Roar with Shari. . . All Things Justice for Women & Survivors

In this episode, I’m talking to a grandmother who experienced first-hand the devastating impact of child sexual abuse in her family. The financial, emotional,  psychological and legal devastation.  

It all began when Carol D’Attoma’s six-year-old granddaughter was sexually abused by her father.  He was arrested, and Carol’s daughter’s main source of income was gone. The mother of the child (Carol’s daughter) had to sell her home, her car, and re-locate to a less expensive area with more immediate family support.  

Her income was not enough to support her four little...

In this episode, I’m talking with former Jehovah’s Witness, Mark O'Donnell who rips the lid off the Jehovah’s Witness Secret DATA BASE OF CHILD ABUSE

“It’s like a cult.” says, Mark O’Donnell in the documentary made about the child sexual abuse occurring in the JW, called “Crusaders.” JW makes people fear for their lives and puts them in a box they cannot escape.

Mark is now a heroic whistleblower about the secret child sexual abuse files he alleges were KEPT HIDDEN in Kingdom Halls, in...

#Sexual Assault Awareness Month

I’m talking to Mary Reigel an experienced  Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT). and Trauma  Recovery Specialist who has been working in the field of death, grief, and trauma about how to recover from trauma. 

Can you ever fully recover from trauma? What does recovery look like? 

We talk about the fear that so many trauma survivors carry of going to therapy and having to re-experience the trauma in order to “recover from it.” Mary Reigel talks about trauma-free, trauma recovery. New and emerging trauma therapy treatment methods.

We al...

In this episode, I’m talking with Jennifer Carole, the daughter of a successful attorney, on his way to becoming a judge, who was murdered and his wife raped and bludgeoned to death, while the killer remained free to rape and kill some more,  and the victims and their families were deprived of justice for 40 years! 

 Today Jennifer Carole is here with us to share her horrifying experience learning of her father Lynman Smith and stepmother’s (Carlene Smith) murdered & RAPE when Jennifer was just 18 years old.  Finding justice was long and arduous for her...

In this episode, Kim Rhodenbaugh Lewallen’s life revolved around swimming, and she loved it.

Kim made the US Olympic Swim Team and was thrilled to represent her country. Like many young athletes, her world revolved around the sport she loved and felt safe being surrounded by other like minded athletes. However, that sense of safety was soon shattered by some of the very same people she trusted. While napping in her room, she was awakened by a fellow athlete fondling her. When she was 16, another athlete, who she had a crush on, kissed her. Bu...

In this episode, Senator Victoria Steele  a member of the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma Addresses the Epidemic of #MMIWG, “Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls”

Arizona State Senator and House Whip,  reveals the excruciating truth of about #MMIWG. How Native American women are murdered and sexually assaulted at rates as high as 10 times the average in the U.S.--crimes overwhelmingly committed by individuals outside the Native American community. “These are violent men and extractive industries breezing through land they do not own to take lives that do not belong to them." 

...

In this episode, I’m talking with Tabitha’s Mpamira who shares her incredible story which begins when her own African grandmother was sold as a child into a forced marriage with an older man in exchange for a cow. Tabitha’s mother was also forced into child marriage in exchange for a goat, but fought back and escaped. So began the journey of freedom that was passed on from mother to daughter.

Tabitha's heroic story and activism was made into a documentary, screened at the United Nations, called: Victors: A Song to the Lions."  With on...

In this episode, I’m talking with former Jehovah's Witness member, Debra McDaniel (a member of the LGBTQ+ community) who alleges that she was raped and abused by her Jehovah's Witness Presiding Overseer while the Watch Tower Organization turned a blind eye.  Debra reveals her shocking truth about the child sexual abuse she endured from the age of 7-18 years from her  congregation's highest leader,  while the Watch Tower Organization, did nothing to protect or help her and other victims of vicious, widespread, rampant, child sexual and physical abuse.   McDaniel says, she and ot...

In this episode, I’m talking to  Laura Askowitz, a survivor and the CEO of The KidsSafe Foundation She helps keep KidsSafe by teaching personal safety to children and their grown-ups to build strong, more resilient families and communities. Laura believes that one of the reasons predators find children such easy prey is because children don’t understand that they can say “no” to an adult. Children believe predators threats, that if they don’t do what they say, their family, pets, loved ones will be killed.  Laura believes in equipping children with accurate body parts name and says tha...

As a Victim of Domestic Violence, Now Outspoken Survivor, Neisha Himes Helps African American Girls G.R.O.W with her Nonprofit Aimed at Raising Self Esteem and Opportunity. 

In this episode, you will hear the distressed 911 call of a 6-year old child calling for help as the little girl is witnessing domestic violence in her home.  

Neisha Himes experienced domestic violence. As an African American woman, she felt even less heard and able to stand up for herself. It’s been nine years since she was last assaulted in a domestic violence nightmare. Neisha said...

