text:
Back row (lr): Author Lora Lusher's paternal grandfather, her father SFPD Inspector Ted Lusher, her mother Claire, her maternal grandmother (who lived with Jack Bokin and his parents) and Bokin's father, Jack Sr. Front row (lr): Lusher's brother, her sister, Lora Lusher at age 2 and her cousin Jack Bokin at age 9.
Jack Bokin was bright and handsome, but his face he used as a mask. He had a natural charm and a knack for making people laugh, although he had no real friends. He ran his own plumbing business, was married and had two children. As a child he had been something of a prodigy: a whiz at chess and the piano. By age 10 he was also a sexual predator. His first victim was his 3-year-old cousin, his last – while he was out on bail after being charged with raping and assaulting three other women –was a 19-year-old he bound, raped repeatedly and beat for five hours before bashing in her skull with a hammer, tying her up in a bag and dumping her into San Francisco Bay.
by Lora Lusher
I'm sitting in the gallery of Courtroom 25 in the San Francisco Hall of Justice. It is Aug. 5, 1999. My 56-year-old cousin, Jack Bokin, is on trial charged with over 40 counts of violent sexual assaults on four different women. Amber, the 19-year-old prostitute who identified Jack as the man who tried to kill her, is on the witness stand. She has just finished describing the night of Oct. 4, 1997 when she was bound, raped and beaten for five hours before her skull was bashed in and she was dumped into San Francisco Bay.
Jack's defense attorney, Michael Gaines, requests a side conference and he and Asst. D.A. Elliott Beckelman huddle at the judge's bench, whispering.
The quiet in the courtroom is an abrupt change from the violence in Amber's words, which although spoken softly, are still ricocheting off the walls. Jack is sitting at the defense table with his back to the gallery; he appears unconcerned. I'm staring at his familiar outline and thinking back on the holiday dinners and birthday parties, camping trips and vacations, and the family members who are now gone. It seems so long ago. I don't know how we got here.
Jack Alexander Bokin, Jr. was born on March 20, 1943 in San Francisco. He was an only child. His parents were decent, law-abiding and decidedly middle-class. They worked in their small Mission District hardware store six days a week and made a comfortable home for Jack and our maternal grandmother who lived with them.
The worst thing that can be said about Jack's parents is that they were simple and unsophisticated. From the beginning Jack seemed unwilling to accept their blue-collar status, refusing to call them "Mommy" and "Daddy" and insisting on "Mother" and "Father" instead. As an adult, he would bitterly complain that they were never his social or intellectual equals and that their lack of refinement had been the cause of all his problems. But the truth is that his parents were no worse than most and considerably better than many. He was a much-loved member of a tightly knit extended family and he was given an abundance of encouragement, acceptance and approval.
Jack's mother, Evelyn, and my mother, Claire, were sisters and best friends. Because our mothers were so close, my siblings and I grew up thinking of "Jackie" as an older brother. As the first-born of our generation, and a boy, he was automatically granted a special status that we all, especially Jack himself, accepted as his birthright. And he did seem rightfully entitled. From the time he started school he was a brilliant student, especially in math and science. He was also a piano prodigy, instantly able to reproduce the most complex classical works entirely by ear. As he grew older he excelled in chess, built his own telescope and became a body builder.
A Secret Life
It seems like Jack always had a secret life. At age 7 he managed to sneak his father's handgun out of the house and take it to school. By the time he was 9 he was stealing bicycles from the nearby park and selling the parts. In 1953, when I was 3 and he was 10, he started molesting me. Even at that young age Jack was already so practiced in stealth that the abuse was never suspected. In the years that followed, not even my father, who was a San Francisco Police Inspector on the Sex Crimes Detail sensed that anything was wrong.
One of the dirtiest secrets about incest is that young children rarely tell, and even when they do, it's too disturbing for family members to hear so the child is often ignored or turned away. I silently endured the molestation for four years. By the time I was 7, I was so desperate for it to stop that I blurted out to my mother that whenever I was alone with Jack, who was then 14, he would take me upstairs to his bedroom or down into the basement or up onto the roof, remove my clothes and push his penis in between my legs. Her response, which stunned me, was that I should tell him "no." I hadn't anticipated that she might hand the responsibility back to me, so I wasn't prepared to have to plead my case for parental intervention. I was in the second grade; I didn't know how to explain that Jack had a scary, secret personality none of them knew about and that I couldn't stop him by myself. I never mentioned the abuse to my mother again and she never asked me about it. I gathered that things like being made to stand naked while someone ejaculated all over me (not knowing any better, I thought he was urinating) were just inescapable parts of childhood like spankings and dentist drills and booster shots.
"I'm glad I learned my lesson at a young age so I won't have to make the mistakes other people do." - Jack Bokin, 1966
Jack had a few acquaintances as he was growing up, but he never had any friends. Other children didn't come to his house to play and he was rarely invited anywhere. As a teenager he didn't go to parties or dances or out on dates. He was hopelessly out of touch with the music, fashions and fads of his peers; he didn't dress right, he didn't speak the language and he didn't know the rules. His unsuspecting parents were delighted that their teenage son seemed focused on school and wholesome hobbies. In fact, our entire family praised Jack as a "good boy" who didn't waste his time on girls, cars and teenage mischief.
When Jack was 16, he broke into the electronics shop next door to his parents' hardware store by crawling through the connecting false ceilings. He told his parents he'd been making some repairs to the wiring and had accidentally fallen through the ceiling of the other store. When he was 18, he burglarized a parked car and was arrested for the first time. He told his parents that he was merely standing next to the car and that the police officers were lying.
By this time my family had moved 30 miles north of San Francisco to Marin County and I no longer saw Jack every day. But his family drove out to visit us every Sunday and Jack nearly always found a way to separate me from the group and take me someplace where he would not be seen or heard. Our new home was surrounded by five acres of trees and creeks and meadows. It did not seem suspicious to the adults that Jack, a city boy, would want to spend his visits outdoors, hiking and exploring, or that he would want me to accompany him. As for me, my earlier failed attempt to enlist my mother's protection had convinced me that I had no choice but to go along with him uncomplainingly.
In December 1964, when he was 21, Jack assaulted a 30-year-old woman on a University of California-Berkeley Extension campus in San Francisco. He disabled her car while she was in class and then casually walked by and offered to help her start it. Once inside the car, he wrapped a shoelace around her throat and threatened to choke her if she made any noise. Then he made her strip to the waist and ordered her to remain quiet while he spent two hours kissing and fondling her breasts. She later identified him and he was arrested. The court found Jack to be a "mentally disordered sex offender." He spent the next two years in Atascadero State Psychiatric Hospital in Atascadero, Calif.
Thirty years after the incident, Jack would still angrily repeat the same version he'd given his parents (who believed him); that the police had intentionally misrepresented what was actually an innocent, albeit clumsy, social encounter. He would sneer and sputter over the characterization of a shoelace as a "deadly weapon" and complain that the "sex offender" label was inaccurate and unfair (yet court records show that he admitted to hospital psychiatrists that he had previously committed three other sexual assaults). But in 1966, at least, he seemed to have accepted responsibility for his predicament. He wrote, "I'm glad I learned my lesson at a young age so that I won't have to make the mistakes other people do."
In May 1966, while Jack was still in Atascadero, my parents were killed in a car accident in San Francisco. I was 15 years old and my brothers were 14 and 5. They stayed with our older sister and her husband, and I went to live with Jack's mother and father. When Jack returned home the following year (supposedly cured and rehabilitated) he immediately started in on me again. But my world had been shattered since he'd last seen me and in the process of trying to slowly put it back together I'd begun to learn how to take care of myself, so this time when he tiptoed into my bedroom while I was asleep and shoved his penis into my mouth, I wasn't afraid to tell.
The difference in our ages and levels of sophistication had always given Jack the upper hand and, at 16, I was still no match for his ability to redefine a situation and control how others perceived it. His soft-spoken, gentle manner, often sprinkled with empathy, had always been more powerful than facts or logic. Jack denied everything and told his stunned parents that I was lying. He explained that his stay in the psychiatric hospital had taught him enough about mental illness to know that I had serious emotional problems stemming from the loss of my parents. He told them I was only trying to get attention and that they should feel sorry for me. Then he turned around and privately accused me of betraying him by revealing "our secrets."
Rather than discourage Jack, my going public seemed to titillate and challenge him. He was careful never to touch me again, but the abuse didn't stop; it just changed forms. Orphaned and separated from my siblings and my home, I was dependent on the goodwill of Jack's parents. Always predatory, Jack zeroed in on my vulnerability and calculated, correctly, that having disrupted the household once by complaining about his visits to my bedroom, I would be very reluctant to drop another bomb. But just to be sure I didn't surprise him again, he began varying his tactics enough so that he would be able to easily explain away anything I might report.
Jack's new molestation style was so multifarious that, even if I had been brave enough to speak out again, it would have been nearly impossible for me to describe all that he was doing or how it made me feel (particularly since, true to Jack's nature, he always did things in secret). He began exposing himself to me whenever he found the opportunity. He started monitoring my visits to the bathroom; he would follow me and stand at the door, quietly checking to see if it was locked and then hover there, listening and waiting. He made a point of knowing when I went out with friends or on dates and would wait until I came home and accuse and interrogate me about what sexual activities I'd engaged in. He talked about my late mother, describing the size and shape of her breasts and her mouth and claimed that she'd harbored a secret sexual desire for him. He told me obscene jokes. He constantly critiqued the size and shape of my various body parts. He lectured me about all things sexual: positions, aphrodisiacs, homosexuality, incest, bestiality, necrophilia, masturbation, etc. And once he smeared his own semen on a slide and managed to trick me into looking at it under his microscope. When I realized what I was seeing, I ran from the room gagging.
