Capturing the Friedmans Page #9

for an hour and a half

once a week

he says that there were

31 instances of sexual contact.

That's 3 times a week

every single week..

For 10 straight weeks

and then the course ends.

In the fall, he re-enrolled

for the advanced course

and says that he was subjected

to 41 more instances

of anal and oral sodomy

in the next 10-week session

and nobody said anything.

Week after week,

month after month

year after year

until after the police

came knocking on doors

and asking questions.

I went to the doorbell.

There were two

Nassau County detectives

and they said they'd like to

speak to our son

with regard to

the Friedman matter.

They came in and said, "We know

something happened to him."

They didn't say, "We believe."

They said, "We know."

And they wanted to speak to him.

I remember it was actually kind

of a frightening experience

because I remember

they're talking

to my parents about this

within earshot of me.

I remember actually

eavesdropping

on what they said

and what they said

made my heart race

because they were saying

that actually quite

a few horrible things

had happened to

a lot of children

and I was one of them.

And quite honestly,

I didn't believe it

and I was very confused

and very angry about this,

thinking, well,

why are these people

going around telling my parents

that all kinds of

things have happened

when I have simply no

recollection of anything?

Children want

to please very often.

They want to give you

the answers that you want.

Adults do that as well.

So you have to be

very mindful of the fact

that when you're

interviewing a child

if the child starts

to answer questions

your responses should be

somewhat in the framework of

"And then what happened?"

Or, "What happened next?"

Or, "What do you remember then?"

As opposed to

"He did this to you, didn't he?"

or "She did this to you,

didn't she?"

That's a very,

very dangerous type

of interview process to use.

If you talk to a lot of children

you don't give them

an option, really.

You just, you be

pretty honest with them.

You have to tell them

pretty honestly that

"We know you went

to Mr. Friedman's class.

We know how many times

you've been to the class."

You know, we go through

the whole routine.

"We know that there

was a good chance"

that he touched you

or Jesse touched you

or somebody in that family

touched you

"in a very inappropriate way."

And I listened

to them talking to him

and it got to a point

where it wasn't

asking him what happened.

It was more of them

telling him what happened

and that when they didn't

like what he said

they kept repeating to him

that they know what happened

and that he should tell.

I believe that I remember saying

that I saw Jesse, like

chase after a kid or hit a kid

or something like that

and that's what I testified to

to the grand jury.

And I remember saying

that because I felt

and I feel like when I said that

that ended the questioning.

And so that might

have meant that

you could infer maybe

that they were asking me

a lot of questions,

trying to get something

and I just wanted

to give them something.

I mean I don't want to be

say I'm a perjurer or anything

but I did not observe

anything like that happening.

What I do remember is

the detectives putting me under

a lot of pressure to speak up.

And at some point,

I kind of broke down.

I started crying.

And when I started

to tell them things

I was telling myself

that it's not true.

I was telling myself,

"Just say this to them

in order to get them

off your back."

I came across a document

regarding a group of children

from the Friedman case

who were in therapy

and it stated that many of them

had absolutely no recollection

of the abuse

and there was some discussion

about whether hypnosis

would be a good idea now,

exactly what you're not

supposed to do.

It was the kind of therapy

that had a really good chance

of messing up kids' memories

and implanting false memories.

My parents put me

in therapy right away.

They put me in hypnosis

and tried to recall facts

that I had buried.

And that's how I first came out,

started talking about it,

just through being hypnotized

and everything

I recalled things

that I would bury.

I was able to talk about them.

For example, what would be

something that you recall?

The actual first time

I actually recalled

that I was actually molested.

Wow, I was actually molested.

I can deal with it now.

That was the first time.

And you recalled through

hypnosis the first episode?

Yes.

So tell me about that,

if you remember.

I don't remember much about it.

It was so long ago.

I just remember that

I went through hypnosis

came out, and it was in my mind.

19-year-old Jesse Friedman

was arraigned on more than

198 additional counts

of child sexual abuse.

This brings the total number of

sexual abuse charges to 245.

Jesse was grossly overcharged

and you're basically

terrorizing the defendant.

You're telling the defendant

"Look, if you plead guilty"

you know,

we'll give you a good deal

and, on, you know, 2 charges.

But if you insist

on going to trial

we're going to put

1,003 charges on you.

And if you're convicted

of all those charges

"you're gonna rot in jail

the rest of your life."

I was told that

if he went to trial

the judge would give

3 consecutive sentences.

Instead of concurrent

the sentencing

would be consecutive.

I said, "Oh, my god."

She just kept telling me

over and over

"The only thing to do

is to plead guilty"

and to get the

best deal you can.

You can't go to trial.

It doesn't matter

if you're guilty or innocent.

You can't go to trial,

because if you go to trial

"you're gonna go to prison

for the rest of your life."

I said, "But Ma,

I didn't do it."

She said, "That doesn't matter."

You have to plead guilty."

You have to understand,

this is a 19-year-old kid

and he is now facing the most

heinous charge known to man

and everyone in the world

slowly but surely,

was turning against him.

I don't care about my parents.

I wish it was just my brothers.

Oh, f***.

I don't care about my mother,

that's for sure.

If my brothers were OK

then my mother could go

to f***ing hell.

My father is not going

to survive

if my brother gets incarcerated.

So

So when the guilty verdict

comes in on Jesse

my father's gonna kill himself.

Jesse's gonna go to jail

for the rest of his life.

Seth is gonna move west.

F*** f***.

I received a telephone call

from Jesse asking to see me

and Jesse told me

that he wanted to plead guilty.

In 1988, there was no way

that a jury in Nassau County

who had been reading

the newspaper headlines

in "Newsday" for over a year

those people were never

going to listen

to anything

the defense had to say

and I was absolutely terrified

of going to prison

for 100 years.

Jesse had always

maintained his innocence.

I don't work out deals

for people who are innocent.

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