The Awareness Center, Inc. (International Jewish Coaltion Against Sexual Assault): Case of Rochelle Marcus

Case of Rochelle Marcus

Rogers Park JCC Day-Care Center

Chicago, IL

This was a case of alleged ritual abuse and was one of the first mass molestation cases in the State of Illinois.

In April 1984, a mother suspected that her four-year-old child had been sexually abused at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) preschool in Chicago. Several other children told of molestations. They described "strangers" engaging in sexual escapades at JCC and elsewhere. Staff members of the center even stepped forward to supplement the allegations with their own testimony.

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Table of Contents

1984

Two families' tragic story (04/20/1984)
2 Day Care Teachers Suspended (04/20/1984)
Chicago Center Checked for Child Molestation (04/21/1984)
2 teachers implicated in sex abuse at center (04/22/1984)
Chicago Center Checked for Child Molestation (04/22/1984)
Cartoons help detect victims of sex abuse (04/23/1984)
2 teachers implicated in sex abuse at center (04/24/1984)
Parents feel lost as day care center closes (04/26/1984)
Embattled day-care center will reopen (04/27/1984)
Day-care's abuses tied to nap time (05/08/1984)
Parents: Abusive teachers still at JCC (05/23/1984)
Parents sue center over child sexual abuse (08/08/1984)
State calls sex abuse charges at day care center unfounded (10/04/1984)

1985

Abuse 'Expert' Misled State, Records Show (04/19/1985)
'Expert' in Day-Care Probe Can't Back Up HIs Resume (04/19/1985)
State Called Remiss in Child-Sex Proble (04/20/1985)
Day-care probe rife with errors: Rogers park case 'learning experience' for officials (04/21/1985)
Sex-Abuse Probe Rife With Errors - Day-Care Case A 'Learning Experience' for Officials (04/21/1985)
Embattled North Side Day-Care Center Will Close (05/181985)
Trial Opens on Day Care Sex Abuse (09/20/1985)
Girl, 7, tells of abuse and rape: Janitor's lawyer hammers at story (09/20/1985)
Mom tells ordeal of girl, 7, at janitor trial (09/21/1985)
Girl, 7, Testifies in Sex-Abuse Case (09/21/1985)
Day-Care center janitor raped me, girl testifies (09/20/1985)
Doctors Saw 'Possivle Abuse' of Pupil (09/24/1985)
Doctors suspect girl molested (09/25/1985)
Day-Care Worker Denies Sex Charges (10/02/1985)
Janitor denies child sex abuse charges (10/02/1985)
Janitor not guilty in rape of girl, 7; parents bitter (10/03/1985)
Janitor Cleared of 1 Sex Charge - 'I Have No Choice' Judge Says' (10/03/1985)
Janitor trial in preschool child abuse case put off (11/20/1985)

1986

Child-molesting charges suspended (02/19/1986)
Day-Care Janitor's Abuse Trials Off (02/19/1986)
Day-care center sued for $50 million (02/22/1986)

1992

Major Day-Care Abuse Cases (04/23/1992)

Also See:

Case of David Kay
Case of Rochelle Marcus
Case of the Rogers Park JCC Day-Care Center
Case of Anita Weinstein

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Two families' tragic story

By Carolyn Lenz, Asst. Managing Editor

Rogers Park - Edgewater News (Lerner Paper) - Wednesday, May 23, 1984

(Page 1 and 13)

Former home of the Rogers Park JCC Day Care Center

"THIS WILL BE with us forever. It never will ever be wiped away," said a young mother, who is certain her daughter was raped and sexually and physically abused at the Rogers park Jewish Community Center's day-care center.

The mother said her family's therapist said her daughter, will have to deal with her trauma in each stage of her life.

Now, Becky is afraid to go to sleep or to go to the bathroom alone. Those were the occasions when she was attacked, her mother said. When she reaches puberty, her fears will take different forms, according to the therapist.

Another 4-year-old girl who was molested, Melissa, wants to sleep in the closet with the door closed, where she feels safe, said her mother. "I know she is scared to death. She is afraid of everything," she said.

The names of the children have been changed to protect their identity.

DURING QUESTIONING at the start of the investigation of abuse at the center, Melissa "would not let me out of her sight," her mother said, "because she was sure I was going to be killed while she was talking." Both mothers said their daughters told them their abusers had threatened to kill their families if they revealed what they had done.

Melissa is "regressing into infancy" because she thinks that when she first went to the center everyone loved her, but when she grew older they began hitting her and telling her she was stupid, "a dummy" and deserved to be hit. Through therapy, Melissa is learning that she is not a bad girl but a victim of child abuse.

According to Becky's mother, "She talked about it as if there were two Beckys -- bad Becky and good Becky. Good Becky didn't have these things happen to her."

WHILE THESE two mothers, along with a few others, have shared their experiences with each other, they feel fairly isolated from other parents of children who are or were enrolled at the center.

"When we did make statements in public, a lot of parents refused to believe us. It was too traumatic for them," one mother said.

"Since this is a Jewish Community Center and they have religious and community ties tied up in this, this contributes to their state of denial," she said.

Melissa, did not want to go back to the school or anywhere near the rooms where she said she was abused after she told what had happened, her mother said.

"There are children who have returned to the school who were pinpointed as victims, and their parents are still sending them there," said Becky's mother. "Meanwhile, who is protecting the children?"

BOTH MOTHERS said they now realize they missed earlier clues that something was wrong. For instance, reluctance to go to sleep and reports of being insulted and punished at the center were such clues.

"The counselor said children have a different language. We didn't realize that," Becky's mother said.

When Melissa's mother asked why her children hadn't told her sooner, Melissa answered, "I tried to tell you."

The families are convinced that both individual child therapy and family therapy are valuable. "I would sell the house if I had to" before giving up the therapy, said Melissa's mother.

Anita Weinstein

Becky's family is in a financial bind, having just bought a house and raising two children on one income. They first tried to get counseling through the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. But, after being told that the DCFS counselor was a personal friend of Anita Weinstein's, the day care center director who was later suspended, they chose private therapy.

Both families had enrolled their daughters part time at the center, hoping to enhance their socialization skills. Becky's mother also worked part-time, so she needed day care. She now is sure that her daughter was abused for more than a year before she told what had happened.

According to Melissa's mother, "We sent her for a nice school experience. Now we're trying to undo the damage."

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2 Day Care Teachers Suspended

by Michael Arndt

Chicago Tribune (Page 1 and 4) - April 20, 1984

Two Teachers at a Rogers Park day care center were suspended because they allegedly knew of incidents of child molesting at the center but failed to report them to authorities, a spokesman also said that 32 children enrolled in the facility, the Rogers Park Jewish Community Center, 711 N. Greenview Ave., showed possible symptoms of sexual abuse as determined by a questionnaire filled out by parents.

The developments came a day after it was disclosed that a 19-year veteran janitor at the center, Decortic Parks, 45, of 7930 S. Peoria St., had been charged with taking indecent liberties with a 3-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl, police said.

Mark Rakoczy

Parks has denied wrongdoing, said Mark Rakoczy, a Cook County assistant state's attorney. The case against Parks at this time is based solely on the accusations of the two children, Rakoczy said.

Donald Schlosser

The two teachers were suspended earlier this week, said Donald Schlosser, the spokesman of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). Schlosser would not identify them, but said neither is suspected of having molested any o the children at the center. Parks also has been suspended.

Parks was arrested Monday after the mother of the 4-year-old called the mother of the 3-year-old and both found their children telling similar stories about being abused, Rakoczy said.

The center, which has 67 students ranging in age from toddlers to 5-year-olds, will be open as usual Friday, said Jay Levenberg, assistant director of the Jewish Centers of Chicago, an affiliate of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.

But many parents who brought their children to the facility Thursday said their decision was difficult after parents of the allegedly abused children described in a meeting Wednesday night what they said had happened to their children.

At that meeting with DCFS officials, police and center's staff, parents were given a questionnaire intended to aid investigators in determining if additional children had been molested, Schlosser said.

Schlosser said the questions asked among other things, whether the child experienced redness around the genital area, had urinary infections or nightmares or if the child was afraid to e alone with strangers.

Based on the parents' answers, he said 32 children exhibited at least one symptom of possible molestation.

Therapists, using coloring books and dolls, began interviewing the children Thursday to determine if any actually had been molested. The interviews will continue Friday.

He also said several parents have accepted an offer from department therapists for counseling for their children.

The department licenses day care centers, but Schlosser refused to comment on any action that might be taken against the center.

Levenberg said the center staff has been ordered to cooperate with police and department investigators, but he declined to say if any parents had withdrawn their children from the center, nor would he discuss the center's financing or the investigation.

The Day Care center receives no state funding, except for a $500.00 fee the state is paying for one child, Schlosser said. The bulk of the money comes from fees from parents.

Schlosser said there have been no significant complaints" previously filed against the center.

The community center is a converted three-story brick house with fenced-in yards on a quiet residential street. Its primary service, said Levenberg is providing day care, but the center also has programs for the elderly and the general community.

