When several boys reported in January that Taneytown substitute teacher and Christian group leader Justin Rieger had sexually assaulted them, many in the Carroll County community rallied not around the teens, but around Reiger, law enforcement records and social media websites show.
“I do hope whoever made this allegation that brought you to this point can live with themselves,” one woman commented on a Facebook post in which Rieger announced he had been asked to step down from his work with the Christian organization Young Life and Carroll County schools. “I pray they find a way to ask God for forgiveness.”
“Justin, I’m so sorry for you that this has happened!” a man wrote. “You can look in the mirror and hold your head up high.”
Others wrote that the allegations were false and “the work of Satan.”
“Some people are just evil, mean and hateful and will do anything to hurt someone else,” another woman wrote.
Rieger, who took his life on Feb. 4, according to police, was well-known and well-liked in the Carroll County community. Many expressed shock and distress when his body was found.
After Rieger’s death, police confirmed that several criminal investigations were underway into Rieger’s actions — one for financial fraud and another for sexual assault and child pornography. The sexual assault case was closed last week, with police releasing a 42-page report showing Rieger, who was 22, sexually assaulted more than half a dozen teen boys over several years and threatened several of them.
Despite the allegations against him, there was an outpouring of support and love for Rieger and his family, both before and after his death, some vilifying the boys who told law enforcement they were abused.
A child sex abuse expert told The Sun it’s not unusual for allegations of child sex abuse to split a community, with some vociferously defending the accused.
“It’s only the victims that know [their abuser] as a monster,” said Terri Miller, president of national anti-child sex abuse nonprofit S.E.S.A.M.E. Net (Stop Educator Sexual Abuse Misconduct & Exploitation).
“To the rest of the community, they are wearing a mask of deception,” Miller said.
“Abusers hide in plain sight.”
Expert: Supportive community successfully groomed
In early January, a member of Young Life’s Francis Scott Key High School chapter, which Rieger ran, approached Carroll County Young Life Area Director Matt Michael and told him that Rieger had sexually assaulted him, according to a Carroll County Sheriff’s Office report obtained by The Baltimore Sun.
Within days, Michael suspended Rieger from all Young Life activities and contacted law enforcement, who contacted the Carroll County Public Schools, where Rieger worked as a substitute teacher and a basketball coach in a high school. The district also put Rieger on leave pending investigation.
Rieger posted publicly about the suspensions on Facebook, expressing astonishment and hurt, and criticizing Young Life. He did not go into specifics about the allegations against him but wrote that “I was ordered to practically isolate and speak to no one.
“I was scared, I am no longer,” he wrote. “I am no longer going to be quiet.”
In return, Rieger received hundreds of supportive comments.
“You have always been an inspiration to your community … Your parents raised such an incredible and amazing young man and your family … I will continue to pray for you,” wrote one woman.
A consistent theme among comments was that Rieger was so kind to others that he could not have possibly done what he was accused of.
According to Miller, however, this is a common response — many often throw their support behind abusers even after allegations are made public because they have been successfully groomed to trust them, she said.
“That’s what perpetrators do,” Miller said. “They’re grooming the parents and the community so they can have access to their targets.
“If they gain the trust of parents and community, nobody suspects them,” she said.
However common the reaction, though, Miller added, it further traumatizes those abused and has a chilling effect on reporting, preventing more from speaking up either now or in the future.
“The more the community vilifies them for coming forward — when they should hail them as heroes for stopping the abuse and stopping this perpetrator from collecting more victims in his wake — it really affects their healing process,” Miller said.
“It adds another layer of trauma and affects the way other students will view reporting,” she said. “It is a way of silencing students.”
‘Free Your Boy’
At least one person claimed Rieger’s parents were among those retaliating against those who reported Rieger for sexual assault.
Rieger was an assistant coach for the girls’ basketball team at Francis Scott Key High School. After Rieger was suspended, Stephanie and Jason Rieger, wore personalized sweatshirts to a Jan. 21 girls’ basketball game with their son’s face and the words “Still here!” printed on the front, a concerned mother’s email to the school’s athletic director notes.
The front of the sweatshirt wasn’t what concerned her, however.
“The back of the sweatshirt read ‘FYB,’ which is … assumed to mean F You with the ‘B’ standing for the [first] name of one of the possible victims who spoke out,” she wrote. The athletic director forwarded the email to Carroll County Sheriff’s detectives, who included it in their report related to the sexual assault allegations against Rieger.
“As there is an active investigation against Justin Rieger, I find wearing this shirt completely insensitive to students who are struggling right now with this whole situation, and wildly inappropriate. It’s also extremely difficult for victims to speak out about abuse, so if any did occur, this is bullying offensive, and could cause harm to … victims,” the mother wrote.
An attorney for Rieger’s parents denies that the message on the sweatshirts was intended to slap back at those who reported Rieger.
“It meant ‘Free Your Boy,’” said attorney Robert Smith of BobSmithLaw.
“They knew their son had been suspended and there was an air of improper conduct, but they weren’t sure what the improper conduct or allegation was,” Smith said. “Nor did they know who the alleged victims were.
“They wouldn’t have had any reason, even if they’re sinister people, which they’re not,” Smith said. “They’re not the type of people who would do that anyway.”
Had the parents targeted those boys with the message on the sweatshirts, they could potentially be held liable, Miller said.
“It adds another layer of trauma,” she said.
Reporter Matt Hubbard contributed to this article. Kate Cimini is the investigative editor for The Baltimore Sun. Contact her at 443-842-2621 or kcimini@baltsun.com.