FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The NCRJ Recommends Prominent Experts to Serve on the Nassau County Committee investigating the Jesse Friedman Case.

Roxbury, Massachusetts —August 26, 2010 —Today the National Center for Reason and Justice—a non-profit legal and advisory group for the falsely accused and wrongfully convicted—submitted to Nassau County (NY) District Attorney Kathleen Rice a list of twelve experts as candidates for the committee that will re-examine the Jesse Friedman child molestation case. Submitted names include Dr. Maggie Bruck, leading expert on child-interviewing techniques; Dr. Harrison G. Pope, Jr., Psychiatrist, MacLean Hospital, Belmont Massachusetts; and Dr. Richard A. Leo, leading expert on false confessions. All of the experts have agreed to serve if asked.

Rice announced the formation of the committee after being urged to do so by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Friedman and his father had been convicted in 1988 for allegedly abusing students taking computer classes held in the Friedman home. The case was the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary called Capturing the Friedmans. The Court was unable to grant relief because the petition was filed past deadline. But they made clear that they thought it likely that a miscarriage of justice had occurred because the children had been improperly interviewed, because Nassau County (and the nation) at the time were swept up in a “vast moral panic” around child sexual abuse, and because of misconduct on the part of the police, the prosecutors, and the judge.

The NCRJ has officially sponsored the Friedman case since June of 2004, but members have been involved long before this.

The NCRJ has a proud history of being first to recognize injustice. Its first major case was Bernard F. Baran — released in 2006, exonerated in 2009 — who was sent to prison at 19 and languished there for 23 years for crimes that never occurred. They sponsor the case of Joseph Allen and Nancy Smith of Lorain, Ohio, who spent 13 years in prison before being acquitted last year by a judge. (Acquittal under appeal by the District Attorney.) They also sponsor the case of four young lesbians in Texas who were convicted of dubious child abuse charges and whose innocence is now being investigated by the Innocence Project of Texas. As acknowledged by his attorney, the NCRJ was also the first to recognize the innocence of Victor Rosario, convicted of arson on the basis of junk science and the subject of a recent exposé in the Boston Globe.

The National Center for Reason and Justice comprises authors, lawyers, scientists, academics and concerned citizens.

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Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced that she will form a committee to re-examine the Friedman case.

“A prosecutor’s job is not to obtain convictions, but to obtain justice,” Rice said in a statement. “I cannot predict whether our investigation will corroborate the criminal case brought against Mr. Friedman more than two decades ago. What I can guarantee is that my investigation will be thorough and it will be fair.”

Jesse believes that it was the social science research that carried the day with the Court’s opinion. Jesse’s lawyer, Ron Kuby, emphatically agrees and has expressed his gratitude to the NCRJ. This research was provided to Mr. Kuby by NCRJ Directors Debbie Nathan and Emily Horowitz.

Here is the Article in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/nyregion/17friedmans.html?_r=2&ref=nyregion

Here is the full decision: http://www.leagle.com/unsecure/page.htm?shortname=infco20100816067

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Defendant Victor Rosario has been in prison in Massachusetts for almost three decades, charged and convicted for setting a fire which killed several people, including three young children. It appears Mr. Rosario did not set the fire and that in fact it might have been an accident. In all likelihood he is innocent, the victim of “junk science” in fire investigations as they were routinely conducted nationwide until just a few years ago.

Three years ago NCRJ Executive Director Robert Chatelle attended a conference sponsored by the Innocence Network. A major topic at this conference was forensic science developments in arson investigations.

There Chatelle met attorney Andrea Petersen. Petersen represented, pro bono, Victor Rosario. She was convinced of his innocence and knew that a new-trial motion would require the help of very expensive experts. Rosario and his family had no money.

NCRJ vetted the case and approved it for fiscal sponsorship. We took the case because the death of so many children in the fire seriously compromised Rosario’s right to a fair trial. NCRJ also realized the importance of developments in arson science and were eager to take on another battle against junk science in the courtroom.

NCRJ raised the tens of thousands of dollars necessary to hire the needed experts.

We also contacted New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) at Boston University, suggesting they take a look at the case. NECIR did so, and their report appears today in the Boston Globe. The Globe has also produced a video about the case.

Mr. Rosario’s case has been accepted by the New England Innocence Project and by the Innocence Project of the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services. The legal team plans to file a new-trial motion this summer.

NCRJ is proud of our involvement in this important case. Victor Rosario has spent 28 long, lonely and painful years in prison for crimes he never should have been convicted or accused of. We are hopeful he will soon come to know freedom and justice.

Rosario’s is the second NCRJ-sponsored case to be accepted recently by Innocence Projects. Last week the “Four Lives Lost” San Antonio “mass child abuse” case was accepted by the Innocence Project of Texas. Read more about this case.

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The case has four defendants:

Anna Vasquez, Cassandra Rivera, Kristie Mayhugh, and Elizabeth Ramirez.

In 1994 they were young women, ages 19 to 21, living and working in San Antonio, TX. None had any mental health problems or any criminal record. However, all were lesbians and one, Elizabeth Ramirez, was being pursued by her ex-brother-in-law, who wished a romantic relationship with her. Elizabeth rejected the overture but was close to her seven- and nine-year old nieces, the man’s daughters. She offered to care for them during a week in summer 1994, as she had in the past.

After the daughters returned to their father, he and his mother filed a complaint alleging that Ramirez and her three gay friends gang-raped the little girls over a two-day period in a sadistic, ritualistic manner. The man had previously made at least one complaint against others for allegedly sexually abusing his daughters. On investigation, authorities did not validate the prior report(s).

The four accused young women staunchly maintained their innocence and rejected generous plea bargains. Unfortunately they had mediocre legal representation, and their trials were conducted in an atmosphere of frank homophobia, both in the courtroom and in the community at large. In addition, investigators for the state suspected the four women were “satanic ritual” abusers, and they communicated this to prosecutors. “Junk science” medical evidence also played a major part in convicting the defendants.

The women have been imprisoned since 1997 and 1998 and are serving 15 and 37 years. There is concern that even if they finish their terms they will be civilly committed afterward.

NCRJ was alerted to this case by a concerned community advocate. We listed it over a year ago and are grateful that the Innocence Project of Texas has taken it on.

Find out more about the case at www.fourliveslost.com.

Please donate to NCRJ at www.ncrj.org so we can continue fighting injustices like the one perpetrated on these four gay women in Texas.

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http://articles.courant.com/2010-04-04/news/hc-sex-offender-laws.artapr04_1_offender-registries-walsh-act-adam-walsh-child-protection

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