The center is licensed to handle 42 children, but has more enrolled because it offers both morning and afternoon care, Schlosser said. Its staff includes 13 teachers and a director and it has been in operation for more than 20 years.

Officials said that any parents who suspect their children may have been assaulted should call the state child abuse hot line 1-800-25A-BUSE.

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Chicago Center Checked for Child Molestation
New York Times - April 21, 1984

Chicago, April 21 (UPI) –– A former janitor is in custody and two teachers have been suspended from a daycare center where offiicals say children have been sexually abused.

It appears that a significant number of children have been molested," said Donald Schlosser in the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

He said a survey of parents whose children have atteneded the Rogers Park Jewish Community Center have indicated that 32 children might have been molested.

The former janitor, Decortic Parks, 45 years old, was charged last week with taking indecent liberties with children. Two teachers were suspended because they did not report information Mr. Schlosser said.

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2 teachers implicated in sex abuse at center
By Mark Eissman
Chicago Tribune - April 22, 1984

Case of the Rogers Park JCC Day-Care Center

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Cartoons help detect victims of sex abuse
Chicago Tribune - April 23, 1984

Case of the Rogers Park JCC Day Care Center - Click on article to enlarge

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2 teachers implicated in sex abuse at center

by Mark Eissman

Chicago Tribune - Sunday, April 22, 1984

TWO MORE STAFF members have been implicated in the sexual abuse of children at a Rogers Park day-care center where a janitor was charged last week with taking indecent liberties with two children, sources close to the investigation said Saturday.

Authorities were not releasing the identities of the two staff members at the Rogers Park Jewish Community Center, 7101 N. Greenview Ave., but said the two are teachers and were named by children in interviews Saturday. Sources said that additional to the children's accusations, there is supporting medical evidence in at least one case. Each teacher was named by at least two children, the sources said.

One of the employees named by the children Saturday was one of two teachers suspended Thursday for failing to report children's complaints of sexual abuse, sources said, though at the time officials said neither was suspected of involvement in the molestation.

THE INTERVIEWS Saturday were done with 18 children who were considered "high risk" victims, said Allen Friedmann, who is conducting the interviews along with authorities Friedmann, a former investigator for the Illinois Department of children and Family Services, works for a not-for-profit agency, Human Effective Living Programs, Inc., and is a specialist in interviewing child abuse victims. He was called in last week by Chicago police to conduct the interviews.

Last week the janitor, Decortic Parks, 45, 7930 S. Peoria St., was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy. Neither of the two teachers named by the children has been charged.

After preliminary interviews, the children were found to have a high likelihood of having been sexually abused based on their responses and physical exams, he said. Many of the Children have mentioned Parks during the interviews, Freidmann said.

AT LEAST three children told investigators they reported the incidents to two teachers. Those two teachers, whose identities have not be revealed, were suspended Thursday because of their alleged failure to report the incidents, Keenan said.

The two teachers, according to sources, deny that the children said they were attacked in the first-floor washroom outside classrooms, Friedmann said. Children older than 2 were allowed to go unattended to that washroom, according to sources.

CHILDREN ALSO reported that they were attacked in a boiler room in the basement of the building and in a stairwell leading from the first floor to the second floor.

According to Friedmann and a staff member who requested anonymity, Parks was the only one who had a key to that stairwell. Interviewers have been asking children where that stairwell leads, Freidmand said.

The interviews were to resume Monday, Once they are concluded and medical reports on the children are examined, prosecutors will decide which cases to bring before a grand jury, according to Assistant State's Atty. Irv Miller.

Parks is being held in Cook County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bond. He is to appear May 1 in Violence Court before Associate Judge Gino DiVito.

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Parents feel lost as day care center closes
Chicago Tribune - April 26, 1984

Case of the Rogers Park JCC Day Care Center

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Embattled day-care center will reopen
Chicago Tribune - April 27, 1984

Case of The Rogers Park JCC Day-Care Center

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Day-care's abuses tied to nap time

By Lynn Emmerman

Chicago Tribune - May 8, 1984 (Page 1 and 4)

A janitor charged with taking indecent liberties with two youngsters in a Rogers Park day-care center had been placed solely in charge of the children's "nap-time," sources close to the investigation said Monday.

Up to 20 young children who attended the day-care center told therapists that they were sexually attacked during nap time, the sources said.

The janitor, Deloartic Parks, a 13 year employee at the Rogers Park Jewish Community Day Care Center, was arrested on April 16. He was charged with taking indecent liberties with two children, ages 3 and 4.

Anita Weinstein, director of the center, at 7101 N. Greenview Ave., was replaced on April 26 under an agreement allowing officials to re-open the center, which had been closed by the state Department of Children and Family Services after Parks' arrest.

Weinstein was replaced because Parks had been allowed to supervise the children, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified.

Attempts to reach Weinstein for comment were not successful.

Four unidentified staff members were suspended last month because they allegedly knew of incidents of sexual abuse of children and failed to report them to superiors or failed to adequately supervise the children, according to a suit filed by the Jewish Community Centers. The suit had asked that the Jewish Community Centers be allowed to reopen the day-car facility.

In addition to Parks, at least two people employed at the center were directly implicated last month in the sexual abuse, sources said.

In one case, a child alleged that one staff member took photographs of a sexual attack. In a separate instance, another child told investigators that a second staff member fondled the child's genitals, sources said.

In repeated interviews with police, social workers, and psychiatrists, children told of being bound, stripped and hung upside down with their heads in garbage cans as they were sexually molested, sources said.

The children said most of the attacks occurred in the center's basement furnace room, where they said Parks sent them when they misbehaved, sources said.

Sources described the sexual abuse as "semi-organized and frequent," saying that children reported that they sometimes were molested several times a day.

Investigators plan to complete their interviews with children this week and further question center staff members. "By Friday, we should have a good idea if anyone else will be indicted," said a source familiar with the investigation.

In an attempt to separate the children's fantasies from fact, they were interviewed repeatedly by trained professionals, sources said. Early questioning served to target children who appeared to be high-risk victims.

The high-risk children were interviewed up to three times as police and social workers compared each child's most current version of an attack with his prior accounts. Then all of the children's accounts of sexual abuse were re-examined for similarities.

To get accurate information about the sexual abuse of children, young victims must be interviewed before time and their parents' fearful reactions color their accounts, source said.

"Young children make bad witnesses," the investigator said. "Put a very little kid on the stand months after the fact, and you risk hearing a garbled, fantastic account. Ideally, we would show videotapes of children during early interviews but those videotapes are currently inadmissible in court."

To document their case, states' attorneys prosecuting Parks will rely on drawings by the children in special coloring books that deal with sexual abuse, sources said.

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Parents: Abusive teachers still at JCC

By Carolyn Lenz, Asst. Managing Editor

Rogers Park - Edgewater News (Lerner Paper) - Wednesday, May 23, 1984

(Page 1 and 13)

Some staff members o the Rogers Park Jewish Community Center day-care center who have been implicated in sexually abusing children at the center are still on the job, two mothers of alleged victims charged.

Their children said teachers at the center had organized class games where both they are the children were unclothed and the teachers hit the children on their heads hard enough to hurt, the mother told The Lerner Newspapers Tuesday, May 22.

The women, who asked not to be identified said they are outraged that the staff members have not been suspended and that the center has not been closed. The parents said they suspect the abuse had been going on for a long time.

The children have told their stories to the police and to the Cook County assistant state's attorneys.

May 21 an assistant Illinois attorney general said the center may continue to operate because it has cooperated with the investigation and complied with licensing procedures.

William Sullivan, assistant attorney general and attorney for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, said the Jewish Community Centers of Chicago have suspended all staff members against whom sufficient evidence was found. "The fact that somebody made an allegation does not mean there was a basis for it.", he said.

The parents said their children told them of the following incidents:

In one came, called "Spooky Forrest," one teacher pretended to be a bear and the other a wolf. They growled at the children and the children ran from them. When the children were caught, the teacher's would beat them on the head, a mother said.

In Another class game, called "Punchinello," the children were instructed to hit each other. The parents said their two 4-year-old daughters told their stories independently.

When one mother confronted a teacher about her daughter's version of "Punchinello," the teacher "turned white and never answered me,' the mother said.

Two mothers said their daughters did not tell them sooner about their experiences because they had been threatened.

One girl told her mother that if she talked, she would be cut into pieces in thrown in the garbage can. The children also were told that their parents would be killed if they told them, the mother said.

Some children reported being beaten, having needles stuck into their feet, being hurt with screwdrivers and being held by the ankles and turned head-first into garbage cans.

One mother now, attributes mysterious scratches that appeared on her daughters feet in the winter, when she always wore shoes to needles. Bruises on the child's lower calves substantiated her story about being held upside-down by the ankles, her mother said.

Another Mother noted that since she withdrew her daughter from the center, the child has had no bruises. Since young children commonly fall or bump and bruise themselves, the mother did not at first suspect anything was wrong, she said.

