Had I known of this information before, I would have been able to use it at trial and prove my innocence. The three-count federal indictment against Friedman was filed on November 13, 1987. Jesse Friedman (no relation to this writer), the central character in Andrew Jarecki's documentary, "Capturing the Friedmans," is taking action. Many spoke of the gentle Arnold Friedman they knew as an award-winning science teacher at Queens' Bayside High School, a dexterous pianist and enthusiastic computer instructor. They want to forget the lessons in the house on Picadilly Road. Some days you just make your best guess. And the film is bereft of almost anyone who says they were victimized by Jesse. As troubling as many moments are in the movie, it's a must-see if you're interested in cases where there is no clear answer from the police, or the accused, or the family. We put our memory in these memory banks and it sits there. The ex-wife never went in there, either. His family sent him to a private therapist after he provided his statement to police but prior to his appearance before the grand jury. Jesse Freidman is submitting the DVD as part of the supporting evidence for his motion to overturn his conviction. Because Judge Costantino's implied finding that Friedman posed a risk of flight was clearly erroneous, we reverse and remand. So which is the truth -- his admission or his recent retraction? "My father raised me confused about what was right and what was wrong and I realize now how terribly wrong it all was.". "They are very loving people. Containing hours of previously unreleased footage and archival material, the DVD makes it clear that Jarecki decided to maintain a studied ambiguity. And it would leave friends, relatives and colleagues of award-winning teacher Arnold Friedman wondering how such a seemingly nice man could do such horrible things. "The pressure mounted until he had no clear choice: Either plead guilty and get a limited sentence or face the prospect of a conviction at trial and an even longer prison term.". Was no evidence found in the house beyond one stack of porn? 2" until April instead of the planned February release. The witnesses' and victims' testimony of sexual abuse was "real evidence," she said. He went to therapy out of fear that he would molest his own children. New York, NY 10280 HN4In other cases concerning risk of flight, we have required more than evidence of the commission [**6] of a serious crime and the fact of a potentially long sentence to support a finding of risk of flight. I was about to say I never blamed my father for what happened, but I came across a letter I wrote to my dad in December of 1988 where I was clearly mean toward him. Self-confessed paedophile Arnold Friedman died in prison in 1995. But you can say, from day one, that you started out with a flawed family.". Jarecki had been pursuing one of New York's most successful party clowns, David Friedman (aka Silly Billy) for months. Kabala, 33, of Chicago, pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual abuse. According to Galasso, the boy told the detective he wanted him to have the poster because "'I don't want any more children to get touched.'". "His investigation was tremendously flawed," he added, "because he interviewed so few children. But my father was a pedophile, he bought child pornography. Based on the quality of the police work, I think the case should have been thrown out.". The incident triggered a U.S. The film splices the family's home movies with extensive interview material from all players in the criminal case against Arnold and Jesse Friedman - remaining family members, the judge, the retired sergeant who led the investigation, and a number of alleged victims, some who deny it ever happened, others who describe the abuse in graphic detail. 1. Has someone been touched inappropriately? No film before or since has inspired such a reversal. Along the way, the investigation into what went on in the house on Picadilly Road would lay bare a lifetime of unspeakable secrets, and lead to Friedman and his 19-year-old son, Jesse, being indicted on hundreds of counts of sex abuse and sentenced to jail terms. The 1985 English graduate from Princeton University said he had directed plays in school but went into business instead in 1989. No testimony or cross examinations. Why didn't the boys tell anyone? In fact, they were showing them pornography and inducing them to commit various sexual acts. I never doubted me. A small room to the right of a short corridor had been converted into a classroom. He always had high enrollments and positive ratings, officials said. We saw boys older than you - freshmen on the Mepham High School football team, for instance - who denied and denied, and probably would still be denying today if one of them had not been betrayed by the blood from his own injuries. For example: One of the computer students who became a key witness in the case, admitted that he did not remember any of the abuse he alleged, until after he was hypnotized, a technique proven to lead to false memories. Galasso denied hypnosis was used and said detectives did not coerce statements from the victims. ", Last week Jesse Friedman released a statement saying he was not surprised that some of his accusers are standing by their statements to the grand jury. According to Geoffrey Gilmore, director of Sundance, the videos "made this film possible": In a festival description of "Capturing the Friedmans," he writes that the film "creates a [family] portrait which is complex, ambivalent, and absolutely engrossing because of video.". There were three indictments. I want you to know that I believe in your innocence. "Dynamite.". ", Jesse Friedman said he expects "only good things to come from this film. . We did not lie. Police are searching for pornographic photos and videotapes that could be key evidence in their continuing investigation of a Great Neck child sex-abuse case. But he added: "If you put people in the category of monster, you learn nothing. "A sentence that began `I feel' was never in his vocabulary," Mrs. Friedman said. "It was wonderful, the things you said about my father," Speiser remembers Jesse telling him. He never railed about being wrongly prosecuted. See also Shakur, 817 F.2d at 191 (defendant on FBI's list of "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives"). The project he started in early 2000 -- on the lives of birthday party clowns -- was to be his first full-length documentary. He insists he never told his therapist about the incest. While researching his birthday-entertainer film, Jarecki kept running across people who referred him to David Friedman, who was considered the most successful clown of them all. Indeed, Goldstein's story parallels the pressure and intimidation placed on Jesse to plead guiltyas he ultimately did. He is now a registered sex offender. He's filed a motion to overturn his 1988 conviction on charges that he and his father sexually abused children. Faced with the prospect of a trial before a judge and community who had apparently concluded his guilt before the fact, what rational person would not plead guilty in order to avoid the maximum sentence of 100 years in prison? Nassau police had no comment. Jarecki began researching the Friedmans' sexual abuse case and dropped the clown project when David Friedman handed over a treasure trove of family home videos taken throughout the time of the case. In Great Neck, N.Y., agents working in a Postal Service sting were led to former high-school teacher Arnold Friedman and his son Jesse. Still, a raft of damning things are clear, some from my reporting, others from the film. NEW YORK -- Two men whom Jesse Friedman pleaded guilty to sexually abusing as boys have written an open letter to Academy Awards voters, speaking out against the Oscar-nominated documentary about the Friedman family. Elli Friedman. His approach and feelings are more balanced than perhaps any of us could be under similar circumstances. Fagin also said that some victims may want to bathe continually. The young Jesse had only just entered college when police entered his home and carted he and his father off to jail. By ninth grade he rarely attended classes and failed every subject. Elaine Friedman has been married to ? Arnold Friedman died in state prison of an apparent suicide in 1995, after serving about 8 years of a 10- to 30-year sentence. This subsequently led to a score of little kids accusing the Friedman patriarch of molesting and sodomizing them in the most gruesome fashion imaginable. The 2003 film Capturing the Friedmansis one of the most disturbing documentaries ever, and amongthe saddest movies of all time. His office's appeals bureau is preparing a written response. According to Gary, the brothers' parents are separated or divorced. And all the cells in the organism are pretty much the same, except maybe over in the police department, where you get the white blood cells. She says the film "is great theater, but don't call it true. Do it. [Ross], who was indicted last November on 118 counts of sexual abuse, confirmed in grand jury testimony that, in addition to the Friedmans, two additional men participated in the abuse of the victims. By Claudia Ricci, Contributor Freelance journalist and fiction writer He said, "I fondled [the children]I was forced to, to pose in hundreds of photos for my father in all sorts of sexual positions with the kids" He now claims that his story and his tears were "fictionalized to win leniency". If his parole officer finds a roll of Life Savers in his pocket he will be accused of seducing children. But Mr. Friedman spoke differently in an interview on "Dateline NBC" last month, when he challenged former victims to come forward, as well as in an interview on the DVD release of the film, in which he says that he and his brother David cooperated with the film in the hope that his former accusers would recant. THE DRIVER OF VEHICLE 1 ATTEMPTED TO AVOID COLLISION, SWERVED RIGHT SUBSEQUENTLY STRIKING THE FRONT LEFT OF VEHICLE 2 WITH THE LEFT FRONT CORNER/ENTIRE LEFT SIDE OF HER VEHICLE, VEHICLE 1. "And when I started to tell them things, I was telling myself it was not true. To the father, the uncovering of what had happened to his son has shattered any illusions of the innocence of youth. Yet it's these divisions and alliances that enhance the film's ambiguity and make it such a captivating and disturbing watch. "I had an awfully peculiar family," says Jesse Friedman. It became, in some ways, an extension of the film, which raised questions about the fairness of all aspects of the case, from the police investigation to the conviction to the media coverage. He said Arnold fondled and later sodomized him. He says, "my policy was to talk to all the family members regularly. Elli watched the raids in humiliation, as the soldiers ordered around her father