In August 2014, one of Brett Kimberlin's frivolous lawsuits, Kimberlin v. Walker et al, went to trial. You may already know that Brett has filed a great number of frivolous lawsuits, but this one was special in that it made it all the way to a judge and jury in a trial hearing. Very often, Brett's frivolous cases are ended before they can make it that far; indeed, even in this trial case, most of the false and frivolous claims by Brett had already been dismissed. What the defendants had left, amounted to a trial about defamation. Among other examples, Brett complained that the defendants had called him a pedophile, as in fact at least two of them certainly have. Two of them even repeatedly referred to Brett Kimberlin as a pedophile while on the stand, being asked to explain themselves.
They won. And the case turned not on some procedural error as Brett's cases often do, but it was decided on the matter of truth.
Of course, normally one can use much more mundane methods to detect a pedophile. There is often a telltale warning sign. In Brett's case, there were multiple - both before, and since, he had his drug smuggling colleague Bowman murder Julia Scyphers in retaliation for interfering with his pedophilia.
Warning sign: Pedophiles skate near the boundaries
Pedophiles certainly do not spend 100% of their time inappropriately touching their targets. And it's not actually all that common for third party observers to catch them in the act. They DO, however, spend much of their time with children doing things that push boundaries of appropriate behavior. They seek out scenarios that might give them an opportunity or excuse for inappropriate touching. They also subtly (or not-so-subtly) seek to create situations where a discussion about sex or genitals might arise.
Brett Kimberlin, by his own admission, made a habit of being nude while around the young Barton girls. When his alarmed biographer asked about it, Brett tried to pass it off as some sort of casual non conformist nudist taste he just happened to have, but you must realize this is a clear warning sign of pedophilia. There are several advantages the pedophile Brett Kimberlin would gain from his tactic of being nude around the young girls. One is to wear down the natural alarm and discomfort most middle school aged children would feel if one of their parent's friends exposed his genitals to them. Pedophiles sometimes seek to make a normally alarming situation into something routine. It lowers the defenses of the kids, and if other adults are not looking at warning signs, it even offers pretexts in case the pedophile is spotted crossing even more lines.
It's important to understand that pedophiles escalate these situations into actual acts of pedophilia. For instance, once a pedophile has made it "normal" to expose his genitals to children, he can escalate to talking about genitals or touching genitals. He will monitor the reaction of the target to each step to try to make sure he gets away with each escalation without raising an alarm.
This warning sign can often help put the pedophile in very stark contrast against normal, "safe" adults. Of course, the normal adult consciously tries to avoid these boundaries in the first place. Moreover, if you asked the normal adult to step further away from a boundary, he would not only comply, but he would be careful to avoid any similar misunderstanding in the future. Normal "safe" adults are totally satisfied with the explanation that "I'm not comfortable" with it.
In summary, Brett Kimberlin didn't just happen to discover nudism at the same time he was lounging around the house with two elementary school aged girls. The "nudism" was an excuse to expose himself to the girls. And he would have been trying to tune into their reactions to judge how to make his next move.
Warning sign: Pedophiles seek highly off-kilter personal interactions
It's wrong and regrettable that some parents, out of irrationally inflated fear of pedophiles, prevent beneficial contact between children and adults. People who promote unthinking hysteria about pedophilia are helping deny kids opportunities to grow and develop socially as well as skipping opportunities for mentoring, friendship, etc. Discerning parents will realize the overwhelming majority of adults would never sexually abuse a child, and instead parents should learn how to identify and stop the few who do.
Brett Kimberlin, who was in his 20s at the time, let slip the moniker "girlfriend" when speaking to his associates about the object of his pedophilia. Normal "safe" men simply do not woo elementary school children at all. Additionally, Brett admitted to his target's mother that Brett intended to marry the girl when she got older.
Brett also had a habit of spending extensive alone time with the target of his pedophilia. When she was 10, 11, and 12, he took her away on unchaperoned week long out of town vacations.
Brett's emotional interactions with the girl were often well beyond highly suspicious. Around the time she started refusing to spend time with him, Brett "disciplined" his target by slapping her and taking away her puppy. This is already so far outside the behavior of normal, safe adults that it requires little further comment.
Similarly, when denied the ability to see the girl, Brett threatened suicide. He raged against the girl's grandmother who was protecting her and tried (but failed) to retaliate by making false complaints to an apartment management office.
Weeks later, that grandmother was shot to death by one of Brett Kimberlin's close colleagues.
Major warning signs were there. It's quite a confluence of behavior that can't be explained innocently. One of the worst things about this story is that Brett Kimberlin went on to re-offend, which will be the subject of a later post.
What can you do about it? Well, Brett Kimberlin will have a hard time offending again if everyone is forewarned, so I encourage you to share this information about him and take a good, hard look at any and all of his behavior toward minors.
