This blog is a crude attempt at protecting my family and community from a hidden danger. It is equivalent to me standing on the corner and shouting the truth. “There is a child molester who has escaped justice… watch out!”
But I realize there may be a better way. I have proposed to Floyd Rupple that I would be willing to drop the publicity in return for the following terms:
- Annual evaluation as child molester from competent counselor
- Remain in any recommended treatment
- Report living and work addresses to victim, with changes submitted within 10 days; report temporary lodging
- No authority position over children
- No contact (including by email or 3rd party) with females or children, or their descendants, in our families
- A statement of the facts, as he’s revealed to his children, that becomes public on violation, or revealed previous offense
- Substantial donation to RAINN organization
- Annual polygraph and plethysmograph
- May not patronize any establishment in the sex industry, including topless dancing clubs, sex toy outlets or houses of prostitution
- Must report all Internet identifiers and addresses; all telephone numbers
- Must report all travel and immigration documents
- Must submit yearly identification photograph
- Provide DNA sample and test result
- Supply, driver’s license, vehicle information, SSN, finger and palm prints, date of birth, physical description
- Report any school contact information
- Divulge criminal history and other criminal justice information
- Report all professional licenses
- Reoprt all names and aliases
- May not live, enter into, loiter or work within 2,000 feet of any area or event frequented by people under the age of 18 including but not limited to: schools, day care centers, playgrounds, arcades, public swimming pools or beaches, shopping malls, theaters, or and festivals
- All personal computers and electronic devices shall include monitoring software for detecting pornographic material
If I had assurance that he was being monitored under terms such as these, I could turn off the publicity and might still be able to sleep at night.
Floyd Elmer Rupple, Jr sexually molested my 12yo sister 
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get him off my street!!!!
Trust me… I’m doing my best.
Done.
Too little, too late. I feel bad for your sister if this is all true, because no kid should be molested and because you and your family failed her miserably. And apparently you are now trying to make yourself feel better by doing something. According to this story, your sister told a friend when she was 14 (around 1989 I estimate). And that friend told her parents, which told your parents approximately two weeks later. Allegedly, your parents confronted Floyd and he came clean. Your sister turned 18 around 1993 and had a chance, under the old statute of limitations, until around 1998 to press charges. You and your family sat around for how long before you decided to “do your best?” 24 or 25 YEARS!? Statute of limitations are created for a reason, the accused/defendant can’t be prejudiced by an unreasonable delay in the accuser/plaintiff assertion of his/her rights. Suppose your sister says that on the night of 12/29/1988 he molested her while she was sleeping at your other sister’s house; but he was really out of town that night. Is he supposed to find witnesses that can back up his story now? If these charges were brought up during a reasonable amount of time, evidence to defend himself would have been more readily available and presumably obtained.
Sadly, pedophiles molest children. But almost as sad, sometimes people who do not molest children are accused of molestation by liars and by some who genuinely believe the events occurred, when in fact they did not (there are may documented cases of misremembering abuse that never occurred). I’m not saying this is what happened here, but the community you are trying to warn is aware that this can happen and have to wonder why such an unreasonable delay took place if the allegations are true.
Additionally, you claim that this “child molester” has been admitting his molestation to many people since it occurred. It’s tough to know what you mean by this. Did he confess to molesting her or to having brushed up against her in a way that might be misperceived by a teenage girl as molestation. Regardless, from your own version it seems that his recognition of his wrong-doing (and I assume he was remorseful) was good enough for the Lewis family when Old Floyd was part of that family–but now that he’s an ex-husband, all bets are off. The complete 180 degree turn you have taken leads an objective observer to believe that the motive for this campaign is not as clear as you state and perhaps the accusations are fabricated or exaggerated, at best.
Wow, Joe! Thank you for such a well reasoned and thoughtful reply. You have obviously invested some time thinking about this. I would like to reply to each and every one of your points. This may take more than one post, to do it justice. I hope you stick around and engage.
Your post makes it clear that while we’re IN this story and LIVING it, that doesn’t always equate to telling the best story. But I need to be able to do both.
First, let me make sure I am understanding you correctly. It appears to me that in the first paragraph your argument reduces to “he did it”, we failed to respond in the proper amount of time, therefore it’s rightly proper that we lose.
Then the second paragraph posits that he might be innocent, with examples of our behavior which could reasonably be judged to back up that assumption.
