Convicted, along with her husband, Eugene Abrams, of running a child poronography ring out of their home involving five young girls including their own 2 1/2 year old daughter. The couple advertised for girl models in Screw, a porn tabloid. Joyce was sentenced to five years of probation.
New York police said the couple ran a nationwide, $250,000 - a-year child porn ring out of their suburban Long Island home. Police found hundreds of photographs intended for sale by mail. Nine parents also were arrested for allowing their children to be photographed and sexually abused.
According to Lt. Beckerman of the Nassau County police.Children from the neighborhood and friends of the Abrams' own young children also were molested. "Any child who came into that house would be touched -- any girl, not boy".
"I have never seen, in 21 years, pictures like the ones I saw," Beckerman said. "It's just heartbreaking."
The couple were divorced, and their young children were ordered into the custody of their maternal grandparents, according to court records.
Pornography Ring Broken Up in Nassau
New York Times - April 22, 1971
MINEOLA, L.I.; April 21-- Nassau County District Attorney William Cahn said today that his office had broken a nationwide, $250,000 - a-year pornography business, which allegedly used little girls, including the photographer's own three-and-one-half-year-old daughter, as models for lewd photographs.
In a 75-count indictment returned by the grand jury, Eugene Abrams, 37, of 1033 Little Neck Avenue, North Bellmore, was charged with one count of rape, five counts of sexual abuse, four counts of sodomy, one count of incest and nine counts of endangering the morals of minors.
Mr. Cahn said Mr. Abrams advertised for girl models between the ages of 4 and 14 years of age in issues of Screen magazine which is published by Milky Way Productions of 11 West 17th Street, Manhattan. The models were paid $200 a sitting and, according to Mr. Cahn, were allowed to return for subsequent sittings though, in at least one case, the parents knew their daughter had been molested while being photographed.
The magazine and Milky Way Productions were named in the indictment along with the executive editor, Alvin Goldstein, 35, of 61 Jaine Street, Manhattan, and Mr. Abram's wife, Joyce, 28, in two counts of obscenity, 45 counts of endangering the morals of minors, and two counts of sexual abuse.
By Curtis Morgan and Christopher Wellisz
Miami Herald, The (FL) - July 13, 1989
A convicted child molester charged with sexually assaulting a 5-year-old Hollywood girl has jumped bond after being released by a Broward judge despite convictions in New York on 77 counts of rape, incest, sodomy and obscenity involving five young girls.
Eugene Abrams, 55, an unemployed inventor who once ran a nationwide child pornography ring on Long Island, disappeared last week and is being sought by police across South Florida.
"He's a child molester and he's out on the street again," Hollywood detective Curt Navarro said Wednesday. "I believe with his background, he's a threat out there, and he needs to be picked up as soon as possible."
Abrams, who served eight years in New York's Attica State Prison, was arrested last July and charged with sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl and forcing her to pose nude for photographs and videotapes.
Since then, Abrams has been accidentally released from jail, rearrested and then released on bond, although the charges are capital offenses that allow the state to hold him without bond.
Broward Circuit Judge Patti Englander Henning released Abrams on bond on Jan. 11 and later refused to revoke the bond, despite prosecutors' protests. It is not clear whether she knew about Abrams' criminal record at the first hearing, although the court file includes a list of the 77 convictions.
But at the second hearing, prosecutors told Henning of Abrams' record and argued, "Persons of this community stand at great risk of physical harm from any defendant with such a criminal background."
Henning said Wednesday that she doesn't remember details of the case but recalls thinking Abrams should remain free because he had not missed a court appearance and was attending therapy sessions.
"I had justification, I think, in setting the bond," she said. "I thought that I was right, that he kept showing up in court. Unfortunately, he's since left the home."
Abrams' attorney, Larry Davis, said he has no idea where his client is but defended Henning. "It's easy to cast aspersions when you're looking at it in hindsight," he said.
Abrams, whose New York attorney once described him as "a Jekyll and Hyde," was arrested in 1971 with Joyce Abrams, his wife at the time, for running a nationwide pornography ring out of their home in North Bellmore, a suburb of New York City.
