ODIN RATHNAM
A Collection of News Media
I plan to update this collection of news articles on Odin Rathnam, the former concertmaster of the Harrisburg Symphony. Given that I know so many people who know him, have worked with him, and are “Facebook friends” with him, I have to ask: what was he like?
If I’m missing any articles you think I should add, please let me know.
July 25, 2024
(Click the link above for the original Facebook post.)
𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘
𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐠 𝐒𝐲𝐦𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐲 𝐀𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝
"A violinist and former concertmaster of the Harrisburg Symphony has been charged with multiple felonies for sexually abusing a child starting when she was 6 years old and continuing until she was 17 years old, according to court documents obtained by Daily Voice.
Odin J. Rathnam, 58 of Sheffield Lake, Ohio, was arrested at his home on a warrant by the Lower Paxton Bureau of Police in connection with the sexual assaults which happened "throughout Dauphin County and other areas of Pennsylvania between 2008 and 2019," as stated in a police release. "
I linked to the following article at the Daily Voice.
PA Concertmaster's Alleged Rape Of Young Girl Detailed In Disturbing Affidavit
A violinist and former concertmaster of the Harrisburg Symphony has been charged with multiple felonies for sexually abusing a child starting when she was 6 years old and continuing until she was 17 years old, according to court documents obtained by Daily Voice.
07/25/2024 3:27 p.m.
Odin J. Rathnam, 58 of Sheffield Lake, Ohio, was arrested at his home on a warrant by the Lower Paxton Bureau of Police in connection with the sexual assaults which happened "throughout Dauphin County and other areas of Pennsylvania between 2008 and 2019," as stated in a police release.
**WARNING: The Details Of This Case Are Disturbing, Scroll To The Bottom To Read The Charges**
The victim came forward about the abuse at the age of 22 after being diagnosed with a prolapsed vagina, among other medical issues, due to the first rape tearing her vaginal wall into her rectum, which she hid using her older sister's menstrual pads but it never fully healed as the rapes continued, as detailed in the affidavit by Detective Jeffrey Corcoran citing the woman's gynecologist.
The abuse was not limited to rape, it included oral sex and digital penetration, as stated in the affidavit. The woman explained that these incidents often happened on the couch under a blanket in the common area of the family home or Rathnam's home with her brother and sister present, as explained in the affidavit.
Sexual assaults also happened outside of the home, including by the church at Fort Hunter that overlooks the Susquehanna River – these assaults happened after he performed in concerts with the Harrisburg Symphony, according to the affidavit.
After coming forward to the police, legal recordings were made of the woman confronting Rathnam in phone calls. He allegedly confessed in the calls but blamed alcohol, Rathnam previously pleaded guilty to Recklessly Endangering Another Person in Driving Under the Influence Court in Pennsylvania in 2015, records show.
**WARNING: The Above Details Are Disturbing**
For this case, Rathnam has been charged with the following according to the police and confirmed by court documents:
Felony Rape of Child (three counts).
Felony Rape of Child - Serious Bodily Injury (three counts).
Felony Indecent Assault Person Less than 13 Years of Age (three counts).
Felony Aggravated Indecent Assault of Child (three counts).
Misdemeanor Indecent Exposure (three counts).
Felony Unlawful Contact With Minor - Sexual Offenses (three counts).
Misdemeanor Corruption of Minors.
Felony Corruption Of Minors - Defendant Age 18 or Above.
Felony Statutory Sexual Assault: 11 Years Older.
Felony Corruption Of Minors - Defendant Age 18 or Above.
Misdemeanor Indecent Assault of a Person Less 16 Years of Age.
Misdemeanor Indecent Assault-Without the Consent Of Other.
Felony Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse With A Person Less Than 16 Years Age.
Felony Unlawful Contact With Minor - Sexual Offenses.
Felony Corruption Of Minors - Defendant Age 18 or Above.
Misdemeanor Indecent Assault with a Person Less 16 Years Age.
His preliminary hearing was held before Judge Wendy Grella at 10:37 a.m. on Wednesday, July 24, according to his latest court docket. He remains in the Dauphin County Prison after being denied bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled before Judge Grella at 9 a.m. on July 29.
Rathnam was the concertmaster with the Harrisburg Symphony for 21 years and went on to work at Cleveland State University, according to numerous sources. Neither organization currently employs him.
Anyone with information regarding this case or Rathman has been asked to contact Detective Jeffery Corcoran with the Lower Paxton Bureau of Police at 717-657-5656 or email jcorcoran@lowerpaxton-pa.gov.
