Case of Ralph Harrison Benning
(AKA: Ralph Benning, Ralph H. Benning)
Fulton County, GA
In September 1985, Ralph Harrison Benning, 23, pleaded
guilty to molesting and murdering Peter Downing Howell Jr., 8. Benning told
police he killed Howell on the site where he was molested as a child. "Assaulting
Downing was like a re-enactment of something that had happened to him," a
police officer said.
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Abuse victims often get less therapy than molester `No follow-up unless parents have money,' says DA (01/10/1987)
Inmate wins battle in quest for religious garment, meals (12/04/2004)
Court rules for inmate on religion (12/04/2004)
State of Georgia - Department of Corrections (12/04/2004)
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LOCAL NEWS
Abuse victims often get less therapy than molester `No follow-up unless parents have money,' says DA
by Gayle White Staff Writer
Atlanta Journal and Constitution - January 10, 1987
In sentencing psychiatrist C. Markham Berry to prison for molesting six young patients in his care, a DeKalb County judge specified that Berry should receive therapy. For Berry's victims, there was no such provision.
"I haven't had therapy since Dr. Berry himself,'' said Grady Davis of Gainesville, who was sexually molested by Berry from the time he was 7 until he was 16.
Davis, along with hundreds of other victims of child sexual abuse, seemed to fall into a crevice between the court system and the social service system.
Highly publicized local cases like Berry's have drawn attention to child sexual abuse by non-family members. James Brown, a supervisor at the DeKalb County Juvenile Detention Center, was convicted last fall of sexually abusing youths at the center. Charges are pending against Louis Poetter and five staff members and former staff members of the Anneewakee camp for troubled youths in Douglas County.
For victims of such abuse, "there is no follow-up unless parents have money. That's all there is to it," said DeKalb County Asistant District Attorney J. Tom Morgan, who prosecuted Berry.
Yet the impact, immediate and long term, of sexual abuse can be devastating to an individual and destructive to society, researchers have found. Professionals believe that through therapy, they can break the cycle that causes victims sometimes to become abusers and almost always to suffer traumatic lives.
Now 21 and speaking publicly for the first time, Davis said he met Berry while receiving treatment for hyperactivity as an outpatient at the Georgia Mental Health Institute. Berry offered him rides home and money, and coaxed him into intimate situations that, according to Davis, included almost 200 nude modeling sessions.
"Just about anything I am right now is basically because of that," Davis said of his relationship with Berry. "It went all the way through my upbringing. It affected my whole life. I can't maintain a job." Davis said he has driven a milk truck, sold vacuum cleaners, worked in three fast-food restaurants, two poultry plants, a chemical plant and a warehouse.
"I'll last about two, three, possibly four months on a job and end up either getting fired or getting teed off and walking out."
The aggressiveness Davis has demonstrated in his job history is a fairly common reaction among men who have been sexually abused, mental health professionals say.
Davis said he has also learned to isolate himself from difficult emotional situations.
"Probably because of Dr. Berry, I can be as cold-hearted as anybody," he said. Except for his wife, mother and sister, he said, he can lock people out "and even forget they exist."
In a self-destructive cycle Attempts to go through the legal system to recover damages from Berry to pay for counseling for Davis and his mother failed, he said.
"That's where I think the judicial system screwed up," he said.
Davis, who is married, lives in Gainesville, and now has a job stocking groceries, said he had accepted his own past enough to talk about it in the hope of helping other victims.
Some of those victims are caught in self-destructive cycles.
Studies of drug abusers, juvenile offenders, adolescent runaways and prostitutes show that many were sexually victimized as children," said Dr. David Finkelhor, a nationally known expert on child sexual abuse.
One victim of child molestation, now in his 30s, made this plea: "I have reached a point in my life where I have no future unless I seek out and get help." He described a history of abuse that began when he was five years old and his grandmother punished him for wetting the bed by making him dress in girls' clothes. An uncle, seeming to comfort him, "told me everything was alright and I should trust him," the man wrote. "So I did. . . . He made my cousin and I do things to each other and then to him."
The irony is that he described his situation while pleading guilty to child molestation charges. The abused boy had become an abusing man.
A boy who has been sexually abused may feel he has lost his male identity, psychologists say. He may attempt to regain power by becoming the aggressor with younger males.
A `re-enactment' of abuse
Other such cases are dramatic:
- In September 1985, Ralph Harrison Benning, 23, pleaded guilty to molesting and murdering Peter Downing Howell Jr., 8. Benning told police he killed Howell on the site where he was molested as a child. "Assaulting Downing was like a re-enactment of something that had happened to him," a police officer said.
