Retired Morning Call columnist Paul Carpenter’s daughter accuses him of sex abuse in lawsuit
By PETER HALL
THE MORNING CALL |
AUG 13, 2020 AT 7:26 PM
Paul Carpenter
Retired Morning Call columnist Paul Carpenter’s daughter accuses him in a lawsuit of sexually abusing her for nearly a decade when she was a child.
The suit, filed Monday in New York state court, alleges Carpenter began abusing Elizabeth Kyomi Texter when she was about 10 years old and lived with her family in Clifton Heights, Delaware County.
Texter alleges in the suit that Carpenter raped her on numerous occasions for nine years, using threats and violence to get her to comply and stopped only when she threatened to commit suicide.
The suit alleges some of the abuse happened during family trips to visit her grandmother in Erie County, New York. That gives Texter, of Roseville, California, standing to file the lawsuit in New York under a state law that created a window for victims of child sexual abuse to raise claims otherwise barred by the statute of limitations.
Carpenter, 81, reached at his home in Whitehall Township on Thursday said he was advised by his attorney not to comment. Attorney Bill Bauer did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Carpenter was a Morning Call columnist for 25 years, from 1989 until his retirement in October 2014. He developed a reputation for diving head-first into controversial issues, fearless of the ire he would draw from readers. His columns were featured prominently in the Sunday paper. Previously, he was a bureau chief at the paper, and before that, worked for The Associated Press and The Pottsville Republican.
The suit filed against him in Erie County Supreme Court seeks unspecified damages for assault, battery and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. It also claims Carpenter’s wanton disregard for Texter’s rights and safety entitles her to punitive damages.
Beginning around 1972, the suit alleges, Carpenter groomed Texter to believe that sexual contact between a father and daughter was proper. Starting when Texter was 13, Carpenter raped her three or four times a week, sometimes using restraints or a belt and his fists to beat her, the suit alleges. It also contends he threatened to force Texter into prostitution so he could watch her have sex with other men.
The suit also alleges Carpenter told his wife, Texter’s mother, about the abuse to show Texter he was “honest” about their “relationship.” He allegedly told Texter that no one would believe her or that he would go to prison and she and her mother would starve if she told anyone about the abuse, according to the suit.
New York opened a look-back window last year, allowing people alleging sexual abuse from their childhoods to file lawsuits regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred. The coronavirus pandemic prompted a one-year extension of that window until Aug. 14, 2021. Pennsylvania hasn’t opened such a window, and gives people alleging abuse from the 1970s until they turn 30 to file a claim. another guy that was holier than thou.