Editor's Note: To clarify, the victim was not a student of Rathnam's
JULY 25, 2014
WORDS FROM KATELIN ROSE COLEMAN IN RESPONSE TO MY POST (SHARED ON HER OWN PUBLIC FACEBOOK):
Jesus fucking Christ, there is no punishment that could ever be severe enough for a despicable unrepentant monster like this, but I read somewhere that the mandatory minimum sentence for conviction on the most serious counts (rape of a child causing bodily harm) is only 10 fucking years.
People who commit financial crimes routinely get longer sentences than that.
What the actual fuck is wrong with the justice system, that an adult who rapes a child so badly that they seriously injure them in the process, only deserves a minimum sentence of 10 years?
No one "accidentally" rapes a 6-year-old, and frankly, what the fuck does it even matter if such a vile person could be "rehabilitated"? Who gives a shit about a fucking rapist pedophile's "redemption arc"? The sentencing in these cases should revolve around what brings the victim the safety and peace they need to heal and move forward with their lives in some semblance of security, and if that means the rapist is put away for life, then good. Maybe the rapist should have fucking thought about that before raping a child repeatedly for over a decade, so invasively that she has lifelong internal injuries.
Absolutely fucking despicable. A bullet is too good for this piece of shit.
But apparently our symphony orchestras are not!
Yes, a person with an absolutely heinous secret like this could come from any walk of life. But the evidence is extraordinarily clear that classical music is something of a "Catholic church" of an institution when it comes to sexual abuse; this guy is actually not that much of an outlier, given the horrific track record of people like, say, James Levine, Charles DuToit, Mikhail Pletnev, the countless instructors and professors at music schools who have been found to be grooming, raping and extorting students for sex (which, to be clear, is rape). What about that horn player who would set up fake real estate viewings in every city he toured in, in order to beat, subdue and rape female real estate agents, like, full-on "armed stranger with a mask on", violent serial rapist, gold-standard "bad guy" rape? How about Dale Clevenger? Placido Domingo?
Is it a coincidence that it is THAT easy for me to come up with a [very much non-exhaustive] list of serial rapists and pedophiles off the top of my head, ALL of whom enjoyed (and in some cases, continue to enjoy) very decorated standing within our classical music community? Does the fact that, for the sake of brevity, I didn't include anywhere close to all of the names I could actually think of off the top of my head, mean anything? Does our poor little industry just have inexplicably bad luck?
Are you still hiding in what slivers of shadows of doubts you can find, like a fucking coward, to avoid facing the truth?
July 25, 2024 Video of Coverage from WHTM - abc27 News
July 24, 2024 Fox43
Former Harrisburg Symphony musician charged with multiple felony counts of child rape, audio recordings released
According to police, Odin J. Rathnam, 58, was arrested at his Ohio home on a warrant issued by the Lower Paxton Bureau of Police on the charges of rape of a child.
Credit: Dauphin County Prison
Author: Leah Hall
Published: 4:54 PM EDT July 24, 2024
Updated: 4:37 PM EDT July 25, 2024
DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. — A former member of the Harrisburg Symphony has been arrested and charged with multiple felonies for sexual abuse against a child for over a decade.
Odin J. Rathnam, 58, from Sheffield Lake, Ohio, has been charged with three counts of rape of a child, three counts of rape of a child- serious bodily injury, three counts of indecent assault of a person less than 13 years old, three counts of aggravated indecent assault of a child, three counts of indecent exposure, three counts of unlawful contact with a minor- sexual offenses, two counts of corruption of minors, unlawful contact with a minor- sexual offenses, statutory sexual assault and various additional corruption of minors and indecent assault charges.
According to the Lower Paxton Township Police Department, Rathnam was arrested at his Ohio home on a warrant issued by the Lower Paxton Bureau of Police on the charges of rape of a child, and multiple other sexual offenses, against a child under the age of 10 that happened over the course of several years in multiple locations throughout Dauphin County and other areas of Pennsylvania between 2008 and 2019.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, the victim suffered numerous physical/medical issues following Rathnam's abuse.
Over the course of the investigation, multiple conversations were legally recorded between Rathnam and the victim. FOX43 obtained the recordings, where Rathnam largely didn't directly acknowledge or denied the alleged assaults.
However, when the victim further pressed him, Rothman blamed addiction and heavy drinking on his alleged actions.
When the victim brought up the idea of taking her story to the police and asked Rathnam how he would react, he said, "No matter what I do, there's still things that could come out [and] ruin me. I can't undo the past of my life, all I can do is try to move forward now and do good."
