Capturing the Friedmans: Directed by Andrew Jarecki. He also has notes from an interview with one of the police detectives "who says she had to go back fifteen times to a particular child before the child gave a statement of having been molested.". So they embarked on a sort of barnstorming tour in which they fielded questions from audience members and explained their motivation for making the movie. Arnold had an established history as a child molester: The film acknowledges that Arnold was an admitted pedophile. An Oscar-nominated documentary blends truth and art - angering some of the real-life participants. Police interviewed dozens of children, ranging in age from 8 to 11, who had attended the computer classes over a period of years. her husband's absent libido and her own years of denial, she's a Yet, it is undisputed that Friedman is a lifelong New York resident, that he has no prior criminal record, that he has no passport or known ability to evade [*50] surveillance, that he has worked gainfully in the New York area for twenty-five years prior to his arrest, and that he is married and has three children, all of whom live in the New York area. But the movie goes beyond an examination of a pedophiliac personality and reveals as much about community, and about fraternal, parental and marital bonds, as the richest and most incendiary works of novelists such as Philip Roth. The smile gleaming on his tired face is captured on video by his eldest son David, who keeps fidgeting with the zoom dial. Friedman's motion includes eight people somehow connected to the computer classes who say they never witnessed any abuse at the Friedman house. Jesse Friedman will plead not guilty on the new charges when arraigned today, said his attorney, Peter Panaro. With no systematic testing of the evidence, there was lingering uncertainty about the Friedmans' guilt. 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. Learning that Arnold Friedman had been teaching private piano and computer lessons to adolescent students in his home for several years, Great Neck police were emboldened to suspect that sexual abuse had run rampant. - One detective admits to visiting a student 15 separate times in order to finally procure incriminating testimony despite the childs consistent statement that he had not been abused. ", Some suspects fight back, arguing that the government has "entrapped" them. "I have none to sell but am interested in obtaining," Friedman responded three days later. Moreover, according to Silberg, the danger to children from this film is not just theoretical, but very real, because the film has been used to raise money to promote the release of convicted sex offenders from prisons around the country. And Jesse later accuses his A recent article in Slate took him to task for making a "studied decision to minimize the historical context of the charges for dramatic effect," and failing to fully disclose the evidence that so clearly supported Jesse. The principal filmmakers are director / co-producer Andrew Jarecki and Richard Hankin, his editor, who became so involved in all areas of the movie's conception and production that he earned a co-producer credit, too. After the arrests, all the underlying dysfunction that was there just got aggravated and turned into this monster dysfunction. When asked how he could stay so positive, he never hesitated: "I'm very lucky. Jesse admitted molesting 13 boys, served 13 years and was paroled in 2001. I am joined in this belief by my sibling {names removed} who were also your students. He cut a deal, but in order to garner sympathy and perhaps secure an earlier release, he had to come off as the victim. They filed the charges after interviews with many of Friedman's students. "I am not a child molester," he said. But that account from a co-defendant such as [Ross] must be independently corroborated to be of use during a trial, said Assistant District Attorney Joseph Onorato. The interview, on a New York sidewalk, became the starting point of the Sundance Jury Prize-winning, Oscar-nominated documentary Capturing the Friedmans. Is America in the midst of a hysterical overreaction to the perceived threat from pederasts? His court-appointed lawyer, James Schoren, describes him as a "meek, mild very pathetic person," who had psychological problems dating to his own abuse as a child. Here, Jarecki reveals how Goldstein, then 18 and a friend of Jesse, was intimidated into becoming a witness against the Friedmans. 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. He would never look at you. Then in the fall, when he enrolled in the advanced class, this same victim would have submitted to four rapes a session to account for all the charges.". Jesse said in a 1989 interview that he was "halfway between loving and hating" his father. As a teen, he had sex with his younger brother. [Both Arnold and Jesse pleaded guilty, at different times, for different reasons and with calamitous results.] The family's audiovisual documents imbue the movie with piercing intimacy. He says, "my policy was to talk to all the family members regularly. J.B. said that it never happened but the police told him that they know it happened because they had 5 people who signed statements saying that it happened and that they are trying to get as many people to say that as possible. "Jesse is such an unusual guy," Mr. Jarecki says. The odds are, you wouldn't imagine Jesse Friedman. Was the abuse as reckless and open and repetitive as they said? The director did and uncovered the truth about David's father and brother. Many assume that child sexual abuse must leave gaping tears and telltale scars, but due to the nature of children's