As disturbing as all this was, it was such a relief to not have Jack touching me anymore that at first it seemed like an improvement. But it wasn't long before I realized that nothing had really changed. I tried to block out my pain and anger and thought I'd succeeded, but as the years passed and the abuse continued it would weigh more and more heavily on me.
"I just won't let myself get bogged down again and revert back to crime as an alternative." - Jack Bokin, 1979
After his release from Atascadero, Jack got his contractor's license, started his plumbing business and bought a house a few blocks from his parents' home. He'd never had a girlfriend or even been on a date, but his charm and clean-cut good looks attracted the attention of an assertive young woman whose family owned a bookshop across the street from his parents' hardware store. Both sets of parents objected to the relationship, but Jack's sexual-assault conviction and his stay in the psychiatric hospital did not dissuade Nancy; they wanted each other and that was that. They were married in 1968.
For a while it seemed that Jack had overcome his problems with the law, but it wasn't long before his secret life caught up with him again. No matter how much money he had, he was always hungry for more. His contracting and plumbing business never seemed to bring in enough cash to satisfy him. He resented having to buy the tools and materials he used on his jobs, so he figured out how to get them for free. He also desperately wanted to appear wealthy and successful, but he didn't want to have to pay for the possessions that would project that image. His greed won out over his desire for social standing: He stole expensive stereo systems, furnishings and appliances, eventually filling his house and basement, most never to be used. Between 1970 and 1990, he would be convicted six times on burglary and stolen-property charges and serve five separate prison terms.
True to form, after each conviction he portrayed himself as repentant and remorseful and promised that this time he'd learned from his mistake and would never do it again. "I just won't let myself get bogged down again and revert back to crime as an alternative," he wrote from Vacaville California Medical Facility in 1979.
Nancy stuck by Jack through three incarcerations and then divorced him. It was a bitter break-up; Jack never forgave her for using his sex-offender status to sever his parental rights to their young adopted daughter. I silently applauded her for risking his wrath to protect her child.
After the divorce, Jack wasn't alone for long. This was the early 1980's and he quickly discovered how easy it was to meet willing women by answering their personal ads. Within a few months he'd met Cheryl, a 36-year-old elementary school teacher who described herself in her ad as "an expert pamperer." Cheryl was eager to find a husband and have children; she saw Jack as strong, sensitive and kind. Jack wanted a family too, and he realized that Cheryl could give him children and much more. She not only had a secure job and a steady income, she also had a trust fund and very wealthy parents who lived in another state and weren't getting any younger. Before their second date Jack was already telling me and his parents how much money Cheryl would inherit and making plans for his retirement. They were married in June 1982 and their first child, a daughter, was born five months later.
Cheryl delighted in showing off her new husband and Jack revelled in the attention. She retired his unstylish clothing and took him shopping for an entirely new wardrobe. She vetoed his old-fashioned hairstyle and gave him a more contemporary look. When her elementary school held a Career Day she brought him in to talk to her fifth grade class about his work as a contractor. She organized dinner parties and get-togethers at their home and proudly introduced him to her friends and co-workers. She enthusiastically accepted every invitation they received and made sure he accompanied her, with bells on.
Jack didn't offer Cheryl much information about his past and she didn't ask. He told her only that he'd been to prison once, on a stolen property charge. She didn't learn the extent of his criminal history until two years into the marriage when the police burst into their home one night and arrested Jack for burglary. Pregnant with their second child, Cheryl threatened divorce but Jack charmed her out of it. He said he was sorry and convinced her that it would never happen again. She agreed to give him another chance. This scene would repeat itself over and over during their 15-year marriage, but each new arrest drove them a little further apart.
As Jack entered his forties, his personality began to darken. He became agitated and paranoid and talked incessantly about 'getting even' with other people. He'd always been somewhat vindictive, but up until then his vengeance had been limited to petty cruelties, like refusing to attend my 24-year-old brother's funeral because he'd never visited Jack in prison. Now Jack seemed dangerously out of control, variously talking about hitting this person or that one "over the head," or killing people and throwing them into the Bay with weights tied to their bodies or threatening to burn down the homes of certain family members because they had more money than he thought they needed and weren't sharing it with him.
In 1985, Jack's fantasies crossed the line into reality. For several years he'd had an ongoing feud with a certain San Francisco building inspector. Jack's plumbing work was notoriously sloppy and the inspector was strict, so Jack's jobs often didn't pass inspection and he wasn't able to get paid. It infuriated Jack when anyone dared to come between him and money, so he hired a work-furlough convict from San Francisco County Jail to follow the building inspector to lunch and hit him over the head with a tire iron. The inspector wasn't permanently injured, but it would be more than 10 years before he learned who had targeted him.
Jack's behavior toward me was changing too. I'd always been close to his parents and as they grew older I spent more and more time with them. This meant I had to continue seeing Jack and couldn't back away from him the way others in the family had done. By the time I was 35 I'd spent most of my life fending off his advances and I was exhausted. One day, in front of his parents, he made some typically off-color remark to me and I snapped at him, saying that I was tired of all his sick sexual bullshit and I wanted it to stop. It was a comparatively mild rebuke, but it was the first time I'd ever directly, or publicly, confronted him. Jack was shocked and embarrassed; he turned almost purple, but said nothing.
In hindsight, that was the turning point in our relationship. I knew that Jack was getting sicker and losing control, but I felt I was exempt from his anger. I didn't understand that my safety hinged on his need to believe that I found him sexually appealing, and that by destroying that fantasy I would make myself into an enemy.
Jack had always been glad that I was around to relieve him of the responsibility of helping his parents, but after I stood up to him he started imagining that I was plotting to replace him as the heir to their estate. In 1986 his paranoia exploded; he told his mother I deserved to die and that he was going to hire someone to kill me. I continued seeing his parents but we had to develop a complex system for keeping me out Jack's way.
I'd never distanced myself from Jack before and he was furious. He felt I was his personal property and that I had no right to make myself inaccessible to him. When he learned that I'd secretly moved and changed jobs, he reacted like a spurned lover. He demanded that his parents give him my telephone number and address, and, when they refused, he frantically called everyone he could think of trying to locate me. But my friends and our other family members had already been warned about his threat to kill me, so no matter how he cajoled or threatened, he didn't get any information. But he didn't give up; he was determined to find me and prove that I could never escape from him.
In 1991 Jack began pressuring his parents to mortgage their home and "loan" him a large sum of money. His father was willing, but his mother refused. Jack was livid. That fall his mother became ill and I had to admit her to a care home in Greenbrae, Calif. I was still hiding from Jack and now my siblings and I also needed to keep his mother's whereabouts a secret from him because we were concerned that he would harm her. After she'd been in the care home for a few months, she suddenly started complaining that Jack was coming into her room at night and frightening her. She was very distressed, but we felt sure we had her well hidden and that she must be imagining it. Still, I questioned the care home staff, who swore he'd never been there. A couple of weeks after Jack's mother started talking about these visits I received a late-night call from a staff nurse saying my aunt had been discovered dead in her bed, less than an hour after she'd been checked and found to be fine. We were sure Jack was responsible, but we had no hard evidence. Five years later, Jack's wife Cheryl revealed that Jack admitted to her that he had indeed gone to the care home on two occasions and that his mother had screamed in terror. By then it was too late to launch a murder investigation; our only comfort was the homicide officers who knew Jack and agreed that "he probably did it."
Jack didn't miss a beat. Within days after his mother's death he'd convinced his grieving father to give him the money he'd been asking for. Four months after that, he found a way to collect more fast money by forging my signature to a legal document involving the estate of one of our deceased aunts. When I discovered the forgery I reported it to our attorney, Charles A. DeCuir, Jr. a member of Melvin Belli's legal team. DeCuir, who was eager to have the matter closed and collect his substantial fee, told me I had no choice but to abide by the agreement the forgery bound me to. I refused and DeCuir became angry. He knew Jack was dangerous to me; I'd told him about his history and instructed him countless times never to give Jack any personal information about me. So when Jack suddenly called me and boasted that he'd gotten my phone number from DeCuir along with my home address, I knew the attorney had done it intentionally. Jack said that if I didn't cooperate with them I would be "sorry. " Then, like tag-team wrestlers, Jack hung up and DeCuir called me back and demanded that I immediately fax him a statement giving him permission to sign my name to the remaining documents. Betrayed by my attorney and fearing that Jack was lurking around the corner waiting to murder me, I backed down and gave them what they wanted.
(A side note on DeCuir: On June 2, 2000, The California Supreme Court suspended DeCuir from the practice of law in connection with two separate cases in the 1990s involving his misuse of funds his clients had been awarded in settlements. DeCuir pleaded nolo contendere to both charges that he had willfully violated Rule 4-100 (A) of the Rules of Professional Conduct. The court said that the "legal effect of such a plea shall be the same as that of an admission of culpability for all purposes." In its ruling the court ordered DeCuir suspended for two years, but stayed the suspension, ordering that as conditions of the stay that "he be actually suspended for 60 days" and "take and pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination within one year.")
Jack was delighted to have the money but I knew it wouldn't end there. Now that he'd won and regained his precious access to me, I knew it would only be a matter of time before he'd start getting even with me for having evaded him for so long. I felt I had no choice but to drop everything and run. I walked away from my job, moved to another Bay Area city, cut off contact with nearly everyone I knew and went into deep hiding. It would be nearly five years before I felt safe enough to reemerge.
