ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 30, 1996 TAG: 9612020017
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: A Cuppa Joe
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY
They buried Michael Obremski Tuesday afternoon.
Throughout the Roanoke Valley, people cheered.
Roanoke Circuit Court Judge Clifford Weckstein handed him 31 years, to go with the 31 1/2 he'd already received after pleading guilty in courts in Roanoke and Botetourt counties.
When the judge pronounced the sentence, tense anticipation lifted from the three rows of parents, some with their daughters, who had come to the courtroom to see the predator get punished.
Obremski, a wide-bodied man with a brown mustache, a bald crown and a reputed IQ of 146, sat at the defendant's table in an orange jail jumpsuit over a blue sweatshirt. He never looked at the gallery or said a word to them.
He already had said enough in anonymous phone calls to innocent girls, terrorizing and traumatizing them and their families with his obscene threats.
When she heard the news at her home, the mother of one of his victims felt grateful and vindicated. Obremski had called her daughter after her name appeared in a newspaper story, as he did with all the others. The girl was 8. She didn't know how to react when she picked up the telephone and heard his resonant voice speak the vile, frightening words.
The mother sought help from school and other authorities, but she felt some of them didn't take her seriously. They told her she was making too much of it. But she wouldn't let it go.
"I'm this lone, concerned mother, speaking not for my child but for all these other children If my husband and I had known that night what to do, I think we would have felt more in control," she explained.
What you can do
What-to-do can be found on page 28 of the Bell Atlantic telephone book. If you hang up on the offensive caller and hit *57 on your touch-tone phone, or 1157 on your rotary dial, you will trace the call. It costs 75 cents, but with people like Obremski about, it's a bargain. Your next step is to call the law.
Most people don't know that, the woman said. But thanks to her persistence, they will learn it and other techniques to deter such human debris.
Bell Atlantic is hoping to introduce defensive phone tactics into DARE programs in Roanoke and Roanoke County schools. Junior Achievement and the Bell Atlantic Telephone Pioneers also will begin educational programs in January, said Linda Dudley, at the phone company.
You can get stickers from the phone company to put on your receiver, showing how to trace calls and do other things. And you can buy Caller ID sets from the phone company and at retail stores.
Obremski helped sell a lot of those.
`Still afraid to stay by myself'
News reports noted that the valley's sickest phone friend received more prison time than many murderers and child molesters. The prosecution took note of his history of following and threatening young girls. It goes back more than 15 years.
Remember the Raleigh Court Stalker? That was Obremski. He admitted it to criminal investigators.
He'll have to live to an extraordinary age to be able to stalk again.
When investigators visited his rented room on Williamson Road, they found the names of 459 girls printed in a small, neat hand on pizza receipts, envelopes and other scraps of paper. They found sex magazines with young-looking models, and a couple of pornographic videos.
They found an obsession.
The girls had been recognized for their athletic and academic accomplishments. They deserved the limelight. They did not deserve the pain.
"I'm still afraid to stay by myself," said one, in her early teens, outside the courtroom Tuesday. "I still haven't gotten over it totally."
She said Obremski called her eight times, her younger sister twice.
There will always be Obremskis. But with improved technology, shared information and focused outrage, we can foil their plans.
"If I had known how to use my phone correctly," the persistent mother said, "I could have traced that call and prosecuted him."
Luckily, others knew.
What's your story? Call me at 981-3256 or send e-mail to kenn@roanoke.infi.net. Or write to me at P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010-2491.
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