Teen Girl Was a Victim of Stupidity, but Not Her Own

A bunch of morons. That’s what prosecutor Christopher Evans called the May 31, 1991, post-prom party-goers who rented three rooms at the Crown Sterling Suites in Anaheim. I well remember how much I agreed with him.

The facts were as tragic as any you could imagine. One of the party-goers, Paul Crowder, 19, was waving around a gun all night, to make sure the others knew what a tough dude he was. Several urged him to put it away before someone got hurt. But before the night was over, he fatally shot 17-year-old Berlyn Cosman as she slept in one of the rooms.

Crowder is now in state prison serving 19 years on a second-degree murder conviction, his final appeal recently turned down by the courts. The others in the small group have to live with the tragic knowledge that the party should have broken up the minute Crowder first flashed that gun, a .357 magnum.

What a bunch of morons.

It’s so easy to sit in court and make quick judgments. This week I got a lesson in why it’s better not to form such firm opinions. At a luncheon I sat next to Berlyn Cosman’s father, Mark Cosman. Cosman is the very successful president of Friends of Volunteers of America. He’s also eaten up with pain about losing his daughter under those senseless circumstances.

“I almost feel like an accessory,” he says. “That feeling may always be with me.”

Before we think of these high school students as morons, you have to look a little deeper at the circumstances. Berlyn Cosman was a good student at Crescenta Valley High School in La Crescenta and she had never, ever been any trouble for her parents. She had a midnight curfew she obeyed. This prom night was the first time she had been permitted to stay out later than that. It wasn’t like her parents didn’t watch out for her welfare.

“Her mother and I neither one were too pleased about this party,” he told the audience at a Round Table West luncheon at the Balboa Bay Club. “But, I thought, at least she’d be inside and not out on the highway.”

Cosman also feels guilty for not telling her more about guns: “I talked to her about boys, about drinking, about the dangers of the highway, but it never occurred to me to talk to her about guns. They just weren’t a part of our life.”

He’s written a book, “In the Wake of Death,” about surviving the loss of a child. Cosman says he wrote it “to try to find out what happened. I needed some answers.”

Sadly, though, this one will never make sense.

Bikini II: Many people called following our recent column about Bikini Island. The U.S. government had relocated the Bikinians in 1946 to use the atoll and its lagoon for atom bomb testing. Contrary to the government’s promises, radiation poisoning has kept the Bikinians from ever going back.

Richard Moore of Newport Beach was part of the U.S. forces that freed Bikini from Japan’s control during World War II. He well remembers shaking hands with the island’s king.

“It was so beautiful; I never dreamed then that we’d end up bombing the place,” Moore says. “It’s a tragic part of our history.”

Eric Hanauer, a freelance writer and photographer from Costa Mesa, earlier this week returned from a 10-day assignment at Bikini. He points out that the lagoon itself is clean of radiation and that the fish there are plentiful and safe to eat. There is a U.S. Department of Energy station on the island, and only recently the government has started to permit sport diving in the lagoon.

“You can live there if you import your food; you just can’t eat anything that grows on the island,” he says. He also notes that the U.S. is conducting numerous soil tests, with the goal of eventually making Bikini livable again for the descendants of those who were forced off in 1946.

The Butterfly Trail: Butterflies are beautiful, but I confess I wouldn’t walk across the street to check out one’s wingspan. Many, however, are more fascinated by them. On Sunday, they’ll be participating in the huge butterfly census hunt in South County. If you’d like join them, this annual event is open to the public and, I’m told, is a great deal of fun.

The idea, says Tony Mann of the Rancho Mission Viejo Land Conservancy, “is to try to see how many varieties we can find.”

Butterfly lovers will gather at 9 a.m. at two locations: Riley Wilderness Park, 30952 Oso Parkway, and the conservancy, five miles east of San Juan Capistrano along Ortega Highway.

You can bring a net to help you see them up close (though you can’t take any butterflies home) and Mann strongly recommends binoculars--plus sunscreen and insect repellent. Call (714) 489-9778 for more details.

Grateful Customers: When I was assigned this column in February, one of the first things I wanted to do was go out with a Meals on Wheels volunteer. I wanted to share the experience of these volunteers helping those who are shut in or find it difficult to prepare their own meals. It was a most rewarding day.

I thought about that day when I saw this notice from the Stanton Community Services Department: “Desperately seeking volunteers to assist in delivering hot noon meals to homebound seniors.” The word “desperately” was underlined. If you want to volunteer, call (714) 379-9222. It’s a couple of hours of work a week and the pay is a warm thank you that you won’t get most places.

Wrap-Up: Mark Cosman says that Paul Crowder has never said to him, by telephone or by letter, that he is sorry for killing Cosman’s daughter.

“I do hope to go see him in prison,” Cosman says. “Not to seek an apology, but just to ask him: Why?”

I was touched by Cosman’s closing line at his luncheon speech. Raising the questions about Berlyn’s death at such gatherings, he said, “Gives me an opportunity to be her dad, and do something with her.”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com