The victim then said that going to the police would be the right thing for herself and any other potential victims of Rathnam's.
“I did not do this anywhere else and it stopped between us,” Rathnam said in the recordings.
In the third and final released recording, Rathnam told the victim that he remembered "wrongs" and "inappropriate physical contact" that happened between them.
An online biography states that Rathnam served as concertmaster with the Harrisburg Symphony for 21 years.
Most recently, Rathnam worked at Cleveland State University, who issued the following statement regarding Rathnam's charges:
Cleveland State University has been made aware by authorities in Pennsylvania of an investigation into allegations of sexual assault against Odin Rathnam in Pennsylvania and Northeast Ohio. According to law enforcement, these allegations do not involve a CSU student, nor did the alleged incidents happen on CSU's campus.
Rathnam is no longer employed at Cleveland State, and the University will fully cooperate as needed with authorities in Pennsylvania and Sheffield Lake as they investigate.
Rathnam is currently at Dauphin County Prison and his bail was reportedly denied. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 29.
Anyone with information regarding this case or Rathman has been asked to contact Detective Jeffery Corcoran with the Lower Paxton Bureau of Police at 717-657-5656 or email jcorcoran@lowerpaxton-pa.gov.
July 25, 2024 Violin Channel
Violinist Odin Rathnam Arrested and Charged with Raping a Child
3 MIN READ
According to the Lower Paxton Township Police Department, the violinist is charged with multiple felony counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 10
Violinist Odin Rathnam, 58, was arrested at his residence in Sheffield Lake, Ohio, earlier this month. The Lower Paxton Bureau of Police reports that the charges against Rathnam include the "rape of a child, and other sexual offenses, against a child under the age of 10." The offenses allegedly occurred over several years in multiple locations throughout Dauphin County and other areas of Pennsylvania between 2008 and 2019.
According to PennLive, the victim reported the abuse in May and alleged that she suffered injuries from the sexual assaults and that she has ongoing medical issues.
Cleveland.com reported that Rathnam recently appeared before a Lorain County judge for an extradition hearing. An attorney for Rathnam was not listed in the Pennsylvania court filings, and there is no longer a contact page on Rathnam's website.
Rathnam is a former concertmaster of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, in Pennsylvania, and a former violin instructor at the Cleveland State University.
A representative of the Harrisburg Symphony told The Violin Channel that "The Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra recently learned about sexual assault charges filed against Odin Rathnam, who worked as concertmaster of the HSO from 1991 through 2012. He has not been affiliated with the HSO since that time. We do not know anything more about the allegations than what we have read in the news media. We will do everything we can to cooperate fully should we be contacted by law enforcement as part of their investigation. To date, we have not been contacted and have no reason to believe that any parties related to the HSO were involved in these allegations."
Cleveland State University shared the following with The Violin Channel: "Cleveland State University has been made aware by authorities in Pennsylvania of an investigation into allegations of sexual assault against Odin Rathnam in Pennsylvania and Northeast Ohio. According to law enforcement, these allegations do not involve a CSU student, nor did the alleged incidents happen on CSU's campus.
"Rathnam’s part-time contract with CSU was not renewed after the University was made aware of the charges against him, and Cleveland State will fully cooperate as needed with authorities in Pennsylvania and Sheffield Lake as they investigate."
According to Fox8, the violinist was taken from the Lorian County Jail to Harrisburg, PA where he is locked up without bail.
Rathnam is a graduate of the Mannes College of Music and the Juilliard School, where he studied with Sally Thomas and Dorothy DeLay. He has given pedagogy classes at the Starling-DeLay Symposium on Violin Studies.
Throughout his career, he performed at the Algarve International Music Festival in Portugal, Denmark’s Tivoli and Vendsyssel Festivals, Deia International Festival in Mallorca — in addition to recitals at the Market Square Concerts series, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall.
As a soloist, Odin Rathnam has performed with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Philippine Philharmonic, Colombian National Symphony, Philadelphia Virtuosi, Lancaster Symphony, York Symphony, EMMF Orchestra, New Amsterdam Symphony, San Juan Symphony Orchestra, and the Randers Chamber Orchestra, among others.
July 26, 2024
Here are some Facebook comments in response to this question I posed:
I plan to update this collection of news articles on Odin Rathnam, the former concertmaster of the Harrisburg Symphony. Given that I know so many people who know him, have worked with him, and are “Facebook friends” with him, I have to ask: what was he like?
