5 year old Ellen Cantwell Warner circa 1972.
The black and white photo reveals a little girl with wires attached to receivers stuck into her ears. She's in a line of six children all at the age where kindergarten begins. Her Peter Pan collar dress, pig tails and sweet trusting eyes appear to be looking up at an adult leader. It stretches belief that this little girl attending a program for deaf children was the victim of a sexual abuse by an adult during that same time in her life.
Ellen Cantwell Warner has spent 40 years living with her secret. Her Uncle Bryan finally admitted this year that he made Ellen help him masturbate during a visit with family in the Albany area in 1972. Ellen said she has not been able to shake the horrific memory of her frightening introduction to a mysterious sexual act by a man. Later in life that man, Judge Bryan Hedges, would spend 27 years on the Family Court Bench.
Today, Ellen Warner is married with four children. When she was five years old she had yet to learn how to communicate. She could not hear, and could not yet sign. We can only imagine the spinning confusion in her mind. The same shame and guilt often attached to being victimized by such acts made even worse by an inability to tell even if she chose to share her story.
The reporting on Jerry Sandusky and Bernie Fine late last year elevated the memories Ellen had tried to manage all her life. She turned to family and then to Syracuse's Vera House for help. Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick met with Ellen. Too many years has passed for criminal prosecution, but the prosecutor also was concerned the judge would say Ellen was lying and the professional conduct case against him would crumble.
Ellen's mother agreed to wear a wire during a reunion lunch with Uncle Bryan. The transcript of the lunch plays out like a movie. As the mother fishes for admissions and apologies from the judge a waiter seems to enter the scene to take an order or refill a beverage just at the right moment to cut the obvious tension between an abuser and the mother of his victim.
He admits the sexual contact and finds no way to defend his conduct. She asks if there could be more victims. He denies the possibility. He offers help Ellen in whatever way he can, but in exchange he is prodding the mother to make sure the child victim does not make his misconduct even worse than it is when she talks to investigators. His concern for Ellen's well being is in doubt. He appears more concerned about retaining his own reputation.
Thursday when you watch the courageous Ellen Cantwell Warner use her native American Sign Language to tell her story of abuse, remember the black and white photo of that little girl. The innocence behind those eyes was forever altered by the sexual misconduct of Uncle Bryan. His ability to keep this act a secret for 40 years salvaged his life as a judge, husband and father. A generation and a half later he still seems more concerned about making himself feel good than he is the welfare of his niece.
Read key exhibits in the case including the transcript of a recorded conversation between Judge Bryan Hedges and his former sister-in-law, the mother of the 5 year old niece with whom he had sexual contact.
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