The center did not report the children's allegations to DCFS until parents told Anita Weinstein, the center's director, that they were going to tell DCFS and the police, the mother said. At that time, the children had implicated only the janitor, Decortic Parks, who has been indicted on charges of rape and aggravated indecent liberties with a child.

The Jewish Community Centers of Chicago could not be reached for comment.

DCFS will use its regular licensing review procedures to determine if it will renew the centers license, due for renewal soon, Sullivan said.

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Parents sue center over child sexual abuse
Chicago Tribune - August 8, 1984

Case of Rogers Park JCC Day Care Center

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Abuse 'Expert' Misled State, Records Show

by Lynn Emmerman and Marianne Taylor

Chicago Tribune - April 19, 1985

A man brought in by the State of Illinois as an expert to investigate key aspects of allegations of sexual child abuse at the Rogers Park Day Care Center misrepresented his credentials in his professional resume and during recent court testimony, records show.

Allen Friedmann, 34, 245 Court of Shorewood, Vernon Hills, played a critical role in the investigation. Working with a social worker and a Chicago detective, he conducted most of the sensitive interviews in which authorities tried to determine whether any of the 88 children enrolled at the center had been abused.

Friedmann was employed by Human Effectiveness Living Program (HELP), which treats sexually abused children and abusers. HELP was hired by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to provide expertise in interviewing the day care center children.

Along with HELP`s director, Friedmann designed the format used in the interviews.

Examination of Friedmann`s college transcripts, court transcripts and interviews with former employers show that he built his reputation in part on exaggerations and sometimes fabricated his qualifications.

In an interview Thursday, Friedmann said he ``never intentionally misrepresented`` his qualifications.

Allegations of sexual abuse of children at the Rogers Park Day Care Center, 7101 N. Greenview Ave., surfaced in April, 1984. The center`s janitor, Deloartic Parks, was charged with three counts of sexual child abuse. His case is pending.

The Cook County state`s attorney`s office is investigating accusations made by some children against center staff members. A DCFS investigation that ended last September found insufficient evidence to support those charges.

Questions about Friedmann`s qualifications are the latest in a series of problems, which DCFS officials say stemmed from their lack of experience in such cases and outdated regulations, that have stymied the investigations.

Friedmann is no longer involved in the case, and he resigned from HELP in February.

DCFS Director Gordon Johnson said that cases such as Friedmann`s are prompting his agency to more carefully scrutinize the qualifications of staff and people hired under contract.

Sources in the state`s attorney`s office said they would review evidence of Friedmann`s misstatements but added that questions about his credentials would not have ``much impact.``

Park`s lawyer, Adam Bourgeois, disagreed. ``Whenever the court has an expert, all the parties tend to rely on that expert,`` he said. ``If someone doesn`t have qualifications, it turns the trial into a charade.``

While testifying under oath as an expert witness last year in a civil suit, Friedmann said he had completed a year of graduate work at Loyola University and ``about a year`` of graduate work at the University of Illinois.

Loyola records show that Friedmann took one undergraduate course in 1977 but show no graduate work. U. of I. records show that he attended one semester and took two graduate courses, one of which he did not complete.

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State calls sex abuse charges at day care center unfounded

Chicago Tribune - October 4, 1984

The case of the Rogers Park JCC - Day Care Center

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Expert in Day-Care Probe Can't Back Up His Resume

By Lynn Emmerman and Marianne Taylor

Chicago Tribune - April 19, 1985

A man brought in by the State of Illinois as an expert to investigate key aspects of allegations of sexual child abuse at the Rogers Park Day Care Center misrepresented his credentials in his resume and during recent court testimony, records show.

Allen Friedmann, 34, of 245 Court of Shorewood, Vernon Hills, played a critical role in the investigation. Working with a social worker and a Chicago detective, he conducted most of the sensitive interviews in which authorities tried to determine whether any of the 88 children enrolled at the center had been abused.

Along with HELP`s director, Friedmann designed the format used in the interviews.

In an interview Thursday, Friedmann said he ``never intentionally misrepresented`` his qualifications.

He acknowledged that he once told a prospective employer that he held a master`s degree when he had not yet earned a bachelor`s degree, but said that was ``a onetime, stupid`` ploy.

Questions about Friedmann`s qualifications are the latest in a series of problems, which DCFS officials say stemmed from outdated regulations and their lack of experience in such cases, that have stymied the investigations.

Friedmann is no longer involved in the case, and he resigned from HELP in February.

DCFS Director Gordon Johnson said cases like Friedmann`s are prompting his agency to more carefully scrutinize the qualifications of staff members and people hired under contract.

Sources in the state`s attorney`s office said they would review evidence of Friedmann`s misstatements but added that questions about his credentials would not have "much impact." Chicago police detective Scott Keenan agreed, pointing out that investigators had ``used a team approach`` in the interviews.

Park`s lawyer, Adam Bourgeois, disagreed. ``Whenever the court has an expert, all the parties tend to rely on that expert,`` he said. ``If someone doesn't have qualifications, it turns the trial into a charade.``

Jon Conte, PhD

"If what children say is not believed alone, then people who do the interviewing have to be beyond reproach. Anything else invalidates the process," said Jon Conte, a University of Chicago professor and abuse expert who advised DCFS in this case.

Friedmann has some experience in the field of child abuse investigation, including more than two years as an abuse investigator with DCFS and one year as a counselor at the Center for Children`s Services in Danville.

Some of those who have seen Friedmann`s techniques say he is a skilled interviewer. ``I feel comfortable having him instruct doctors on how to talk to children,`` said Dr. Howard Levy, director of pediatrics for Mt. Sinai Hospital, where Friedmann teaches a course to doctors.

According to Friedmann`s school transcripts, he does not hold a degree in psychology, medicine or social work, courses of study most commonly followed by sexual abuse experts. His only formal instruction in these fields consisted of undergraduate courses, one completed graduate course and several professional seminars, transcripts show.

In further testimony in that civil case, Friedmann said he "spent a year and a half under Dr. Nahmon Greenberg at an agency called CAUSES," a program affiliated with Illinois Masonic Hospital that treats sexually abused children.

"Not only did he not work with me for 1 1/2 years, he never worked with me," said Greenberg, CAUSES director. ``He attended one weeklong course that I taught.``

Friedmann testified that he ``was trained as a family therapist`` at the Northwestern University Family Institute. Friedmann said Thursday that he meant that he had attended several workshops there.

Dr. William Pinsoff, associate director of the institute, said, ``Being in a workshop is not training.``

Friedmann earned his only academic degree, a bachelor of arts in ``social advocacy,`` from University Without Walls, a nontraditional program at Northeastern Illinois University. The program allows students to use work experience to earn academic credit.

To gain credits toward his degree, Friedmann listed experience that included work for the Northbrook Ecumenical Committee on Youth, a job he obtained after claiming he held a master`s degree in psychophysics from New York University and a bachelor`s degree from U. of I., according to committee staff members. Friedmann acknowledges that that claim was false.

According to school records, Friedmann stated that he worked as a ``group therapist`` at Ridgeway Hospital, now Hartgrove Hospital, in Chicago. On Thursday, he said his actual title was mental health technician.

The hospital could find no record of his employment.

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State Called Remiss In Child-Sex Probe

Chicago Tribune - April 20, 1985

Parents of children once enrolled in the Rogers Park Day Care Center, 7101 N. Greenview Ave., criticized the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Friday for ``mishandling`` its investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse at the center. ``We feel DCFS has been remiss in its obligation to provide safety for our children,`` said Beth Vargo, 34, one of the parents. The center`s janitor, Deloartic Parks, was charged a year ago with abusing three children at the center. The parents charged the DCFS mishandled the case because the initial investigative interviews with children were too short and social workers failed to reinterview children when some later told parents they had been abused by staff members other than Parks. An investigation by the Cook County state`s attorney continues, but no other staff member has been charged. DCFS has closed its own investigation.

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Sex-Abuse Probe Rife With Errors - Day-Care Case A 'Learning Experience' for Officials

Chicago Tribune - April 21, 1985

State officials and Chicago police made a series of errors investigating alleged sexual abuse at a North Side day-care center, making it unlikely that the year-old inquiry will determine the scope of the abuse or whether it occurred at all.

The mistakes in the case of the Rogers Park Day Care Center, a case that made headlines last April with the arrest of a janitor, reflect weaknesses in state and local efforts to handle inquiries into sexual abuse cases that may involve more than one adult.

The weaknesses--which include outdated policies, insufficient training of investigators and a reluctance on the part of some investigators to believe that this type of abuse occurs--persist despite national recognition of sexual child exploitation as a growing problem.

The case, the first recorded in Illinois to involve accusations of sexual abuse by a group of adults, consists of 246 allegations that staff members abused children enrolled at the center, according to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS).

Only the janitor has been charged, and additional allegations have not resulted in charges in the continuing investigation.

The DCFS, which is responsible for regulating day-care centers and employees, also investigated the case and found insufficient evidence to support allegations against other staff members.