bodies, even when there are physical signs, most disappear in a few days. And what he produces is a fascinating document. ", The bride-to-be had also grown up in Brooklyn. Or propaganda for a pedophile? Capturing the Friedmans (2003) borrows from this video vault of the Friedmans to tell the most unusual story. They needed to feel like they could talk about it. You see the results of it, yes, but you don't see me following David Harris [who at the film's end obliquely confesses to murder] around for five months afraid for my own life.". They concluded that foreign distributors had found ways to circumvent U.S. interceptions. Jesse Friedman's plea, which, some said they were "browbeaten" to accept, short-circuited that effort. People need to know thatthey are not alone and where to turn for help.". Although Jarecki wants people to think about the movie without concentrating on guilt, innocence or blame, he can't help but feel protective toward Jesse. On Jan. 24, 1989, Jesse Friedman was sentenced to six to 18 years in prison. With respect to the attorney's story about Arnold Friedman asking to move to another table, the more likely explanation is the one from Arnold Friedman, who said that it was accepted practice in prison for convicted child molesters not to sit near children in the waiting room to avoid recriminations from the children's incarcerated relatives.]. Arnold admitted to being attracted to young boys, but denied molesting them. Nonetheless, the court remanded the case to allow prosecution to introduce any new evidence supporting its claim that defendant was a flight risk or had the potential to obstruct justice if freed. He must attend sex-offender therapy twice a week. The home videos provide the viewers with a seat at the Friedman households dining table as they get busy in building a defence to save Arnold and Jesse. Jesse, however, also took a plea when it appeared that there would be no testimony in his favor at a trial. Jesse describes them as sweeping things under the rug. ", Arnold Friedman died in prison, under circumstances explored in the film. Has someone been falsely accused? Mr. Marinello also said he knew of no attempt by the filmmaker to reach his clients. In home videos filmed by David Friedman, viewerssee Arnold Friedman after the shocking charges have been made against him. The National Center for Reason and Justice, an organization that helps people it believes were wrongly accused and convicted of sex offenses against children and adolescents, calls the Friedman case a miscarriage of justice. They took Arnold Friedman into custody. "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. What is most striking is not his case, nor even his appeal. The film, an Academy Award nominee for best documentary, has been critically praised and brought intense debate at screenings, in editorials and on talk shows about the Friedmans' guilt and whether the case showed failures of the justice system. The parents reluctantly accepted the deal that sent Jesse Friedman to prison. "I feel that I cannot just sit silently by and not protect the credibility of many of the victims in this case," Boklan told the crowd. I don't know if you would remember met but I remember you as one of the greatest teachers I have ever had. Your faces are never seen but you inhabit every frame of the film. I screamed `Dad!' "He would not have pleaded guilty and he would have had a very, very good chance of being acquitted.". I still say everything is status quo. 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. There are screaming battles around the table during a Passover Seder and in the living room. It could be almost anything.". THEY WERE secrets that would make the brick-and-shingle high-ranch on a proverbial tree-lined, suburban street in upscale Great Neck a chamber of horrors for dozens of children. 1'] and go right back into editing," he said. The three-count federal indictment against Friedman was filed on November 13, 1987. Friedman had maintained his innocence from Nov. 26, 1987, when he and his father, Arnold, were arrested, until about three weeks ago when he went to the district attorney in search of a deal, Panaro said. "When the federal officers came, Arnold told me he'd mailed a magazine and that was the totality of his crime," Mrs. Friedman said. One guy was in for 274 years with no recourse to appeal. When her father wasnt busy in the store, he would spend his time studying the Talmud, a compilation of rabbinic discussions about Jewish law. Based on the quality of the police work, I think the case should have been thrown out.". On Nov. 3, 1987, an inspector dressed as a postman returned "Joe and his Uncle" to the house on Picadilly Road where Arnold Friedman gave computer lessons to children. Still, he's studying economics at Hunter College." heads to explain it. Everything you'd least expect must have been a bit like it seemed in 1988, when he was accused of molesting dozens of children in his father's computer class. It has all the elements, starting with the father, who could be considered a noble man. You can defend yourselves now - and those kids you used to be. The entire family would attend synagogue on Sabbath and holiday mornings. Elaine Friedman Found! - See Phones, Email, Addresses, and More "Jesse could accept or reject the plea bargain. All these years later, he can still close his eyes and feel the haunting stare of the wiry young man who he said started fondling him a few weeks into computer classes when he was 10 years old. Sitting in a restaurant booth near his home, he described what he endured during those computer classes. Critics overwhelmingly praised his film, released last summer, as evenhanded and provocative. "Some of the boys talked very readily, and some did not, and that's the way it goes in almost every sex abuse case," she said. Whatever. "It had a real classroom feeling. 