Standing behind embattled legislator

I didn’t expect to return so soon to the case of Nick Miccarelli, but circumstances and revelations convinced me that there is a good deal of the story that has not yet been told, and the narrative must not be shaped only by the people who are dedicated to his personal and professional annihilation.

Last month, I penned what could be termed a Delaware County “J’accuse,” reminiscent of Emile Zola’s letter criticizing the French government of bigotry after they arrested Alfred Dreyfus, a general of Jewish descent who had been wrongly convicted of espionage.

Zola’s letter pointed out the legal irregularities and lack of evidence in the prosecution of General Dreyfus. For his efforts, he was put on trial for libel, found guilty and fled to England where he lived in self-imposed exile for a decade.

I don’t expect to be sued for libel for my comments, nor do I anticipate fleeing to New Jersey or another unappetizing location for a decade. However, I cannot stay silent as I continue to see the wheels of justice grinding with unprecedented vengeance against Miccarelli’s neck.

I am a fairly objective observer of Nick Miccarelli, and only really know about him what I have read, seen, and heard from people who know him. And the critical mass of all of those factors has led me to the conclusion that far from being an abuser himself, he is the victim of a rather well-oiled conspiracy to manipulate the #Metoo moment for some personal agendas.

An ability to judge character was the first thing that made me sense something was wrong in the whole “Nick Miccarelli is an abuser” mythology.

The two women accusing Nick of wrongdoing have both admitted to relationships with him. One of those women has continued to ask that her identity be concealed, while the other, state Rep. Tara Toohill, R-Luzerne, has come out publicly and done everything she can to place her exboyfriend in an extremely damaging light.

Years after having allegedly suffered abuse, she decided to seek an order of protection against Nick because, she claims, she’s afraid that he carries a gun.

Her not-so-subtle implication is that he will use that gun against her and others in the state Capitol.

If it were not so offensive, it would be laughable. In the years since they dated, Miccarelli and Toohill have worked side by side in Harrisburg, and to my knowledge she has never before filed a police complaint, sought an order of protection or even attempted to avoid him in the state Capitol.

But it is the other accuser, the one whose identity is being protected by the media, who is more problematic. I have been privy to communications that took place between that individual and Miccarelli over a 10-month period, and the information contained in those emails and text messages is stunning, striking evidence of a consensual relationship. Nothing in those communications support the claim that Miccarelli did anything to force or coerce his second accuser to do something against her will, let alone that he raped her.

As I read these communications, I felt ill to my stomach. The reason I felt ill is that I knew how this would be spun by the women’s activists, the #Metoo high priestesses who will not stop until they claim the heads of as many men as they can reasonably group into the “Harvey Weinstein” basket.

These women are doing irreparable damage to true victims of abuse, those who have been physically beaten, emotionally destroyed and in many tragic cases, killed. As an immigration attorney who does asylum work, I deal with battered women every day. As someone who loved women who were the targets of abuse, I know what it looks like up close. And what I saw in those communications do not look or sound like the words of an abused woman.

Of course, the #Metoo storm troopers will spin this a certain way. They will argue that a woman who has been abused doesn’t always act the way we expect her to. But that should not be the basis for the unilateral destruction of a man’s reputation, the deliberate tearing down of his work, his goals, his accomplishments, his public and private life.

The fact that a woman who is less than credible and another who is exploiting her position as a state official can combine together to pull down a man they both once dated and now despise is tragic.

And the fact that so many people sit by and allow it to happen is repellent. J’accuse.