Customer Reviews

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

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4 star:		(2)
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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.

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

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!

I wasn't fond of the title, but as I read the back of the book and skimmed the first few pages I was hooked. I couldn't believe what these poor women went through. Lanier was so thoroughly evil and couldn't even realize it. To think that women would want what he did to them is rather typical of a lot of men I think. He acted on his sick fantasies and them held the women's children's welfare over them. What a beast. I hope he stays in prison forever and inmates give him a dose of his own medicine.

Darcy O'Brien has done an outstanding job of putting skeptics like myself in place of the victims. While I have a rather extensive library of true crime books, this one is the most riveting. As I read though, I couldn't help but make the inevitable comparison to another elected official who also appears to operate under "color of law."

As with all of Darcy O'Brien's work, the greatest aspect of this book is his gift for bringing people off the page and into your living room. Without condescension, he manages to bring dignity to the victim Vivian while maintaining professional distance. With well-chosen description and a strong sense of allowing the situations to speak for themselves, Darcy O'Brien managed to strip away years and years of filth from a typical American town and expose what those women - and without a doubt, many more women - suffer at the hands of those in power.

This book was so incredibly frightening, because it chronicles one of the darkest crimes imaginable. This powerful, sexually deviant judge takes advantage of powerless women and rapes and sodomizes them. He actually gets away with it!
Every woman and man in America should read this book, to remind them that these abuses of power are still happening in this country, and it is our responsiblity to do something about it!

I just finished Power to Hurt. I have to count it amongst the very best I have ever read in this or any other genre. This is a great book. Congratulations to the courageous women who stood up against an evil but all too powerful local judge. Congratulations to the FBI and Justice Dept for their handling of this case. And congratulations to Darcy O'Brien for bringing this story to the world via this terrific book. Please re-print.