In this episode, I’m talking to attorney David Angeloff, Esq., whom I call, the Workplace Justice Warrior, an experienced attorney for anyone who is being sexually harassed or sexually assaulted in the workplace. He is an outstanding trial lawyer.  A Man with a good heart, a brilliant mind, and the soul of a shaman.  Spiritual, deeply empathetic, yet warrior-like for survivors. I’ve gotten to know David; firsthand and you’re going to want to hear what he has to say. 

David takes on cases and fights for employees and workers in employment law, representing employees and worke...

Teresa Lancaster, Esq. Teresa Lancaster is an Attorney and Advocate for victims of childhood sexual abuse who was featured in The Keepers, a seven-part award winning documentary on Netflix. You may know Teresa from the Doe/Roe against Father A. Joseph Maskell case where she sought to expose the sexual abuse which occurred at Archbishop Keough High School while she was a student there. Teresa went on to join SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) where she helped and continues to help other victims of child sexual abuse. She spearheaded efforts to pass the Hidden Predator Act...

In this episode, I’m talking to Palm Beach's  State Attorney  Dave Aronberg who says "Matt's in a whole lot of trouble. Child sex trafficking is punishable by up to life in prison," says Palm Beach Co. state attorney Dave Aronberg of the accusations facing GOP lawmaker Matt Gaetz.

"Even if they can't make a case of child sex trafficking, if you've proven to have sex with an underage girl, that's a felony in Florida, punishable by up to 15 years in state prison."

Dave Aronberg for what many are now calling in F...

In this episode, I’m talking to Fraidy Reiss, a victim of "Unorthodox". 
As a Orthodox Jewish woman, Fraidy was forced into a violent marriage arranged by her family using a matchmaker.  A true Handmaiden's Tale of Horror.  She was trained and pressured by the Orthodox Jewish Community to be raped, forced into a violence marriage, and treated as a second-class citizen in every way possible. She wasn’t allowed to drive, go anywhere without being covered head-to-toe in a long-handmaiden outfit, and required to cover her hair with a itchy, hot, dreadful wig.

Fraidy...

In this episode, I’m talking with Sheri Kurdakul who says she lost her virginity as a child to a family member.  Leaving home as soon as she could escape, Sheri suffered domestic violence in one abusive relationship after another. Unable to leave. When she finally did leave her last abuser, she fled in the middle of the night, with her 1 child and $150 in her pocket. We call her "Super SHEro".  She used new technology, smarts, and pure grit, to develop an app for victims of domestic violence that collect and store legal, court-admissible evidence. 

Victi...

In this episode, I’m talking with Heath Phillips. For those of you who think it only happens to women and girls, think again. One in five boys is sexually abused before their 18th birthday by an older woman, man, or another boy. Sexual assault has skyrocketed in the military for the men and women serving our country.

While serving in the Navy at just 17, the first time Heath Phillips told his superiors he had been sexually assaulted, he was called a liar, and a homesick mama’s boy. There were six attackers and yet in a larg...

In this episode, I’m talking with rape victim, Rosebud Ireland, the last rape victim of The East Side Rapist before he turned into The Golden State Killer (raping and then killing his victims). 

Rosebud Ireland was only 22 years old when she was awakened suddenly at 3 AM feeling suffocated by a leather glove and a pillow over her head. The gloved man raped her and disappeared. 

For the next 39 years, Rose tried her best to go on with life, but she suffered from  PTSD, and rape trauma, never knowing who her rapist was, or be...

In this episode, I’m talking to child-on-child sexual abuse survivor, Adrianne Simeone, the founder of the non-profit, The Mama Bear Effect.

She calls our unwillingness to confront this issue head-on as “ Willful Blindness.” 

“Child sexual abuse is not necessarily an epidemic because abusers are so effective at perpetrating, but because the taboo, and consequent discomfort and fear, hold protective adults back from being aware, effectively empowering children, and responding appropriately.”

Child on child sexual abuse as well as all child sexual abuse is one that parents, caregivers, and loved ones, just don’t want to dea...

In this episode, I’m talking with Nicole-Earnest-Payte raped at gunpoint by a man who threatened to kill her. She knew at that point; she wasn’t getting out of this.
Here is how Nicole told us her story.

On June 22, 1991, 21-year-old Nicole Earnest-Payte was awakened on her couch by a man in a ski mask carrying a handgun about 8:30 at night after falling asleep on a couch in her home. He put his arm around her neck and throat to control her, while holding a gun at her head, held her hands behind her...

In this episode I’m talking with AUDREY MORRISSEY, a sex trafficked BIPOC child now adult survivor who says she was sold 10-20 times a day. “I’ve  been beaten, tortured, and left for dead.” 

"I thought I was going to die in the combat zone of sex traffickers.