"He laughed and said I could kick the horn all night and no one would hear me."- Marion
By 1993 Jack and Cheryl were no longer close. They didn't sleep together and spoke only when necessary but they agreed to stay married until their son and daughter were grown. Jack remained involved with the children, driving them to school, helping them with their homework and participating in school functions. But he'd developed a strange new intensity that made them all uncomfortable. He was angry and short-tempered. He lectured and criticized. And he was secretive, disappearing and reappearing at odd hours and staying away from home for long periods of time.
That same year Jack met a woman named Marion in a park near his home. "He sent a gentleman over to find out if I was a prostitute and to say that he wanted to meet me." They began a relationship that was part business and part personal. Marion performed clerical work for Jack in his home office and they engaged in sexual acts, at times in the master bedroom while his wife was at work and his children were in school. Marion was a heroin addict and often purchased her drugs from Jack's next door neighbor, so at first it was a convenient arrangement for them both.
On the evening of Sept. 7, 1993 (ironically, Jack's late mother's birthday) Marion, perhaps not realizing the dangers of asking Jack to part with money or else too badly in need of a fix to care, went to his Bryant Street home to ask to be paid. The family and several guests were eating dinner and Jack's 8-year-old son got up from the children's table and went downstairs and answered the door. Marion asked to see Jack. The boy called his father to the door and then went back upstairs and whispered to his sister that Jack was talking to a strange woman. Then, curious about this provocatively dressed stranger, the boy went out onto an exterior balcony that overlooks the front door and eavesdropped on the conversation. He heard Jack and Marion discuss money for several minutes before they left together in Jack's car.
Jack drove to a nearby industrial area that is deserted at night. Suddenly, he kneed Marion in the ribs and placed his hands around her neck. Terrified, she kicked the car horn with her foot to make noise. "He laughed and said I could kick the horn all night and no one would hear me." Then he ordered her into the back seat. She felt she had no choice, "I was afraid for my life." In the back seat, Jack tied Marion's hands behind her back with pantyhose and grabbed and hit her repeatedly. He sucked and chewed on her tongue and forced her to orally copulate him. Then he choked her until she lost consciousness. Marion's injuries would later show that Jack's final act was to push her, unconscious, out of his car as he drove away.
"She had bright red marks around both wrists and throat area and she had two pieces of nylon hanging from her wrists." - SFPD Officer Marquita Booth
At approximately 11 p.m. plain clothes SFPD Officer Marquita Booth responded to "a call about a person screaming at 16th and Mississippi Streets." When she arrived at the scene, she found a crouching woman wearing only a shirt and underpants. Officer Booth stated in her report, "She was shaking, crying, extremely upset and distraught. She had bright red marks around both wrists and throat area and she had two pieces of nylon hanging from her wrists."
Marion told Booth that her assailant was a man she knew named "Jack." From the ambulance on the way to the hospital, Marion pointed out Jack's house and the next morning SFPD Officers Booth, Cunningham and Smith went there and arrested him. Jack made bail, and a few months later Marion disappeared and the district attorney was forced to drop the charges.
"I told the police but they didn't do anything." - Janie
Every summer, Cheryl and the children left town for a month and went to visit her parents. On July 7, 1996 at approximately 11:15 a.m., Janie, a 30-year-old prostitute, was picked up on So. Van Ness Ave. by a man who drove her to a house on Bryant Street. He held her there for 16 hours while he repeatedly raped and beat her and forced her to orally copulate him. An epileptic, Janie lost consciousness several times and at one point awoke to find a champagne bottle stuffed into her vagina. The man made her shower while he washed her and called her, "Dirty, dirty," and he forced her to let him watch her use the toilet after which he wiped her himself.
Janie was afraid to report the assault because she had an open warrant and didn't want to go to jail. But a week and a half later she was arrested for prostitution and she told the arresting vice officer, Officer Raymond Luk, what had happened.
Officer Luk knew there was a serial suspect victimizing Capp Street prostitutes and he was even familiar with Jack, but he didn't file Janie's complaint or pass her information along to the appropriate department. In fact, he would later testify that he had no recollection of Janie telling him she'd been assaulted. "If she'd reported it I would have generated paperwork. There is no paperwork."
"I thought I was going to die. I thought this man was going to kill me." - Martha
On Jan. 22, 1997 a 34-year-old prostitute named Martha walked into the Mission Police Station and reported she'd been picked up at 7 that morning by a man who held and assaulted her for over eight hours in a house on Bryant Street. The man tied her arms and legs, and repeatedly sucked and chewed on her tongue and forced his fingers into her vagina. She lost track of how many times she was forced to orally copulate him. She finally escaped after attacking him with a pair of scissors. The police went to the address Martha provided and arrested Jack, who still bore the scratches from the scissors attack.
Martha and Janie knew each other only in passing, but their boyfriends were friends. When Janie's boyfriend heard about Martha's assault and Jack's arrest, he realized this was the same man who had assaulted Janie six months earlier. Janie contacted the SFPD and again reported the July 7, 1996 assault. This time the police paid attention and Janie's case was added to Jack's growing list of charges.
"On Bokin, I'm looking at a rap sheet that starts from the ceiling and ends up on the floor. This is an extremely low bail." - Susan Breall, SF District Attorney's Violent Crimes Division
Within days after being arrested for assaulting Martha and Janie, Jack was a free man again. Despite his status as a convicted sex offender and the seriousness of the charges in the two assault cases, Municipal Court Judge Perker Meeks inexplicably lowered Jack's bail from $100,000 to $30,000, and Jack was released.
A couple of weeks later, in early February 1997, Marion, the girlfriend Jack assaulted in 1993, suddenly resurfaced and agreed to testify. She explained why she changed her mind, "I initially thought that if I didn't talk about this I'd get over it. I didn't want to come to court and tell people – the jury, the judge, the DA – what had happened. That I was assaulted. That I had to run down the street with no clothes on and beg for someone to help me. Now I feel like I have to testify for myself emotionally so I can go on."
The district attorney re-filed the previously dropped charges and merged Marion's case with Janie and Martha's. Based on the new charges, Judge James McBride set Jack's bail at $500,000. However, at a subsequent bail hearing Judge Perker Meeks once again lowered Jack's bail, this time to $65,000. It began to seem like Jack could fool just about anyone.
"I stood on street corners and cried with women. They knew Bokin and felt they were sitting ducks." - Norma Hotaling, Director of SAGE
Jack's preliminary hearing in the three assaults was held in July 1997. Municipal Court Judge George Choppelas presided. On July 28, during a break in the proceedings, Deputy Sheriff Carl Olson saw Jack make a threatening gesture at Marion. Olson would later testify, "The defendant looked at the victim/witness and made two slashing motions across his neck. The witness then turned away and looked down." When court reconvened, Deputy Olson reported the incident to D.A. Elliott Beckelman. Beckelman argued to Judge Choppelas that it was "a gesture that to any reasonable person would mean 'you're dead.'" and asked him to raise Jack's bail to $1 million. The judge refused and Jack remained free.
Norma Hotaling, director of SAGE, a group that provides services to women both in and out of prostitution reacted, "People were outraged and stunned. I stood on street corners and cried with women. They knew Bokin and felt they were sitting ducks. They felt with judges not protecting them they were going to die."
"He sucked on my tongue so hard I thought he was going to tear it out of my mouth." - Amber
On Oct. 4, 1997 Jack was still out on bail awaiting trial on the three assault cases. At approximately 5:30 p.m. a 19-year-old prostitute named Amber was picked up by a man who told her his name was "Jimmy" and said he worked for the government. He drove her to a remote area off Bayshore Blvd. where he bound her hands behind her. He repeatedly beat and raped her and forced her to orally copulate him. He sucked and chewed on her tongue "like a dog chewing on a piece of meat" and bit her clitoris until she shrieked in pain. He warned her he had a relative in the San Francisco Police Department who would protect him if she tried to report him.
The man alternately hit her and called her a "crybaby" then held her in his arms, wiped her tears and apologized for hurting her. He told her he loved her and asked if she liked him and would go out with him again. "I told him I'd go out with him again, now that I knew what he wanted. At that point I was going to tell him anything he wanted to hear.
"My hands were numb from being tied behind me for so long. I told him if he untied me that I'd give him a really good blow job." The man told Amber to get out of the car so he could untie her hands. Then he grabbed her by her hair, jerked her head down to her knees and began hitting her in the head with an object she thought was a hammer. She could hear her skull cracking, "like an eggshell."
She fell to the ground and lay motionless, hoping he would think she was dead and stop hitting her. She rolled back her eyes and forced herself to remain limp as he lifted her up by her hair and threw her into the trunk. He drove a short distance then stopped to stuff her into a plastic garbage bag and toss her back inside the trunk. He resumed driving. She managed to free her hands and bite an air hole in the bag. Convinced she was going to die, she wiped blood from her head wounds on the inside of the car trunk so that someone would know she'd been there. But then she became afraid that he might open the trunk and see the blood and realize she wasn't dead, so she tried to wipe it off.
The man drove to a car wash where he vacuumed the car and sprayed water inside the trunk. Then he drove off again. Amber felt around in the darkness for something she could use to open the trunk. "I'd heard there was a way to pop open car trunks from the inside." She found some sort of a tool and used it to bang on the trunk latch, but it remained locked. At some point Amber felt the car go into reverse and then stop. The man opened the trunk and this time, he gently lifted her out and cradled her tenderly for a few moments, "like you would hold your child." Then he 'tipped' her out of his arms. She fell for a second or two and then landed in water.