“Too little, too late.” Great observation. Yes, I have not shied away from the failures I’ve made in this case. Did you read my confessions? Both in the beginning, and at many junctures along the way, I failed miserably. I should have asked questions. I should have challenged those placing themselves in authority. At least I should have dialed 911.
I failed, and I’m afraid this bore terrible fruit in later years. My own daughters paid for this.
So Joe, after passing age 50, I found myself aware of all these mistakes I’d made over the years. Now what does one do? I stop doing what was wrong, and start doing what I now know is right. This has never been a dilemma for me.
Does this “fix” anything? It depends on the circumstances, but probably not. You can’t make a rape just “go away”. But you can apologize. You can correct relationships, speech and history. I failed my sister, but I can at least get the story right for my grandkids.
Sorry for not explaining myself more clearly. I have no idea whether or not this guy did what you say he did. I was never sexually molested and I’m pretty sure no one else in my family was sexually molested. In other words, this is not a problem I have ever had to confront. I was cruising craigslist for community events or a used truck for a restoration project (can’t recall exactly which one) when I came across your post. So, I think I am as objective as one can come to this issue.
From what I have read, the evidence is pretty conclusive that a person who enjoys sexually molesting children will always enjoy sexually molesting children. There’s no fixing that sickness. Once you are found to be that broken, you need to be watched and monitored because the best that can be hoped for is that you can restrain yourself from acting on your desires. That is why it is incredibly crucial that accusations of child molestation be taken seriously and as much effort as society puts on identifying offenders needs to be exerted on making sure innocent people aren’t unjustly stigmatized for life.
The legal system is the best we have to hold guilty parties accountable. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty damn good (that’s my opinion). You didn’t avail yourself of the legal system for whatever reason. I can’t judge, because, as I said earlier, this is foreign to me. You have now decided that your only “crude” recourse is to publicly use electronic and physical media to inform the community of this man’s alleged crimes. My main contention is that the community uses the same level of scrutiny that a legal system would require when making a determination in regard to this man’s guilt or innocence.
What do we have to scrutinize? Your words and only your words. When I first opened your blog/webpage I saw in the headline, “The self-confessed molester walks freely in our community because of Pennsylvania’s antiquated Statue of Limitations.” So, I click on the PA Code link you provide and read the relevant section. I immediately notice that the statue of limitations for bringing a sexual molestation of a minor charge was in fact enlarged in 2007 from five years past the victim’s eighteenth birthday to THRITY-TWO YEARS passed the eighteenth birthday. So far, I’m totally with you, because even the Pennsylvania Legislature must have though it was antiquated, to make such a drastic revision.
But when I keep reading, I find out that I was significantly misled by your headline. I had the idea (as any reasonable person would by your statement) that your sister was perhaps so threatened and traumatized by the ongoing abuse that she couldn’t bring herself to speak of it until she was in her late 30’s or 40’s and the old SOL had run by then. That scenario, or one similar, coincides with your description—your description does not coincide with what really happened. You spun the facts to better persuade the reader. Burying the Mea Culpas in the text of subsequent posts does little to calm my now skepticism of your entire story.
It’s as if a neighbor’s barn burns down and you ask him how it happened. He tells you he used a candle that was supposed to stand on its own but the base was defective. He shows you another candle from the same box and you see for yourself that the candle can be easily tipped by a draft if not perfectly balanced. You further hear that the manufacturer is widening the base to correct the problem. But weeks later you find out that on the windy night of the fire your neighbor walked into his barn completely drunk. He placed an open gasoline can on a slanted hay bale and placed the candle next to the gas can on the same bale. He then walked away and left the barn door open. To say that the cause of the fire was a candle with a faulty base would be as misleading as to say that Rupple walks free because of the statute of limitations. The base did play a part, but it’s nothing compared to the drunken recklessness of your neighbor. The old SOL prevents you from using the legal system to dispense justice now, but that’s nothing compared to your family’s choice to do nothing for nine years after they found out.
In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll share that I am an attorney (with a lot of down time during the holidays; which explains these long rants/insights). So, I know that when a Judge busts an attorney spinning or misstating the facts or trying to mislead by carefully crafting the order in which they reveal evidence, his or her credibility goes out the window for the rest of the hearing/trial. Therefore, I may be hyper sensitive to your heading’s less-than-truthful description and you need not take any of my advice into consideration. But, if I were you, I’d drop the whole “The legal system is the main reason why this man is free; however, I’m accepting full responsibility for my failures” theme. You can’t have it both ways.