Newspapers described Abrams as an affluent inventor and a member of the high-IQ society Mensa. Abrams was arrested in Hollywood on July 14, 1988, after the 5-year-old girl told camp counselors that she had been sexually assaulted. When he was arrested, he told detective Navarro of his New York record, Navarro said.
Navarro said he doesn't recall whether he passed that information to prosecutors. Court records show that New York police printed Abrams' records on July 29, 1988, and sent them to Broward authorities.
It's not clear when the rap sheet arrived. Dave Casey, spokesman for the Broward state attorney's office, said prosecutors apparently didn't know about Abrams' record until after he was freed on bond in January.
Even before bond was set, Abrams was released from jail because of a paperwork mix-up. On Dec. 21, 1988, prosecutors refiled the case with an additional charge. But the only paperwork that reached jailers showed that the original case had been dropped.
Abrams was released, although he told jailers they were making a mistake. The next morning, he voluntarily returned to jail, his attorney said.
That voluntary return helped his case a month later when his attorney asked Henning to release him on bond. "He was willing to put himself back in jail and he appeared in court," she said Wednesday. "Usually someone who does that isn't prone to fly."
Henning ordered Abrams to attend regular therapy sessions, stay in his sister's Pembroke Pines home and stay away from the victim. Although Abrams could have been held without bond, Henning said she was required to consider mitigating circumstances.
A month later, Henning rejected a plea by Assistant State Attorney Dennis Bailey to revoke the bond and return Abrams to jail. Bailey was vacationing in Hawaii and was not available for comment Wednesday. Authorities learned Abrams had jumped bond when his wife, (Wife's Name Removed), called Davis last week and told him Abrams had disappeared. Henning revoked bond the next day.
Henning and attorney Davis said Abrams is not a threat to the community and both hope he will show up for his trial Aug. 14. Navarro disagreed and asked the public to help track him down. "He knows now there's no way out, that he's going to spend the rest of his life in jail," he said. "He's gone."
photo: Eugene Abrams (b)
Memo: see also chronology box: THE ABRAMS CASE on 18A
Convicted Sex Abuser Who Escaped Always Will Be Threat, Experts Say
By Christopher Wellisz and Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald- July 14, 1989
Experts in sexual crimes said Thursday they were distressed by a judge's decision to grant bond to Eugene Abrams, a convicted sex offender accused of molesting a 5-year-old Hollywood girl.
Abrams, a self-proclaimed inventor and computer expert, may still be in South Florida after jumping bond last week, Hollywood police say. Detective Curt Navarro said an informant told him that Abrams had purchased books on how to change identities with fake Social Security numbers and other documents.
"It's discouraging to say the least," said Joanne Richter, director of the Broward County Sexual Assault Treatment Center. "It's just so hard to make cases against these people in the first place."
Most sex offenders like Abrams remain a threat outside of jail unless they undergo therapy, said Jeanne Miley, executive director of Kids in Distress, a Broward nonprofit group that helps young victims. She compared sex offenders to alcoholics who need long-term treatment.
A Nassau County, N.Y., police detective who helped send Abrams to prison in the early 1970s, recalled him as a compulsive child molester who abused every little girl who came into his house.
"Wherever he is, there's not a little girl who is going to be safe," said Lt. Barbara Beckerman of the Nassau County Police Department. Abrams spent nearly five years of a 10-year sentence in Attica State Prison in New York on 77 counts of rape, incest, sodomy and obscenity involving five young girls.
Abrams, a 55-year-old Brooklyn native, was arrested last July on charges of sexual battery against a 5-year-old Hollywood girl. He also was accused of taking pictures of the girl nude.
In January, Broward Circuit Judge Patti Englander Henning freed Abrams on a $25,000 bond after he had been in jail for seven months. She said she didn't remember prosecutors telling her about Abrams' criminal record.
But at a second bond hearing in February, prosecutors, citing Abrams' prior convictions, asked Henning to revoke the bond and return him to jail. Henning refused.