Amber waited until she saw his car's taillights disappear, then she wriggled free of her bindings and the plastic bag and swam through the darkness to a small dock. Weak, exhausted and numb with cold, she paddled around the dock for several minutes before she found a way to pull herself up onto it. Then she climbed a low wall and walked along the top, stepping sideways and clinging to a barbed-wire fence, until she reached the Embarcadero, a fast-moving thoroughfare. Naked except for a pair of socks and dazed from open skull fractures and loss of blood, she stumbled out into traffic. A woman in a passing car stopped and picked her up and called 911.
"This has been a case that shocked law enforcement and citizens as well, and that intensified our effort to make an arrest. This was great police work." - San Francisco Police Chief Fred Lau
At the hospital over the next few days, SFPD officers showed Amber photographs of possible suspects. Jack was well known to the officers, but initially he didn't come to mind as a suspect so they didn't include his picture in the first two groups of photos. After Amber failed to identify anyone in those groups, the officers compiled a third group and, as an afterthought, added Jack's picture. Amber looked through the photos and when she came to Jack's she screamed and threw it across the bed.
The FBI and the SFPD staked out Jack's Bryant Street home and arrested him on Oct. 11 for attempted murder, kidnap, rape and false imprisonment, among other charges. This time he was held without bail.
D.A. Terrence Hallinan blasted the judges who had lowered Jack's bail in the other cases. "This terrible crime wouldn't have happened if our requests for higher bail were not ignored. He is a registered sex offender. He has a prison record. He was accused of raping three prostitutes and still they let him back on the street. He nearly killed this woman."
When I heard about Jack's arrest I called one of my father's former colleagues in the SFPD. He said they'd been trying to locate me to interview me about Jack but hadn't been able to find me. I explained that I'd been hiding out for the past few years. I went in and gave them a five-hour taped statement. Finally, 44 years after the molestation began, I was officially declared the victim of a violent crime.
Two months after his arrest, on Dec. 11, Jack wrote from SF County Jail, "Here it is Christmas. I'm in jail – awaiting trial – this was a terrible year for me."
"Jack Bokin is a victim of an overzealous prosecution. These women were paid for sex and they did their job." - Michael Gaines, Defense Attorney
After nearly two years of delays and legal wrangling, Jack's trial began on Aug. 3, 1999 in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge James L. Warren. From the first day, Michael Gaines, Jack's diminutive and perpetually angry defense attorney, seemed to be on a suicide mission. His opening statement to the jury was confusing and contained bold promises which would later come back to haunt him. As the trial progressed he would repeatedly lose control of his exhibits and even his own witnesses.
"The crimes were so similar it's as if he'd signed his name to them." - Prosecutor Elliott Beckelman
Assistant D. A. Elliott Beckelman is a study in contrasts. One-on-one he can come across as arrogant and ill mannered. (He's quick to explain, "I apologize if I seem rude. I'm from New York.") In front of a jury, however, he becomes a gentleman, gracious, confident, and unflappable. Most importantly, he's very smart and he does his homework. The prosecution team would not find themselves searching for lost paperwork or doing damage control.
I first met Beckelman in the hallway outside of the courtroom on the first day of trial. I have dark brown hair and I've worn it long all my life. When I approached him and introduced myself, he looked at my hair with such a startled expression that I wondered what was wrong. It turned out that all four of Jack's victims had long brown hair as well.
Throughout the prosecution phase of the trial and during his closing argument, Beckelman kept referring the jury to a large chart where he'd graphed all of the similarities between the victims and the assaults. Three of the women were prostitutes. All four had been tied up and forced to orally copulate their assailant. They'd all had their tongues sucked and chewed on. They'd all been held captive for extended periods of time. And they all gave the description of a burly man who had a high-pitched feminine voice and difficulty maintaining an erection.
"I didn't want to believe that a father would betray his home or his children like that." - Cheryl Bokin
In the defense's opening statement, Gaines acknowledged that Jack assaulted Marion but called her a "shakedown artist" who was blackmailing Jack for money by threatening to tell his wife and their two children about the affair.
In one of the worst miscalculations of the trial, Gaines subpoenaed Jack's wife Cheryl and their son and daughter and then opened the door for D.A. Beckelman to question them about Jack's affair with Marion. Cheryl testified that she and Jack "had not been sexually close for years" and that she wasn't hurt by the affair, but their children were. She trembled and sobbed as she told the jury, "I didn't want to believe that a father would betray his home or his children like that." When their 14-year-old son took the witness stand and shyly admitted to Beckelman that he loved his father and wanted to help him, it nearly brought the entire courtroom to tears. Their appearance gave the jury their first clue that Jack might really be the Jekyll & Hyde monster the victims had described.
"Desperate men have desperate measures to do desperate things. What did he have to lose?" - Prosecutor Elliott Beckelman
The nine-man, three-woman jury deliberated for more than five days. On Oct. 25, 1999 they found Jack guilty of 25 felonies in the assaults on Amber, Marion and Martha. The guilty verdicts included attempted murder, assault, rape, mayhem, sexual battery and false imprisonment. By a vote of 10-2 the jurors had been unable to reach a verdict in Janie's assault; Judge Warren declared a mistrial in that case.
Jack's sentencing was held on Jan. 14, 2000. Judge Warren advised Jack that he was facing a possible sentence of 60 years to life plus 195 years, then he called a short break. A deputy sheriff escorted Jack, now handcuffed and shackled and wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, to a holding cell behind the courtroom. When court reconvened and the deputy returned and opened the holding cell door, Jack, who had somehow managed to unlock and remove his handcuffs and leg chains, slammed the door into the deputy and ran. In the courtroom, the judge, attorneys and spectators saw a flash of orange as Jack streaked past the doorway and bolted down an exterior balcony that led directly to a fire-escape stairway.
Pandemonium erupted in the courtroom. Bailiffs, spectators, activists, reporters and even Judge Warren himself joined the chase, his robes flapping in the wind. Jack's attorney Michael Gaines put his head down on the defense table and didn't budge. Jack made it as far as the stairway door before two deputies tackled him. "I came real close to leaving this jail." he later said. It was not an exaggeration.
After the escape attempt it was revealed that shortly after Jack's conviction three months earlier, a homemade handcuff key, a map of the Hall of Justice and German passport information had been confiscated from his jail cell. Despite this clear indication that Jack was an escape risk, the SF Sheriff's Department did not elect to use the new design handcuffs (which cannot be unlocked with a standard handcuff key) when transporting Jack between the jail and the courtroom.
The Sheriff's Department announced there would be an investigation into how Jack managed to unlock his handcuffs and shackles after being placed in the holding cell, but investigators showed little interest in a TV-news videotape shot moments before that clearly shows Jack awkwardly maneuvering an object around in his mouth.
"This was an important case. It's not often you get such a righteous case, when you know there are so many victims out there and you're doing something good. I hope it sends a message." - Erin Gallagher, District Attorney Investigator
The rescheduled sentencing was held five days later on Jan. 19. The courtroom was standing room only, as if the entire city of San Francisco had turned out in case Jack made another break for it. This time he wouldn't get the chance. In a show of force that was embarrassingly a day late, SF Sheriff Michael Hennessey wasn't about to also be caught a deputy short. He stationed 11 uniformed and armed deputies inside the packed, medium-sized courtroom. Five stood shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the double doors at the rear, one guarded the single door behind Judge Warren's bench, and the remaining five formed a tight circle around Jack, who was heavily shackled and seated at the defense table. The deputy standing immediately to Jack's left never moved his eyes from Jack's face throughout the two-hour hearing; it was clear that this time they meant business.
Having already been advised of Judge Warren's tentative sentence, Gaines argued for less time on this charge and that one, splitting hairs and trying to chisel off six months here and two years there, as though it would make any meaningful difference to a 200+ year sentence. Beckelman countered each of Gaines' arguments. Judge Warren listened patiently to both then checked and re-checked his math.
Before imposing sentence, Judge Warren addressed the testimony of the four victims, calling it "as chilling as any that has come before this court. The lurid descriptions of sexual assaults, rapes, oral copulation, throwing bodies around, tying people up was simply very difficult to hear." Then helooked directly at Jack and sentenced him to 60 years to life plus 171 years. The courtroom erupted in cheers and applause and the deputies quickly led Jack away. I didn't cheer. As I watched Jack disappear through the doorway for the final time I was thinking about his mother and silently telling her, "This was for you."
Outside the courtroom after the sentencing, I introduced myself to some of the jurors and thanked them for doing what needed to be done. One of the women told me she'd been curious about my connection to the case; she'd noticed me crying when the victims testified and then again when the verdicts were read and it made her wonder which side I was on. Her comments brought home to me another terrible truth about incest: When you grow up caught between one loved and trusted family member who hurts you, and other loved and trusted family members who won't protect you, even you don't always know which side you're on.
Jack will always be part of my family. He bandaged my knees when I fell off my bike and told me jokes until I stopped crying. He taught me how to swim and how to play chess. He introduced me to philosophy, physics and Rachmaninov. He taught me all the constellations in the night sky and showed me how to make mercury dimes. He will never, and should never, have another chance at freedom but I find no joy in that, only relief for myself and deep regret that he wasted his life and shattered so many others.
In June 2000 Jack was installed in Mule Creek State Prison near Sacramento. Because of the notoriety surrounding his trial and his demonstrated potential for escape, he is housed in a "Sensitive Needs" unit reserved for the highest-security prisoners. His first parole hearing is scheduled for January 2148.
