Father’s Slap of Girl’s Lover Still Echoes

STILLWATER, Okla. —  When police Sgt. John Jerkins got up in the middle of the night and found his teenage daughter and her boyfriend having sex on the couch, he snapped, and slapped the young man in the face.

For that, the officer has been demoted and had his pay docked, despite a certain amount of understanding from the governor on down.

“I would have slapped him a lot harder,” Gov. Frank Keating said.

Seventeen-year-old Lyni Hall said: “My dad would have shot him.”

But eight months after the slap, the 40-year-old married father of four is still fighting to get his rank back and waiting for life to return to normal for his family in this city of about 40,000.

An arbitrator is weighing Jerkins’ appeal. And the city, which upheld his demotion to patrolman--docking him $705 in pay and $350 in pension benefits every month--is considering a settlement.

“This isn’t just about me,” Jerkins said. “It’s about parents and what their duties and responsibilities are and what they can legally do in their own home.”

While prosecutors deemed it assault and battery--one specialist said the boy suffered a broken nose--they didn’t pursue charges because of doubts they could win a conviction. Even the parents of the boy, who has not been identified, declined to press charges.

“We know the climate in Oklahoma,” said Dist. Atty. Robert Hudson. “People think that is conduct you might expect from a parent.”

The Police Department saw it differently. It saw a 19-year officer with a reputation for keeping his cool completely lose it and for months refuse to acknowledge he made a mistake.

“If this officer for some reason can no longer maintain the control he is famous for, he’s at risk on the street,” said Mary Ann Karns, city attorney in this community 65 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. “It can be a risk for the public.”

Three weeks before Jerkins stumbled in the dark upon his oldest daughter and her partially clothed boyfriend in January, he learned the two were sleeping together. He said his wife confronted the 17-year-olds, and both parents spoke with the boy’s mother and father to “get a lid on it.”

Flipping on a light at 1 a.m. to guide his young nephew to the restroom, Jerkins noticed movement on the couch. He was stunned by what he saw.

“The young man pulled up his pants and came at me,” Jerkins said. “I slapped him.”

Jerkins said he believed state law gave him the authority to use force to discipline a juvenile in his home. Actually, parents can use reasonable force only against their own children. Jerkins refused to admit he was wrong in his interpretation until the arbitration hearing Aug. 16.

“That’s when he made the kind of statements everyone had been looking for,” Karns said. “We began discussing a settlement.”

While Jerkins now acknowledges his legal interpretation was wrong, he prefers to keep what he calls his “moral interpretation” to himself.

His voice cracking with emotion, he said that his daughter has moved in with her grandparents in another town since the slapping incident because boys were making passes at her and girls were calling her names.

She broke up on her own with the boy shortly after the incident and apologized to her parents, Jerkins said.

“All I can say is that she’s a good girl and I love her dearly,” he said. “She learned a lesson out of this thing.”