Opinion ID: 2361162
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 18

Heading: Bryan

Text: Bryan first met Merzbacher when he was returning a fireman's coat to the Rockaway Beach Fire Department. There, Bryan recalls that Merzbacher would laugh, cuss, and drink beer with thirteen and fourteen year old students. (E. 299). [9] Viewing Merzbacher as cool, Bryan moved in with him to escape physical abuse at home. While Bryan lived with Merzbacher, Merzbacher would frequently fondle Bryan and grab me by the back of my hair and hold me down on the pool table in the firehouse. (E. 301). Merzbacher would also force Bryan to watch as he raped Bryan's girlfriend. (E. 303-304). Despite this abusive conduct, Bryan did not report Merzbacher because [i]f you pissed John off, he would threaten to have some thugs from South Baltimore come down and beat you to death. But his more specific threats, I mean the threats that I overheard him make and that I firmlythat I honestly did believe him, and I know John probably better than the rest of those students do.... [B]ut there was also a look of ... pure ... evil, that he would sit ... across that table from me at dinnertime and he would be mad, and he would take a glass plate and sling it up into the air and let it bounce off a glass table that I was sitting at, and if it shattered, he was all the more happy, and he would stare at me with the cigar in his mouth and his eyesI mean, he sat there and looked at you, and nobody could look any worse than John Merzbacher when he wanted to instill fear in you. And the night he told Mary [C.] that he would kill her, he had been drinking, and I believed every word of that, as well as the night he told me. I mean, I have no doubt in my mind that he meant it when he told me that, and he used to tell me that it wasn't a matter of wanting to kill me or whether anger would drive him to do it or betrayal,.... he would have to kill me to prevent himself from going to jail. And this is what he told me. And he told me this time and time again.... (E. 303-304). One evening when Bryan and Merzbacher were sitting in Merzbacher's car, Merzbacher pulled that hammer [of the gun] back that night to where a flip of his finger would have blew my skull apart, and he told me that if I ever said anything ... he would have to kill me. (E. 304). After Merzbacher was indicted, Bryan had nightmares where he's after my children now, and, ... I wake up in a panic to where I don't realize that I'm still in a dream. (E. 310). [10] Katherine Throughout the period when Katherine attended Merzbacher's class, Merzbacher would frequently grab her, push her against the blackboard, put his finger into her vagina, and grab her breasts, in front of the class. (E. 420). Katherine specifically described one incident where I was sent in there [the storage room] to wash his coffee mug out, and when I went and was washing his coffee mug out, he came in and started kissing my neck, kissing down my neck and grabbing my hair, and that's when the original threat that he said to me, you know, `Shut your mouth, if you ever breathe a word of this to anybody no matter where you are, no matter how old you are, I will track you down and I will blow your fucking head off.' ... and I was terrified because I didn't know what next was going to happen. (E. 420). Katherine did not report Merzbacher's conduct because I was terrified. When you go through something like that, I mean, I still am in terror. I still am petrified. When I lay my head down at night, I see that man's face and I have nightmares. (E. 421). Merzbacher continued to threaten Katherine even after she had graduated from middle school. Approximately twenty times, Katherine's neighbor approached her and said Mr. John said to tell Big Momma hello, and don't ever forget. (E. 423). Soon thereafter, Merzbacher spotted Katherine crossing the street, slowed down his car and with that evil conniving grin he has and that little chuckle stopped and stared over at me, and it petrified me. If the ground could have opened up and I could have crawled in, I would have. (E. 423). [11]