Lora Lusher's email address is: email@example.com


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Playtone partners Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman will produce with Rita Wilson and Fredrik Wikström Nicastro for Nordic major SF Studios A Man Called Ove. Hanks will also star as Ove in the comedy based on the Swedish international bestseller and the Oscar-nominated box office smash produced by SF Studios and directed by Hannes Holm.
A Man Called Ove was nominated for two Academy Awards earlier this year and was the highest-grossing foreign language film in the United States in 2016. In addition, the film was awarded with Best Comedy prize at the European Film Awards in 2016.
Fredrik Backman's debut novel became an international sensation following its 2012 publication, hitting No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List and remaining on the list for a consecutive 77 weeks. It has been translated into 43 languages.
"We are thrilled and extremely happy to have joined forces with Tom Hanks and the very successful Playtone in this project," says CEO of SF Studios Michael Porseryd. Producer Fredrik Wikström Nicastro continues, "I strongly believe that A Man Called Ove is a universal story that resonates strongly with an American and international audience. Making this film with one of the world's best and most acclaimed actors gives A Man Called Ove the best possible opportunity to once again touch the hearts of audiences worldwide."
"This story about love, tolerance and hope amplifies the qualities in movies that are hallmarks of the classic films we know and love," comments Rita Wilson. "A Man Called Ove transcended the language barrier to touch readers and audiences in ways we long for. What an honor to be part of such beautiful material."
A Man Called Ove is one of the features included in SF Studios' strategy to produce English language films for the international market based on Nordic IP and/or with Nordic talent. First out is Borg/McEnroe, starring Sverrir Gudnasson, Shia LaBeaouf and Stellan Skarsgård directed by Janus Metz (Armadillo) which just had its world premiere as the opening film of Toronto International Film Festival, and is sold to over 150 countries. It will be followed by the thriller Horizon Line written by the 10 Cloverfield Lane scribes Josh Campbell & Matt Stuecken, and I am Victor written by James Bond scribes Neal Purvis & Robert Wade, based on an upcoming novel by Jo Nesbo, to be directed by Baltasar Kormakur (Everest).
Hanks is represented by CAA.
Tom Hanks Contacts:
SF Studios Contacts:
About SF Studios
SF Studios, founded in 1919, is one of the world's oldest film companies and the leading film studio in the Nordic region. Its business includes production and distribution of feature films and TV series and the digital services SF Anytime and SF Kids Play. SF Studios has its head office in Stockholm, Sweden and subsidiaries in Oslo, Copenhagen, Helsinki and London, and is part of the leading Nordic media company Bonnier AB.
About Playtone
Hanks and Goetzman's Playtone is currently in production on Mamma Mia! 2, their sequel to the $600 million grossing 2008 original. Currently, CNN is airing Playtone's The Nineties, which was preceded on CNN by the Emmy-nominated series The Sixties, The Seventies and The Eighties. Hanks and Goetzman are also in post-production on Notes From The Field, their HBO adaptation of Anna Deavere Smith's one-woman show, and pre-production on the Hanks-starrer Greyhound, a Sony Pictures WWII drama, which Hanks also penned.

subset: commoncrawl


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Vision for Everyone... Everywhere
At BHVI, we believe that sight is a fundamental right for everyone, everywhere.
We develop new solutions for vision care, especially refractive error, and work to eliminate vision impairment and avoidable blindness, thereby improving quality of life for people in need and helping to reduce disability and poverty. We are a social enterprise. We invest any revenues resulting from our work into creating scientific solutions and developing and delivering eye care and education programs around the world.
For more than 30 years BHVI has focused on creating superior modes of vision correction for the most common eye conditions – refractive errors. Myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism are refractive errors affecting distance vision and presbyopia affects near vision. Combined, these conditions impair the vision of billions of people worldwide.
Importance of Blinking
21 May 2020 in Public Health
Vale Vincent Ang
12 May 2020 in Public Health
The global need for vision correction has created disability and a poverty-inducing health crisis worldwide. There are more than 1.22 billion people who are blind or vision impaired simply because they don't have access to an eye examination and a pair of glasses. We believe providing eye care for such an immense number of people requires an urgent and massive response.


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Arne Jakobsen Egg Chair repro
Cool and cozy contemporary Egg Chair reproduction inspired by Arne Jacobsen. This chair kind of surrounds you and you feel safe and comfortable inside. Chair has a high back rest which also provides support for your head. This is definitely one of our most comfortable chairs.
The Egg chair by Arne Jacobsen was originally designed 1958 for Radisson hotel in Denmark and to this date it's one of the most popular chair that everyone has seen and knows. The timless design and ultimate comfort will keep this chair popular for a long time
hair includes a recliner mechanism so you can choose to fix the back in upright position or loosen it to recliner mode providing perfect relaxation.
Black Egg chair is excellent for reading because the design kind of cuts you away from surrounding environment, providing perfect place to concentrate on your favourite book.
£549.00 – £590.00
All Egg chair replicas are made by highest UK contract furniture standards, including crib5, and hardwearing fabrics, providing maximum durability for home use. You can be sure that the product's construction and esthetic looks will last the test of time.
We believe that a key to successful business is a happy customer. We make returns as easy as buying. If for any reason you're not happy with the Egg chair received let us know in 14 days and we'll replace or take back the product and give you a full refund. Easy as that.
All PlushDeco Egg chair replicas are made under strict supervision and quality control providing excellent finishing and assurance that a product is made by using beautiful and durable materials. We try to keep the price of the product as low as possible while not sacrificing product quality or great customer service.
swiveling 4-star base
a recliner mechanism for extra comfort
covered with hardwearing wool fabric (45% wool, 55% polyester)
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Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of the common questions we get asked about business loans. If you're wondering about the application process, what the lenders are looking for, or how it works, you can find the answer on this page. If you have a question that isn't answered here, get in touch with a Business Finance Specialist or email firstname.lastname@example.com
How fast is it? How long will it take?
Our fastest case was completed in 1 ½ hours, from initial enquiry to funds in the business's bank account. Our record from enquiry to approval is just 7 minutes.
In our experience, the biggest factor in how quickly you'll get finance is you. Most lenders will reply quickly (within 24 hours), and your dedicated account manager will work hard to keep things moving. If you've got all the documentation ready, it's often possible to get the deal done within a day or two.
First, you'll need to give us the key details about your business and what you're looking for. This will only take a few minutes, and you can do it on our website or give us a call.
Once you've decided which lender(s) you'd like us to approach, the application time varies depending on the product and lender you're dealing with – but it always helps if you've prepared in advance!
- Lenders we work with are much faster than the banks
- Takes seconds to see your options
- Offers back within 24–48 hours for most cases
- Money in account within days if you've got documents ready
How much can I borrow?
There are many different factors that affect how much you can get approved for when applying for a business loan, and each provider has their own process for determining eligibility.
The lender will consider various factors to find out how much your business is eligible for, and it's important to know that you won't be accepted for a principle you can't afford to repay. As a rule of thumb, the maximum most providers will lend is about 10-30% of your annual turnover.
Your business's security (e.g. invoices or machinery) and profits are factored in too, and if you're looking to borrow a significant percentage of your turnover, lenders will want to see that borrowing money now will mean you generate more cash in the future.
Why not go direct?
You're welcome to go direct to a lender if you have one in mind — but we're here to make the process of finding a business loan faster and easier for you.
- We work with dozens of the UK's best lenders, so we can match you to the one that suits your requirements best
- We work with these lenders every day, so we know what they're looking for, and can pick up the phone to them whenever you need
- Not all lenders take direct applications, so to access their products you'll need to go through a broker like us
- In most cases, going through Funding Options doesn't add to the cost, and you'll get the same interest rate — or better — than going it alone
Can I repay early?
There are many ways of paying back a loan or line of credit, and the type of repayment depends on the lender. Some lenders will give you a repayment schedule with fixed monthly instalments, while others might be more flexible and accept early repayments.
Often, there's a fixed amount you have to pay back, but sometimes the repayment can vary, depending on the distribution of interest.
Some lenders allow you to make early repayments without charging a prepayment penalty. However, it's important to bear in mind that there might be extra costs if you decide to make early repayments, or even pay back all at once.
The best way to get an accurate estimate of how you can repay is to make an application with us — we can give more detailed information once we've found you the business finance that's right for you.
What's the next stage?
When you fill in the form on our website, you'll be automatically matched with more than 70 lenders by our highly rated service. Whether you're looking for business loans, commercial mortgages, invoice financing, asset leasing, growth finance or something else, we can help. We provide you a list of all the funding options that best suit your needs, ranked by match score. It takes minutes, there's no obligation, and it's easy to use.
In some cases, we'll call you to get a bit more information about your business and accurately assess your request. We'll explain what the next steps are, and we're here to help you throughout the process.
Even if you get referred straight to a lender, you can talk to us at any time ― we'll guide you through the application process and give you all the information you need to make the right decision for your business.
What's the interest rate?
Since there's a wide range of lenders offering business loans, there are also a lot of different interest rates. These interest rates vary from lender to lender, and also depend on the specifics of your business circumstances.
For standard products like secured loans, mortgages and invoice finance, the big banks are hard to beat on price because they're the biggest lenders in the market with huge economies of scale. But another of the reasons they're among the cheapest finance providers is because they won't deal with businesses they perceive as high risk — which is why many businesses get turned down.
Having said that, we can often get finance for businesses cheaper than the banks, because we work with a wide range of lenders that are suitable for companies in various situations outside the banks' typical criteria. In other words, finding a better fit for your business can often bring the cost down.
It's also important to note that many of these lenders will require less security than the high street banks, particularly for loan sizes under £300,000.
