Power to Hurt: Inside a Judge's Chambers : Sexual Assault, Corruption, and the Ultimate Reversal of Justice for Women [Mass Market Paperback]

Darcy O'Brien (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1997

The compelling and disturbing chronicle of the landmark federal case against Judge David Lanier, who abused the women of Dyersburg, Tennessee, through extortion, stalking, obscene telephone calls and rape.

"Horrific and chilling... A book that every woman in America should read, and every man should read, too." --Richard Preston, author of "The Hot Zone"

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"His was a sensibility in which sex, hate, and the lust for power were so intertwined as to be indistinguishable." Are you in the mood for reading about a real-life villain whose abuse of power was compared to that of Henry VIII? Look no further than this small community in West Tennessee, where a detestable judge used his influence over jobs and child custody cases to intimidate several women into a state of sexual victimization and emotional paralysis. Darcy O'Brien's writing is among the best I've ever seen in the true-crime field: it is eloquently descriptive, with a good feeling for character--such as the heroic, yet humble, figure of an FBI agent who cares enough about the community to involve himself in local problems and bring the judge to trial. Power to Hurt is nominated for a 1997 Edgar Award.

From Publishers Weekly

In this well-reported but overstuffed true-crime tale, O'Brien (A Dark and Bloody Ground) tells of Dyer County, Tennessee, judge David Lanier, a local potentate who sexually abused and harassed female court employees for years. Using interviews with his victims, especially the troubled yet forthright Vivian Forsythe, plus details from the FBI investigators trying to break this delicate case, O'Brien ably lays out the closemouthed corruption of this Southern county. After the Anita Hill case made sexual harassment a national issue, the women were more willing to come forward; only during Lanier's federal trial did male investigators come to recognize that the women were both witnesses and victims. Lanier was convicted of federal civil rights violations in late 1992 and sentenced the next year to 25 years in prison. Given O'Brien's excess of detail early in the book, his sketchy epilogue describing the 1995 appeal that overturned Lanier's conviction is disappointing. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins (Mm) (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061096008
• ISBN-13: 978-0061096006
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,329,478 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars But where's the rest of the story?, October 25, 2002

By 

Joel Jacobsen (New Mexico USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Power to Hurt: Inside a Judge's Chambers : Sexual Assault, Corruption, and the Ultimate Reversal of Justice for Women (Hardcover)

Power to Hurt is a very good book that might have been made even better with a little editing. At times it reads like an earnest slice-of-life novel, the type that asks the reader to spend a little more time than necessary inside the heroine's head. But she is, indeed, a heroine, and the book is quite moving at the end -- something that can't be said about many true crime stories.

The book only takes us up to the midpoint of the judge's career. It ends with the full Sixth Circuit hearing the case "en banc." Soon afterward, in a bizarre ruling, a majority of the court's members held that a judge's sexual assaults (some committed while he was literally wearing his black robe) did not constitute a civil rights violation because the US Supreme Court had never explicitly ruled that they did. That type of reasoning, needless to say, never stopped them or any other federal court from finding a civil rights violation when a cop or prison guard assaulted someone, but judges, you see, are different because, well, because the Sixth Circuit is composed of them.

The US Supreme Court reversed -- unanimously -- and sent the case back to the Sixth Circuit with instructions for it to get real. But then Judge Lanier, who'd been out on bond all this time, skipped off to San Diego where he lived under an assumed name. He eventually slipped over the border into Mexico. The Sixth Circuit ordered him to turn himself in and when he failed to do so, it dismissed his appeal, finding that by showing disrespect for the court he had forfeited his right to ask it for assistance. Just a day or two after the dismissal, the judge was arrested in Mexico and brought back to the States. (Was the timing coincidental?) To the end he had his supporters on the Sixth Circuit -- incidentally a spectacularly dysfunctional institution, with judges who aren't reluctant to go public with their mutual loathing -- but he's safely locked away now.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Feminists ignore the real issues of sexual harrassment, August 16, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Power to Hurt: Inside a Judge's Chambers : Sexual Assault, Corruption, and the Ultimate Reversal of Justice for Women (Mass Market Paperback)

POWER TO HURT describes in painful and moving detail a very real incident of sexual harrassment in our society. It deals with a local judge in Tennessee who extracts sexual favors from women appearing before his court. This is the type of outrageous behavior the feminists should be addressing today, instead of whining about the perceived slights and disadvanatges they complain about in elite groups and the corridors of an effete academe. Cheers for Darcy O'Brien! Charles B. Clement, Chicago, IL

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping!, March 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Power to Hurt: Inside a Judge's Chambers : Sexual Assault, Corruption, and the Ultimate Reversal of Justice for Women (Hardcover)

I'm an avid true crime reader and sometimes get jaded but this book really grabbed me and took me on a rollercoaster of emotions. It's hard to believe that one person would be allowed to hold the power that Lanier did and hard to believe that a high court would release him the way they did. I have complete admiration for the women who stood up to this disgusting piece of "humanity", their courage is a model for all women!