47 mins. "When I ask [at screenings] how many people feel that Jesse Friedman went to prison unfairly, I would say more people than not raise their hands . The Kelly Michaels case in New Jersey, for another. "To them this is not wrong," says detective Eller. Independent Consultant: Writer, Reporter, Editor Self-Employed 2001 - Present22 years Greater New York City Area I provide writing, reporting and editing services, expertise and support with a. This is the brother of A.G. http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/ny-livit273389114jul27,0,4000086.column?coll=ny-news-print, http://entertainment.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=145568, distribution and manufacturing of child pornography, Anti-Semitism, Sexual Abuse, and The Jewish Community, Common Clinical Diagnoses Given to Survivors of Child Abuse and Sexual Assault, Common Issues of Survivors of Child Abuse and Incest, Dating, Shadchan, Dating Service: Preventing Date and Marital Rape, History and Background of Rabbinical Ordinations, History of Child Abuse, Neglect and Sexual Abuse/Assault Laws and Cases in Jewish Communities, Mandated Reporting and Halacha (Jewish Law), Marrying a Kohain: Female Survivors of Sex Crimes, Political Issues and Resources Relating to Childhood Sexual Abuse, Prostitution and Human Trafficking within Jewish Communities, Sex Offenders: Problems Our Parents Wouldn't Speak Of, Women's Issues: Jewish Survivors of Sex Crimes. Galasso said Friedman gave police a detailed confession and also failed two polygraph tests, which are not admissible in court. They wanted it told in a fulsome way. "It could have been used in his defence," Nemser said. I think it's clear. Elaine Friedman has been married to ? Gary and his brother both wrote supportive letters to Mr. Friedman while he was in jail. Jarecki followed David for months. The younger kids, now three and four, also show emotional scars. "David is sort of conflicted," Mr. Jarecki says. Arnold died in prison in 1995. (He admits to once having molested two boys, though he maintained that no molestation took place in Great Neck.) "There has never been any dispute about the fact that these statements were made," he said. According to statements by her husband, Marsha McNutt, 39, was aware of the abuse. Sal Marinello, the Mineola lawyer who says he represents "four victims," said his clients do not want to step backward to a time they have tried to forget. According to the Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence, led by Paul J. Fink, MD, child sexual abuse is a major public health crisis affecting at least 27% of American girls and 16% of boys. The best documentary of the year? Jesse Friedman's defense attorney, Peter Panaro, said a video camera and a 35mm still camera were regularly positioned on tripods in the ground floor classroom where Arnold Friedman conducted computer classes. It has reluctantly brought them out of their silence. Once inside, they found hundreds of child-porn magazines, clippings of boys modeling underwear from department store catalogs and photos of scouts wearing only their briefs. That's in the hands of Academy voters. Grandmother of Sam and David. Similarly, in United States v. Coonan, 826 F.2d 1180, 1186 (2d Cir. They married in 1955, and eventually moved to Flushing, where they bought their first house. . All but one of the families agreed that the plea bargain was the best way to resolve the case, Onorato said. Because of this objectivity, viewers are permitted to draw their own conclusions from information gleaned during the filmmakers' three-year investigation of the case, just as a jury would have, if there had been a trial. I would have liked a stronger sentence," he said. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Friedmans, and make it such a thrilling documentary, Elaine Friedman Still, there is the matter of the here and now. Then about two hours later, `Well, maybe Arnold did expose himself. Friedman, who had the respect of his peers as well as his students, had taught one of New York City's first high school classes in nuclear physics and the first organic chemistry class ever offered at Bayside. This film reopens the Friedman case by raising the question of guilt or innocence in the context of a possible miscarriage of justice. Your father died in prison. 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. His mother comes off as partially insane and insensitive at best. Imagine they are one and the same. Nemser said another alleged victim was hypnotized before making incriminating statements against the Friedmans, a technique he claims has dubious results. It examines the cases against Arnold and Jesse Friedman, a Long Island father and son imprisoned in the late 1980s for sexually abusing dozens of children. Former Chemical Engineering Student - Columbia University, New York, NY, Former Student - Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY. Did the Friedmans fall prey to a national paranoia? See United States v. Shakur, 817 F.2d 189, 194 (2d Cir. In this case, in a movie about an alleged child sex ring we are told by a filmmaker, in effect: Haven't we gone too far with these child sex abuse prosecutions? "He saw his life in ruins regardless of how the trial would come out.". He traded kiddie porn with undercover postal inspectors. All rights reserved. He is a registered Level 3 sex offender, the most serious level, and must inform police of his whereabouts regularly. "Jesse was put into a corner and had to plead