Police and DCFS officials describe the day-care case as ``a learning experience.`` They acknowledge that their investigators made errors but say the mistakes had little impact on the outcome of the case.

DCFS Director Gordon Johnson said he has asked Jon Conte of the University of Chicago, an expert on child sexual abuse, and Jeremy Margolis, Illinois` inspector general, to review all aspects of the investigation ``so we don`t repeat our mistakes.``

The case involved the following apparent errors:

-- The children were initially screened in cursory, ineffective interviews that lasted an average of only 15 minutes. In most cases, they were never re-interviewed by police or DCFS investigators.

-- One of the key interviewers brought in by the state to question the children had little formal training and misrepresented his credentials in his resume and during recent court testimony.

-- Based on the cursory screening interviews, investigators decided which children had been abused. Many child sexual-abuse experts say that determination can be made only after extensive interviews.

-- Despite the existence of a special child sexual-abuse police unit, the chief investigator in the Rogers Park Day Care Center case was a regular violent-crimes detective who had no formal training in child sexual abuse.

Burdened with the customary heavy workload, the detective said he was forced to investigate much of the case on his own time.

-- During the crucial early interviews, investigators did not act immediately when one child accused seven day-care center staff members of sexually abusing her. ``This was not our finest moment,`` said Belmont Area Detective Scott Keenan. ``We had one simple case with one offender, and we felt uncomfortable with the nature of her allegations.``

-- Weeks later, when the DCFS and police began to examine allegations of wider abuse, they created a reporting system in which parents relayed their children`s accusations to investigators. Many child sexual-abuse experts describe this procedure as ``ridiculous.``

-- The DCFS concluded its investigation partly on the basis of reports by a criminal psychologist and a child analyst who were asked by the agency to review the investigation but who were never asked to interview the children or their parents.

-- An outdated state law imposed a 90-day limit on the DCFS investigation, forcing the agency to make its conclusions over the objections of the children`s therapists, who said their young patients had only begun to talk about the alleged abuse.

``The tragedy in this case is that every institution that was supposed to protect kids failed to do so,`` said Conte, who advised the DCFS as well as parents of children enrolled at the day-care center about the case.

``The investigation was, at best, ineffective,`` he said. ``The system broke down.``

``What we need, what we needed then, was experience,`` said Assistant Deputy DCFS Director Bill Ryan. ``We had to feel our way. Honestly, I think we could have done way, way worse.``

The problems of investigating allegations of child sexual abuse by more than one adult are not unique to Illinois. Police, therapists and social workers across the country liken interviewing traumatized youngsters to gathering fine sand with their bare hands. Despite their best efforts, the truth often seems to slip through their fingers.

The Rogers Park case has polarized the parents of the 88 children enrolled at the center into emotional factions. Some are dissatisfied with the DCFS findings and the lack of indictments. They believe that abusers are escaping punishment because of an incompetent investigation.

Other parents discount stories of widespread abuse as fantasies of the children or their parents. Still others say they are uncertain whether the abuse occurred.

Despite their differences, none of the parents dreamed their children could be endangered in the rambling brown brick house at 7101 N. Greenview Ave. The center enjoyed a good reputation among young professional parents in the Rogers Park and Evanston communities.

But during the investigation, John Goad, who investigated the center for the DCFS, said he discovered that it was ``an administrative mess`` and that teachers often didn`t know where the children were. He said the center has since made changes to eliminate these problems and to conform to state requirements.

The first hint of problems at the day-care center came April 5, 1984, when a mother saw her little girl react angrily to what appeared to be a playful tickle by the center`s janitor, Deloartic Parks.

``My daughter shouted, `No, don`t touch me. Leave me alone,` `` the woman said in an interview. Later, the girl told her mother that Parks had abused her.

The woman notified police and DCFS, sparking an investigation that quickly grew to include two other children who also accused Parks. He was arrested and charged April 16 with three counts of child sexual abuse.

Investigators conducted a series of ``screening`` interviews with all 88 children at the center to learn whether others had been abused.

It was these important interviews--which in many cases were the only direct interviews with children--that outside experts believe laid a faulty groundwork.

The first weakness, they said, was the brevity of the questioning. The interviews were conducted over three days by teams that included DCFS social workers, police and a prosecutor and were led by specialists from Human Effective Living Program (HELP), a private group that treats child-sex offenders and their victims.

The interviews lasted an average of 10 to 15 minutes, according to Keenan.

Tina Grossman, MSW

"You cannot do it in minutes. If you push (children) for answers, then you are just as abusive as the one who abused them," said Tina Grossman, a child therapist.

Conte agreed. ``You can`t interview a kid suffering from this kind of trauma in 10 or 15 minutes. Your questions to the child should be very broad and open-ended. This takes several sessions.``

Keenan said the interviews were long enough. Questioning was kept short to minimize the trauma that questioning inflicts on children and because investigators had so many children to see.

Allen Friedmann of HELP added that a workbook he helped design for the investigation elicited information quickly.

Questions that surfaced last week about Friedmann`s qualifications have caused investigators to wonder what impact his participation will have on the case. An examination of his court testimony and school records show that he exaggerated some credentials. Friedmann denies this.

He was a key member of the teams that determined 19 children showed evidence of abuse. These children were re-interviewed within two days.

Some experts say they made the decision too soon.

Therapists say youngsters often make disclosures through a painfully slow process, complicated by contradictions and recantations. This process may take anywhere from days to months, Conte said.

Because the interviews were so brief, the questions were necessarily too direct. Direct questioning can encourage an abused child to fantasize, said Dr. Elayne Yates of the University of Arizona, who serves on an American Medical Association Committee working to standardize methods for investigating these cases.

``If a child has prior sexual knowledge (from being abused previously), improper questioning is likely to prompt the child to tell wild tales,`` said Yates. She recommends three to six therapeutic sessions before children are questioned by police.

Investigators said they limited the number of interviews to avoid what later became the most critical point in the undoing of the case against an alleged child sex ring in Jordan, Minn. In that case, the Minnesota attorney general believed the victims` stories were tainted by incessant questioning sessions--as many as 50 per child--in which information might have been planted in their minds.

Another problem in the investigation was the Police Department`s lack of a formal procedure to assign child sexual abuse cases to the officers most qualified to handle them.

The Rogers Park case was assigned to the busy Belmont Area violent crimes unit--which routinely handles murders, robberies, and rapes--and not to the special unit that was set up to concentrate solely on cases involving serious child exploitation, the special investigations unit of the youth division.

Belmont Area Detective Cmdr. Edward Wodnicki said department policy dictates that all reported sex cases be assigned to violent crimes units.

Responsibility for the Rogers Park case was given to Keenan, who previously handled many sex cases and some single-offender child-abuse cases. Although many parents of children at the center regard his efforts highly, Keenan has no formal training in the area of child exploitation.

An error that illustrates the system`s reluctance to recognize the possible scope of the abuse came when authorities ignored a girl`s description of bizarre incidents involving eight staff members.

Keenan said that during the second day of the interviews, the child told of being sexually abused, pricked with pins, forced to watch animals being tortured, and covered with urine and feces.

Keenan re-interviewed the girl but said she could not provide enough details.

``To be honest with you, I didn`t want to hear this,`` Keenan said.

``This was going to destroy our case`` against Parks. In the following two weeks, two other children made similar allegations, he said.

This was the last time children were ever directly interviewed.

Saying that their children`s allegations were being ignored, some parents met with state officials, including DCFS director Johnson. DCFS agreed to pay for therapy sessions for the children and to re-examine the allegations of widespread abuse.

The DCFS asked parents to question their children and to pass along any descriptions of abuse, but said they would not re-interview the children, DCFS official Ryan said.

Experts dispute this practice and count it as one of the case`s problems. ``Interviewing kids through their parents is absurd,`` said Conte.

``You`re asking a child to elicit information that he doesn`t want to talk about and his parents don`t want to hear.``

Yates, of the University of Arizona, added, ``You`re getting information filtered through the parents` fears and biases. You don`t know if they even questioned their children at all, or how they questioned them.``

Based on this reporting system, investigators gathered allegations that 35 children had been abused. They found no corroboration from any child other than those whose parents were the most vocal and angry. Meanwhile, staff members adamantly denied the allegations, police said.

In September, the DCFS closed its second phase of the investigation when it found insufficient evidence to support the allegations against staff members, rejecting the results of its own reporting system. DCFS administrator Goad noted that the parents had discussed the case repeatedly among themselves and could have inadvertently planted ideas in their children`s minds.

DCFS, however, initiated the discussions among parents, first at the initial group meetings called by the agency and then while parents were waiting at a community center during the questioning of the children.

The agency defended its decision to close the case by calling in two specialists--James Chandler, a criminal psychologist with the Illinois Department of Law Enforcement, and Dr. Moises Shopper, a child analyst from St. Louis--who both recommended that the allegations be considered ``unfounded,`` Goad said.

But Chandler and Shopper made those recommendations without interviewing the children or their parents, Goad said.

The DCFS`s haste in closing the case stems from a state law that requires the agency to investigate abuse cases within 90 days.