If I’m missing any articles you think I should add, please let me know.
April 8, 2011
Longtime HSO concertmaster Odin Rathnam wonders why he's being 'singled out' for salary cut
PHOTO: DAN GLEITER, The Patriot-News, 2009
David N. Dunkle | Special to PennLive
Updated: Apr. 08, 2011, 12:30 p.m.
Published: Apr. 08, 2011, 11:30 a.m.
During a contentious contract negotiation last year, Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Odin Rathnam considered leaving the post he has held — and loved — for 20 years.
Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Odin Rathnam performs for students at the Capital Area Intermediate Unit.
That would have meant the loss of the orchestra’s second-most visible public face, behind only Tony Award-winning conductor Stuart Malina.
Ultimately, Rathnam agreed to a two-year contract that cut his HSO salary by about a fourth — from $29,200 in 2009-10 to about $22,000 this year — and eliminated his health insurance benefits. He later was able to get health care through his wife, Kimberly, but said she was still trying to find a job as a registered nurse when his HSO insurance was cut.
“If I had had a heart attack during that time, my family would have been ruined,” he said.
Now Rathnam is wondering why his compensation is moving backward when everyone else in the orchestra seems to be getting a raise.
“I read in the paper about how well the orchestra is doing,” he said, “and am left to wonder why I am seemingly being singled out.”
Rathnam said he believes the cuts in his compensation might be related to a series of angry confrontations, unrelated to his contract, that led to a letter of reprimand from the orchestra’s board of directors a little more than a year ago.
“As far as I can tell,” Rathnam said recently, “I am the only one who has been singled out for a reduction. It’s not fair.”
Orchestra officials declined to discuss issues relating to Rathnam’s contract or the letter of reprimand he received.
“It’s a private matter, confidential. We do not and will not discuss personnel matters with anyone,” HSO Executive Director Jeff Woodruff said. Malina, in his 11th season as HSO music director, also steered clear of the controversy.
“I have been specifically told not to talk about it,” he said.
Few would dispute that Rathnam, a Juilliard-trained violinist, has played a critical role in helping to drive HSO into the ranks of the nation’s finer small-city orchestras. He might be seen as an ego-driven diva or a big-hearted do-gooder — and sometimes as both — but no one seriously disputes the quality of his play or his passion on behalf of the orchestra.
“He has been a tireless advocate of raising the quality of the orchestra,” said Gretchen Dekker, a classically trained pianist from York County who has played with HSO and Rathnam in the past. “His impact has been incalculable.”
A cut in pay
In their contract proposal to Rathnam in May, a copy of which the concertmaster provided to The Patriot-News, orchestra officials said the decision to cut Rathnam’s compensation partly stemmed from the economic recession and a desire to bring his salary into line with what concertmasters receive in similarly sized orchestras.
Rathnam’s contract with HSO is essentially a per-service agreement that pays him for each act he performs on the orchestra’s behalf, including playing in concerts and participating in fundraising activities. He receives extra money for other tasks, including the $5,000 he will be paid in April for being HSO’s featured soloist on the Brahms Violin Concerto.
In the past, Rathnam received compensation for a set number of services annually whether he performed that many or not. The new deal pays him only for actual services rendered.
“The financial environment in which we find ourselves today is very different from the environment in which we negotiated your previous contracts,” the HSO proposal, signed by Woodruff, stated.
Rathnam said the orchestra’s proposal overlooked the fact that he lives in the Harrisburg area, which saves the orchestra thousands of dollars a year in hotel and travel costs, and the amount of money he personally has raised for the orchestra during his tenure as concertmaster, which he estimated at about $50,000.
“And that’s extremely low-balling it,” he said. “I’ve gone above and beyond for this orchestra.”
Rathnam said HSO executives, including Malina and Woodruff, have continued to receive annual raises, a claim supported by Form 990 documents that the not-for-profit orchestra is required to file with the IRS each year.
Malina, who received a Tony in 2003 for his orchestral arrangements on the Billy Joel musical “Movin’ Out,” received compensation totaling $127,261 in 2008, according to HSO’s filing, the most recent available. Woodruff’s total compensation was listed at $120,843 in the same filing.
The orchestra’s professional musicians also have received modest pay increases of about 3 percent to 4 percent under a five-year contract that expires this year.
The sides recently reached tentative agreement on a new five-year deal, but no details have been announced pending ratification by the HSO board and members of Local 269 of the American Federation of Musicians, which represents HSO’s players.
Rathnam said he believes orchestra managers might have been hoping he would walk away from the concertmaster post, a move he said he did consider when he realized the offer would take him back to the salary level he received 10 years ago.
“They fully expected me to turn down that contract,” Rathnam said. “So I just decided to let it stand. I won’t allow this to get in the way of my commitment to this orchestra or this city. I’ll decide when it’s time to leave.”
Rathnam also earns money from teaching violin to private students, performing with other orchestras and ensembles, and selling recordings of his work. But he insisted his life is strictly middle-class.
“I have a mortgage to pay like anyone else,” he said.
The contract settlement pushed the rift between Rathnam and orchestra management onto a back burner for several months, but recent public comments by HSO officials about the financial health of the orchestra served to open it again for Rathnam.
In a story published by The Patriot-News on Feb. 23, Woodruff and Malina said HSO has managed to avoid the cash shortages and labor disputes that have crippled other orchestras.
“If the orchestra is doing so well, I have to wonder why are they cutting my salary and benefits while Stuart Malina and Jeff Woodruff continue to receive pay increases?” Rathnam said. “Why are they making five times what I am making?”
In the article, Malina and Woodruff also pointed out that the orchestra is only a bad run of support away from serious financial trouble.
“Our nose is above the water so we can breathe,” Malina said, “but that’s about it.”
Talented and temperamental
Rathnam has had run-ins with HSO management in the past, including a well-publicized incident in 1998 when former Executive Director Stuart Weiser ordered him to stop wearing cowboy boots during performances.
“It’s fully inappropriate to have someone in white tie and tails and cowboy boots,” Weiser said at the time, but he relented when public support swung in Rathnam’s favor.
While that incident was played mostly for laughs, the latest rift between Rathnam and orchestra management lacked any comedic overtones.
It began in December 2009, when Rathnam left a profanity-laced voice mail on the phone of the orchestra’s librarian.
Rathnam said that, among other issues, he had been incensed to learn that musical notes known as bowings, which relate to how HSO’s string section plays particular compositions, had not been kept in the HSO archives as policy required.
“Those are very time-consuming to recreate,” he said.
After the librarian complained about the intemperate voice mail, a running word battle ensued between the concertmaster and HSO officials, including disparaging remarks about orchestra executives that Rathnam placed on his Facebook page.
The result was an official letter of reprimand sent to Rathnam from the board of directors, citing behavior that board members concluded constituted “professional misconduct” and “disloyalty.” The Patriot-News obtained a copy of the two-page letter, which was dated Feb. 1, 2010, and signed by then-board President William M. Murray.
In the letter, Murray acknowledged that Rathnam is “a very talented musician who has made the HSO a better orchestra,” but added that “artistry, longevity and prior good works do not give license to act in a boorish and disrespectful manner.”
“Please be aware that any further inappropriate behavior, including, but not limited to, the public disparagement of the HSO, its employees or executives, will be met with additional discipline up to and including discharge,” the letter concluded.
Rathnam acknowledged that he went too far in his complaints, which also related to HSO’s failure to win a contract to perform “The Nutcracker” with the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet in 2009. He said he apologized to Woodruff and the librarian for his outbursts but still believes he was correct on policy grounds.
“I can be very, very hotheaded when it comes to that kind of thing,” he said, “but what got lost was that I was right about the policy.”
Asked about the letter, HSO board President Joseph Lewin, general manager of WHTM-TV in Harrisburg, declined comment, citing the confidentiality of personnel matters.
'A presence like no other'
As concertmaster, Rathnam’s primary job is to supervise the first violin section, the orchestra’s highest-profile group. By extension, the second violins, violas, cellos and double-bass players also follow his lead.
He also handles the violin solos found within many orchestral pieces and works closely with Malina on interpreting major classical works for HSO’s particular needs, including developing bowing charts.
“The concertmaster is kind of traditionally the top-ranked player within the orchestra,” Woodruff said. “What the concertmaster does can have a big impact on how the overall orchestra sounds.”
The concertmaster’s influence might be on the decline today, however.
“The concertmaster, 30 years ago, was almost as much the public face of the orchestra as its chief conductor,” influential British music critic Norman Lebrecht wrote recently. “Concertmasters need to make more noise, be less friendly to conductors. They must stand up and be counted, for the good of the orchestras.”
Jeffry Newberger, a York County native who studied violin under Rathnam for several years, works as a conductor in musical theater in the Washington, D.C., area. He called Rathnam “an absolutely terrific technician, really the highest caliber.”
