Name of Offender-Ricky Dean Smith
Accuser/
Witness-Kimberly Hartfield
Type of offense/
abuse or assault-Childhood Sexual Abuse- Multiple offenses
Convicted or Indicted-Indicted on charges against other victims
Area of Offense-Hattiesburg, Petal, Mississippi
Multiple Victim/
Single Victim-Multiple Known Victims
An Open Letter to the Citizens of the State of MS and the USA,
It has been brought to the attention of Go Fish Ministries, an advocate for victims of childhood sexual abuse and violent sexual assault, that victims in the state of Mississippi over the age of 18 can no longer pursue legal recourse against their abusers. As it is commonly known by the psychological community, as well as the community at large, that victims of traumatic experiences such as childhood sexual abuse rarely disclose this kind of violence against them until they are emotionally stable enough to handle sharing of knowledge of the event, this law seems to us to be very victim unfriendly and pro child abusers. As victims are often over 18 years old when they disclose information about the abuse or confront their abusers, silencing the victims in this way, will only further the incidents of abuse by keeping known offenders in the public vicinity, as well as keeping their offenses from public knowledge. As citizens of the State of Mississippi and of the United States of America, victims of sexual violence and otherwise, must be able to protect our children from the abuses that we suffered. We must bring offenders at least to public scrutiny, if not to legal justice. As it seems that legal recourse is not available at this time for many victims in the state of MS, Go Fish Ministries will be taking other avenues to get information out to the public about offenders of childhood sexual abuse.
Some of the reasons a victim does not disclose abuse before adult age are fairly obvious to those acquainted with childhood sexual abuse, but it should be made known to the general public why victims keep silent about their abuse. The primary reason young victims do not disclose the abuse is that they fear being punished for something they believe they may have contributed to. Victims almost always experience some degree of self-blame and false-guilt. It is never the victim’s fault. When something such as childhood sexual abuse is done in secretiveness, the child instinctively believes it is something they will get in trouble for, therefore they often remain silent out of guilt and fear, even if there has been no threat by the offender. Often there has been a threat or an implied threat made to the victim if she discloses. Many times the abuser is a family member who has access to the child for a number of years and may have parental authority over the child as well. When this is the case, victims are usually not free to disclose the abusive situation, until they are out of that particular environment, for fear of familial upset or retaliation. Other times the victim has experienced tremendous shock from the abuse and in psychologically dealing with it, the child pushes it out of conscious awareness for a number of years. Until some event triggers those memories back into the general awareness, then the abuse is kept hidden in her subconscious mind. That is not to say, that victims may not be male, but the majority of victims at this time, seems to be female, though there are male victims as well. This process forgetting and remembering often takes a number of years, and sometimes psychological therapy to uncover the abuse, though some hypnotic forms of this kind of therapy have been questioned in the past. Most often the memories of abuse come back naturally, on their own, as some life event precipitates the return of related memories, while forcing the adult/child to mentally deal with the issue of her abuse.
In light of this knowledge, why the governmental agencies of the state of Mississippi, ever passed a law restricting the legal recourse of victims of childhood sexual abuse, while protecting child abusers from public chastisement, imprisonment and/and or fines, can not be ascertained by the founders of Go Fish Ministries. But as our elected officials seem to think themselves wiser than those who have been victimized, we must currently abide by that law. But Go Fish Ministries will not sit idly by and let abusers keep on abusing other victims, while counting on their victim’s silence to enable them to continue their crimes against children. We will be publishing on one of our websites, the names of known offenders and their accusers, the type of offense (abuse or assault), whether or not the offender has ever been convicted or indicted, along with the general area of the offense, and whether or not the offender has abused multiple victims or a single victim, so that people in that vicinity may have the knowledge to protect their children from sexual intrusion by these perpetrators.
The victim must be willing to disclose her name, which will be posted along with the accusation of the offender, while acknowledging that Go Fish Ministries will take no responsibility for false information given to us leading to the posting of the names. The victim, along with at least one witness, must take the responsibility for the accusation of the offender and the disclosure of that offender’s name. For protection of the victim, it is recommended that she has at least one other person who can verify that the abusive event took place, i.e. someone that the abuse was disclosed to earlier, or another victim of the same offender. If the victim is under the age of 18, only her legal guardian witness will be disclosed on publication of the accusation. Both the accuser and the witness must sign a statement of accusation with the appropriate information and a release of Go Fish Ministries for any responsibility to that accusation and mail it along with any supporting medical or legal documents to Go Fish Ministries. The victim, along with the witness, are solely responsible for the accusation made. Go Fish Ministries takes absolutely no responsibility for the accusations put forth by the purporting victims.
Statement of Accusation and Release of Go Fish Ministries
Important: Please read entire document before signing below! Both the accuser and the witness must sign this statement of accusation with the appropriate information and a release of Go Fish Ministries for any responsibility to that accusation and mail it along with any supporting medical or legal documents (proof of age and identity, medical conditions or legal documents related to the abuse or assault) to Go Fish Ministries 76 Mims Road, Hattiesburg, MS, 39401. The victim, along with the witness are solely responsible for the accusation made. Go Fish Ministries takes absolutely no responsibility for the accusations put forth by the purporting victims. Victims under the age of 18, must have a witnessing signature of a legal guardian. The name of victims under age 18 will be undisclosed on publication, while the legal guardian and witness will be disclosed. Any accused person, known to be under age 18 by the victim and witness, should not be disclosed until such time as he/she is 18 years of age.
Example:
Name of Offender-John Doe
Accuser/
Witness-Minor Victim Undisclosed/Jane Doe Witness
Type of offense/
abuse or assault-Childhood Sexual Abuse- Multiple offenses
Convicted or Indicted-Indicted on charges against self/other victims
Area of Offense-Anytown, Any State
Multiple Victim/
Single Victim-Single Known Victim
Name of Offender and age if known
Accuser/
Witness and ages
Type of offense/
abuse or assault
Convicted or Indicted
Area of Offense
Multiple Victim/
Single Victim
I _______________________________________________, a victim of a sexual crime, do hereby, in the witness of God and man, swear under oath and penalty of perjury, that ____________________________________________________committed the crime of ____________________________________________________(sexual assault, abuse, etc.) against me and that he/she is solely responsible for the abuses perpetrated against me. I disclose this information with the understanding that it will be published on one or more of the Go Fish Ministries websites and/or other publications. I understand that I, the victim, along with the witness, who attests to the truth of the accusation, are solely responsible for the accusation made. I also understand that Go Fish Ministries takes absolutely no responsibility for the accusations put forth by me and my witnessing party. I further understand that by signing this form, I and my witness are hereby completely and irrevocably releasing Go Fish Ministries of any responsibility for damages, either incidental, consequential, or otherwise, resulting from the disclosure of information regarding this accusation and/or the resulting publication thereof.
Victim’s Signature ________________________________________________________
Victim’s Signature ________________________________________________________
Witness to the Truth of the Accusation ________________________________________
List of Accused Perpetrators of Sexual Crimes
Name of Offender-Ricky Dean Smith
Accuser/
Witness-Kimberly Hartfield
Type of offense/
abuse or assault-Childhood Sexual Abuse- Multiple offenses
Convicted or Indicted-Indicted on charges against other victims
Area of Offense-Hattiesburg, Petal, Mississippi
Multiple Victim/
Single Victim-Multiple Known Victims
