Orson Mozes’ Adopted Daughter Alleges Four Years of Sexual Abuse, Launches Sex Abuse Website and Petition

Yes, THAT Orson Mozes, the one featured on America’s Most Wanted . Just when you thought that the adoption world could not get any sicker. Orson’s 19-year-old adopted daughter, Zoie Brown, has launched a blog (Rally recommends reading all the posts), a sexual abuse help website called Victims Get Vocal and a petition  to help her seek justice as she has been trying since 2008 to get the DA to press charges against Orson. According to the second media article below, Orson only served less than two years of his three years, four months sentence imposed in July 2009.

Please consider signing the petition.

We reported in July 2011 that some of his adoption fraud victims were set to receive some compensation.

Media Coverage

Zoie has received media coverage twice since late November 2011.

The first article was in the UCSB newspaper Daily Nexus Local Launches Support Site for Abuse Victims [11/22/11 by Christine Cha]. [Note: her mother’s name has usually been spelled Christen. Christen was also employed by Adoption International and was trying to receive some of the compensation from the adoption fraud trial.]

“Zoie Brown, a 19-year-old Santa Barbara resident, founded the online organization Victims Get Vocal as a network of resources and support for victims of sexual abuse.

Brown and her mother Kristin co-founded the site to provide a forum for survivors of abuse — including Zoie — to speak out about their experiences and hear the stories of others in similar situations. Three weeks ago, Brown began circulating a petition around the UCSB campus to have her case re-opened by the Santa Barbara District Attorney, as it was previously closed due to a lack of physical evidence.

According to Kristin Brown, Zoie’s case was a miscarriage of justice common with sexual abuse crimes.

“The Santa Barbara District Attorney said that they know and believe that Zoie’s dad molested her but won’t convict him because of the ‘lack of physical evidence,’” Kristin Brown said. “Yet this same DA used about $2 million to prove Michael Jackson was a child molester even though there was no evidence that he was.”

Brown’s petition reached its goal of 500 signatures last week and her goal has since been raised to 1,000.

Megan Stander, public relations representative for Victims Get Vocal, said the organization has taken a grassroots approach within the Isla Vista and campus community to gather support for their petition and ideas.

“We want to create a coalition of people to get involved in our cause,” Stander said. “Although one approach we use, which is going door-to-door, is a slower way to raise awareness, we want the students to be motivated and not lose faith in the justice system.”

Zoie Brown claims her adoptive father Orson Mozes sexually abused her from the ages of 11 to 14. In addition to Victims Get Vocal’s support forums, Brown regularly updates a blog detailing the recovery from her trauma.

According to Kristin Brown, the current justice system often allows sexually abusive individuals to continue to commit crimes.

“Cases like Zoie’s are not unusual,” Kristin Brown said. “An average child predator sexually abuses about 50 kids, and in extreme cases, more than 400. They just do not stop because the justice system does not pick these people up and put them behind bars.”

Second Article

“Zoie, 19, said her father drugged her and sexually and emotionally abused her from the time she was 11 to 14. He was also found guilty in a 2009 adoption fraud case for which he served under two years in jail.

In the years after she came forward, she struggled with problems of addiction and eating disorders. She only reached the stability she has today after extensive therapy, she said.

Zoie hopes she can help others find the support they need before it is too late, she said. She pointed out that many who are abused go down the same avenue of self medication, and some even turn to suicide. She was inspired to launch the site by the story of victim Ashley Billasano, a Texas teen who committed suicide in November.

“If you find that good support system and you can be heard, you can get help,” Zoie Brown said.

Through her website and Facebook page, she says she receives about three messages a day. She responds to each of them and encourages them to report their case and seek therapy, which she said is the only real way to handle the trauma.

“It doesn’t go away,” she said, “until you deal with it.”

Before she really faced down her problems with proper therapy, Zoie said she “just chose drugs.”

She experimented with everything — marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin — trying to cure the pain, and was barely passing her high-school classes.

After she was pulled over for speeding 90 miles an hour on the freeway while under the influence, her older brother inspired her to seek treatment.

“He said ‘You need to go or you’re going to die,’” Zoie recounted. She checked herself in to a residential treatment facility in Montana for 15 months, and since then has sought regular therapy.

Unfortunately, Zoie said, many stay silent far too long before getting the help they need. She said she underwent years of abuse before she came forward.

Finally, at the end of her eighth grade year she informed a teacher of what was happening.

“I got sick of it and I wanted someone to hear me,” she said. “I wanted something to happen so I could feel safe.”

Like so many other victims, her abuser had kept her silent with threats. Zoie, who was adopted when she was one, said her father hid a knife under his bed and threatened to kill her and her mother if she ever told anyone.

Another reason abuse goes unreported is because it is so uncomfortable to talk about, and unfortunately victims are embarrassed, she said.

About half of the girls in the facility she stayed at had been molested, she said, but none of them were comfortable sharing their stories.”“The District Attorney has reviewed Zoie’s case twice: first in 2008 when Zoie first sought legal action, and again this year when her psychologists and therapists wrote letters on her behalf.
In April she was told that the case was again dismissed due to lack of physical evidence.”

Sex abuse victim launches website to reach others
[Daily Sound 12/8/11 by Elise Clements]

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