LINDSAY, Calif. — Many in this Central Valley farm town were shocked when a man was arrested after allegedly viewing photos of nude boys on a computer in the local library.
But even more shocking was the dismissal two days later of the library branch’s lone employee, who said she alerted police over the objections of her supervisor.
The firing of aide Brenda Biesterfeld has prompted a prayer vigil outside the library, a stinging letter from the City Council to Tulare County officials, rumblings about the town of 11,000 breaking off from the county library system and anger throughout the community.
On Tuesday, an organization promoting “family-friendly” libraries honored Biesterfeld, 46, a single mother of two, before the Lindsay City Council. Attorneys connected with a conservative legal group based at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University have taken up her cause, threatening to sue the county. Local firefighters are talking about giving her some of the proceeds from a fundraiser next month.
“As a community, we are extremely upset,” said Suzi Picaso, a Lindsay councilwoman and former president of the local chamber of commerce. “We want to make sure that people who move here know we have policies in place to keep our children safe. If the library’s policy is to not report such viewing, then we might have to break our partnership with them.”
County officials Tuesday offered to have the dispute mediated by a retired judge. They say there is no policy that keeps librarians from reporting child pornography and that Biesterfeld’s firing, which occurred two weeks before her six-month probation was to end, had nothing to do with her report to police. Unless she consents to disclosure of her personnel files, however, privacy laws prevent them from proving their point.
“She can say whatever she chooses, and we can’t respond,” said Tulare County counsel Kathleen Bales-Lange.
An attorney for suspect Donny L. Chrisler said there was no evidence that his client did anything wrong at either the library or his home, where police said they found explicit images after his arrest. Chrisler, 39, is a deaf library regular. He’s being held at the county jail on $100,000 bond.
By Biesterfeld’s account, the uproar started Feb. 28 when she saw Chrisler staring at photos of naked boys. She was sickened, she said, and called her supervisor, Judi Hill. Biesterfeld claims Hill told her to give the man a note ordering him to stop. When Biesterfeld suggested calling the police, Hill told her not to do it, her attorneys said.
But the next day Biesterfeld, nagged by doubts, visited the police station next door. She was told to call officers if it happened again, said Mathew Staver, one of her attorneys. “She was doing the moral and legal thing that anyone would do,” he said. “When you see someone viewing child pornography, you report it to the proper authorities.”
On March 4, she called police when she saw Chrisler allegedly viewing similar images. Police arrested him and confiscated the computer as evidence. They then received an angry call from Hill, who told them they had violated Chrisler’s “privacy rights,” according to a letter Biesterfeld’s lawyers sent county officials.
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