Fischer Sentenced to 20 Years

Saturday, April 24, 1999

By TONY BARTELME
Of The Post and Courier staff


In an emotional three-hour hearing Friday, a judge sentenced a prominent local teacher, Eddie M. Fischer, to 20 years in prison after Fischer pleaded guilty to molesting 13 boys.

During the proceeding, many of Fischer's victims angrily confronted the man who they said turned their lives upside down, calling him "a monster" and "a killer of innocence."

Before he was sentenced, Fischer said in a raspy but quiet voice: "I realize now that I did hurt these people. I apologize to each and every one of them. I hope they forgive me, but that's up to them."

When Circuit Judge Gerald Smoak issued his sentence, Fischer shook his head slightly but remained emotionless. The victims and their families smiled and sighed.

"I'm happy," Debbie Herring-Lash, a prosecutor with the 9th Circuit Solicitor's Office, said afterward. "But I'm not surprised - not after the eloquent and poignant statements the victims made."

Fischer's victims stood before the judge and detailed how Fischer seduced and controlled them, branding them with feelings of shame, fear and guilt. Some glared at Fischer while they spoke. "I came here to see you, Mr. Fischer, to look you in the eye and tell you what you did had a tremendous impact on my life," said Jeffery Kalinsky, who was molested when he was in eighth grade at Porter-Gaud School.

Others broke into tears as they recounted how their childhood's' were destroyed. "We should have been catching fireflies and not had a care in the world," said a former James Island High student. "You took that away from us."

Fischer, 71, sat stone-faced throughout. Wearing a blue short-sleeve shirt and green pants, he looked at the victims only when they raised their voices. The Post and Courier generally does not identify sexual assault victims. The names used are of those who expressly gave their permission.

Similar tales

Although Fischer's crimes spanned a 37-year period, the stories told in court of how he selected and molested the boys were strikingly similar. Many boys were shy, or from broken families. Many craved a father figure.

Sometimes he invited boys to his home for dinner, offering to help them study or lift weights. "He always stressed to me honesty and trust," said Shaw Simpson. "He said, 'Shaw, I'll never do anything to hurt you.' "

Over time, according to testimony, he had sex with the boys, telling them that what they were doing was normal. They said they grew fearful and ashamed, and as these feelings grew, so did the desire to stay silent and keep everything secret, allowing the abuse to continue.

Fischer, a Citadel graduate, started teaching in Charleston's Catholic schools in 1958, first at Bishop England High School and then at Sacred Heart Elementary in 1960.

While at Sacred Heart, he took an 11-year-old boy into the library, covered the window with cardboard and fondled the boy's genitals, prosecutors said. Also, in 1960, Fischer lured another boy, a seventh-grader whose parents had divorced, to his home to lift weights.

"I enjoyed the attention," said the victim, now 51. Then one night, Fischer told him he was going to do something special. The victim said Fischer later "told me that he loved me."

As time went on, though, he said he started having health problems. "He stripped me of any ability to lead a productive life," he said.

'I was innocent'

In 1972, Fischer landed a job at Porter-Gaud, a private school in Charleston. The year he was hired, he invited a 14-year-old to his home to lift weights, prosecutors said. He pulled out a camera, told the boy to disrobe so he could take "before" and "after" pictures, and then molested him.

Another victim, Carlos Salinas, said that he felt safe as long as no one knew what happened. But he said the situation caused him to distance himself from family and friends. "Spoiled, corrupted ... For years I felt these feelings."

Kalinsky was abused after he injured his leg playing soccer at Porter-Gaud and Fischer "proceeded to ice my leg," Kalinsky told the judge. "He did something inappropriate even with others around." The next day, while taking a whirlpool, Fischer fondled the boy again. Kalinsky said the abuse continued for years.

"You see, I was 12," Kalinsky said, his voice full of emotion. "I was innocent, and he took that. And that's a crime." He said he couldn't tell anyone. "Harboring the secret and shame was the worst part."

Fischer caught

Fischer's downfall happened when one of his victims, Guerry Glover, went public.

Glover, who attended Porter-Gaud in the 1970s, said Friday he had been wrestling with the effects of the abuse for years. To dull the pain and guilt, he used drugs and alcohol, eventually becoming an alcoholic. At one point during his teens, he became so despondent, he tried to hang himself.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he said he tried to enlist the help of Porter-Gaud leaders to stop Fischer. He eventually contacted an attorney, Gregg Meyers.

Meyers, a member of the Charleston County School Board, wrote a letter on May 21, 1997, to school district Superintendent Chip Zullinger about Glover's allegations. Nineteen days later, Fischer resigned from James Island High.

Glover eventually told his story to prosecutors who immediately took out a search warrant. Among the items seized from Fischer's downtown townhouse: condoms, a vibrator, sexually explicit 8 mm films, including one of porn star Linda Lovelace having sex with a dog, a bar guide called The Gay Insider, a children's guide to the Internet and a Polaroid camera.

A grand jury eventually indicted him on 24 charges involving 13 victims.

During Friday's sentencing hearing, several victims thanked Glover.

In a letter to the court, E. Carwile LeRoy Jr., a 1982 Porter-Gaud graduate, said: "Don't blame young people, even if they are older now. Be thankful that Guerry Glover had the guts to come forward and reveal to the world a very private pain that should never have happened."

Glover, in turn, thanked the other victims. "I wish it could be easier for children to speak out."

Long sentence

After Fischer's arrest, victims and their parents filed lawsuits against Porter-Gaud and the Charleston County School System, alleging that school officials knew or should have known that Fischer was dangerous to children.

During Friday's sentencing, Kalinsky said that he contacted a school official at James Island High four years ago to warn the school about Fischer.

"He said that Porter-Gaud recommended him. That infuriated me. I called Porter-Gaud and said, 'How could you recommend this man.' "

In a statement Friday, Porter-Gaud Headmaster Gordon Bondurant said: "Porter-Gaud School is glad that the individual who committed these crimes is behind bars. He has brought much pain to the students he abused, to their families and to our school, past and present. We express our sorrow to everyone affected."

After listening to the victims, Judge Smoak heard from Fischer and his lawyer, Lionel Lofton. "The real tragedy is that Mr. Fischer suffers from an illness," Lofton said. After Lofton finished, Smoak took a short break. When he returned, he shook his head and said, "I don't think I've ever heard a worse case since I've been on the bench or practiced law."

Fischer pleaded guilty to 13 charges ranging from buggery to criminal sexual conduct with a minor, including one charge involving a 15-year-old boy who was molested in 1997, shortly before Fischer was arrested. In one of the charges, he pleaded guilty while maintaining his innocence, conceding there was enough evidence to convict.

Under the plea agreement, the maximum sentences he received on all 13 counts will run concurrently. According to state law, Fischer must serve at least 17 years of his 20-year sentence.

Several victims said they were pleased with the judge's sentence and that they hoped the whole episode would make it easier for abused children to come forward.

"He took so much from so many children that he doesn't deserve to be free," Kalinsky said. "He got what he deserved."

"I wanted people to know that what happened to us was nothing to be ashamed of," Salinas added. "This will be meaningful only if it leads to positive change."

Tony Bartelme can be reached at 937-5554 or bartelme@postandcourier.com