Many alternative lenders may also specialise in lending to businesses where there isn't as much information available (e.g. you haven't been trading that long, or perhaps there isn't any security available), or are serving businesses that the banks can't help.
Will my credit score be affected?
Signing up on our website, seeing your funding options, and talking to one of our Business Finance Specialists won't have an effect on your credit score. We, Funding Options, do not credit check you. However, many of the lenders we work with require a credit check as a normal part of their application process. For this reason, we may ask for your 'permission to search' to pass on to a lender in order to speed up your application and make the process as straightforward for you as possible.
You will never be credit checked by a lender we work with unless you have given your explicit consent. Personal credit checks are highly regulated, and you have rights as an individual for your personal data to be protected.
If you have any questions about credit checks and permission to search in relation to your finance enquiry, one of our team will be happy to discuss it further with you.
Do I need a personal guarantee?
A personal guarantee is an agreement between you and a lender that you're personally responsible for the loan or line of credit if your business defaults on payments. Lenders sometimes ask you to give a personal guarantee as additional security — which means they can pursue you personally if your business defaults.
You can find out more about personal guarantees and why you might consider giving one here.
You don't always need to offer a personal guarantee, but they're commonly used, particularly if you're looking for an unsecured loan or a flexible product such as revolving credit facilities.
Is my home the security?
People often confuse personal guarantees with offering security on their home – while both are common ways to secure business finance, they're not the same thing. Often, lenders want to know if you're a homeowner because that means you've been through due diligence previously (in order to get a mortgage, for example) – it doesn't necessarily mean they want a charge over your home.
Quite simply, if you're a UK homeowner it's often faster and easier for the lender to do their due diligence — and that's why they want to know. There are still lots of options for non-homeowners though.
While you don't have to offer a personal guarantee, for some businesses it can make the difference between getting finance and being rejected. Fundamentally, a personal guarantee means you agree to do your best to repay the money if things don't go to plan.
Please note, you should always read the specific terms of a personal guarantee before agreeing to anything, and you might also want to talk to a qualified lawyer.
Will this affect my future borrowing?
In our experience, the main factor that affects your future borrowing is you.
When you pay back a business loan on time, your credit score might get better because it proves that you're reliable, which in turn could have a positive affect on future loan applications. On the other hand, if your business defaults on repayments, it could harm your chances for future borrowing because lenders will see you as higher-risk.
It's also not a good idea to apply for lots of credit all at once, because this may harm your credit score. This is one reason you may choose to work with Funding Options — we can help you narrow down your options quickly, so there's no need to apply to lots of different lenders on your own.
Who are the lenders?
We're specialists in finding the right lender for your firm, so we work with more than 70 of the best providers across the UK ― from major high street banks to challenger banks, from independent lenders to smaller specialists.
Each provider is carefully selected following a due diligence process and a trial period, to ensure our panel represents the industry-leading lenders from each specialist area. We're actively doing business with the lenders on our panel, and continually reassess performance to make sure our customers receive the best service available. Quite simply, if a lender isn't delivering a great service to our customers, we will stop working with them.
How do you make money?
Using our service is completely free and no-obligation, and we don't charge our customers a fee. You can use our matching tool, look at your options, or speak to one of our Business Finance Specialists with no strings attached. If you decide to go ahead, and a lender accepts your application for finance, they pay us a commission based on our standard terms. Normally, the cost to our customers is the same as if they'd gone direct to the lender.
We're happy to disclose further commission details on request – if there's anything else you'd like to know, feel free to get in touch.
What is a profit and loss statement?
Profit and loss is one of the factors lenders will look at when assessing your loan application. The profit and loss statement summarises revenues and expenses of your company during a fiscal quarter of the year. With these records, the lender can get a bigger picture of your company's ability to generate profit.
Along with the balance sheet and the cash flow statement, the profit and loss statement is one of the standard financial statements that a lender may want to see.
What are "filed accounts"?
According to the Companies Act 2006, every company registered in the UK is obligated to provide financial documentation to Companies House every year. These accounting records usually contain:
- all money received and expended by the company
- a record of all assets and liabilities of the company
Sometimes, filed accounts are delivered by an accountant on behalf of the business owner ― if you haven't heard of filed accounts before, your accountant can give you more information, or you can find out more on the Government's website.
How do I give you my documents?
If you decide to go ahead with one of the lenders we work with, you'll usually have to provide documents like recent bank statements for the assessment of your application. We'll usually ask for your docs beforehand to assess your request as accurately as possible — then, if you decide to go ahead, we'll pass them on to the lender with your permission.
The best way to send us (or a lender) your bank statements and other docs is as a PDF (portable document format) file.
To get your bank statements as PDFs, you can usually download them from your online banking account. If you're not sure how to download your statements, get in touch with your bank.
You can then send the PDF documents in an email to your dedicated Business Finance Specialist at Funding Options.
Will you sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)?
No, we don't sign NDAs as they make it difficult for us to do our job in terms of referring businesses to lenders.
We're a regulated business, so we're obliged to maintain strict confidentiality as part of our ongoing licence to trade. In other words, you don't need to ask us to sign an NDA any more than you'd ask a GP or a Chartered Accountant to sign one. More importantly, there's nothing in a standard NDA that offers any additional confidentiality beyond our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
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text: Experience a new way to travel Experience a new way to travel on board our 787 Dreamliner from Amsterdam. Starting 1 September 2017 we will serve our route Amsterdam-Abu Dhabi permanently on five days a week with a brand new 787 Dreamliner, offering you an even more comfortable travel experience. Enjoy an Economy Class that is simply smarter with our Economy Smart Seat offering you a shoulder to lean on with a fixed wing headrest. Or stretch out in one of our Business Studios and discover a Business Class that is not business as usual.


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"The high proportion of patients who are not being treated, or are being inadequately treated, is a concern because psoriasis is much more than a cosmetic skin condition." said April W. Armstrong, lead author of the study and an associate professor of dermatology at UC Davis. "It's a serious and chronic medical disease."
Patients with psoriasis are at high risk for heart attacks, diabetes and premature death as well as joint inflammation leading to arthritis, added Armstrong, who also serves as vice chair and director of Dermatology Clinical Research Unit at UC Davis.
"Psoriasis afflicts about 7.5 million Americans and is responsible for over 11,000 cardiovascular disease deaths each year in the U.S." said Armstrong.
The disease often appears as thick, red skin with flaky, silver-white patches. An estimated 10 to 30 percent of those suffering from psoriasis develop psoriatic arthritis, which can damage the body's joints and result in physical and functional impairment.
Prescription drugs, including protein-based medications known as biologics, can help curb the excessive inflammation that underlies the skin lesions of psoriasis and that damages the joints, heart and liver of patients with the disease. The condition's abnormal inflammation associated with psoriasis results from the immune system mistakenly attacking and destroying the body's healthy tissue.
"Biologics are very effective at clearing the skin and protecting the joints against destruction, and the data from many registries show that biologics reduce a patient's risk of heart attack," said Mark G. Lebwohl, the study's senior author and professor and chair of dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.
Lebwohl, Armstrong and their research colleagues analyzed the responses of more than 5,600 randomly selected patients from 13 biannual surveys, which were conducted by the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) between 2003 and 2011.
The analyses revealed that during those years up to 49 percent of patients with mild psoriasis, up to 36 percent of patients with moderate psoriasis, and up to 30 percent of patients with severe psoriasis reported that they were not receiving any therapy for their conditions.
April Armstrong
Patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis often need systemic therapies as well as topical treatments to control their disease. However, according to the surveys, among psoriasis patients who received treatment, 30 percent of the patients with moderate psoriasis were on topical therapy alone, and 22 percent of patients with severe psoriasis were on topical treatments alone. Armstrong said that patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis are often those who require more than just topical treatments to control their psoriasis. However, many patients have difficulty obtaining adequate systemic treatment due to health-insurance constraints.
"Unfortunately, there are real barriers that prevent patients from being treated," said Lebwohl. "Nearly every practicing dermatologist in the U.S. has written a prescription that has been denied by an insurance company."
Lebwohl added that even though phototherapy is a safe and effective therapy, it is no longer widely used because of the high co-payments charged by insurance companies and their low reimbursement rates for the physician's cost of providing the treatment, According to the American Academy of Dermatology, less than a third of practicing dermatologists now offer phototherapy as a treatment option for psoriasis.
To help address the treatment challenges for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis suffers, the study's authors encourage more patient advocacy, especially directed at payers such as Medicare and insurance companies. They also emphasize the need for more patient education and awareness about the risk cardiovascular disease.
"We want payers to understand the serious medical consequences of non-treatment and under-treatment of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis," said Armstrong. "There are also psychiatric consequences to these conditions. Patients often become depressed and some even suicidal because their quality of life is so poor."
The survey also found that 50 percent of psoriasis patients and 40 percent of psoriatic arthritis patients were dissatisfied with their treatment regimens. Armstrong and her colleagues suggest that the high level of dissatisfaction may be due in part to ineffective therapies or patients not understanding that psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis are chronic diseases, with symptoms that typically come and go even during clinical treatment.
The study is titled, "Undertreatment, Treatment Trends and Treatment Dissatisfaction among Patients with Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis in the United States." In addition to Armstrong and Lebwohl, the co-authors were Andrew D. Robertson, of the National Psoriasis Foundation in Portland, Oregon; and Julie Wu and Clayton Schupp from the University of California, Davis.
Funding: The survey administration was funded by the National Psoriasis Foundation.


