Scott Filippi

"I remember a lot of dark rooms...a lot of hitting...and a lot of crying. No lights, just smack! and locked into a dark room."

While this may sound to some like a description of a night in jail, this is Scott Filippi's earliest recollection of his childhood. The physical and psychological torture in Filippi's life, much of it administered at the hands of his mother, built to a crescendo when he was 16 and culminated in him shooting and killing his mother. Filippi then made a remarkable transformation from a profoundly abused child, through the juvenile justice system, emerging as a soldier on the elite Presidential Honor Guard and later becoming a successful businessman.

There is no account of Scott Filippi's childhood—his physical abuse and his psychological torture—that isn't profoundly disturbing. According to court records, Filippi and his sister were abused so badly that his sister lost her hearing and sight. Filippi was sexually abused by a stranger, learned of his sister's sexual abuse at the hands of his stepfather, and walked in on his mother being unfaithful to his stepfather on several occasions. Filippi was beaten with a two-by-four and belts, was punched and kicked and thrown down the stairs and across rooms. This period of abuse spanned from before Filippi entered kindergarten until the time of his arrest.

Filippi was born to Jerilei Rakin (mother) and Lori Filippi (father) in 1970. Jerilei was 16 at the time of Filippi's birth, and Lori was 17. The Filippi household was in chaos right from the start. Filippi's earliest remembrances include his parents screaming at one another and throwing objects around the house. According to school records, unexplained bruises and breaks began appearing on both Filippi and his younger sister Tyanna during this time. His parents' relationship ended in 1973 when Lori was fired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for being physically abusive to suspects.

As bad as things were when Lori Filippi was in the home, they got much worse after he left. Jerilei refused to let the children have any contact with their father, returning gifts and letters that Lori sent for years after the break up. Worse still, when Filippi was age four, Jerilei married a vicious man, Paul Furta, who constantly bloodied Filippi and Tyanna. Child Protective Services was frequently called to the home. The psychological trauma caused by Furta's physical and sexual abuse of Tyanna was so extensive she experienced temporary sight and hearing loss.

Scott was beaten with a two-by-four and belts, was punched and kicked and thrown down stairs and across rooms. This abuse began before Filippi entered kindergarten and continued until an arrest in his teens put an end to his nightmare.

Tyanna was removed from her mother's home to live with her aunt when Filippi was eight years old. "Then," Filippi reports "he turned his attention to me." Filippi was petrified over the next four to five years. "I spent my whole childhood being scared to death of every adult around me."

Filippi relates that he was either completely ignored or abused by his mother and Furta. His mother told Filippi he was "worthless" and "a good-for-nothing" more times than he can remember. And Furta beat him regularly.

"One time when I was in the third grade," Filippi recalls, "my teacher told Paul and my mother that I had skipped school. When we got home, I ran right up into my room, crying all the time, knowing what was coming. Paul just charged up the stairs. I was in the upper bunk of my bed when he started wailing on me with his belt and yelling at me. He hit me over and over and eventually knocked me out of bed. He began kicking me and kept on beating me with the belt. It seemed like it lasted forever. Eventually, he just dropped the belt, and said something sarcastic like it looks like 'it made a good impression,' because of all the bloody welts on me. Then he walked out of the room. I was bloody from my head to my knees. My mother just walked in and said 'you better take a shower and get cleaned up.'"

Juvenile hall court records: "He was in a serious state of shock and for several days was unable to do anything but shake and cry. . . . He is very sad and tearful when questioned about this offense."

"My mother knew what Paul was doing to me and worse, what he was doing to my sister, and she never did anything to protect us," Filippi remembers.

In 1980, Filippi secretly began to contact his father to arrange to move in with him in Colorado. Jerilei had been keeping Filippi and Lori apart since the divorce, and she was enraged that Filippi had contacted him. When Lori came from Colorado to visit Filippi, Jerilei hid him.

Filippi was eventually able to move in with his father for a short time. On the day he left, his mother's last words were "get out of here." She refused to talk with him on the phone or answer his letters. Lori admits he too physically abused Filippi. Lori Filippi punched his son in the stomach until he couldn't breathe, and once threw him down a flight of stairs in a fit of rage. Filippi was returned to his mother who promised to turn over a new leaf.

A year later, Jerilei began dating and then married Bruce Lee. Although Lee was not as abusive as Furta, he occasionally beat Filippi at the request of Jerilei, hitting him with a two-by-four on one occasion. Jerilei and Bruce also provided Filippi and his sister with little in the way of material necessities, with the two teenagers having only three pairs of shirts and pants to their name. In order to be able to afford to buy himself some new clothes, Filippi obtained several different after-school jobs.

Filippi's work and other outside activities immediately became the source of severe strain between his mother and him in the fateful summer of 1986. Filippi got a job on the Santa Cruz boardwalk, where Jerilei would visit and loudly tell other patrons how bad the service (provided by Filippi) was. She periodically demanded that Filippi leave work immediately, eventually resulting in his firing.

Jerilei also cut Filippi off from girlfriends and other activities. She told the first girl Filippi brought home that "you could do a lot better than him." In order for Filippi to join the school band, the principal and the band leader had to come to Filippi's house to implore Jerilei on his behalf. When she came to one of his concerts and ordered Filippi to leave immediately, he was kicked off the band.

