17 thoughts on “Cooking star pays plaintiffs in sexual abuse suits

  1. Wow!!!! Trying to think of a polite, civilized way to say this to no avail. So here goes……..Are you fucking nuts????Let’s blame the victims, right?

    • You have to have a crime before you have a victim.

      Now, in France, the standard is “guilty until proven innocent”.

      We don’t do that here. And slander isn’t evidence.

  2. This is an important reminder that we all know pedophiles. Because they trap their victims with the help of the unthinkable nature of their crimes – especially years ago when nothing about pedophiles was on the air – their victims are not only raped and their childhood ended, their attacker puts the whole thing on the child, making them too humiliated to report it or go through the horrible process of relating it in court and being called a liar or having it implied they were consenting. This becomes much, much harder when the attacker is a respected public figure.

    We all know pedophiles, though we imagine we could not possibly. Because we imagine we are better judges of character, it is easy to cry out that an accusation of such horrific crimes against children by anyone we knew or knew of and liked, has to be false. But pedophiles do not wander around playgrounds, licking their lips. Most of them seem very normal – in most ways are very normal – until they are under stress and decide to feed their personal demons. You have no way of knowing about that side of someone unless you are their victim. So, you cannot claim anyone is not a pedophile. Interviews about a specific attack usually reveal their true nature. It is not a basis to convict them, but if it is going to court, you can bet the discussion with police was denied or the discussion was revealing.

  3. Money and fame is like dead meat to flies, if he’s innocent, leave him be, guilty, he should pay. Don’t convict him on naught but accusation.

  4. If someone threatened to expose what I knew to be false evidence, that I could not disprove, but would ruin my reputation with family, friends and business, unless I paid them off, well, I guess I would pay.

    • I know a former Pastor that was counseling a 14 year old girl.

      ONCE he made the mistake of not having his wife present.

      Nine months later the girl got into an argument with her Dad and made an accusation that the Pastor “touched” her in an inappropriate way.

      The Pastor was told that even without a shred of evidence, if it went to trial he’d face two years in prison.

      He isn’t rich, and couldn’t afford an attorney. So he took the “out”, by pleading guilty.

      That automatically took jail time off the table.

      And it cost him his day job as a salesman. It hurt his family financially.

      The girl never needed proof to damage his reputation; she hadn’t told anyone else, etc.

      He eventually found a different job that kept him away from home and his family most of the week.

      His accuser suffered no backlash.

      I realize that women and boys are assaulted every day, and it infuriates me.

      But that unsupported accusations can ruin someone’s life… come on.

      If it happens, go tell someone immediately. Don’t show up with no proof twenty years later with your buddies demanding a payoff from the “rich” guy.

      • This sort of thing does happen.
        We just have no way of knowing how often as it’s just one person’s word against the other’s.

      • I witnessed this at a public school where a “special needs” student on psychotropic medication accused a teacher of fondling him in the classroom with other students present. The junior-high kid was unable to concoct a believable lie and cross-examination led to the truth… the kid was seeking revenge against a teacher he did not like. Still… though the legal system did not attack the teacher, following events altered the falsely accused male’s life in negative ways. I felt immense sorrow for the guy. He was forced to move out of state. For far too many people an accusation is as good as a self-admission of guilt. Only a fool, especially a male, enters a profession where kids have so much readily and easily-used power against adults.

  5. Does every one who’s posted understand this article is from 1998? And that Jeff Smith died in 2004?

  6. Give me a break here ! His assistant was a grown man and not a child in 1987 at the time and if not interested in his advances, simple had to say NO, and did ! The show was subsequently cancelled and the Frugal Gourmet was disgraced ! Keep in mind Craig Wollam was 23 at the time and an adult. He was not interested and nothing happened. No allegations of rape, being drugged or “forcing himself” on the man were ever alleged either. That was back in the 1980’s and society was not tolerant of homosexuals the way it is today. There was a double standard here that was horrendous. Jeff Smith’s career was ruined and his show cancelled for it. Had it been a female assistant, it would have been quite a different reaction and this poor soul would have not been scapegoated and disgraced like he was at the time…….for sure !

  7. Big deal…..give me a break here ! The show was subsequently cancelled and the Frugal Gourmet was disgraced ! Keep in mind, his assistant, Craig Wollam was 23 at the time and an adult. He was not interested and nothing happened. No allegations of rape, being drugged or “forcing himself” on the man were ever alleged either. Just unwanted advances, some mild fondling and suggestive talk.That was back in the late 1980’s and society was not tolerant of homosexuals the way it is today. There was a double standard here that was horrendous. His career was ruined and his show cancelled for it. Had it been a female assistant, it would have been quite a different reaction and this poor soul would have not been scapegoated and disgraced like he was here….for sure !

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