NOT DEVILS but DEVILISH: Death of Dave Herman is bringing out some really scary sides to people

NEW YORK —

THE LATE DAVE HERMAN.

If you're anything like me — a fan of radio — you no doubt heard the story about Dave Herman, the former WNEW disc jockey, who was locked up after allegedly trying to solicit a pre-pubescent, 7-year-old girl for sex in the U.S. Virgin Islands last year.

Herman died in the Essex County (N.J.) Jail two days ago. He was 78.

And yet, the comments I'm reading on message boards and Facebook are beyond approach.

I understand we live in a country that has a justice system that says those accused are innocent until proven otherwise. But I still cannot stomach that people, professionals in radio, are coming to this malfeasance's defense.


And what's worse is that not one has yet to say anything about his potential victims, either.

Charges like these don't just appear.

Websites with information that clearly demonstrate the guy loved children — I mean, loved children — don't just pop-up miraculously. A man isn't held without bail on charges that aren't beyond reproach.

And yet somehow, there's a love-fest going on over Dave Herman's radio career.

And it's embarrassingly disgraceful!

I shudder to think so ill of a man who is dead. I understand that he will never get his day in court to prove whether he was, indeed, guilty as charged. But these things happen.

Investigators and prosecutors don't wake up one day and say: "Let's go after Dave Herman and say he wanted to have sex with a 7-year-old girl."

When the day comes that O.J. Simpson takes a dirt nap, I often wonder how much will be said of his playing career over his alleged involvement over killing his ex-wife and her friend. I suspect his career will be secondary.

Which is why I just don't understand this outpouring of love for a man who sat accused of what I believe is as heinous a crime as murder.

Then again, this is about radio. And when that's the case, all logic is out.

This man may have had a wonderful career in radio — I was once one of his loyal listeners — but that does not mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that his radio career should matter now.

And yet it does.

And forgotten, amazingly, is all he is alleged to have done.

It doesn't get much worse than that.