Ryan complained that 90 days is ``not enough time for a comprehensive investigation.`` He said the limit was established to apply to incest cases in which a longer investigation could unduly disrupt the family.

One therapist treating the children said the DCFS closed the investigation prematurely at a time when children were only beginning to talk freely about the alleged abuse.

The therapist, who did not want to be identified, said all those treating the children continue to report any abuse to the Cook County state`s attorney`s office. The office has kept its investigation open, as has Keenan, but a spokesman would not comment on its progress.

During the course of investigation police have sought clues such as medical evidence and adult witnesses, and have examined stacks of recently seized child pornography to see whether any of the Rogers Park children appeared in the publications.

Police continue to try to correct the investigation`s problems by searching for such corroboration, if it exists, for the children`s accusations.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Day-care probe rife with errors: Rogers park case 'learning experience"

Chicago Tribune - Sunday, April 21, 1985 (page 1 and 4)

by Lynn Emmerman and Marianne Taylor

Only the janitor has been charged, and additional allegations have not resulted in charges in the continuing investigation.

The DCFS, which is responsible for regulating day-care centers and employees, also investigated the case and found insufficient evidence to support allegations against other staff.

Police and DCFS officials describe the day-care case as a "learning experience." They acknowledge that their investigators made errors but say the mistakes had little impact on the outcome of the case.

DCFS Director, Gordon Johnson said he has asked Jon Conte of the University of Chicago, an expert on child sexual abuse, and Jeremy Margolis, Illinois' inspector general, to review all aspects of the investigation "so we don't repeat our mistakes.

The case involved the following apparent errors:

The children were initially screened in cursory, ineffective interviews that lasted an average of only 15 minutes. In most cases, they were never re-interviewed by police or DCFS investigators.
One of the key interviewers brought in by the state to question the children had little formal training and misrepresented his credentials in his resume and during recent court testimony.
Based on the cursory screening interviews, investigators decided which children had been abused. Many child sexual-abuse experts say that determination can be made only after extensive interviews.
Despite the existence of a special child sexual-abuse police unit, the chief investigator in the Rogers Park Day Care Center was a regular violent-crimes detective who had no formal training in child sexual abuse. Burdened with the customary heavy workload, the detective said he was forced to investigate much of the case on his own time.
During the crucial early interviews, investigators did not act immediately when one child accused seven day-care center staff members of sexually abusing her. "This was not our finest moment," said Belmont Area Detective Scott Keenan. "We had one simple case with one offender, and we felt uncomfortable with the nature of her allegations".
Weeks later when DCFS and police began to examine allegations of wider abuse, they created a reporting system in which parents relayed their children's accusations to investigators. Many child sexual-abuse experts described this procedure as "ridiculous."
The DCFS concluded its investigation partly on the basis of reports by a criminal psychologist and a child analyst who were asked by the agency to review the investigation but who were never asked to interview the children or parents.
An outdated state law imposed a 90-day limit on the DCFS investigation, forcing the agency to make its concussions over the objections of the children's therapists, who said their young patients had only began to talk about the alleged abuse.

"The tragedy in this case is that every institution was supposed to protect kids failed to do so," said Conte, who advised the DCFS as well as parents of children enrolled at the day-care center about the case.

"The investigation was, at best, ineffective," he said. "The system broke down."

"What we need, what we needed then, was experience," and Assistant Deputy DCFS Director Billy Ryan. "We had to feel our way. Honestly, I think we could have done way, way worse."

The problems of investigating allegations of child sexual abuse by more than one adult are not unique to Illinois. Police, therapist and social workers across the country liken interviewing traumatized youngsters to gathering fine sand with their bar hands. Despite their best efforts, the truth often seems to slip their fingers.

Other parents discount stories of widespread abuse as fantasies of the children or their parents. Still others say they are uncertain whether the abuse occurred.

Despite their differences, none of the parents dreamed their children could be endangered in the rambling brown brick house at 7101 N. Greenview Ave. The center enjoyed a good reputation among professional parents in the Rogers Park and Evanston communities.

But during the investigation, John Goad, who investigated the center for the DCFS, said he discovered that it was "an administrative mess" and that teachers often didn't know where the children were. He said the center has since made changes to eliminate those problems and to conform to state requirements.

The first hint of problems at the day-care center came April 5, 1984, when a mother saw her little girl react angrily to what appeared to be a playful tickle by the center's janitor, Deloaric Parks.

"My daughter shouted, 'No don't touch me. Leave me alone,'" the woman said in an interview. Later, the girl told her mother that Parks had abused her.

The woman notified police and the DCFS, sparking an investigation that quickly grew to include tow other children who also accused Parks. He was arrested and charged April 16 with three counts of child sexual abuse.

Investigators conducted a series of "screenings" interviews with all 88 children at the center to learn whether others had been abused.

Investigators conducted a series of "screening" interviews with all 88 children at the center to learn whether others had been abused.

It was these important interviews--which in many cases were the only direct interviews with children--that outside experts believed laid a faulty groundwork.

The first weakness, they said, was the brevity of the questioning. The interviews were conducted over three days by teams that included DCFS social workers, police and a prosecutor and were led by specialists from Human Effective Living Program (HELP)., a private group that treated child-sex-offenders and their victims.

The interviews lasted an average of 10 to 15 minutes, according to Keenan.

"You cannot do it in minutes. If you push (children) for answers then you are just as abusive as the one who abused them," said Tina Grossman, a child therapist.

Conte agreed. "You can't interview a kid suffering from this kind of trauma in 10 or 15 minutes. Your questions to the child should be very broad and open-ended. This takes several sessions."

Keenan said the interviews were long enough. Questioning was kept short to minimize the trauma that questioning inflicts on children and because investigators had so many children to see.

But Allen Friedmann of HELP added that a workbook he helped design for the investigation elicited information quickly.

Questions that surfaced last week about Friedmann's qualification have caused investigators to wonder what impact his participation will have on the case. An examination of his court testimony and school records show that he exaggerated some credentials. Friedmann denies this.

He was a key member of the team that determined 18 children showed evidence of abuse. These children were re-interviewed within two days.

Some experts say they made the decision too soon.

Therapists say youngsters often make disclosures through a painfully slow process, complicated by contradictions and recantations. This process may take anywhere from days to months, Conte said.

Because the interviews were so brief, the questions were necessarily too direct. Direct questioning can encourage an abused child to fantasize, said Dr. Elayne Yates of the University of Arizona, who serves on the American Medical Association Committee working to standardize methods for investigating these cases.

"If a child has prior sexual knowledge (from being abused previously), improper questioning is likely to prompt the child to tell wild tales," said Yates. She recommends three to six therapeutic sessions before children are questioned by police.

Investigators said they limited the number of interviews to avoid what later became the most critical point in the undoing of the case against an alleged child sex ring in Jordan, Minn. In that case, the Minnesota attorney general believed the victims stories were tainted by incessant, questioning sessions -- as many as 50 her child--in which information might have been planted in their minds.

Another problem in the investigation was the Police Department laced of a formal procedures to assign child sexual abuse cases to the officers most qualified to handle them.

The Rogers Park case was assigned to the busy Belmont Area violent crimes unit--which routinely handles 'murders, robberies and rapes-- and not to the special unit that was set up to concentrate solely on cases involving serious child exploitation, the special investigations unit of the youth division.

Belmont Area detective Cmdr. Edward Wodnicki said department policy dictates that all reported sex cases be assigned to violent crimes units.

Responsibility for the Rogers Park case was given to Keenan who previously handled many sex cases and some single-offender child-abuse cases. Although many parents of children at the center regard his efforts highly, Keenan has no formal training in the area of child exploitation.

An error that illustrates the system's reluctance to recognize the possible scope of the abuse came when authorities ignored a girls description of bizarre incidents involving eight staff members.

Keenan said that during the second day of the interviews, the child told of being sexually abused, pricked with pins, forced to watch animals being tortured, and covered with urine and feces.

Keenan re-interviewed the girl but said she could not provide enough details.

"This was not our finest moment," said Keenan. "To be honest, with you, I didn't want to hear this. This was going to destroy our case" against Parks. During the following two weeks, two other children made similar allegations, he said.

This was the last time children were ever directly interviewed.

"Saying that their children's allegations were being ignored, some parents met with state officials, including DCFS Director Johnson. He agreed to pay for therapy sessions for the children and to re-examine the allegations of widespread abuse.

The DCFS asked parents to question their children and to pass along any descriptions of abuse, but said they would not re-interview the children, DCFS officially Ryan said.

Experts dispute this practice and count it as one of the case's problems.

'Interviewing kids through their parents is absurd, said Conte.

You're asking a child to elicit information that he doesn't want to talk about and his parents don't want to hear.

Based on this reporting system investigators gathered allegations that 35 children had been abused. They found no corroboration from any child other then those whose parents were the most vocal and angry. Meanwhile, staff members adamantly denied the allegations police said.

