Warning: This article talks about child abuse and rape that might upset some readers.
A man who watched his father kill the person who raped him on live TV has talked about their broken relationship, how he felt seeing it happen, and what he plans to do next.
When Jody Plauché started taking daily karate lessons with his teacher, his parents were happy that he was getting out of the house and starting a new activity.
But at just 11 years old, his parents didn’t know that this man was hurting and raping their son.
Jeff Doucet, who was 25, taught karate to Jody and his brothers and sisters in 1983. Almost a year later, something terrible would happen to the fifth-grade boy.
Doucet groomed and raped Jody starting in March 1983, but on February 14, 1984, things got even worse for the boy and his parents.
On this day, Doucet was supposed to appear in court for fraud. Scared, he made a plan to leave the area so he could keep hurting Jody.
After asking Jody’s parents if he could take the boy for a short 15-minute drive, the karate teacher instead drove almost 2,000 miles to a motel in Anaheim, California.
After searching across the country, police found Jody on February 29 when Doucet let him use the phone to call his mother.
While Jody was returned to his parents on March 1, Doucet was brought back to Louisiana to face trial on March 16.
Gary Plauché, Jody’s dad, found out that Doucet would be arriving at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport after an employee of local TV station WBRZ told him.
So he went to the airport, hid his face under a baseball cap, and pretended to use a payphone while waiting for the teacher to pass by, along with police and camera crews.
Soon after, with the WBRZ camera crew ready, the father pulled out a gun and shot the teacher in the head at close range.
This moment, which was shown on live TV, was seen by Jody, who later said he felt angry at his father for killing his abuser.
Doucet fell into a coma but later died. Gary was charged with second-degree murder.
However, when Gary pleaded no contest to manslaughter, he was given a seven-year suspended sentence, five years of probation, and 300 hours of community service, with no time in prison.
Jody, who recently talked about what happened, said that even though his dad became a national hero for killing his abuser, he felt somewhat sad and emotional, and he didn’t want his teacher to die.
He also wrote a book called “Why Gary Why?: The Jody Plauché Story,” named after what police officers said to his dad right after arresting him at the airport.
Gary answered: “If it were your child, you would have done the same thing.”
Jody told The Sun Online that he would have preferred his abuser to stay in jail, saying: “At first I was upset with what my father did because at age 11 – I just wanted Jeff to stop and not necessarily be dead.”
He later said: “Jeff would have likely gone to prison for the rest of his life, but Daddy gave him the easy way out.”
About how Americans felt toward his dad, he said: “I think for many people who haven’t been satisfied by the American justice system, my dad stands as a symbol of justice.”
“My dad did what everybody says they would do, yet only a few have actually done it. Plus, he didn’t go to jail.”
“That said, I cannot and will not approve of his behavior. I understand why he did what he did.”
“But it’s more important for a parent to be there to help support their child than put themselves in a position to be prosecuted.”
Eventually, he was able to talk to his dad about it. His dad told him that he believed that “one of them, if not both of them, was going to die that night” and that he had “nothing to lose.”
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to talk to someone privately about the safety of a child, the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and takes calls from all over the United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
Male Survivors Partnership is available to help adult male survivors of sexual abuse and rape. You can contact them on their website or on their free helpline 0808 800 5005, open 9am–8pm Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays; 8am–8pm Tuesdays and Thursdays; 10am–2pm Saturdays.