Sarah Jo Pender - "Female Charles Manson" Label

"Female Charles Manson" Label

In 2002, during her trial, Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Larry Sells likened Sarah Pender to a "Female Charles Manson" to describe her alleged influence over Richard Hull. At the time, this comparison was relayed by the media on several occasions and it has regularly resurfaced since in the online media. Supporters of Sarah Pender claim that this comparison is inappropriate because Sarah Pender did not plan, commit or pressure Richard Hull into murdering Tricia Nordman and Andrew Cataldi. They claim that even if Sarah Pender had been involved in planning the murders, the comparison would be grossly exaggerated; Charles Manson was a guru with a juvenile offender record and a psychiatric history who led several members of his sect to commit several murders on several occasions over a period of several months.

In 2008 and during his trial, Scott Spitler explained that he had been manipulated by Sarah Pender. At the time of the escape, Indiana Department of Correction Commissioner Edwin Buss told the media that Pender had "Manipulated him to the point where to get a vehicle inside the facility and take her outside the facility." Detectives said that she had first seduced, then coerced, Spitler into helping her to escape. Interviewed by America's Most Wanted, Larry Sells said one more time about Pender that "Lurking within is a dark evil demon she has the ability to seduce people into committing atrocious acts she has a Charles Manson-like ability to manipulate people." The America's Most Wanted website made a particularly dramatic depiction of Sarah Pender, labeling her a "cunning and dangerous fugitive" and asking viewers to call "before she has the opportunity to kill again." It said that "Pender used her body to get what she desired most -- Freedom" The show talked about "her manipulative ways".

Sarah Pender has written that "the media, including "America's Most Wanted", has selectively used facts in order to manipulate the viewers to believe I am a degenerate, dangerous criminal in return for sensational story and higher ratings under the guise of bringing justice." Supporters of Sarah Pender claim that Scott Spitler was aware of the media depiction of Sarah Pender and used it to minimize his responsibility. They point out that Spitler did not act out of a misguided love for a femme fatale when he helped Sarah Pender to escape Rockville Correctional Facility : he was expecting a $15,000 payment for his services, a fact that the media did not report neither during Pender's escape, nor before or during or after Spitler's trial. Sarah Pender's supporters further point out that the relationship between Pender and Spitler was not an exception at Rockville. Two months after her escape, in October 2008, Roger Heitzman, another correctional officer at Rockville, was arrested by the state police for trafficking and engaging in sex acts with at least one female inmate. Because the case was not high profile, no one claimed Heitzman was a victim manipulated by the inmate involved. Supporters of Sarah Pender finally claim that the Department of Correction had also an interest in exaggerating Pender's abilities in order to minimize media damage and their own responsibilities. The Rockville Correctional Facility's hiring policy had already gotten bad media publicity in February 2008 when it was revealed that mass murderer Steven Kazmierczak had been hired there in 2007 to work as a correctional officer. The fact that the guard posted at the gate did not search Spitler's vehicle on the day of the escape as he should have, Scott Spitler's behaviour, Roger Heitzman's arrest, the hiring of psychopath Steven Kazmierczak are elements that clearly pointed out problems within the institution which, when considered, had little to do with Pender's personality. Supporters of Sarah Pender point out that she committed no violence of any kind in planning or executing her escape.

Supporters of Sarah Pender claim that if anything, far from being manipulative, Sarah Pender has often been used by a variety of people as a convenient scapegoat to elude their own responsibilities in crimes or errors they committed, or used in the media as a means to get high ratings and better copy for their newspapers.