like a criminal. Boklan recommended that he serve the full 30 years. and chilling in so many ways. As a child, Arnold witnessed his mother having sex with various men. By the summer prosecutors estimate that Borderline alone will have yielded a hundred guilty pleas or convictions. Arnold admitted to being attracted to young boys, but denied molesting them. And the lawyers lay out a cozy web of personal relationships among various Nassau officials who are still connected to the case. And there was the standoffish oldest son David, who became a celebrated birthday clown in Manhattan but who was secretive about his personal life. Even now, when people see the film, a certain percentage of them say, 'I think they were guilty, or they were innocent.' Truth and justice were never a part of this case.' It's unconscionable for a judge without having seen a trial to say there was never a doubt as to their guilt. Contact us for partnership opportunities. overdose, depending upon whom you ask. Jesse Friedman, then 17 or 18, was supposed to be teaching the boy -- assigned the name "Gregory Doe" by law enforcement officials -- how to convert the basic binary language of the Commodore 64 computer for use on his own Apple IIc. And, although the film did not deny Arnold Friedman's pedophilia, Judge Abbey Boklan, who presided over the case, was alarmed at the film's and the public's second-guessing of the criminal prosecution. "I see the film as a capsulized version of what was taking place in the Friedman household during the time the case was pending," Mr. Marinello said. Law enforcement officials said those techniques were not used in the gathering of evidence or grand jury testimony for the case against the three co-defendants. Jesse is perhaps the healthiest Friedman, but he's not just well adjusted. "We don't want to put these children on the stand if we can avoid it," said Andrew Maloney, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. "There has certainly been a drop-off in bookings," Jesse says drily. Elli and her family lived in fear. From the day I was arrested, I ceased to be anonymous. A spokesman for the Nassau County Police Department, Det. Arnold Friedman died in prison at age 64 and Jesse Friedman lives in Manhattan after a 2001 jail release. Jesse increasingly had trouble in school. Mr. Jarecki said in an e-mail interview that he had tried to reach each of the 13 accusers of Jesse Friedman by registered mail and Federal Express, though he said he may not have had correct addresses for all. ", Now 34, Jesse Friedman spent 13 years behind bars and is today electronically tagged and forbidden from living in an apartment where children also stay. Arnold and Jesse Friedman were arrested Nov. 26, 1987, after Nassau police and federal agents executed a search warrant at their house at 17 Picadilly Rd. The correspondent said that the magazines were dangerous because they were on view to adolescents who were "corruptible innocents." So whatever you believe the truth of the story to be, that family was going to be eliminated. If these things surface 20 years later, they won't be recognizable," he said. Horror Fans Rank Rotten Tomatoes's Best Horror Movies Of Each Year Since 1998. supposedly corrupt lawyer, whose own recollections are precise and 2. It wasn't a film about a phenomenon. He was eighteen, but he looked every bit the overwhelmed boy. ", Contact: Joyanna Silberg, PhD, 410-938-4974. "I was faced with a horrible no-win situation," said Friedman, in an interview yesterday with WB11 News. Goldstein, a former schoolmate of Jesse Friedman, was being held yesterday in lieu of $100,000 bail set by District Court Judge Murray Pudalev. By the following March, Arnold Friedman had changed his plea to guilty, admitting before the court that he abused the children. Mr. Friedman put his hands over my mouth. How has the documentary affected the rest of your family? He has entered and won film competitions by the dozen. Jesse said his parents fought a great deal. Elaine (nee Segal) Friedman, April 2, 2023, of Warwick, PA. Beloved wife of the late Ronald Friedman; loving mother of Jerilyn Friedman, Jason Friedman, and Jarrett (Jessica) Friedman; cherished grand His mother, Elaine Friedman, sat with her eyes closed or her gaze averted during most of the proceeding. Their testimony included alleged acts of abuse, sodomy and bizarre sexual games. He admitted to abusing his own brother when the brother was 8. As he ventured into the cross-currents of "Capturing the Friedmans," he was able, over time, to conduct multiple interviews, nearly two dozen of which appear in the film. Despite the nomination of three films that have child sexual abuse as a central theme, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is ignoring 15,000 emails, the personal pleas of 200 victims, and the recommendation of 300 organizations and health care, law enforcement, academic, mental health and sexual assault professionals who asked the Academy to allow time on their awards show to air a public service announcement that would educate the nation about the tragic reality of child sexual abuse and tell people where to turn for help. It also shows the evidence the prosecutor withheld from the Friedmans, which included the improper methods - such as hypnosis -- used by the police to elicit the testimony of the alleged victims who initially said nothing had happened to them. A computer search revealed the stories