Photo: Ian MacLellan
When Marissa Hoechstetter first saw the grainy sonogram images, she was overwhelmed. “There were two tiny little babies,” she recalls in this week’s issue of PEOPLE. “I was just ecstatic.”
“You’re going to this person because they have specialized knowledge,” she says. “You’re looking to them to help take care of you.”
In September 2020, Hadden, now 63, was arrested andcharged in federal courtwith six counts of enticing and inducing victims to travel to his offices, subjecting them to sexual abuse between 1993 and 2012, according to prosecutors. Though Hadden pleaded guilty to a felony sex crime in 2016 and surrendered his medical license, he has pleaded not guilty to federal charges.
To read more about Marissa Hoechstetter’s fight for justice, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribehere.
Courtesy Marissa Hoechstetter
Hoechstetter is instead telling her heart-wrenching story in hopes it gives other abuse survivors the courage to come forward. She’s also advocating for theAdult Survivors Act, proposed legislation in New York that would create a one-year window for sexual-assault victims to sue an abuser and any negligent institution despite the statute of limitations.
“They try to silence people through NDAs and other scare tactics, but we’re not going to be bullied,” she says. “We know what happened was wrong—and we don’t have justice.”
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Being able to share the painful truth about what happened to her has “fundamentally changed who I am,” Hoechstetter says. “Saying it out loud is the hardest part. I know what happened to me matters.”
Speaking out has taken away the power that shame and silence once had over her — and she hopes it will give freedom to others.
“My voice is strong,” she says. “And it’s been met with a chorus of others who feel the same way. I’m not scared.”
source: people.com