“Harrisburg is lucky to have a player like him in its ranks,” Newberger said.
Rathnam also has a strong presence onstage.
“We are just magnetized by him,” said Nan Korn, a Harrisburg-area resident and frequent patron of HSO concerts. Her son, Jordan, studies violin with Rathnam.
“He walks out onstage with a presence like no other,” Korn added. “I don’t know how to really explain it, but he draws your eye. You are going to be watching Odin.”
Rathnam contended his play is as good as it ever was.
“If I had to, I could audition for the concertmaster post again as a complete unknown and win it,” Rathnam said recently. “That’s how well I’ve retained my chops. Ask anyone in the orchestra about what kind of shape Odin is in.”
Several members of the orchestra expressed surprise about Rathnam’s contract issues but declined to go on the record. They said that while not all HSO musicians like Rathnam personally, nearly all have high regard for his work as concertmaster.
As a tenured member of the orchestra for the past 19 years, Rathnam has job security, although tenured musicians can be fired for cause, according to Woodruff.
In going public with his unhappiness over his contract, Rathnam said, he does not want to detract from the orchestra’s work or damage his relationship with Malina. In addition to their close working relationship in HSO, the pair often play together in chamber music ensembles outside the orchestra.
“Stuart and I remain friends, I hope, and I am a great admirer of his,” Rathnam said. “I would not want to do anything to undermine the work of this orchestra, which I have helped to build over the past 20 years.”
February 14, 2025
May 8, 2025
After two deadline extensions, Rathnam accepted a modified plea deal with the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office offered earlier this year. Dauphin County Judge Scott Evans sentenced him to 15 to 30 years in state prison, with an additional five years of probation.
Rathnam will stay on the Megan’s Law sex offender registry the rest of his life, and will remain in Dauphin County Prison only so far as he undergoes evaluation to be designated as a sexually violent predator.
Rathnam could have faced a life sentence if he was convicted at trial. However, prosecutors crafted the plea deal so the victim would not have to testify against him in a trial
The victim, now a woman, sat stiffly in court as Katie Adam, a prosecutor with the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office, read the statement of facts in the case. She clutched a service dog, staring forward intently toward the bench where she later stood next to a man who read her victim impact statement.
The woman said she required numerous surgeries throughout her childhood, and continues to require surgery to correct physiological damage caused to her by Rathnam’s sexual abuse. She required spinal implants to be able to use the bathroom correctly, and is unable to have a child naturally.
Rathnam’s abuse was not confined to the physical, said the victim.
She said she still suffers from depression, anxiety, PTSD, night terrors, and lives in a state of constant fight or flight.
“You made me think we had a special relationship,” she said in her statement. “I did not consent to what happened.”
Her mother, in her own impact statement, said Rathnam spent years of her daughter’s childhood manipulating the child into believing her mother was responsible for her health problems.
Rathnam grew up in New York as a Juilliard-trained violinist with an extensive career in music, but also faced extensive abuse during his childhood, according to his attorney, Paul Kovatch. Kovatch said Rathnam took every opportunity to resolve the case as quickly as possible; he ended his Europe tour and returned to his current home in Ohio, waived extradition and “took responsibility” through his plea.
Rathnam told the court he abused pills and alcohol,and had been nine months sober at the time the criminal case against him was formed.
“I know that does not absolve me from my mistakes,” Rathnam said. He said he found suicide or flight from the charges a form of escape he was unwilling to accept.
“I hope that today can be the beginning of healing,” Rathnam said of his victim and her family.
Evans slowly sifted through character letters from the bench, the noise of paper scraping loud in the silence hanging over the courtroom. Eventually, he adopted the plea deal — and attached sentence — as presented to him.
Evans ordered Rathnam to pay $2,450 in restitution to the family. When asked if the victim was considering civil legal action, the woman’s mother said, “He doesn’t have a pot to piss in.”
The woman’s mother wondered aloud if Rathnam specifically targeted the girl because he knew her mother’s education and career in nursing would be distracting enough to give him the opportunity to abuse her daughter.
“You wanted to be idolized — to be the best violinist in the world,” she told Rathnam. “But guess what — you finally made it in The Strad magazine. Not for being a musician, but for being a child rapist.”
“I pray you never get to touch a violin in your life again,” she said. “Now, go rot in hell.”
Thank you for collecting the stories about these horrific and disgusting inhumane acts this alleged perpetrator committed. I am confident the evidence presented in court will lead to appropriate legal steps (no such thing as a remedy).