Expert witness says words were 'twisted'

Although the statement was made more than a decade ago, Royal Alsup, a licensed family and marriage therapist and Ph.D. said he was unaware that Humboldt County Deputy District Attorney and District Attorney candidate Worth Dikeman had attributed certain quotes to him in court until he read it in an article in The Eureka Reporter last week.

“(Dikeman) twisted what I’ve been saying for so many years in court..."
--Dr. Royal AlsupIn an article that ran May 25, court documents cite Dikeman as making the following statement, “In this county we’ve had (expert witness) Dr. Roy Alsop (sic) come in here and explain to the courts, and I’ve seen this on the criminal calendar, child molesting is OK in certain Native American cultures, and we can’t treat Native American child molesters the same way we treat other child molesters, and have to treat them through the Indian culture center, and there are a whole bunch of people that violate our laws that are Native Americans and they go much more often through the Native American system than the criminal system, and to say that does not exist is frankly incorrect.”

But, Alsup said he has never and would never make a comment like that.

“(Dikeman) twisted what I’ve been saying for so many years in court,” he said. “I said (Native Americans) needed a different type of mental health treatment than Caucasians. You couldn’t treat a Haitian person who believes in voodoo and a Jewish intellectual in New York City with the same psychology.”

Alsup said it would be “lousy” science and “it wouldn’t work.”

After returning from vacation, Alsup said he heard about the comments that appeared in the paper and is concerned about how it will affect him professionally as well as how it will affect the Native American community.

“I’ve got people calling me (asking) did you say this,” he said. “I have never said in any forum, privately or professionally, that child molesting is acceptable in any Native American culture. The notion that some Native American cultures find molesting a child to be ‘OK’ accuses those cultures of indulging in and tolerating child molestation. That is absolutely untrue. In truth, Native Americans cherish their children deeply and the various tribal cultural traditions, customs, ceremonies and practices aim to protect, heal, nourish, teach and love their precious children profoundly.”

The quote came out in a story stemming from a protest that started in front of the courthouse May 20 where protestors are accusing Dikeman of being a racist, based on comments he made regarding his dismissal of Native American jurors in a 1992.

As part of their protest against Dikeman, the same protestors are encouraging voters to vote for his opponent incumbent Paul Gallegos.

In court documents obtained by The Eureka Reporter, Dikeman referenced comments he said Alsup made to help illustrate why he dismissed the jurors.

“I didn’t bring this up, this has been brought up on the eve of an election of which I am a candidate, I don’t believe in coincidences and if he has concerns, he could take it up with Mr. Gallegos’ supporters,” Dikeman said. We are talking about something that I said in 1992 and that’s a long time ago. I have been in the office since 1985 and he did present material to the courts prior to 1992. I don’t recall him appearing in anything recently, so we’re talking a long time ago, and I certainly didn’t say anything about Dr. Alsup recently.”

Dikeman said he knows Alsup has his home phone number and would welcome a call from him about the comments.