In September, the DCFS closed its second phase of the investigation when it found insufficient evidence to support the allegations against the staff members, rejecting the results of the own reporting system. DCFS administrator Goad noted that the parents had discussed the case repeatedly among themselves and could have inadvertently planted ideas in their children's minds.

The DCFS, however initiated the discussions among parents first at the initial group meeting called by the agency and then while parents were waiting at a community center.

The agency defended its decision to close the case by calling in two specialists -- James Chandler, a criminal psychologist with the Illinois department of Law Enforcement, and Dr. Moses Shopper, a child analyst from St. Louis -- who both recommended that the allegations be considered "unfounded", said Goad.

But Chandler and Shopper made those recommendations without interviewing the children or their parents, Goad said.

The DCFS's haste in closed the case stems from a state law that requires the agency to investigate abuse cases within 90 days.

Ryan complained that 90 days is "not enough time for a comprehensive investigation."

One therapist treating the children said the DCFS closed the investigation prematurely at a time when children were only beginning to talk freely.

The Therapist, who did not want to be identified, said all those treating the children continue to report any abuse to the Cook County state's attorney's office. The office has kept its investigation open, as has Keenan, but a spokesman would not comment.

During the course of the investigation police have sought clues such as medical evidence and adult witnesses, and have examined stacks of recently seized child pornography to see whether any of the Rogers Park children appeared in the publications.

Police continue to try to correct the investigation's problems by searching for such corroboration if it exists, for the children's accusations.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Embattled North Side Day-Care Center Will Close

by Lynn Emmerman and Marianne Taylor

Chicago Tribune - May 18, 1985

A North Side day-care center that made headlines last year when children accused staff members of sexual abuse will close this summer for financial reasons, Jewish Community Center officials said Friday.

The announcement came three days after national child sex-abuse experts met at the request of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and reviewed the allegations of abuse at the Rogers Park Day Care Center, 7101 N. Greenview Ave. The experts recommended that the center be closed pending further investigation, according to Gordon Johnson, DCFS director.

On Friday, Jerry Witkovsky, Jewish Community Center general director, said the experts` recommendation did not influence his decision to shut the center. ``Up until today, I was unaware that these people had re-examined the case,`` he said.

Witkovsky said the center will close because the ``changing demographics of the East Rogers Park community have decreased the demand for day care of Jewish children.`` He said the center`s dwindling enrollment has not been adversely affected by publicity surrounding the investigation. The facility will continue to operate as a senior citizen center, he said.

The center`s teaching staff, some of whom are under investigation, will be transferred to Jewish Community Center facilities throughout Chicago and the suburbs, Witkovsky said. Children enrolled at the center will be given the option to attend other area community centers, including the Bernard Horwich Center, 3003 W. Touhy Ave.

The Rogers Park Day Care Center case was the first recorded in Illinois to involve accusations of sexual abuse by a group of adults. It consisted of 246 allegations that teachers and other staff members abused children there.

Last April the center`s janitor was charged with criminal sexual abuse. His case is pending.

None of the remaining allegations have resulted in arrests.

State officials and Chicago police acknowledged that they made errors while investigating the case. Some experts say those mistakes--including a failure to thoroughly interview the children and a delay in responding to some children`s allegations of widespread abuse--made it unlikely that the year-old inquiry would determine the scope of the alleged abuse or if it occurred at all.

In an effort to improve the state`s investigatory procedures in large-scale abuse investigations, Johnson invited noted child-abuse experts to meet here earlier this week to discuss child sexual abuse and review the Rogers Park case.

The experts concluded that the allegations of widespread abuse appeared to have some foundation, Johnson said. The experts included Dr. Eli H. Newberger of Children`s Hospital in Boston; Ann Wolbert Burgess, a psychiatric nurse at the University of Pennsylvania`s School of Nursing; Jon Conte of the University of Chicago; and Dr. Howard Levy of Mt. Sinai Hospital.

Parents of children enrolled at the center had mixed reactions to news of the center`s closing.

"I think it`s a real shame," said Daniel Zifkin, father of a 5-year-old girl who has attended the center for three years. "It`s a good program. I don`t believe the charges about the teachers. . . . I think it`s a tremendous loss for the community."

Beth Vargo, whose 6-year-old daughter allegedly was abused at the center, said, ``The allegations against the teachers who were there when my child was there are very serious. Transferring those teachers to other facilities is no solution to this nightmare.``

_______________________________________________________________________________

Trial Opens On Day Care Sex Abuse

by Ray Gibson

Chicago Tribune - September 20, 1985

A prosecutor said Thursday that a 4-year-old girl who told authorities she was sexually abused at a North Side day care center ``regressed almost into infancy`` after the child was repeatedly assaulted.

Kathleen Warnick, an assistant state`s attorney, made the charges in opening statements at the start of the trial of a former janitor charged with sexually abusing three children at the Rogers Park Day Care Center, 7101 N. Greenview Ave.

But lawyers for the defendant, Deloartic Parks, who was a janitor at the center for 13 years, depicted Parks as an innocent victim of children`s fantasies that resulted when the 88 youngsters at the day care center were shown a movie about sexual abuse.

The bench trial began Thursday before Judge Jack Stein in the Skokie branch of Cook County Circuit Court.

The charges are the result of an investigation in April, 1984, into 246 allegations of sexual abuse by the staff at the center. The probe, in which Parks was the only person to be charged, was the first in Illinois to involve accusations of widespread child abuse by a group of adults.

Warnick said the 4-year-old`s mother began noticing startling changes in her daughter`s behavior after she began attending the day care center.

The prosecutor also said the little girl developed ``unexplained bruises`` and a ``vaginal rash.``

The case began to unfold, Warnick said, when the little girl first denied and then later admitted to her mother that she had ``been forced to have sexual intercourse`` at the school.

But defense attorney Adam Bourgeois contended the girl, who is now 7, fabricated stories, telling authorities that she witnessed a baby being killed and that Parks put her in the furnace at the center.

``It is impossible to put anything or anyone in the furnace,`` Bourgeois told Judge Stein.``

Bourgeois said evidence would show that many of the little girl`s illnesses, such as the vaginal rash, were known side effects of drugs prescribed by a doctor for an infection.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Mom tells ordeal of girl, 7, at janitor trial

by Gary Wisby

Chicago Sun-Times - September 21, 1985

Testifying against a janitor accused of sexually abusing her daughter, a Rogers Park woman yesterday said the healthy, cheerful girl became emaciated, crabby and fearful.

The changes began in 1983 when the girl, now 7, started attending kindergarten at the now-closed Rogers Park Jewish Community Center, 7101 N. Greenview, her mother said.

The center's janitor, Deloartic Parks, 47, of 7930 S. Peoria, is on trial before Judge Jack G. Stein in Skokie branch of Circuit Court.

Questioned by Assistant State's Attorney Kathleen Warnick, the woman said her daughter, previously "friendly and outgoing," became "cantankerous, clinging and whiny."

The girl was afraid to visit the bathroom alone, even at home, her mother said. The child has testified that Parks frequently raped her and committed other sex acts in a bathroom at the center.

"She would procrastinate when I was trying to get her ready for school," the mother said. And at school, "she did not want me to leave until the other children got there."

The woman said her daughter stopped sleeping well and ate so poorly that "she looked . . . emaciated."

She said the girl suffered from rashes on her genitals and buttocks. Sometimes "a very strong odor" came from the girl's vagina, and sometimes her underpants were stained, the mother said.

After a talk with a parent whose child also attended the school, she asked her daughter in April, 1984, if Parks had molested her.

At first the girl said no, but later accused Parks, the mother said. After that, the child "regressed almost back to infancy," the woman testified. She wet the bed and "I had to carry her around the house, spoon-feed her, sing lullabies to her and rock her constantly."

Earlier, the girl concluded testimony that began Thursday. Under questioning by defense attorney Adam Bourgeois, she continued to recant many of the accusations she had made in pretrial interviews and admitted she sometimes lies.

But she insisted Parks had raped and otherwise abused her. And she said staff members witnessed some of the acts. For example, the child testified, the center's director watched as the defendant "made me hurt other kids."

_______________________________________________________________________________

Girl, 7, Testifies in Sex-Abuse Case

Chicago Tribune - September 21, 1985

A 7-year-old girl who testified she was sexually abused at a North Side day care center was so frightened after admitting she was the victim of repeated sexual attacks that she had to be spoon-fed and began wetting her bed, the child`s mother testified Friday. ``She was very frightened. . . . She regressed almost back to infancy. I had to sing lullabies to her and rock her constantly,`` the mother told a judge in the Skokie Branch of Cook County Circuit Court. The mother`s testimony came in the trial of the school`s former janitor, Deloartic Parks, 47, 7930 S. Peoria St., who is charged with rape and with taking indecent liberties with the girl at the Rogers Park Day Care Center, 7101 N. Greenview Ave.

___________________________________________________________________________

Girl, 7, tells of abuse and rape: Janitor's lawyer hammers at story

by Gary Wisby

Chicago Sun-Times, Friday - September 20, 1985 (page 26)

Safe on the witness stand with her Winnie the Pooh doll, a 7-year-old girl testified yesterday that a janitor at her Rogers Park nursery school had repeatedly raped and sexually abused her.