text: A term coined by Jonty Harrison (an antonym of 'organic' structure) which refers to formalist approaches to the structuring and spatialisation of material in the studio, in particular the musical legacy of elektronische Musik and serialism. The term refers to formalised notions of measurement and proportion. This is contrasted with the (perceptually-led) legacy of the musique concrète approach where materials themselves suggest suitable structuring and spatial (...)


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"During covid-19, certain circumstances will be in place to ensure the safety of your children as well as myself. During this time I am currently only working with one family. If you are in need of a s..." Sign Up to See Full Profile
"Hi, My name is Sarah, I am a French babysitter based in West Hollywood. I have 4 years of experience with children from 8 months to 12 yo. I am an outgoing, fun, professional, reliable and very friend..." Sign Up to See Full Profile
"Hey, I'm Christy. Currently a student for nursing at UCLA. When I'm not studying, I like to hangout with my friends, go to movies, find new places to eat and skateboard. I frequent a pet shelter near ..." Sign Up to See Full Profile
"Hello! I'm a Michigan native with a BA in Theater. I'm a full time babysitter/nanny and home organizer. Regarding my sitting experience, I was a live-in nanny for a little girl from ages 7 months to ..." Sign Up to See Full Profile
"Also.....Available for last min. date nights ! Hi my name is Claudia I have been blessed with the opportunity of helping families with their children, I am looking for a full time job, My main exp..." Sign Up to See Full Profile
"Hello my name is Maria I have about 12+ years experience working with children ages ranging from 1-12 years old, in and outside the school setting. I am CPR and First Aid certified. I have experience ..." Sign Up to See Full Profile
"Hi! I am 22 years old, graduated from Jordan High School, and am currently in college taking courses on Child Development. I recently finished courses for American Sign Language/Interpreter Training a..." Sign Up to See Full Profile
"I work currently as a behavior therapist. I work with children of all Ages primarily with severe disabilities and with diagnosed Autism or children on the spectrum. I'm really into nutrition and fitne..." Sign Up to See Full Profile
"Hello my name is Maria I am a mother of 3 children and 3 grandchildren. I love working and caring for children of all ages. I currently work at a daycare part-time for the last 19 years." Sign Up to See Full Profile
"Hi! I'm Samira. 😊 🔸I'm very kind, patient, respectful, energetic and animated. Your kids are surely in for a safe & FUN time with me! 🎉 ☑Please note that I'm happy to share my Nanny resume with ..." Sign Up to See Full Profile
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By Marty Parks
40 minutes Easy 2 Excel
Your church will love this Christmas worship experience of contemporary songs, woven together with a meaningful narration. It speaks to Christians struggling through everyday life, pointing them to the hope of Jesus.
There's a song for every taste in the creative work from Marty Parks. From a Celtic treatment of "The Infant God" to an arrangement of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" that recalls the sound of Manheim Steamroller, this piece will bring excitement to you choir and congregation.
Designed for choirs with ten to twenty members, even larger choirs with limited rehearsal time will find it useful. Any choir can present these moderately easy arrangements of popular artist songs and updated Christmas carols. With narration for a worship leader and multiple opportunities for you soloists, this versatile work is the perfect fit for you choir.
Available Products: Choral books; Listening CD; Bulk CD's (Pkg. 10); CD Preview Pak (1 per customer) ; Accompaniment CD (Split-track); Accompaniment CD (Stereo); Rehearsal CD's (SATB); Orchestration; Bulletins (Pkg. 100)
Read More


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Sun, Feb 23, 2020
Where Can I Go
Powered by: truthengaged
We welcome persons with disabilities. Our parking lot has several reserved spaces and the building is universally accessible through automated doors. Our sanctuary and most other rooms are wheelchair accessible; we have available, upon request, amplified hearing devices as well as large print Bibles and Hymnals.


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Hi Darlings! I am sure you all went out and voted yesterday and weather blue or red it is up to us to make the changes we want to see and that starts by being heard and voting.
Mr. President, Congratulations on another 4 years.
Get The Look
Express Boyfriend Jeans (similar) HERE / Zara White Textured Blazer (old) similar HERE or HERE / Old Navy Green NY Tee's HERE/ Steve Madden Nude Pumps (similar) HERE / Necklace H&M (old) / Michael Kors Handbag HERE


text:
Berry Gelatin Mold
Total TimePrep: 15 min. + chilling
Makes8 servings
- 2 packages (3 ounces each) strawberry gelatin
- 2 cups boiling cranberry juice
- 1-1/2 cups club soda, chilled
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 cup each fresh blueberries, raspberries and sliced strawberries
- Lettuce leaves
- Additional mixed fresh berries, optional
- In a large bowl, dissolve gelatin in boiling cranberry juice. Let stand for 10 minutes. Stir in club soda and lemon juice; refrigerate for 45 minutes or until partially set.
- Fold in berries. Pour into a 6-cup ring mold coated with cooking spray. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until set. Unmold onto a lettuce-lined platter; fill center with additional berries if desired.
Nutrition Facts1 slice: 131 calories, 0 fat (0 saturated fat), 0 cholesterol, 59mg sodium, 32g carbohydrate (30g sugars, 2g fiber), 3g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 1 starch, 1 fruit.
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Jul 24, 2015
I was looking for a jello mold recipe to try and this was the one I picked. It took over 3 hours to partially set to add the fruit. My jello book said you should be able to drag a spoon through it and the line should stay visible. I took it to work and everyone loved it. It is beautiful as well.
Jul 2, 2015
Wonderful recipe. Enjoyed the zip the club soda gives it. It does seem to take longer than the 45 minutes to get it to partially set, but maybe that is just my refrigerator. Just make sure to allow enough time.
Jul 3, 2010
WOW! My family loved this recipe! It's easy and fast to make, and tastes just terrific! I'll make this one again soon.
Jul 2, 2010
Super dish on a hot summer day. After chilled and set, to serve outside, I turned it over in a plastc pan, set the pan in a larger pie pan and surrounded the pan with ice cubes to keep it chilled and solic. Was a sucessful favorite, especially with the children.
Jan 1, 2010
I made this for Thanksgiving and my husband loves it so much we also had it for Christmas dinner!!
Dec 23, 2009
This has be come our new family favorite


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Defense attorney claims online discussions of cannibalism were only fetish fantasies
By Larry Neumeister and Tom Hays
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — The wife of a New York City police officer on trial on charges that he conspired to kidnap, torture, kill and eat women objected to a defense lawyer's characterization of what she saw on her husband's computer as pornography.
"It wasn't porn. That was dead people," 27-year-old Kathleen Mangan-Valle told defense attorney Julia Gatto Monday in an emotion-packed opening day of testimony that took a federal court jury in Manhattan into some of the darkest corners of sexually driven activity on the Internet. "I don't know why you keep calling that stuff porn."
The testimony came soon after a prosecutor insisted that Gilberto Valle was intent on conspiring to kidnap, kill and cook women he knew, including his wife. Gatto told jurors the 28-year-old officer wanted only to share extreme sexual fantasies on the Internet with like-minded people, some of the 38,000 registered to a website that caters to those interested in asphyxiation and cannibalism.
At times speaking through sobs and twice crying so hard that the judge ordered breaks, Mangan-Valle described coming across grisly photographs last summer on a website that was a regular stop for Valle, the baby-faced man she met in October 2009 through an Internet dating service.
Gatto tried to soften the image of her client by showing jurors pictures of a uniformed Valle and the couple's 1-year-old daughter, a moment that caused the wife on the witness stand and eventually the officer at the defense table 30 feet away to cry out amid sobs.
She asked Mangan-Valle about good times with friends the couple had shared and their wedding last June.
"The wedding was nice. The marriage was not," Mangan-Valle said.
Mangan-Valle made clear there were no mixed emotions when she told Gatto why she did not agree to speak with defense attorneys prior to the trial.
"You're representing the man who wants to kill me. No, I don't want to talk to you," she said.
A prosecutor, Hadassa Waxman, had asked her earlier to describe what she found after she put a tracking device on a computer used by her husband to see what websites he visited and what he wrote to others in emails and instant chats. She said she learned she was a target.
"I was going to be tied up by my feet and my throat slit and they would have fun watching the blood gush out of me because I was young," she said.
Mangan-Valle also discovered plans to put one friend in a suitcase, wheel her out of her building and murder her. Two other women were "going to be raped in front of each other to heighten their fears," while another was going to be roasted alive over an open fire, she said.
Valle is accused of conspiring to kidnap a woman and unauthorized use of a law enforcement database that prosecutors say he used to help build a list of potential targets. A conviction on the kidnapping count carries a possible life sentence.
The officer has claimed his online discussions of cannibalism were harmless fetish fantasies. But in opening statements on Monday, a prosecutor said "very real women" were put in jeopardy.
"Make no mistake," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall Jackson. "Gilbert Valle was very serious about these plans."
Gatto argued that her client "never intended to kidnap anyone." She added: "You can't convict people for their thoughts, even if they're sick."
Once Mangan-Valle fled her home and reported her husband's strange behavior to the FBI last year, agents uncovered "a heinous plot to kidnap, rape, murder and cannibalize a number of very real women," Jackson said.
The officer had attempted to contact potential victims, including a New York City elementary school teacher, to learn more about their jobs and residences, the prosecutor said. His Internet research also included the best rope to tie someone up with, recipes, human flesh, white slavery and chemicals that can knock someone out, Jackson said.
Gatto countered in her opening statement that there was "no proof of a crime here. The charges are pure fiction."
"It's cases like this that test bedrock principles: freedom to think, freedom to say, freedom to write," she said.
