It's wrong to judge Lara's fellow churchgoers.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By John Stephens For The Register-Guard

Who is Scott McKee to pass judgment on people, based not on knowing them or talking with them, but only on seeing them sitting in a courtroom?

In his July 18 Register-Guard commentary article, McKee wrote, "From the first day of sentencing, supporters from (Juan) Lara's church congregation had sat in judgment of the female victims who reluctantly detailed the abuse they endured at Lara's hands."

Who is McKee to say the people from First Congregational Church were sitting in judgment? Who is McKee to imply that the people of First Congregational Church have no idea of what it means to be sexually abused? When he wrote, "I wondered if Lara's fellow churchgoers would still have been there in support of this man if their own sisters and daughters had been the victims," did McKee know the people of First Congregational? Why did he presume that none among that congregation have loved ones who have been sexually abused? Why did he presume that none among that congregation know firsthand what it is to be sexually abused?

As McKee wrote, "It is easy to victimize someone you don't know. It is easy to pass judgment on people you don't know, too." It is clear that he had similarly passed judgment on those of First Congregational Church.

Without knowing them, or even significantly interacting with them, he erroneously assessed their character and intent, and then compounded his error by publicizing his failed inferences, writing, "I guess it's easy for these men and women to look skeptically at the victims in this case as dubious 'accusers.' Not people, just objects. ... Sitting among their cold stares, I wondered if anyone in the congregation was familiar with the meaning of the term 'hypocrite.' '

Whatever it was that caused McKee to think he knew the essential sentiments of the people of First Congregational, he was wrong.

McKee quoted the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics as saying, "I will keep my private life unsullied as an example to all and will behave in a manner that does not bring discredit to me or to my agency. I will ... develop self-restraint; and be constantly mindful of the welfare of others. Honest in thought and deed both in my personal and official life, I will be exemplary in obeying the law and the regulations of my department. ... I will never act officiously or permit personal feelings, prejudices, political beliefs, aspirations, animosities or friendships to influence my decisions."

But clearly McKee's personal feelings and prejudices did influence his assessment of this community of faith, a group of people who have struggled to understand and cope with the actions of one of their members, actions that they have never condoned. McKee's writing reveals that he had not even attempted to know the congregation that he nonetheless publicly condemned. Moreover, he chose to issue his public condemnation not simply as a private citizen, but rather by identifying himself as the Eugene Police Department's primary investigator on these two criminal cases, thus adding at least quasi-official weight to his nonetheless erroneous public condemnation of these people.

I don't know why McKee felt the need to rush to his erroneous judgments about the people of First Congregational. Perhaps it was his understandable distress at the seeming stain placed upon him and his fellow Eugene police officers by the exploitative actions of former officers Juan Lara and Roger Magana, and a resultant (and also understandable) strong emotional desire to distance himself and the police department from any advocacy of anything less than maximum sentences for the offenders. I do not believe it to be appropriate for the offenders' stain to stick to the police department, and I am not alone in that belief.

Regardless, I hope that McKee's column was neither a final representation of the Eugene police, nor, ultimately, of himself, but rather was reflective of how very difficult it has been for so many people of Eugene - victims, police, and all concerned citizens of Eugene - as we have struggled through these tragedies, a struggle which, if it is to end well, is better served first by compassion and understanding, in order that we might then make better judgments.

John Stephens is a member of the First Congregational Church in Eugene.