written at the time about the highly sensational case. Filmmakers and artists put things in and leave things out all the time. The Friedmans have denied the charges. The documentary that resulted is largely the Friedman family's story, as told by their own family video history. This could be any family making memories of the highlights in their lives. Because of the guilty pleas, there was never any trial. The film shows her being mistreated by her sons for questioning Arnold's innocence. Galasso and her 11-member squad of Nassau detectives and officers were hard at work checking out names. * * *. Or I might try to write something that doesn't need to be filmed. In one well-known study (E. Gray, UNEQUAL JUSTICE: THE PROSECUTION OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE (MacMillan 1993) it was shown that two-thirds of child victims of sexual abuse who were threatened not to disclose the improper conduct revealed it anyway.]. psychology. In the end, nobody really knows if Jesse Friedman is guilty other than Jesse Friedman. Galasso said Friedman gave police a detailed confession and also failed two polygraph tests, which are not admissible in court. In both instances the defendants were charged with countless unthinkable acts, some of which strained credibility. "Capturing the Friedmans" asks: Were the wild charges believable? "We are asking you to hear our side of the story, writing on behalf of the other victims and ourselves," they said. Asked repeatedly by The Times whether he knew of a lie-detector test that Jesse Friedman took and failed while he protested his innocence in the 1980's, Mr. Jarecki said he did not. The lawyer added that Friedman is the beneficiary of "an enormous windfall" of evidence because of the research done by director Andrew Jarecki. "In my family, everything got washed under the rug," Jesse said. Elaine Friedman Greece - Passed peacefully June 11, 2019. But at home, Friedman seemed a different person - his effervesence disappeared. IV 1986). ", Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times - February 26, 2004, HOLLYWOOD -- Faced with the prospect that a provocative film about a case of child abuse may win the Oscar for best documentary feature, advocacy groups and some of the victims have launched a belated campaign to discredit "Capturing the Friedmans.". This information should have been fact-checked before it was posted; most of these items are not matters of opinion and we have identified the correct facts, with citations, in Jesse's legal brief. The film, which includes interviews with the Friedmans, various Nassau County law enforcement and justice officials, as well as former computer students, strongly suggests the children's testimony was obtained with the sort of unfairly leading interview techniques and false-memory hysteria that characterized such 1980s trials as the McMartin preschool case in California. When New York documentary makers Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling set out to make a film about children's party entertainers, they stumbled upon a story from the annals of American legal history more heartbreaking than anything they could have imagined. He said both father and son committed forcible sodomy on him multiple times. The voice on the phone from New York is tremulous, unfailingly polite, marked by hesitations and bursts of nervous laughter. He was 5 feet, 6 inches tall and he ballooned to 175 pounds. She has been charged with child endangering. But that's not what he was accused of. "This kind of film isn't really the format for [advocacy]," Jarecki says, "but the information in the film is what it is, and if Jesse wants to use it in his motion, that's his right. "There's no way to know if I'd gone to trial how believable the testimony would've been against me, or if I'd be one of the lucky ones whose case was overturned," says Jesse in his own defense. CORE TERMS: flight, detention, enumerated, pretrial detention, obstruction, indictment, obstruct, sentence, Bail Reform Act, clearly erroneous, pornographic, three-count, fugitive, magazine, detained, hotel, surveillance, arrested, bail. They asked for the keys and ran out and locked themselves in the car," the woman said. But what do you do when you feel you've found it? Most of all, he's become a symbol for forgiveness without the need to forget injustice. Content copyright 2023 Metro Desk Media, LLC. He said he pleaded guilty because he feared that if he convicted at trial, he would have spent life in prison. Clearly, she's a handful, but when she speaks of molesting teen-aged boys, and died there of a heart attack or a drug His wife didn't know what happened, his fellow Justices had no idea, and his mistresses (he had several) said that they didn't know. Jarecki says Jesse, who with his late father, Arnold, ultimately pleaded guilty to molesting 13 boys during computer classes in their Great Neck home, were victims of an overzealous prosecution by Nassau County authorities and a public hysteria concerning alleged child sex abuse. Once, when she asked her son what he was learning in the class, he and a classmate looked at each other with "sheepish grins on their faces" and giggled. Nevertheless, the documentary's success - including an Oscar nomination - has not all been in the Friedmans' favour. When interviewed on the Geraldo Rivera Show, Jesse sobbed while describing sexual abuse by his father and confessed to abusing three children.