DeBeer to Give His Inheritance to Orangewood

Joeri DeBeer, the Dutch teen-ager who said he ended years of sexual molestation at the hands of his guardian by killing him, plans to donate a $15,000 inheritance from the man to Orange County’s shelter for abused and neglected children.

“He didn’t feel like he was entitled to the money morally, but he wanted to make sure it would go to some worthy cause,” said Gary L. Proctor, DeBeer’s attorney. “He decided that Orangewood was the best place to put it.”

The money is DeBeer’s 50% share of Phillip A. Parsons’ pension and profit-sharing account with the Bechtel Corp. Parsons’ brother, Robert Parsons, was the other beneficiary. He has since died.

DeBeer will present a $15,000 check to Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez at a ceremony Thursday at Orangewood, Proctor said.

‘They Had Choices’

“When the jury trial concluded, one of our hopes was to go to various places and talk to kids, tell them that they had choices and options if they were in a situation like Joeri was,” Proctor said. “They could go to the authorities.”

DeBeer, 19, was convicted last year of voluntary manslaughter in the 1985 shooting death of Parsons, a convicted child molester who had brought DeBeer to the United States as a 13-year-old with promises of making him into a successful motorcycle racer.

During the trial, DeBeer testified he shot Parsons in a fit of rage after Parsons tried to molest and then choke him. DeBeer took the body to Riverside County, where he doused it with gasoline and burned it, before returning to Dana Point and setting Parsons’ apartment on fire.

The jury that found DeBeer guilty of manslaughter recommended that he be given a lenient sentence, and Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald sentenced him to three years of probation and 14 months (later corrected to one year to conform with state law) in Juvenile Hall, which he had already served while awaiting trial.

Deportation Ordered

Last November, an immigration judge ordered DeBeer deported for committing “crimes of moral turpitude” and for violating the provisions of his student visa. DeBeer’s attorneys are appealing that decision, and U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) is sponsoring a bill that would grant DeBeer permanent residency and enable him to apply for citizenship eventually.

DeBeer currently lives with foster parents in Northern California community of Oakley and attends Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill.