People familiar with Gypsies question Baker's story

Published online on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009

Gypsies have lived for more than a century in the shadows of American society, their culture hidden from outsiders.

Some are law-abiding Gypsies who, while proud of their heritage, conceal it out of fear of discrimination. Some follow traditions of bilking the gullible through insurance scams or other forms of fraud.

But even Gypsies who have operated on the wrong side of the law, as well as those who prosecute them or observe their community, say they were dumbfounded by the allegation that Gypsy families took money from a former Madera County supervisor in exchange for sexual contact with a 13-year-old girl.

Harry Baker, 81, who owns Sierra Telephone Co. based in Oakhurst, is charged with molesting a young girl in Fresno and also faces a potential molestation charge in Las Vegas. Authorities say Baker was videotaped fondling the girl in a Fresno hotel room in May 2007. Baker, whose lawyer said he was too ill to appear in court Wednesday, denies that his contact with the girl was sexual and claims the girl's family demanded $250,000 in an extortion scheme.

Johnny Sterio, a former Fresno resident who said he was at one time part of a Gypsy family involved in insurance fraud, said he was shocked by the allegation that Gypsies are offering teenage girls for sexual favors.

For Sterio, it's personal. He said his daughter told him she was molested by Baker in a Las Vegas hotel room when she was 13, also in 2007. Nevada authorities confirm that Baker is a suspect in a sexual assault investigation.

Rick Berman, Baker's lawyer, said his client denies Sterio's allegation and contends that it's another attempt by Gypsy families to get money from Baker.

He describes Sterio as a convicted Gypsy scam artist. "This is just another Gypsy jumping on the bandwagon. It's been two years and there is no credible evidence of this happening," Berman said.

Berman said he expects Sterio will file a civil lawsuit against Baker.

Using young Gypsy girls to make money through sexual favors "is very unusual," said Anne Sutherland, an author and professor from the University of California, Riverside, who has researched Gypsy life for 40 years.

Girls are sometimes married soon after they reach puberty, but to sell their sexual services would be against Gypsy codes, she said. The girls, Sutherland said, should be virgins when they are married.

Some destitute Gypsy families in Europe have used girls in prostitution, Sutherland said. But she said this allegation was the first she has heard of something similar happening in the U.S.

Greg Ovanessian, a fraud inspector with the San Francisco Police Department, said he also was surprised by the allegation because such behavior in traditional Gypsy families would cause the young girls to become outcasts.

If girls are touched sexually by an outsider they are called marime, a term for impurity, Ovanessian said.

"It was absolutely unheard of for any outsider to touch or have a liaison with a Gypsy girl," he said.

Enslaved, persecuted

Gypsies, also known as Roma, are descendants of clans that left India in the 1300s. For centuries, Gypsies were enslaved and persecuted as they moved from Asia into Europe, where they were described as nomads, thieves and scam artists. They initially were thought to be Egyptians, the derivation for the word Gypsy.

Their civil rights were revoked in Germany, which opened an office in 1936 to "combat the Gypsy nuisance." It was not long before they were being shipped to concentration camps. During World War II, the Nazis killed up to 500,000 Gypsies.