Filippi's Uncle JT saw what was happening and tried to get Filippi over to his house periodically for odd jobs, just to give him a break. But in the summer of 1986, Uncle JT had taken ill suddenly and died. At his wit's end, Filippi repeatedly attempted to return to his father. About a month before his mother's death, right after his uncle died, Filippi ran away from home, called his father and said he couldn't stand it at his mother's home any longer. His father wired him a plane ticket and spoke with Jerilei about sending Filippi's clothes with him. Jerilei told her ex-husband that she didn't care if Filippi died. She bagged all of his clothes and threw them in the town dump. In an act of unspeakable vengeance, she even killed Filippi's pet hamster. But when the plane was about to leave, Jerilei apologized and told Filippi that she loved him. Filippi instantly canceled his trip. "When she told me she loved me, that's all I needed to hear," he remembers.

No sooner had Filippi decided to stay than things between his mother and him deteriorated. In the next two weeks, Filippi called his father three times, each time sounding more disillusioned. Finally, on the Saturday before the killing, Filippi implored his father to let him live with him. Lori reprimanded his son and told him to wait until the end of the semester before moving.

"The Army, Juvenile Hall, Oakendell—I think I did well in all of them because they offered me structure without the abuse. The attention to detail the Honor Guard required of me was easy compared to what I had been through at home."

On October 6, 1986, when Filippi was 16, he came home from school and started to wash, wax and vacuum his mother's car. The whole time he was working on her car, she was glaring at him and criticizing him. When he was finished, she swore at him, complaining that he hadn't spent enough time on it, and ordered him to do it again. Filippi still chokes when he talks about what happened next. "All of a sudden, she just started going off on me, telling me she hated me and she didn't love me," Filippi relates. "Just going off. I ran upstairs, I grabbed a 22, one of Bruce's....I just wanted her to listen, just to stop yelling at me and listen." Filippi fired once, killing his mother, and immediately ran out into the yard.

When Lee returned later that day, Filippi wanted to tell him what happened. But as Lee walked up the steps, Filippi grabbed a two-by-four and struck him once on the shoulder. "What did you do that for?" Lee protested. "I killed mom," was Filippi's reply. "And I want you to kill me. I want to die."

Filippi then ran away from his home and flagged down a passing patrol car on a nearby highway. His confession to the police officer resulted in Filippi's first and only arrest.

By the time Filippi arrived at juvenile hall, records recount "he was in a serious state of shock and for several days was unable to do anything but shake and cry and seemed to be unable to even comprehend that anyone was in the room with him or speaking to him....He is very sad and tearful when questioned about this offense. He states that he only wishes he had gone to live with his father on the Saturday before the shooting so that it would have never happened."

Throughout Filippi's life, he had tried desperately to please his mother by doing his chores and cleaning his room to perfection so as to avoid abuse. Filippi's perfectionism now began to serve him well. He excelled in the regimen of juvenile hall, despite the trauma he had undergone and the series of pending legal dramas he was facing. The case made headlines in the local papers and the District Attorney quickly decided to ask the court to try Filippi as an adult despite numerous verified accounts of his abuse. Since transfer to adult court in California is done at the discretion of the court, as opposed to the district attorney, as is the case in Florida, Filippi still had a chance of staying in the juvenile system.

Judge William Kelsey, appointed to the Superior Court by Governor Ronald Reagan, heard lengthy testimony about the abuse Filippi had endured and about his potential for rehabilitation. Judge Kelsey not only retained Filippi in the juvenile court but made the unusual move of stopping Filippi's trial in the middle of the proceedings, rendering a verdict of manslaughter, and sentencing Filippi to a long-term, highly structured therapeutic placement.

Filippi thrived in the Oakendell residential treatment facility where he spent the next 21 months undergoing a strict regimen of psychological treatment. Filippi also began to work for the office of the California Human Development Corporation helping low-income people find jobs and making sure that shut-ins continued to have heat and other utilities. With his meticulous attention to detail, Filippi rose quickly to the position of project director.

Filippi remained in the Northern California area after completing the Oakendell program and continued to work with the Human Development Corporation. After he was laid off due to budget cuts, he enrolled in the United States Army. Again, Filippi's perfectionism served him well. Based on his testing scores and his performance in boot camp, Filippi was recruited for a position in the Presidential Honor Guard assigned to guard President George Bush. This is an elite military corps which stresses perfection in dress, comportment and behavior and is both a highly competitive and disciplined unit.

"The Army, Juvenile Hall, Oakendell—I think I did well in all of them because they offered me structure without the abuse," he says. "The attention to detail that the Honor Guard required of me was easy compared to what I had been through at home."

Filippi served honorably in the United States Army. After discharge in 1992, he began working for a Mercedes-Benz Dealership in Southern California. He rose quickly through the ranks there, becoming the finance director in 1995 and the sales director in 1998. Filippi is currently engaged to be married, and plans to write a book about his life experiences. Reflecting on his life and current efforts to automatically try kids like himself in adult criminal court, Filippi thinks that is a bad idea.

"Jailing kids with adults isn't just bad for juveniles, it's bad for society as a whole," he says. "Far from getting the guidance and counseling which enabled me to become a productive citizen, kids in adult jails learn their lessons from violent criminals. I, and others like me, are living proof that prevention and rehabilitation programs are the best tools for deterring crime."

"I know that after reading this, people may view me differently. But when I was 16 and facing a life sentence in adult prison, I swore that if I could help others get the same consideration I had, I would do it. I am grateful for the chance I was given to make a new start, and hope other young offenders get the same chance."