Her traffickers would use words like “Young. Fresh."

It’s not like the blockbuster movie, “Taken”, where a pair of unwitting girls travel to Paris, and make every parent cringe by giving men they just met their address, and confirmation that they’re traveling alone...

In this episode, I’m talking with Laila Mickelwait who fights for The Children of the Porn (New York Times). Laila was also featured in Vanity Fair’s, February 2022 article Who Torched the Pornhub Palace.

On the Pornhub site, viewers see child rapes, incest, revenge pornography, spycam videos of women showering, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags.  The house that porn built.

These countless victims' images and videos showing the child sexual abuse, criminal sexual exploitation and violence against women they endured,  have been posted and monetized by Pornhub. 

Laila...

In this episode, I’m talking with true crime amateur sleuth who uncovered the dark secrets of the Catholic Church that included murder, sexual assault, and rape. Abbie Fitzgerald Schaub, one of the two women who uncovered decades-long and terrifying secrets about her Catholic high school that was covered in the hit Netflix’s docuseries.  

I speak with Abbie about the case and story of Sister Cathy Cesnik, a 26-year-old nun living in Baltimore who was abducted and murdered back in the 1960s. The case was never solved, but it was linked to horrific mysteries fille...

I’m talking to Attorney Greg Gianforcaro who is a fierce fighter against the Catholic Church and the priests that sexually abused Greg's childhood friends.  Greg goes against the Catholic Church who Karney calls, "perpetrators by proxy".

Attorney and former altar boy as a child, Gianforcaro decided to represent many of his friends after they came forward as adults with allegations of sexual abuse by a priest at the St. James Parish in Mendham. 

It turned out to be not just a few cases, but dozens of his friends alleging abuse by Father Jame...

In this episode, I’m talking with actor, survivor, activist, Rosanna Arquette who speaks truth to power. With the courage of a lioness, Rosanna Arquette faces the behemoth Harvey Weinstein when she breaks her silence with reporter Ronan Farrow in the New Yorker and in the New York Times (with Jodi Cantor, 2017) about how Harvey Weinstein sexually abused her at the Beverly Hills Hotel. 

Ronan Farrow broke the Weinstein story and believed Arquette and the other women coming forward who told harrowing stories and allegations of being sexually assaulted, raped, violated by Weinstein. And how the...

In this episode, I’m talking with Melissa Gilbert, actor, (former child star, "Little House on the Prairie"), former Congressional Candidate, NY Times Best Selling Author, activists, survivor and Sheroe  She needs no introduction for most of you, but I will do so, for those of you who may have been whisked away to another planet, or been otherwise, indisposed for the last 40 years.

Melissa is talented, beautiful, outspoken and brilliant and has a lot to say about topics trending today that touch her heart and activism. She talks about Brittany Spears and the mistreatment, men...

In this episode, I’m talking with Kris Pedretti, whose story is featured in a Special Episode of 'I'll Be Gone in the Dark' Airing tonight, June 21, 2021, on HBO at 10 PM and will stream on HBO Max.

 This chilling story true crime story is moving but bittersweet. In this episode, I’m talking with a victim and survivor of the Golden State Killer, Kris Pedretti. Where is the Golden State Killer Survivor Now? 

Kris Pedretti survived a home invasion rape at the tender age of 16. She shares her story of the dark world of the violen...

In this episode, we discuss an unsolved murder.
Haunting, horrible, upsetting and deeply troubling documentary: The Keepers on Netflix. Gemma Hoskins, Emmy Nominated for The Keepers, is still hunting down who killed beloved teacher and nun Sister Cathy Cesnik.

Every now and again you stumble across a documentary that leaves you speechless, of murder, sexual violence, and hidden secrets, that plants an expression of disbelief across your face that lasts long after you’ve finished watching it. One, that leaves you no choice but to be heavily invested in strangers’ lives, and leaves you still trying to f...

In this episode, I’m talking with rape survivor and rape victim,  Analyn Megison, inspiration for the Lifetime Movie "You Can't Take My Daughter".  The true rape story of a woman who survived was stalked, hunted, and battled her rapists to keep her daughter safe. Analyn bravely comes forward in this chilling episode to discuss her rape, survival, activism, and years-long fight in the court to keep her rapist from gaining custody of her daughter conceived through rape.   
 
 We discuss with Analyn Megison about her journey, as a rape survivor, victim and mother, who has been thr...

In this episode, I’m talking to Betsy Butler, a former California Assemblymember, who has been fighting for equity and justice throughout her career. 

Betsy talks about the fact that child marriage is still legal in 35 states including California!
Today, with Roar as One, she takes on the fight to stop child marriage in California. 
Betsy, as CEO of the California Women's Law Center, has been working with California State legislators to stop child marriage in California. Most surprising and shocking, there is no minimum age to get married in California. This allows child rapists and...