Valle had always been aroused by "unusual things" including the thought of a woman boiled down on a platter with an apple in her mouth, his lawyer said.
Valle is expected to take the stand to make the case that it was all role-playing fantasy. The defense also is planning to call experts to explain the fetish subculture and to show jurors the videotaped testimony of the fetish website's co-founder Sergey Merenkov.
Merenkov called the site "a clone of Facebook, but it is oriented to people with fetishes that are not considered standard."
Tiger Howard Devore, a psychologist and certified sex therapist who specializes in dealing with sexual dysfunction and fetishes, said the cannibalism fetish known as voreaphilia isn't common.
"For most laymen, they're going to think about it as cannibalism," Devore told The Associated Press. "But what it really is, is an obsession about consuming the flesh of the other, and this can have a whole range of expressions. ... It is mostly played out in fantasy, mostly played out in role-playing."
There are well-known criminal extremes like Jeffrey Dahmer, who saved pieces of his victims' body parts and ate the flesh, Devore said, though 'the instances of this kind of violence are extremely rare.'
Late Monday, Andria Noble, 27, a state prosecutor in Columbus, Ohio, testified that she never saw Valle to be violent when she knew him during college. She is the first of five women besides Valle's wife who prosecutors say Valle had targeted online and will testify.


text: All eyes are on the Cowboys-Giants game tonight, and Sean Payton coached for both teams before arriving in New Orleans, so I guess East Rutherford is as logical a place as any to fly this loud banner. It's not quite Franco Harris's cardboard Paterno, but it's something. [Via Ralph Vacchiano]


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Far be it for me to stand up for a Laker, but Amar'e is perpetually whining about not having another 7 footer to do the dirty work for him (that despite his size he refuses to do) and now his new thing is complaining about not having a supporting cast. Physically Amar'e is huge and should be a great defender/rebounder. He simply doesn't care on that end of the floor. Andrew Bynum came to his scrawny teammate's defense with the above tweet.
8 Responses so far.
Jenda says:
He's right, everybody knows Gasol is soft. But he is a zero defender so in no position to call out Gasol.
The Coach says:
I was in the room, it was pretty funny.
Unknown says:
first boozer was soft when he got a double double playing amare in the playoffs and now gasol is soft. amare needs to get his head on right.
JR says:
Yeah Amar'e should never call anyone soft. Also, why do people refer to Lamar Odom as a 7 footer?
tb727 says:
Gasol dominates Stoudemire all the time. Stoudemire isn't half the player Gasol is.
And Lamar Odom is 7 foot because in today's NBA Glen Davis is 6'9 and Leon Powe is 6'8 lol.
Jim Peterson, however, was a legit 6'10 lol
Three Toe says:
haha, it's not like amare denied being soft, he is just stating his opinion.
Jon L. says:
Pau Gasol is definitely soft. He is a wuss and cries about every call. Thanks to Amare for actually voicing what many fans are thinking.


text:
Horsing around at the equestrian center
As a guy who is often compared to the back end of a horse, I had always wanted to see how the other half lives. I got a chance recently when I met Frank, the mane man at Greenlawn Equestrian Center, where I had gone for a horseback riding lesson.
I was very impressed with Frank, not only because he is a retired police horse who used to work for the NYPD (if a cop show were filmed in his stall, it would be called "Law & Odor"), but because he stands 16.3 hands high (5-foot-7 at the withers, though he is more than 6 feet tall at his full height) and weighs about 1,200 pounds, roughly the size of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
At 13, Frank is too old by horse standards to be chasing bad guys, but he can still outrun the fastest human, even with a police partner -- or, in my case, an eccentric equestrian -- on his back.
According to a gallop poll conducted by trainer Hannie van Kretschmar, Frank didn't run, trot or canter during my lesson, but he did saunter, stroll and otherwise walk.
"Frank is a sweetheart," said Hannie, 24, a proud graduate of the Lookout Mountain School of Horseshoeing in Gadsden, Ala. "He's strong but gentle. And he has a good life here."
"You mean he leads a stable existence?" I asked.
"Definitely," said Hannie, adding that the same is true for all 15 of Greenlawn's horses, who eat four times a day, have late-night snacks and get their stalls cleaned twice a day.
"They also get pedicures," said Hannie, who keeps the horses' nails neatly trimmed so they can hoof it on out to give people rides.
"This is like a spa," I noted, "except it doesn't smell like one."
Hannie gave me a helmet (Frank didn't need one) and led us both outside, where I stood on a platform so I could climb aboard.
Sitting atop Frank was like being in an SUV (Saddled Utility Vehicle), with bucket seating, power steering and, considering Frank's luxurious mane, driver's-side hair bag.
"Frank is a Thoroughbred quarter horse," Hannie told me.
"If he had the other three-quarters, he'd be as big as an elephant," I retorted.
Frank snorted.
"Technically," Hannie said, "he's a dark bay Appendix gelding."
"Poor guy," I said.
"The procedure helps keep males calm," Hannie explained.
"I can just imagine," I said, wincing at the thought.
Initially, Hannie led Frank, with me in the saddle, around a covered ring. But after giving me instructions on how to handle the horse -- tugging on the reins to steer him left or right, pulling back and using voice commands to put on the brakes, directing him around orange cones, standing in the stirrups and leaning forward in a two-point position -- Hannie let me take control of Frank myself.
"You're doing an excellent job," she said as she walked alongside.
"Are you talking to me or Frank?" I asked.
"Both of you," Hannie replied.
It was clear that Frank and I had bonded. Yes, it's a guy thing (or, in his case, a former guy thing), but we hit it off beautifully.
When the half-hour lesson was over, I dismounted without breaking a leg, in which case I would have to be shot, and told Frank he was great. He shook his head.
"You're too modest," I said. Then I asked Hannie if I had the potential to be an equestrian in the next Olympics.
"Maybe," she answered. "You have three and a half years to train."
I turned to Frank and said, "Want to go for it?"
Frank didn't say nay.
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text:
by Lou Mancinelli
When the economy stalled in 2008, it was for a local woman both the mechanism that blocked her entrance into the field she longed to enter since she was a kid and a motivation for her to start her own business.
It is a business she hopes will bring together pre- and post-natal moms as well as create a community while at the same time providing the impetus for exercise.
Stroller Strides Chestnut Hill/Plymouth Meeting is a workout group designed for pregnant moms and moms of newborns that incorporates babies in their strollers. It will celebrate its Chestnut Hill grand opening Tuesday, May 7, on the river trail in Valley Green at Northwestern Avenue and Forbidden Drive outside the Cedars House Cafe from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The program gathers moms in groups and gets them running while pushing their babies in strollers sturdy enough to keep going. During the running every so often there will be a pause. Then it's time perhaps for jumping jacks or triceps curls with a resistance band. Then it's back on the run again, then more calisthenics. Repeat.
"I think this is a challenge all moms face," said Jacqueline Walsh, 28, a Mt. Airy resident who will launch the program and run it with her daughter, Lyla, who turned one year old this month. "How can these women, how can I, maintain physical fitness when we have these babies we can't take to gym daycare or don't want to take to gym day care?"
Walsh has been physically active all her life. She competed in gymnastics through high school and continued a workout regimen through college and afterwards. She was fit enough to pass the FBI physical screening tests she faced during its long hiring process, but more on that later. When Walsh had her baby, her ability to stay fit, a top priority for her, was challenged.
"I didn't have any options," said Walsh. She moved to Mt. Airy with her husband last summer. Walsh was raised in Tempe, AZ. She moved to the east coast a few years earlier to attend law school at Villanova, which she completed in 2009. That is where she met her husband, Kevin, who now practices as a corporate lawyer. He is from Ohio.
So if Walsh wanted to go running or to the gym, there was no family around to help her watch her baby. Besides that, a complication during birth had prohibited her from exercising for a short while. Compound that with being so new in the neighborhood, and Walsh wondered what her options were. She learned about Stroller Strides and attended a few classes in Center City.
"I was like 'This is it,'" said Walsh. It was a great way to meet other moms while exercising. She took her first classes in August. But she knew the morning drive downtown would frustrate her ability to attend class. She looked online and found Stroller Strides, a franchise. She wondered whether the program would work in Northwest Philly. There were certainly enough new mothers, it seemed.
"Do you think I could do this?" she asked her husband.
It happened fast. One thing led to the next, and come October she was participating in the program's application and fitness certification process. She launched the Plymouth Meeting arm of her Stroller Strides program in February. The Stroller Strides program is one of many under the umbrella company that recently changed its name to Fit4Mom.
Originally Walsh's career plan was to become an FBI agent or an attorney. She was two years into the FBI hiring process, beginning in 2009, when the agency instituted a hiring freeze caused by the faltering economy.
It had also been that stumbling economy that aggravated Walsh's search for an attorney position in the Philadelphia metro area. She was an Arizona State University psychology graduate with a master's degree in health administration from the University of Phoenix in Phoenix, and she passed the Pa. state bar exam in 2009 but could not find a paid position as an attorney. (She does do pro bono legal work and was named to the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania 2010 Pro Bono Roll of Honor.)
Regarding Stroller Strides, the benefits for exercise during and after pregnancy are well documented. Exercise during pregnancy can ease or prevent back pain and other discomforts, according to the Mayo Clinic. It can boost energy, prevent excess weight gain, reduce the risk of gestational diabetes, pregnancy-related high blood pressure and postpartum depression.
"I haven't had a mom in my class who felt like she was in shape," said Walsh.
For more information, visit Stroller Strides on Facebook, or at firstname.lastname@example.com or chhillplymeet.fit4mom.com.