Parents speak out on alleged sexual abuse of their son

Elizabeth and John Frampton say their son was only 10 years old when a trusted mentor offered to help him put on a Halloween costume, brought him into a bathroom, locked the door, and molested him.

“We wanted a good life for [our son] and an ability to take care of himself,” Elizabeth Frampton told reporters through tears on Thursday. “We brought him here thinking that this was part of that. Instead, what we got was something that eroded his well-being.”

The family from Cumberland said they enrolled their son at TechACCESS, which teaches legally blind and visually impaired individuals how to use technological services, to open up his world and foster his independence. It was there they say their son bonded with former volunteer James Spicola, who is visually impaired himself. The family said they trusted this man they once called “Jimmy,” but that trust now has been deeply violated.

Spicola allegedly molested their son more than once over the course of two years, once in a remote bathroom, another in a TechACCESS kitchen, and again in a TechACCESS office. Furthermore, a release from Road to Recovery Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, said Spicola forced the boy to perform sexually over Skype. Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D, co-founder and President of Road to Recovery Inc., said the organization got involved with the case to support the Framptons and said they wanted to make it public since it hadn’t been covered previously.

“The unusual part of this case is that this boy had the courage, the perseverance, and the strength to come forward at such a young age,” said Hoatson. “We usually don’t see victims until their 30s, 40s, and 50s. The fact he was able to say that at 15 or 16 is very encouraging.”

The Framptons can’t pinpoint exact dates as to when the abuse happened because their son was too traumatized to remember proper timeframes, they said, but estimate it occurred between 2010-2012 when he was in middle school. A police report from 2014 detailed four instances of the alleged assault, saying that Spicola offered to give the boy money and to buy him headphones he had wanted so he would keep quiet. The report also said the boy was too afraid to say anything during the incidents.

Spicola pled no contest to two counts of 2nd degree child molestation and received a six year suspended sentence, six years of probation, and assignment to a sex offender program. The Framptons said that’s far from enough punishment for the horrors their son experienced. They described in detail how their son became unrecognizable.

“He was no longer the son we knew who was high achieving, liked to play sports, and do what kids do,” Frampton said. “He became a recluse and had a lot of dark thoughts.”

At one point, she said, her son told her he wanted to kill himself. The family launched a search for a mental health provider as fear for their son’s life became omnipresent.

“We’d get him up in the morning and I lived with the truth that I might open the door that day and my son would have committed suicide,” Frampton said. “That was our new normal.”

Eventually, she said, their son told his family during a group therapy session that Spicola had molested him.

“He had tremendous guilt, as all victims do,” she said. “They think that somehow it’s their fault and he felt that way also. He thought he would alienate us and that we wouldn’t love him anymore.”

In addition to the toll taken on their son’s mental health, the Framptons described how life for the whole family changed drastically. In trying to insulate and protect themselves, they’ve become “social pariahs.”

“People that were my friends in the past through the blind community and the advocacy community, I don’t have those friends anymore,” Frampton said. “I don’t know if it was a legitimacy problem where they didn’t believe me, but that’s another sad truth for us. Our world got a lot smaller from this.”

Boston Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who famously represented many of the plaintiffs in a sex abuse case involving the Catholic Church that was the subject of a massive Boston Globe Spotlight investigation, is representing the family. He said TechACCESS should have proper screening processes in place and that educational workshops should exist to help staff recognize signs of abuse. “The damage is just too great” without these measures, he said.

“It’s up to the school to put up safeguards that protect children,” he said. “Procedures need to be in place to protect both children who are disabled and who are not disabled.”

TechACCESS released a statement on the case Thursday evening, adding that they could not comment further to protect the privacy of those involved:

“We are distraught over the inappropriate actions by James Spicola. At no point was Mr. Spicola employed at TechACCESS; he was a volunteer for a program that was discontinued several years ago,” the statement said. “We have cooperated fully with authorities. Throughout our 25 years of service to individuals with disabilities, our highest priority is, and always has been, the safety and well-being of our clients.” 

Garabedian said he is currently finishing his investigation so a lawsuit can be filed against Spicola and TechACCESS. An attorney for TechACCESS did not offer further comment, but said the statement released was reflective of his firm as well.