Pensacola Independent News

OUTTAKES | Vol. 7, No. 39, September 27, 2007
(For The Love Of Art)
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Outtakes

In his novels, Stephen King often has one character that appears normal, but has a real evil buried under the surface. In "The Stand," it is Randall Flagg who is a charismatic leader, laughs a lot, tremendously attractive to men and women both, and who embodies pure evil. In "Misery," it's the experienced nurse, Annie Wilkes, who rescues author Paul Sheldon and keeps him captive in her house.

I thought about these fictional characters when I heard about the arrest of Gulf Breeze Sports Association president and federal prosecutor, Roy Atchison, in the Detroit airport on Sunday, Sept. 16. Roy was a community leader that provided steady leadership to a growing recreational sports association. He was very matter-of-fact and no nonsense in dealing with problems.

But suddenly, I'm reading reports that he traveled 900 miles to have a sexual encounter with a 5-year-old girl. A Dora the Explorer doll, hoop earrings and petroleum jelly are found in his bag. He has a MySpace.com page under the name fldaddy04 where he promotes himself as an "experienced, understanding daddy" who enjoyed spoiling young girls.

This is not the Roy Atchison that I knew. My heart immediately went out to his wife, Barbara, and their three children. Gulf Breeze is a very small community. Barbara teaches at Gulf Breeze High School where two of my daughters graduated and one is a freshman this year. One of the Atchison daughters worked with our daughter Tricia at the South Santa Rosa Rec Center this past summer.

Barbara and her children's lives where turned upside down that Sunday and will likely never be the same.

I called Gulf Breeze City Manager Buz Eddy to see how he and the sports community were dealing with the arrest. Buz had worked closely with Roy. They have daughters that are the same age.

Buz was in shock. He had the same initial reaction that so many friends of Roy did when the arrest hit the newswire: There must be some mistake. There were some that were hoping that Roy was involved in some reverse sting operation like you see in a bad detective movie. However, that ray of hope dwindled fast as more revelations about the arrest were made.

The city of Gulf Breeze and the GBSA put the word out that if anyone locally had been abused or harmed by Roy Atchison to please call the Gulf Breeze Police Department. A victim advocate was made available if the caller didn't feel comfortable talking to an investigator. To date, no local victims have come forward. Maybe there aren't any.

The next big conversation I had on the Atchison arrest was with my high school freshman, Claney. I was concerned what she might have heard at school and about her experiences on the Internet with MySpace and Facebook.

A group of high school students had egged the Atchison home not long after the arrest hit the papers. Claney knew the family from basketball, school and church. Also, like so many her age, she spends hours on the computer. Her generation would rather IM (Instant Message) a friend than call them on the phone.

Claney was very blunt about the whole incident. "Mr. Atchison is an idiot." She felt sorry for the family, especially Mrs. Atchison who taught some of her friends, but had no sympathy for Mr. Atchison.

Claney said that a couple times she and her friends have gotten unsolicited messages from people they didn't know through MySpace, but they ignored them.

"Besides everybody does Facebook now," she told me as we were driving across the Pensacola Bay Bridge after a voice lesson. I wasn't sure if I should be relieved, but I hugged her when we got out of the car.

The world is a scary place. You never really know what demons may be hiding in the person sitting next to you. All you can do sometimes is hold on tightly to those you love. This was what I did that evening.

Rick Outzen is Independent News Publisher. rick@inweekly.net

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Outtakes