THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 12, 1994 TAG: 9409120065
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Long : 152 lines
In a courtroom 30 years ago, an emotional 16-year-old girl confronted her former teacher with a devastating accusation.
The judge didn't believe her.
It was a preliminary hearing, and the judge didn't believe that a 28-year-old Crestwood High School science teacher was having sex with the student in a physics storage closet - and had been since the student was 15.
The charge of statutory rape was dismissed at the hearing in late 1963. Doris Lenyan, who was then Doris Jordan, went on with her life.
So did the teacher.
But more than 30 years later, on Aug. 23, a Chesapeake police detective again charged the teacher with rape after Lenyan agreed to bring forth additional evidence.
The evidence is her 30-year-old daughter.
Lenyan believes a blood test can prove her claim, and apparently so does detective Bob Moore, who is pursuing the rape charge.
``It is something I have not forgotten in 30 years,'' said Lenyan, now 47. ``I have lived with it every day. In fact, I just recently told my daughter, four years ago, that she has a different father than the man I am married to.''
The teacher charged is James T. Harrison of the 4000 block of Sunkist Road.
At the end of the last school year, Harrison retired from teaching at Norview High School, said Norfolk schools spokesman George Raiss.
Harrison did not return a call seeking comment.
Lenyan now lives in Woodbridge and has been married 28 years. She has two sons and two daughters; her youngest child is 23.
If a blood test proves Harrison is Christine Lenyan's biological father, he could be convicted of rape. It is illegal to have sex with a minor, even if the minor is willing. There is no statute of limitations for felonies in Virginia.
Harrison has denied to police he had sex with Lenyan. That denial, and the turmoil she and her family have gone through, is one reason she is coming forward now.
``My daughter, I know she pretty much believes me, but if I were in her shoes and someone said to me, `This is your father, but he denies it,' I would want to know,'' Doris Lenyan said.
Lenyan gave permission for The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star to use her name. The papers do not normally publish the names of alleged sexual assault victims.
``I have a hard time believing I am the only one he was involved with,'' Lenyan said. ``Maybe there is someone else who doesn't have a daughter but hasn't come forward. Maybe they, too, can be vindicated if the story is told.''
The story began when Lenyan was in the seventh grade and Harrison was her science teacher. Two years later, her family moved to Cavalier Manor, not far from where Harrison lived.
``He asked me to do work around his house, mainly ironing,'' Lenyan said. ``I asked my parents, but they were very strict with me and they said no. When I went to tell his wife I couldn't do any ironing for them, she was startled. She had no idea what I was talking about.''
Lenyan said her parents were good people, but with eight children, affection was sparse.
``I can't actually tell you why I did it,'' Lenyan said. ``I think I was looking for attention, but not the other part. My mother had not discussed the facts of life with me. I didn't realize what I was doing. I didn't know what I was doing would conceive a child.
``I'm not trying to make excuses, but I didn't realize I could conceive a child,'' she said.
Lenyan said the first time she and Harrison had sex was just before a Crestwood homecoming parade her ninth-grade year. Their meetings in the science supply room, amid glass beakers and racks of test tubes, happened once or twice a month.
``I was looking for affection and he gave it to me,'' Lenyan said. ``It's not how it sounds, I didn't go after him, he came after me. I wasn't looking for sex.
``He told me there was only 13 years' difference in our ages, that's how he justified it,'' Lenyan said.
For the next several months, Lenyan and her mother wondered why the 15-year-old was steadily gaining weight.
In August of 1963, Lenyan's mother realized her daughter was pregnant.
``What was my life like? Oh, God, it was horrible,'' Lenyan said. ``She wanted to know who it was, but he (Harrison) told me I would be sent away if I told what we had been doing. Finally, she didn't give me any choice. My life was never the same.''
Enraged, Lenyan's mother contacted the police and filed statutory rape charges against Harrison. Lenyan's father was never told who was charged, because the family feared he would harm Harrison.
On Sept. 29, a month after her 16th birthday, Lenyan became a mother.
``I had the child in a house on South Street,'' Lenyan said. ``They figured if I had a baby in the hospital, I wouldn't be able to return to public school. So, I had her with a midwife. It was horrible, that's the only way I could describe it.''
A few months later in court, the outcome of the probable-cause hearing rested on her word against Harrison's. The judge didn't believe the young mother.
``I started crying, I was very upset,'' Lenyan said. ``I remember telling him I hated him. It destroyed my trust. I still can't bring myself to fully trust anyone. It sometimes causes trouble in marriage.''
Lenyan transferred to I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth, where she graduated. Two years later, Lenyan married her neighbor, a military man who adopted her daughter. They moved several times, had three children, and eventually settled in Woodbridge.
Harrison left Crestwood High School - which later became Crestwood Middle School - sometime around 1966. Chesapeake schools spokesman Tom Cupitt said school officials do not give out information about former employees.
Harrison was hired in Norfolk in February 1968 to teach at Norview, Raiss said. Harrison retired at the end of the last school year.
Four years ago, Lenyan's husband forced her to confront her past, a past that sometimes made Lenyan distant, emotional, depressed.
``He was the one four years ago that decided I needed to deal with what was going on,'' Lenyan said. ``I could go six months, or even a year without talking about it, and then I just had to talk. It has taken a hard toll on our marriage, my life, and my children's lives.''
Lenyan's husband contacted Harrison in 1990. She drove to Portsmouth to meet him at Tower Mall, she said.
``I asked him why things went the way they did,'' Lenyan said. ``I asked him why he lied about it. He explained to me that there was nothing else he could do or say, since my mother brought the statutory rape charges against him. He said that was the only way he knew to deal with it.''
At her urging, Harrison agreed to meet her oldest daughter, Lenyan said. When she returned to Woodbridge that day, she told her daughter about Harrison.
``She was devastated,'' Lenyan said. ``It wasn't easy. She wanted to know why we hadn't told her all these years. I was ashamed. I was ashamed to let my children know this had occurred in my life. It was just because of the shame that I kept it inside for so long.''
Lenyan said Harrison backed out of his agreement to meet Christine. At her family's urging, she contacted Chesapeake police.
On Aug. 23, Harrison was again charged with rape. He is free on bail.
The blood test that could prove Lenyan's claim hasn't been scheduled yet, she said.
``If he had met with my daughter four years ago, I probably could have put this all to rest,'' Lenyan said. ``I think I can now feel better about myself, and maybe someone else will come forward and say, `This happened to me, too.' If I didn't have a daughter, it would still be my word against his word.''
For Lenyan, the catharsis has been bittersweet.
``My children now know why I'm sad sometimes,'' Lenyan said. ``And why, when everything seems perfect, I can break out crying and get depressed. Now they can understand me better. Now they can relate to it.
``I'm hoping it will get better.''
And that a judge will believe her. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Rape charges against teacher James T. Harrison were dismissed in
1963 by a skeptical judge.
KEYWORDS: RAPE SEX CRIME CHILD MOLESTER TEACHER by CNB