KMM, Phil Gigante, & I Guess It’s Okay When It’s Not YOUR Daughter

Sigh. This is going to be a hard one. First, if you want to support and read Karen Marie Moning, fine. I quit reading her years ago, didn’t even finish the Mac and Barrons books. I would be mildly surprised if she became the next E L James but I wouldn’t notice if she dropped off the radar completely. Until this week she was just an author who had bored me but now she has graduated to an author who disgusts me.

I think Bibliodaze was the first post I read about this whole unsavory situation. Jenny Trout weighs in here. The Gilded Earlobe posts this, and Jeaniene Frost had this to say. What started all this was an announcement by KMM on her FB page.

The “issues” were the charges against Gigante involving a 14 yr old girl. “Issues” was not the appropriate word, felonies was the word. Posters queried their absence and someone posted a link to this article. Moning was not receptive and posted this:

And deleted any reference to Gigante and the charges. And then proceeded to post this:

And this:

Posters implored her to post what she and many people knew but there was nothing from KMM until this:

Before I get to the really disgusting part let us just consider the timeline. Gigante was charged in July 2015, he plead guilty to two of four felony charges in a deal that dropped the other two in October 2015, he was sentenced in December, is now serving his 4 months, and is registered as a Tier 2 Sex Offender. None of this happened in a hurry, there was plenty of time for Moning to get her facts straight before she went public.

A number of her more ardent fans have protested that Gigante was her friend and she was only standing up for him but wouldn’t you think a friend would be more conversant with the facts? Because she got it wrong, she got it wrong and asked her fans to trust her. What do I tell you, Dear Readers? Get the link(s), look for yourself. Some posters did and Moning deleted their comments because she knew better.

But I have heard that her last Fever book wasn’t as well received as previous ones and, cynical little me, I have to wonder if she decided that a little controversy would be good for sales. She wouldn’t be the first.

This original post is now gone. I wish I had screenshots of some of the comments she left up because this is where the disgusting part comes in. This is where Moning deleted the links to Gigante’s arrest and plea agreement but left up comments that tried to excuse his actions and place the blame, all or in part, on the girl. ‘Cause Phil is such a nice guy, so talented, what a shame to blame him when we all know what some 14 yr old girls are like.

You know the ones, don’t you?

If you want to get the feel for the mindset here you have to look no further than Moning’s  “apology” post.

“He’s the adult period.” This. Let’s look at a few facts.

1 Gigante is 49, his victim is 14.

2 He met her when he was volunteering at the school. If this isn’t an abuse of trust and power …

3. He’s married. With two children slightly younger than his victim. The only ones who have posted about what this must be like for her and their kids are those not trying to excuse Gigante or blame the victim.

I found two little interesting newspaper articles, the first one is here, I hesitated to link to it but it is easily enough found. The second is here, the company is registered to Natalie Ross.

That just doesn’t sound like such a good idea now. Gigante isn’t a nice guy. He didn’t make a mistake, he didn’t suffer a lapse in judgement. “”I had inappropriate conversations on Facebook private message,” Gigante told the court Tuesday.” Not a conversation but conversations. And there was an exchange of inappropriate photos. So not a one time thing.

Did he ever look at his children and think about someone having those conversations with them? Did he ever look at his wife and think about how he was cheating her?

People need to stop with the “yes, buts” and start talking about how to encourage children to speak up and speak out when an adult attempts to engage them in an inappropriate relationship.

Now, KMM is free to do as she pleases but it has escaped very few who are watching this that she hasn’t shut down the posters pointing a finger at Gigante’s victim and when they aren’t excusing and accusing they are stroking Moning’s ego.

I’m sorry, I must have missed all the whining and hating posts, perhaps someone could point them out? There seem to be a lot of posts full of love and praise for her bravery, her defense of Gigante, and her apology. Her apology.

Um, she made four that I count, which one is she apologizing for? The first where she announces Phil and Natalie are returning and not to “spread the hate” for the narrators who had replaced them? The one where she announces she’s deleting all the to protect all the parties involved and FB isn’t the place to discuss it. Then she continues to discuss it and does not protect the 14 yr old party involved. The post where she declares there is more to the story and many people know what really happened and Gigante’s not a predator.  Or the last one where she said she knew people would overreact and either you trusted her or didn’t, the facts weren’t what was reported, she was going to use him, and he was only charged with an improper message on FB. Which one?

When compared to her previous posts, it seems grudging and cold. And there is no request not to spread the hate and there seem to be no deletion of any comments to protect a minor.