Henning said he had not missed a court appearance or therapy session and had voluntarily returned to jail after being released by accident in December.
Under Florida law, anyone accused of sexual battery or other capital crimes may be held in jail without bond. Abrams faces a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison.
Thursday, Henning said she still hoped Abrams would show up for trial Aug. 14. "In the meantime, he has not contacted the victim and has not shown he is out endangering anyone." But she added: "I have to say, that with all the present publicity, I doubt that he'd come back."
Lorna Spivak, attorney for Broward's guardian ad litem program, which provides court-appointed representatives for young victims, praised Henning's record, saying: "She's been very, very attentive to the child's needs."
In Abrams' case, Spivak said, "There must have some very, very extraordinary circumstance that the judge considered in granting bond."
In the 1970s, Abrams and his then-wife, Joyce, ran a child pornography ring from their suburban home in North Bellmore, Long Island.
The couple advertised for girl models in Screw, a porn tabloid. Abrams then photographed himself engaging in sex with the children, said Lt. Beckerman of the Nassau County police.
"I have never seen, in 21 years, pictures like the ones I saw," Beckerman said. "It's just heartbreaking."
Children from the neighborhood and friends of the Abrams' own young children also were molested, Beckerman said.
"Any child who came into that house would be touched -- any girl, not boy," Beckerman said.
Abrams pleaded guilty and was released in April 1979. His wife was sentenced to five years of probation.
The couple were divorced, and their young children were ordered into the custody of their maternal grandparents, according to court records.
Eugene Abrams later moved to Florida and married his present wife, (Wife's Name Removed). When they arrested Abrams last July, police confiscated hundreds of photographs and pornographic videotapes from his West Hollywood home.
But Hollywood police said they didn't think Abrams was trying to set up a pornography business like the one in New York.
Molester A No-Show At Hearing
By CURTIS MORGAN Herald Staff Writer
Miami Herald, The (FL) - August 11, 1989
When convicted child molester Eugene Abrams jumped bail more than a month ago on charges of assaulting a 5-year-old girl, Broward Circuit Judge Patti Englander Henning cautioned: Wait and see, maybe he'll show up.
The wait officially ended Thursday and Abrams was nowhere to be seen.
The 55-year-old Hollywood resident did not appear at a Thursday hearing, his first scheduled court appearance since he fled July 5. Henning, who was in court late Thursday and could not be reached for comment, canceled his Aug. 14 trial.
Abrams, a Brooklyn native who was convicted of 77 counts of rape, sodomy and obscenity in New York more than a decade ago, was arrested in July 1988 and charged with sexually assaulting a 5-year-old Hollywood girl and forcing her to pose nude for photos and videotapes.
Since his arrest, Abrams had been released accidentally from jail, re-arrested after he surrendered, and then released in January on $25,000 bail by Henning, although the capital charges he faces would have allowed the courts to hold him without bail.
Dennis Bailey, chief of the sex crimes division of the Broward state attorney's office, said he wouldn't second-guess Henning's decision, but said Abrams' disappearance galls him.
"It's very frustrating for the people trying to fight for the rights of the little girl," he said. "The case goes back on the shelf until he's found."
In the 1970s, Abrams was convicted of running a nationwide pornography ring out of his Long Island home. Abrams and his wife at the time, Joyce, ran ads for young models, then photographed Abrams engaging in sex with girls as young as 3. Abrams served 4 1/2 years in Attica State Prison after a stint in a hospital for the criminally insane. He moved to Hollywood in 1979.
Now the state is moving to take possession of Abrams' home, which was used as collateral for his bond, Bailey said. Abrams' wife, (Wife's Name Removed), already has begun moving out.
Police believe Abrams may still be in the area, perhaps with a new identity. Hollywood police Detective Curtis Navarro is seeking tips.
Henning has said she doesn't believe Abrams poses a threat to the community, but Bailey isn't sure.
"Put it this way -- the guy was engaged in child sex abuse 20 years ago and he's still doing it. I see no indication that he's going to stop."
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