- In a lengthy autobiography seized during a raid of his Sandy Springs home, Berry said, "I was sexually involved with a middle-aged man when I was barely 13. . . . He was a much-loved man, widely respected, a wealthy and influential pillar of his community at the time of his death. In fact, in the life I have lived since knowing him I have consciously tried hard to emulate him."
Dire consequences are not inevitable for sexual abuse victims, however, said Dr. Laurie Braga, a clinical psychologist with the University of Miami's medical school. "That's where the issue of help comes in, of therapy."
A majority of the 3,872 reports of sexual abuse of children last year in Georgia involved abuse within the home. Those children came under the supervision of the Department of Family and Children Services. For the others there is no formal network to deliver therapy, DeKalb prosecutor Morgan said.
Generally, programs to aid victims and witnesses of crimes can offer no financial aid for therapy, and their responsibility officially ends once a case goes to court, said Aurelia Sands, administrator of Atlanta's program.
Some victims' families have attempted to recover funds for therapy from accused abusers "but we have to be realistic," Morgan said."If somebody's in prison, they aren't likely going to be capable of paying therapy fees."
Some non-profit agencies, including the Georgia Council on Child Abuse, have organized support groups for people who have suffered from childhood sexual abuse, and some public and non-profit mental health agencies offer care to families not under state supervision, said Kathleen Rinehart, with the DeKalb County Department of Family and Children Services.
Counseling can be difficult
She said her agency refers families to the county mental health clinics and to non-profit agencies, "But there is tremendous pressure on the public sector."
Many families will not or cannot keep up attendance at therapy sessions, said Betty Tilley, associate clinical director of the Bridge, a United Way agency that charges patients on a sliding scale and does "a whole lot of work" with child sexual abuse patients.
Some parents simply do not understand the importance of counseling. Others are beset by problems with time and transportation.
"We try to work with them as much as we can," said Ms. Tilley. "But it's something of a problem."
The Cobb-Douglas mental health agency sometimes takes parents before a judge to try to force continued therapy, said Reba Nichols, who supervises child sexual abuse treatment for the Cobb-Douglas center.
Such legal action must be handled by a prosecuting attorney through the juvenile court system, said Morgan. "In every case I've known about" the child was under the supervision or custody of the Department of Family and Children Services, he said.
A difficulty is that since abuse often does not come to light for years, the victims may be in their late teens or older when it is discovered.
Children's advocates would like to see care for all victims of sexual abuse.
"We would like to see any child who has had that sort of trauma at least evaluated and treated if necessary," said Sherry Villines, a marriage and family counselor and spokeswoman for a new coalition called CATCH, or Citizens and Agencies Together for Children. "But we're taking it one step at a time."
Problems of abused children
The abuse can cause both girls and boys to question their sexual identity, and can result in either promiscuity or total avoidance of sexual activity, according to Finkelhor, the child abuse expert.
Boys engaged in sexual activity by older men can begin to identify with homosexuality and feel insecure in heterosexual experiences.
Women who have been sexually abused as children may continue to seek out situations, such as marriage to abusive men, that victimize them for the rest of their lives, experts say.
Other common psychological effects of sexual abuse on children include depression; self-destructive or suicidal tendencies; anxiety and tension; nightmares; feelings of isolation and alienation; feelings of being stigmatized or damaged ; and a negative self concept, said Nancy Copelan-Aldridge, a psychotherapist and social worker who has testified as an expert witness in more than 20 child sexual abuse cases.
Parents of abused children may also need counseling, she said.
Davis said his mother "nearly had a mental breakdown" when Berry's abuse was revealed. "She is seeing a psychiatrist every week now. I think it hit her a whole lot harder than it did me," he said. "She felt like she suspected it at one point and could have stopped it, but she didn't pursue it."
But, Ms. Copelan-Aldridge stresses that for families where professional intervention occurs - even if it consists only of an evaluation and advisory session - the prognosis is good for the victim.
"We think that with treatment people can do pretty well," she said. "They can go on to live pretty normal lives."
Notes: photo: mug of Ralph Benning, who told police he killed a boy on the site where as a child he was molested. photo: mug of C. Markham Berry, who said that as a child he had been involved with a middle-aged man. photo: Grady Davis, who was first sexually abused at age 7 / Steve Deal
Inmate wins battle in quest for religious garment,
meals
Associated Press Newswires - December 4, 2004
ATLANTA (AP) - A Georgia prison inmate who describes himself as a "Torah-observant Jew" has won a battle in his effort to wear a yarmulke at all times and be served kosher food.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta unanimously upheld as constitutional a law passed by Congress that requires state prisons receiving federal funds to refrain from restricting inmates in the exercise of their religion.
The ruling, handed down Thursday, was a victory for Ralph Benning, 40, who is serving a life sentence for murder in Fulton County.
