Librarian makes noise about County policy

The Tulare County Board of Supervisors met in closed session yesterday to review library policy and evaluate the county's head librarian after a Lindsay librarian was allegedly fired for turning in a child pornographer.

Brenda Biesterfeld was fired by the county on March 6 a week after she reported a man viewing child pornography on a computer at the Tulare County library branch in Lindsay. Lindsay Police officers detained Donny Lynn Chrisler, 39, of Lindsay for questioning on March 4 while he was viewing pornography at one of the computers. A search of his home in the 600 block of W. Hermosa Street revealed hundreds of printed images and thousands of stored images of young boys in sexual poses. Chrisler is being held on $10,000 bail in the county jail.

Biesterfeld claims that when she called her supervisor, Judi Hill, to report a man viewing child pornography that Hill told her not to report the incident to police and to give the man a warning instead. Biesterfeld called the police anyway and she was fired the next week, one-week shy of completing her six-month probationary period.

“I was more concerned about the safety of the children of Lindsay than my job,” she said. “I did what was morally right rather than what a supervisor asked me to do. If I had do it all over again I would do the same thing.”

Tulare County head Librarian Brian Lewis, Hill's boss, said he could not comment on the situation because it was a personnel issue. All questions regarding the issue were directed to the County's Administrative Office, but Board of Supervisors Chairman Connie Conway did release the following statement:

“The Tulare County Board of Supervisors takes all suspected criminal activity very seriously. Recent reports involving unauthorized use of public computers at the county library in Lindsay have been referred to the appropriate law enforcement agencies. They will act appropriately and independently. We pledge our full support in the investigation.

Additionally, we will review the county's policies, training and procedures with respect to computers available for public use in our libraries. We also will evaluate the specific response in the Lindsay case.

“The Board of Supervisors has published an addendum to the agenda for our next regularly scheduled meeting, set to occur at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, March 18, 2008. The board will meet in closed session on that date to evaluate the job performance of Tulare County Librarian Brian Lewis.”

The closed session was the result of a letter sent by the Lindsay City Council to the Board of Supervisors in which councilmembers expressed concerns “over recent actions by senior management, most notably Mr. Brian Lewis and Ms. Judi Hill.” The letter says that Lewis and Hill “have failed to meet the public trust in their supervisory roles within the County Library system” and that their actions “have broken and severely damaged the confidence and trust between the City of Lindsay and the Tulare County Library department.”

The letter goes on to outline how Biesterfeld told Lindsay Police Capt. Rich Wilkinson that she was afraid of being terminated by Lewis for not following her supervisor's instructions that she not contact the police. When Lindsay police confiscated the library computer for evidence, Hill told Wilkinson that “city law enforcement representatives had no business interfering in the situation,” in the letter. Wilkinson also reported in the letter that Hill was “abrupt, demanding and demeaning.” The letter also notes that Wilkinson clearly indicated that throughout the conversation with Hill, she did not offer police any assistance.

“The actions of Mr. Lewis and Ms. Hill are intolerable and at this time we request that [the Board of Supervisors] address this matter,” the letter stated.

Lindsay City Councilwoman Suzi Picasso said the city is considering pulling out of a joint-use project between the city and county to operate a new library in Lindsay that is currently under construction. She said the city owns the property and the building and would consider staffing it with their a city employee and make it a city-run library.

“If they are turning their heads at this incident then how are they keeping our children safe,” Picasso said. “And if our choice for librarian would be Brenda. More and more, librarians need to be aware of these things.”

While the law does not specifically cite librarians as mandatory reporters of child abuse or pornography, nearly every public employee who deals with children is instructed to report child pornography immediately. Capt. Wilkinson said he would rather send an officer to a call for nothing rather than not receive a call that could put a predator away.

“These are the kinds of crimes that if they are not reported to the police will go undetected,” he said. “We don't police the community by ourselves. I can't put an officer in the library all day, so we rely on citizens to report things that seem suspicious.”

Biesterfeld first noticed Chrisler acting suspicious on Feb. 28. After teaching him how to download images onto a CD, Biesterfeld noticed that Chrisler had turned the computer screen in toward him. When she walked behind him to investigate, she saw several images of nude boys.

“I had never been told how to deal this kind of situation,” Biesterfeld said.

Biesterfeld immediately called her supervisor, who told her not to report it to the police.

“Did I hear what I think I heard,” Biesterfeld recalls thinking.

Instead, her supervisor instructed Biesterfeld to pass a note to Chrisler, who is deaf, giving him a warning and that if he received a second warning she was to ban him from the library. A mother of two boys, Biesterfeld said she knew she had to call the police because it was the right thing to do.

Chrisler returned to the library and sat down at one of the computers on March 4. Biesterfled called the Lindsay Police Department who detained Chrisler for questioning and confiscated the county computer for evidence. She was fired two days later. Biesterfeld said prior to being fired, her evaluations had been positive and had never had any other problems with her supervisors.

“They said I was fired for insubordination, but there weren't any other instances where I questioned my supervisor,” Biesterfeld said. “Mr. Lewis said the guy getting arrested is not why I was fired, but then why are they reviewing county policy?”

Biesterfeld spent the next day in the hospital due to stress. The single-mother of two boys had just been fired from a job she loved and the intense media coverage began to take its toll. The story has been picked up by every major television station and newspaper in the Valley and recently Inside Edition.

“I miss the children of Lindsay,” she said. “Working with children is one of the great joys of this job.”

The community of Lindsay have rallied around Biesterfeld. Last night, the United Methodist Church in Lindsay held a prayer vigil for Biesterfeld at the public library.

“We will be praying for the safety of the children and youth of Lindsay from sexual predators. We will also be praying for justice for Ms. Biesterfeld. We have invited community leaders and fellow sisters and brothers of the churches of Lindsay to join us in front of the library to pray for our children and youth and to pray for and call for justice,” wrote Pastor Karen Stoffers in a letter about the event.

Lindsay will also be holding a benefit concert on April 19 to raise money to help Biesterfled with legal and living expenses. The concert featuring country singer Mark Wills will coincide with Lindsay's annual Orange Blossom Festival. It was originally planned to benefit the Lindsay Volunteer Fire Department, which has since said they would rather the money go to Biesterfeld.

Biesterfeld said she has been contacted by an attorney representing a social justice group that may be willing to pay for her legal fees. She said she is not sure what her next step will be but that she wanted to thank Lindsay for all of its support.

“Out of all this, I hope that the policy is changed and that there is more training on how to deal with something like this,” Biesterfeld said. “I hope some positive change will happen.”