The bottom line is that if this guy did molest your sister, he is sick and never going to get better. And your mission should be focused on and driven by preventing future Suzanne Lewis Moseleys from the same torture (which it primarily seems to be). If you were to feel 100% responsible for the lack of justice in your sister’s case (instead of assigning some percentage of fault to the legal system), your motive to protect others would seem more pure.
I can’t thank you enough for revisiting my site Joe. This particular posts does much to clarify your original points. As you can imagine, I deal mostly with emotionally laced tirades, so I very much appreciate your well reasoned, unemotional observations. I am very much a non-emotional personality… (just give me the facts). I was kind of shocked when I made up my first flyers, and most of the responses were, “I kind of feel sorry for the guy”. I am a tough guy who people generally read as angry, when in fact I’m relaxed.
I am not an attorney. I am not a writer. And as mentioned above, I’m not sensitive. My background was 10 years in Navy on submarines, followed by a career in computers.
I in no way meant to impugn the legal system. I understand the reasoning for SoL, and agree. The main page of my website was written a couple years back. At the time I would have guessed it would have outlived its usefulness in a couple months. It was meant to be shocking. I thought it would bring Floyd to negotiate a quick settlement.
But obviously that didn’t happen. Over time it evolved into something more. Because of your observation, I will rewrite it shortly.
You made a couple other observations regarding the expected long term behavior of child molesters, that leads me to believe you’ve done at least some investigation. But maybe you missed something; something that I never saw until recently. When you look at how families respond to molestation, the picture is not pretty. Very few, if any, respond correctly. Normally the perpetrator is known to the family. People are shocked at the news and are in disbelief. If they believe it happened, they blame the victim. Most just want to shut it up and not talk about it. And the smart child molesters play on this flaw. Because of this, it’s dangerous to gauge the veracity of the message based on the behavior of the victim and the family.
On my blog here, I haven’t taken much effort to outline the evidence against Floyd. It seems a stupid oversight now, but required your observation to make me see it. Because you’re not in the circumstance, you wouldn’t know that the facts were never in doubt to anyone involved. What was questioned was the proper response. The vast majority of those supporting Floyd today would agree that he did at least something back then… something that was criminal.
I think what I’ll do here, is post this, and begin writing a quick, crude timeline. I believe that will help.
So I went ahead and made a timeline post. Let me know your thoughts on that.
I think it might explain how at one point, this seemed to be all about the SoL. Initially the State told us “Yes”, and gave us positive expectations as to arrest and conviction; only later to say “oops” and apologize. But you’re right, this isn’t the law’s fault, but the fault of imperfect officers of the law.
I hope this also shows how we’ve never viewed this as a case of needing to prove Floyd’s guilt. There had never been any hint that he wasn’t guilty, right up until the libel suit on 16 Oct 2013. For over 8 months of continuous posts, he took no action to claim libel. It wasn’t until it breached his work sphere, that he took action.
My sister’s blog was really an action of self therapy. And it worked. Not only was she helping herself, but many other victims offered their stories and thanked her for her observations. But in the end, the legal threat spooked her and her husband into an agreement that muzzles her. I can’t live with that. You luck into a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card (Yes, I’m culpable in this), AND you want to shut up the victim?
This isn’t about criminality. He escaped that. It’s now simply a 1st amendment issue. I’m free to call him a child molester. He’s free to sue me for libel, but truth is the defense.
Now many are saying I’m not nice, I’m mean, I’m ugly… I have no right. No matter. Sure, I failed once. If I’d acted earlier, when I should have, Floyd Rupple would have served his time and be living under Megan’s Law restrictions now. But just because I failed before, does not mean I have to go on failing.
People are saying he’s a nice guy. He’s been such a good father. And as his lawsuit states, “a successful corporate executive and family man with a religious background” and “held in high regard by the community”. And yet all those can be true, and he’s still a man who sexually molested a 12 year old girl.
But I can’t force people to believe this. I’m only offering it to parents under threat. If you want to call me a liar and ignore me, that’s fine. I believe I’ve done my duty now.
But mainly, I’m doing this for my 10 grandkids. I don’t want them ever to think that this horror is something we hide. No, it happened. And it could happen again if they respond the way I did all these years. Before I die they’re going to see me acting correctly. I’m hoping that my later actions are the ones they remember. This blog will be left for them to review.
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