"Prisoners should not be forced to check their religion, along with their civilian clothing, at the jailhouse doorstep," said Jared Leland, lawyer for the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty, a public-interest law firm that represents Benning.
"Religion is often the root of rehabilitation and so prisoners should and must be free to practice," Leland said.
The Georgia Attorney General's office had asked the court to find that the federal law violates states' rights.
But Judge Bill Pryor wrote that Congress "unambiuously" conditioned the award of federal money for state prisons based on them accommodating the religious exercise of prisoners.
Benning's case now returns to U.S. Magistrate James Graham in Brunswick, who must decide whether to require the state prison system to allow Benning to wear religious headwear and be served kosher food.
Russ Willard, a spokesman for the state Attorney General's office, said his office has informed the state Department of Corrections about the ruling.
"We're currently consulting with them about what the state's next step will be," Willard said.
Court rules for inmate on
religion
By Bill Rankin
The Atlanta Journal - Constitution - December 4, 2004
A Georgia prison inmate has won an important court ruling in his bid to wear a yarmulke at all times and be served kosher food.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta unanimously upheld as constitutional a law passed by Congress that requires state prisons receiving federal funds to refrain from restricting prisoners' in the exercise of their religion. The ruling, handed down Thursday, was a victory for Ralph Benning, a 40-year-old "Torah- observant Jew" serving a life sentence for murder in Fulton County.
"Prisoners should not be forced to check their religion, along with their civilian clothing, at the jailhouse doorstep," said Jared Leland, counsel for the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty, a public- interest law firm in Washington that represents Benning.
"Religion is often the root of rehabilitation, and so prisoners should and must be free to practice," Leland said.
The Georgia Attorney General's Office had asked the federal appeals court to find the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Person Act violates the Establishment Clause and the Tenth Amendment, which reserves to the states rights not delegated to the federal government.But Judge Bill Pryor wrote that Congress "unambiguously" conditioned the award of federal funds for state prisons on the accommodation of the religious exercise of prisoners, provided that accommodation does not endorse a particular religious viewpoint.
"Both the protection of the religious exercise of prisoners and their rehabilitation are rational goals of Congress, and those goals are related to the use of federal funds for state prisons," Pryor said.
In February, President Bush thwarted a Democratic filibuster and put Pryor, the former Alabama Attorney General, on the bench with a controversial recess appointment.
Benning's case now returns to U.S. Magistrate James Graham in Brunswick, who must decide whether to require the state prison system to allow Benning to wear a yarmulke and be served kosher food.
Russ Willard, a spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, said his office has advised the Department of Corrections about the ruling. "We're currently consulting with them about what the state's next step will be," he said.
The 11th Circuit's ruling upholding the religious accommodation law for prisoners is the latest victory for the 2000 act. Federal appeals courts in Richmond, San Francisco and Chicago also have rejected challenges to the statute. Only the federal appeals court in Cincinnati has found the law unconstitutional. That case, brought by inmates who observe polytheistic religions and who declare themselves Satanists, was recently accepted for review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
BENNING, RALPH H
GDC ID: 0000427174
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
DOB: 12/26/1963 RACE: WHITE GENDER: MALE
HEIGHT: 6'03''
WEIGHT: 211
EYE COLOR: UNKNOWN
HAIR COLOR: UNKNOWN
SCARS, MARKS, TATTOOS
INCARCERATION DETAILS
MAJOR OFFENSE: MURDER
MOST RECENT INSTITUTION: HANCOCK STATE PRISON
MAX POSSIBLE RELEASE DATE: LIFE, W/POSSIBLE PAROLE
TENTATIVE PAROLE MONTH: N/A
ACTUAL RELEASE DATE: CURRENTLY SERVING
CURRENT STATUS: ACTIVE
KNOWN ALIASES
A.K.A. BENNING,RALPH
A.K.A. BENNING,RALPH HARRISON
STATE OF GEORGIA - CURRENT SENTENCES
CASE NO: 198322
OFFENSE: AGGRAV ASSAULT
CONVICTION COUNTY: FULTON COUNTY
CRIME COMMIT DATE: 09/16/1992
SENTENCE LENGTH: 5 YEARS, 0 MONTHS, 0 DAYS
CASE NO: 198322
OFFENSE: MURDER
CONVICTION COUNTY: FULTON COUNTY
CRIME COMMIT DATE: 07/05/1986
SENTENCE LENGTH: LIFE
STATE OF GEORGIA - PRIOR SENTENCES
STATE OF GEORGIA - INCARCERATION HISTORY
INCARCERATION BEGIN INCARCERATION END
10/09/1986 ACTIVE
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Last Updated: 12/01/2004
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