"Justice Before Mercy"

by Susan Murphy Milano

Laurie Asplund was sexually assaulted at a Christian camp in the 1970s. The former pastor began his advances during a trust game that the man of God played with the teenager. Asplund was sexually assaulted more than 40 times from summer 1974, when she was 14 years old, to spring 1976, when she was 16.

Justice finally caught up with former pastor Russell J. Lesser, now 64, who had moved to Bryson City, N.C. For three years, Asplund worked on the case with law enforcement. In late June 2009, Lesser was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting Asplund in the mid 1970s.

The State of Wisconsin kept the case open because Lesser moved out of state. Otherwise, he would have never been convicted. As it stands, he went on to work in other states in the meantime. I’m sure he had access to others, as he was a Youth for Christ Campus Life minister.

During his sentencing, Lesser asked for the court’s mercy and apologized to his victim, the now-50-year-old Laurie Asplund.

“I’d like to take that one year out of my life,” Lesser said. “I’m so deeply sorry for it.”

In her new book “Justice Before Mercy” Asplund is coming forward with her story in an effort to remove the stigma associated with sexual assaults. She wants victims to know it's not their fault and hopes her message will help others to feel empowered and confront their fears.

In the book Asplund talks about the fear of rejection and the reasons why it was so hard for her to talk about her traumatic experiences. “I didn’t know if people would believe me,” Asplund writes. “He was this gregarious, fun-loving and well-liked adult who many parents liked very much.

Laurie Asplund is a licensed professional counselor who works primarily with abused and neglected children, as well as with people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Using this combination of clinical knowledge and journalistic talent, Asplund tells a unique and educational story about just what it takes to survive and find justice 35 years later.

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Mystery Man - Russell Ingle

by Russell Ingle

For my household, and for most other families in McNairy County, Tennessee, Tuesday, March 22, 2006, was an ordinary day. But in the Selmer home of Matthew and Mary Winkler, an extraordinary day began. Mary held the shotgun that blasted a hole in Matthew’s back. The Church of Christ Pastor was dead. His wife was on the run with their three little girls.

Now more than two years later, one question still remains: Did Mary Winkler get away with murder?

On April 19, 2007, after an eight-hour deliberation, the jury found Mary guilty of voluntary manslaughter. On June 8, she was sentenced to 210 days in prison, with credit given for 143 days she had spent in jail the previous year before making bail. The judge allowed her to spend 60 of the remaining 67 days of her sentence in a mental health facility.

Was this verdict just? It’s a question that will be debated around her for years to come.

Since we’ll never hear Matthew's account of the years, months, weeks, and days leading up to the shooting, we may never know what caused Mary to pull the trigger.

During her trial, Mary (pictured above during testimony and below with her father and attorney) contended she’d been forced into uncomfortable and unwanted sexual liaisons with her pastor husband including dressing up in a wig, “slutty skirts” and “hooker shoes,” and performing oral and anal sex. Of course, there’s a fine line between what one person believes is normal and another sees as healthy fantasy. When a husband and wife are in agreement, fulfilling each other's fantasies is a healthy component of marriage. Were Matthew Winkler's sexual desires normal? To paraphrase Bill Clinton, it depends on what the meaning of “normal” is.

In recent months, the initial sympathy Mary's super star legal team managed to generate has waned. Reputation is not made or lost in a day’s time. It is something that plays out when the curtain is pulled and we catch a glimpse of the real person behind the headlines. It’s true that in the months following the shooting, Mary attempted to portray a stable and dependable person. She gained employment and lived with friends in McMinnville. Still, although we may never know who Matthew Winkler truly was behind that closed bedroom door, there are hints that at the very least Mary was not the team player in her marriage that her defense portrayed.

Red flags appeared in the months leading up to and following the trial. On New Year's Eve 2006, for instance, Mary was seen in a McMinnville bar smoking a cigarette and surrounded by drinks. Is there anything immoral with having the occasional smoke or sip of an adult beverage? For most people, no. But as a member of the Church of Christ and a minister's wife, Mary was breaking a moral code of conduct.

A few months later, just 10 months after her husband’s death, the public learned that Mary was dating Darrell Pillow, brother to Paul Pillow, the owner of the dry cleaning business where she worked (pictured right). Is there anything wrong with seeking the companionship of another? Again, it depends on who you ask. For some it seemed entirely out of line that Mary would date another man when she had not fully faced the outcome of the legal process, not to mention while she was still attempting to regain custody of her three daughters.

Since her release from a mental health facility, Mary has lost her job and no longer lives with her friend Rudy Thomsen. In a recent interview, Cleaner's Express owner Paul Pillow said Mary Winkler was "forced on him," and he never really had the finances to justify hiring her in the first place.

Though no real light has been shed on this case, unresolved questions linger as new ones arise. What will the end of this tragic tale be? Is there a happily ever after, at least for the children? Only time will tell if this heartbreaking case has an ending satisfactory to not only the Winkler family but to the folks who have followed it in McNairy County and across the world. Maybe one day, the book will close on this horrible tragedy that has captured the imagination and passion of a nation.

Maybe.

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