But the child contradicted a score of other accusations made earlier to police and her mother, and admitted twice she had lied.

Her alleged attacker, Deloartic Parks, 47, of 7030 S. Peoria, is on trail in Skokie branch of the Circuit Court before Judge Jack G. Stein.

Parks is accused of abusing the girl over the past two years while she was attending the Rogers Park Jewish Community Center school, 7101 N. Greenview. The school closed Aug. 9.

Statements by the child and 20 classmates--about one-forth of the enrollment--claim the janitor, at least 10 staff members and people from outside the school sexually abused them. Only Parks has been charged.

Sex film cited

His attorney, Adam Bougeois, noted that the child's accusations came a month after pupils attended a child sexual-assault prevention program at the school.

The program, presented by a Chicago police officer, included the showing a film, "Mr. Stranger Danger."

The girl, answering questions brightly and with self-composure, but often after 10-second intervals, pointed out Parks and said he had forced intercourse and other sex acts on her at school.

She said he warned her, "Don't tell no one or I'll kill all of you," meaning the child and her parents.

But under questioning by Bourgeois, she denied charges that court records show she made to police and her mother: That Park's put her in the school's furnace and oven, that he gave her a drink that made her dizzy, that nude pictures of the children were taken at the school, that Parks killed a turtle in front other and more than a dozen other allegations.

Testimony shaken

Though sticking by parts of her story, the girl admitted lying when she said she had been given a shot that "made her sleepy," and that Parks had defecated on her.

"What else did you make?" Bourgeois asked. She didn't answer.

The case has split parents into two camps. "Some parents are in denial. They've taken the attitude that nothing ever happened," Bob Levine said outside court.

He said others-particularly one whose children, like his 4-year-old daughter are now in therapy--believe the children's charges.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Day-care center janitor raped me, girl testifies

By Ray Gibson

Chicago Sun-Times (page 26) - September 20, 1985

Cuddling her yellow teddy bear, a 7-year old girl took the witness stand Thursday to accuse a janitor at her former day-care center of raping and sexually molestation her.

The girl, now in 2nd grade, fidgeted and smiled as she testified for nearly two hours in the trial of the North Side center's former janitor, Deloaric Parks, 47, of 7930 S. Peoria St. Her testimony came in the first day of trail in the Skokie branch of Cook county Circuit Court.

Parks is the only person facing criminal charges stemming from an April, 1984 investigation by the Chicago Police Department of allegations of abuse at the Rogers Park Day Care Center.

But defense attorneys Thursday introduced as evidence earlier investigative interviews with other children from the center in which some said other staff members had committed sexual abuse. The interviews were conducted after accusations were made against Parks.

The earlier investigation, conducted by state agencies, ended without charges, but Parks attorneys introduced the interviews in an effort to question the credibility of the girl's testimony

Whether the accusations made in the interviews against other staff members and the charges against Parks are true is what Judge Jack Stein, conducting a bench trial, will have to determine.

Under questioning by Assistant State's Atty. Kathleen Warnick, the girl told Stein that she was raped and sexually molested "many times" by Parks between September 1983, and April, 1984, at the center, which cared for 88 students aged 2 through 6.

The girl testified that she "cried" after Parks allegedly forced her to have oral sex. She said Parks told her after attacking her, "Don't tell anybody or I'll kill your family,'"

The girl said the sexual assaults by Parks occurred in washrooms at the center, 7101 N. Greenview Ave.

Warnick told the judge that the child "regressed almost into infancy" because of the repeated sexual attacks.

Outside the courtroom, Parks and his attorney, Adam Bougeois, Maintained that Parks is innocent.

Under cross-examination by Bourgeois, the girl admitted that she had made up some tales about Parks and other staff members allegedly sexually abusing her.

Boureois said that "a lot of the fantasies since dreamed up are going to be exposed" when cross examination continues Friday.

In an unusual move after the day's session, Stein visited the center to see where the alleged attacks occurred, Bourgeois had argued in his opening remarks that the sexual assaults could not have occurred in the center's bathrooms because they are extremely small.

Parks is being tried on charges of rape, unlawful restraint and taking indecent liberties with a child. He is also charged in attacks on two other girls.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Doctors Saw 'Possible' Abuse of Pupil

by Robert Enstad

Chicago Tribune - September 24, 1985

A 7-year-old girl who allegedly was sexually abused by a janitor at a Rogers Park day-care center showed signs of ``possible sexual abuse,`` according to testimony Monday by two physicians in the janitor`s trial.

The physicians said they examined the girl in April, 1984.

Dr. Jeffrey Grabenstein, the girl`s family physician, said he found the evidence in a urinalysis of the girl. Dr. Lorraine Ling, who examined the girl at Children`s Memorial Hospital, said an enlarged vaginal area indicated possible abuse.

``I (suspected) that she was sexually abused, but not to a medical certainty,`` Ling testified.

The doctors testified as state witnesses in the trial of Deloartic Parks, 47, of 7930 S. Peoria St., a former janitor at the Rogers Park Day Care Center, 7101 N. Greenview Ave. He is charged with taking indecent liberties with a child. The bench trial is being held before Judge Jack Stein in the Skokie branch of Cook County Circuit Court.

After the doctors testified, the state rested its case against Parks.

Defense attorneys said they will begin their case Tuesday with testimony from teachers at the center, now closed.

Parks is the only person to face criminal charges as a result of an April, 1984, Chicago Police Department investigation of alleged abuse at the center.

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Doctors suspect girl molested

by Gary Wisby

Chicago Sun-Times - September 24, 1985

Two doctors testified yesterday that they suspected but couldn't prove that a private-school kindergartener had been sexually abused.

They gave evidence at the trial of a janitor at the now-shuttered Rogers Park Jewish Community Center. Deloartic Parks, 47, of 7930 S. Peoria, is accused of raping and committing other sex acts against the girl, 7.

Family practitioner Dr. Jeffrey Grabenstein, examining the child for a sore throat and other ailments in April, 1984, said that when he found pus cells in the child's urine "the first thing that came to mind was child sex abuse."

Later that month, after the girl told her mother Parks had molested her, Grabenstein did a pelvic exam.

"She was visibly shaking," he testified. "The usual response is giggling and looking at mom."

The physician found a rash that "can be caused" by abuse, he said. But the child resisted so violently he was unable to determine whether her hymen was intact. "I asked her if anyone else had done this to her before," Grabenstein said. "She said, `yes.' "

He referred the girl to Children's Memorial Hospital, where Dr. Lorraine Ling, with the help of a nurse who held the child down, was able to do a more thorough exam.

Ling, who had been told of the suspected abuse, testified she could find no hymen. She added that the child's vaginal opening was about 2 1/2 times as wide as in most girls her age.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Adam Bourgeois, Ling said she could not be medically certain the child had been abused.

Parks also has been charged with sexually abusing two younger children at the school.

A 90-day state investigation found no basis for most of the charges against Parks leveled by a score of children and several teachers.

Parental pressure prompted reopening of the investigation last month.

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Day-Care Worker Denies Sex Charges

Chicago Tribune - October 2, 1985

A man accused of sexually abusing a 7-year-old girl at a Rogers Park day- care center denied the charge Tuesday and said he didn`t even know the girl.

Deloartic Parks, 47, a former janitor at the Rogers Park Jewish Community Center, 7101 N. Greenview Ave., testified in Skokie branch of Cook County Circuit Court that he had a good relationship with children at the center. He said he sometimes would tease the children and play games with them. But he denied the allegations of a 7-year-girl that over a period of months in 1983 and 1984 he sexually abused her. Asked whether he knew the girl, Parks said,``No.``

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Janitor denies child sex abuse charges

Chicago Sun-Times - October 2, 1985

A janitor accused of raping a kindergartner yesterday denied he did anything but his job at the Rogers Park Jewish Community Center.

Deloartic Parks, 47, testified at Skokie branch of Circuit Court that he never treated the children cruelly and was never left alone with them at the now-shuttered JCC at 7101 N. Greenview.

Parks specifically denied raping and otherwise sexually abusing his chief accuser, now 7, in bathrooms at the center.

He also is charged with sexually abusing two other children at the JCC. In addition, city and state agencies are jointly investigating accusations by scores of children against other staff members.

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Janitor not guilty in rape of girl, 7; parents bitter

by Gary Wisby

Chicago Sun-Times - October 3, 1985

A janitor accused of raping a kindergartener at the Rogers Park Jewish Community Center was found not guilty on all charges yesterday.

"These are not easy cases to decide," Circuit Judge Jack G. Stein said in acquitting Deloartic Parks after a six-day bench trial.

Noting that he had to weigh testimony of a 7-year-old girl against that of a 47-year-old man with no previous arrests, Stein said he was bound by the legal requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Given that, the judge said, "I have no choice but to discharge the defendant."