guilty," Nemser said, adding that Friedman is the beneficiary of "an enormous windfall" of evidence because of the research that director Andrew Jarecki did. This could be any family making memories of the highlights in their lives. It would be fifteen years in the future, and the Bride (Uma Thurman) would be in a wheelchair.". In a few cases, police found such discs in the homes of Friedman's students. Even when he is fifty years old, Jesse will be the bogeyman under the bed. Pressed on videotape by one of his sons to say he didn't do it, the best Arnold could muster was a muttered, barely comprehensible and thoroughly unconvincing agreement. Sgt. 1. My brother David still has a lot of issues to work through. It is difficult to believe that such degrading episodes could have happened without a single child out of more than 100 students telling anyone about it until after Detective Squeglia's interrogations. And it said, 'A deeply religious person, I was brought up in the Jewish faith to believe that truth and justice were the most important things. Shame on the Academy if this film wins an Oscar. Andrew Jarecki hit the jackpot in the telecommunications industry when he sold the Moviefone information service to America Online for a reported $388 million in 1999. He later admitted to molesting some of them, and in the documentary his wife Elaine Friedman recalls a time when he confessed. HN1The Bail Reform Act limits [**3] the circumstances under which a district court may order pretrial detention. that makes you chuckle anxiously at the madding complexity of human He said they also threatened to kill his parents and burn his house if he told. In a letter to Newsday, in which he refused requests for interviews, he referred to his case as "the Great Neck Horror" and said it was the story of a town that "conducted a modern-day witch hunt. Consider this information, and decide for yourself if this well-reviewed "documentary" can be trusted. Reprise of a late '80s Great Neck child sex-abuse case is deeply troubling, thrillingly cinematic, aptly enigmatic. That it wasn't true." Mr. Jarecki discovered his eventual subject matter while interviewing people who worked as birthday party clowns in New York City. Through him, he learned the Friedmans' dark secret. The exhaustive investigation done by the filmmakers in the course of making the film uncovered a tremendous amount of exonerating material. The film, which opens Friday at the Charles Theater, centers on a child-molestation scandal that swept through the well-off suburb of Great Neck, Long Island, in 1987 and '88. If the police were gentle with the young boys, says Great Neck resident Stuart Maltin, they weren't quite so tender with his son Judd, who was Jesse's best friend. Capturing the truth: When pedophilia stirs hysteria, truth can be silenced. And a Maybe Jesse did expose himself.' have done and why he may have done it. Yohalem talked to him shortly after he was hit with the federal charges. That seems believable in the film. Arnold, his wife and sons stared from a framed photograph in the hall. The award-winning documentary promised an up-close and personal peek inside the family of Arnold and Jesse Friedman, a teacher and his son from Great Neck who pleaded guilty in 1989 to multiple counts of sexually abusing young boys. "They really started to badger me," said Maltin. Jesse, then a student at SUNY Purchase, said his mother called and told him about the raid. In fact, "Capturing the Friedmans" isn't principally about a child-abuse case, though that clearly is what set other events in motion. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Instead, they said some of the methods were used by mental health experts in therapy after the children had provided their statements of abuse. ", Anthony Squeglia, a retired Nassau police detective who worked on the case with Galasso, said of Friedman's claims of coercion, "It's all garbage at this point. Elli was born on February 28, 1931 and grew up in Samorin, Czechoslovakia, a small town near Bratislava. A convicted child molester went to jail and his story to the silver screen. "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. But the scene, she says, is left out of the movie. Trained as a private investigator, he used access to interviewees and records granted him as a filmmaker to conduct his own investigation of the case. That left police with the missing photos and tapes as their best remaining hope for making cases against the two suspects, Galasso said. Ah, Hollywood! And there was the standoffish oldest son David, who became a celebrated birthday clown in Manhattan but who was secretive about his personal life. Dr. Joyanna Silberg, PhD, a child psychologist and vice-president of the Leadership Council, notes that the film reinforces popular myths that protect offenders and harm victims. Jesse Friedman was with friends shopping in the East Village that day. The police moved and manipulated evidence of pornography within the house. He said it was the responsibility of Friedman's attorneys to demonstrate that they have compelling new evidence to justify calling witnesses. Actors and directors had a chance to sound off among their peers and journalists at the ceremony, one of several notable precursors to the Academy Awards. Then, `Maybe I saw something.' It comes up because Jesse's lawyer, Peter Panaro of Massapequa, mentions it as a mitigating circumstance. Students sent in search of computer manuals would stumble across the magazines. "It's almost like an amnesia," said Dr. Sandra Kaplan, chief of North Shore University Hospital's division of child and adolescent psychology, who is treating some of the Friedman victims.