to give you your Miranda rights. You have the right to remain silent. You don’t have to talk to me unless you want to. You can stop talking to me whenever you wish. You can speak with or have an attorney with you while being questioned. Do you understand all of these rights?”
“Yes, I do.” Motter then was asked to sign the Miranda form, which he did.
“You are under arrest for molesting Tony Carver. You do know Tony Carver correct?”
“Yes I do. I’m in trouble aren’t I?” Motter asked looking up at Hennesey.
“Well, what you did was wrong, correct?” Motter put his face in his hands, elbows on his knees, and shook his head indicating yes. “If this truly bothers you, then this could be the first step to correct the problem,” Hennesey said.
“I can’t correct the problem. I was born with it. I have always been attracted to young boys.” Motter spoke matter of factually and started to look as if he was relieved to tell the story.
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