The verdict prompted bitter remarks about Stein and the legal system from parents who believe their children were molested by Parks and other staff members at the now-shuttered JCC school. Only Parks was charged.

"I think it stinks," said the father of the 7-year-old outside the Skokie branch courtroom. "I hope {Stein} can sleep tonight."

Now, the father said, he will have to tell his daughter, "The judge said you lied. Grownups don't lie, but kids do."

He said the verdict "sends a clear message to child molesters and abusers. . . . Come to Illinois and do your dirty work here."

It is "child's play" for defense attorneys to trip up young witnesses on the stand, he said.

The mother said she believed Parks raped her daughter and as many as 20 other children at the JCC.

The defendant wiped tears from his eyes after Stein cleared him of rape, taking indecent liberties with a child, taking aggravated indecent liberties with a child and unlawful restraint.

Parks still faces lesser charges involving two preschoolers at the JCC, but said he's not worried. "You didn't do anything, you're not gonna be nervous," he said.

While parents said the accuser's youth was to her disadvantage, the head of Parks' defense team, Adam Bourgeois, said, "If an adult had alleged rape, {the judge} would have tossed it out right away" in such a case.

In closing arguments, Bourgeois said there was no corroboration of the girl's charges - "no panties, no marks, no bruises . . . no medical certainty."

He noted that the girl withdrew many of her allegations and admitted she sometimes lied.

Assistant State's Attorney Fred Minelli countered that the child stuck by the most serious charges, involving rape and sexual abuse

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Janitor Cleared of 1 Sex Charge - 'I Have No Choice', Judge Says

Chicago Tribune - October 3, 1985

A former janitor at a Rogers Park day-care center was acquitted Wednesday on charges that he sexually abused a 7-year-old girl at the center over a period of more than a year.

Judge Jack G. Stein, sitting in the Skokie branch of Cook County Circuit Court, ruled there was insufficient evidence against Deloartic Parks, 47, who worked at the Rogers Park Jewish Community Center, 7101 N. Greenview Ave.

``There is a reasonable doubt in my mind, so I have no choice but to discharge the defendant,`` said Stein, who heard the case without a jury.

Parents of children from the day-care center, who had sat through much of the trial that began Sept. 18, reacted angrily at the verdict. Some broke into tears and audible anger in the nearly filled courtroom, prompting Stein to warn them against demonstrations.

``I think the judge bought the easy way out,`` said Mrs. Hillary Levine of Chicago, mother of a child formerly enrolled at the center.

Parks, of 7930 S. Peoria St., sat alone in the courtroom and sobbed for several minutes after everyone else left. He said he thanked God for the judge`s ruling and is not concerned about two other sexual abuse charges pending against him.

``God will take care of those,`` he said.

During the trial, the girl testified that in 1983 and 1984 Parks sexually abused her and raped her and threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the incidents.

The child`s father said the verdict showed that the judge did not believe his daughter, who testified for more than five hours as the state`s principal witness.

``I think this all stinks,`` the father said. ``I hope the judge sleeps well tonight. He said a kid can be molested but that, as long as it is an adult that does it and no one is around to see it, he can`t do anything about it.``

The day-care center, which had an enrollment of about 80, was closed in August. Five local and state agencies have been investigating alleged abuse at the center, although Parks is the only staff member who has been criminally charged.

Parks, a deacon at the Christ Temple Missionary Baptist Church, 41 W. 95th St., testified that he never abused the children, was never alone with them and didn`t even know the alleged victim. But several parents testified Wednesday that they had often seen Parks alone with their children. And the mother of the 7-year-old said Parks knew her daughter by name and always knew where she was in the building.

Parks` attorney, Adam Bourgeois, in arguing for acquittal, said the girl`s testimony was filled with contradictions, including where the alleged abuse took place, and that there was no conclusive medical evidence that the girl was raped or otherwise sexually abused. ``This is a situation where we have no corroboration,`` Bourgeois said.

In a brief explanation of his ruling, Judge Stein noted that child abuse cases are not easy to decide. This case was particularly difficult, he said, because the defendant had never before been arrested and had a good reputation in his neighborhood. ``As luck would have it, I have to decide it,`` said Stein.

Then, without further explanation, the judge said he didn`t think the state had met the legal burden of proving Parks guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

``This is a very sad sort of thing because it involves a child,`` Bourgeois said. ``That`s why there is all the hysteria.``

Stein set an Oct. 17 hearing for the two other sexual abuse charges against Parks. Both of those charges involve alleged incidents at the day-care center.

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Janitor trial in preschool child abuse case put off

by Gary Wisby

Chicago Sun-Times - November 20, 1985

Child-abuse cases involving the janitor at a Rogers Park preschool were delayed yesterday because the two alleged victims are "psychologically unavailable" to testify.

Over defense objections, Judge Jack G. Stein continued the cases against Deloartic Parks to Feb. 18 in Skokie branch of Circuit Court.

Assistant State's Attorney Kathy Warnick said the children, both 5-year-old girls, were too traumatized by their experiences at the now-closed Rogers Park Jewish Community Center to testify at this time.

Warnick said she will keep in touch with the girls' therapists in hopes the children can appear in court before Feb. 18.

Parks' attorney, Adam Bourgeois, called the delay unreasonable and harmful to his client.

"He can't get a job or unemployment compensation as long as the case is pending," Bourgeois said outside court.

The mother of one girl said that because of threats by Parks, her daughter feared she and her family would be killed if she testified.

Parks, 47, is accused of taking indecent liberties with the girls while they attended preschool last year. He has denied the charges.

On Oct. 2, Parks was found not guilty of rape and other charges brought by a 7-year-old girl who attended the school.

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Child-molesting charges suspended

Chicago Sun-Times - February 19, 1986

Child-molesting charges against the former janitor at a Rogers Park school were suspended yesterday, perhaps permanently, because the two alleged victims were psychologically unprepared to testify.

Circuit Judge Jack G. Stein said the case against Deloartic Parks, 47, could be reinstated in 60 days if the girls, ages 5 and 6, are ready.

But Assistant State's Attorney Fred Minelli said the children's parents and therapists feel a court appearance in the near future would be too traumatic.

Parks' alleged offense took place in 1983-84 at the now-shut Rogers Park Jewish Community Center. Stein had acquitted him Oct. 2 of rape charges involving a 7-year-old.

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Day-Care Janitor's Abuse Trials Off

by Andy Knott

Chicago Tribune -February 19, 1986

Prosecutors on Tuesday dropped charges against a 46-year-old former janitor accused of sexually molesting three children at a North Side day-care center, after telling a judge that two of the young victims were psychologically unequipped to testify.

One of the children, a 6-year-old girl, said she was afraid to testify against Deloartic Parks shortly after his acquittal last October in the first of what was to have been three trials, according to the child`s mother.

Judge Jack Stein on Tuesday was told by prosecutors that a psychologist and a child-abuse therapist concurred in finding that the victims in the two cases remaining against Parks could not testify because they were too afraid to testify competently. In addition, prosecutors said they feared that calling the children to testify would be too traumatic and would outweigh any legal benefit of calling them.

``I just prayed to God that everything would be all right,`` Parks said Tuesday after the court hearing. He said he also took steps to regain his job by applying to the Jewish Community Center of Chicago for reinstatement. ``I think I was the scapegoat,`` he said, referring to the other allegations of abuse.

The 6-year-old girl was the first of nearly 30 children to allege that they were sexually abused by some workers at the Rogers Park Jewish Community Center, 7101 N. Greenview Ave. No worker other than Parks has ever been charged in the case, which involved 36 state, county and city investigators.

Parks` attorney, Adam Bourgeois Sr., disputed the contention the charges were dropped on a technicality. ``We went to trial once before and the state put their on their strongest case with the strongest facts and we won,`` he said.

Bourgeois referred to the first trial involving Parks when, on Oct. 2, Stein ruled that there was insufficient evidence against Parks.

In that trial in the Skokie branch of Cook County Circuit Court, Parks took the witness stand and denied knowing the victim. Bourgeois said that there was no medical evidence to support prosecutors` contention that the girl had been abused.

The mother remembers returning home that day in October to tell her young daughter the news.

According to the mother, the daughter asked if that meant ``the judge didn`t believe`` her 7-year-old former schoolmate in the first case, who had testified in the October trial that Parks had molested her.

``We were satisfied and still are that, under the right circumstances, these victims would be competent,`` said Assistant State`s Atty. Fred Minelli, assigned to the case with Kathy Warnick, also an assistant state`s attorney.

``But one person can be more shy than another, or can be stronger than another. We are disappointed, but concur in the findings made by those who are treating the victims.``

The child`s mother admitted that although the treatment reports were the official reason for keeping the victims off the witness stand, the victims` parents also had a say in the decision.

``It was the only alternative we had left,`` she said. The mother had been outspoken and critical of the investigative techniques used by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Chicago police and the Cook County state`s attorney`s office in the investigation of allegations of wider abuse at the center.

The facility closed last year for reasons unrelated to the investigation, center officials said.

The girl who testified in the October case ``never wavered in her story,`` the mother said. ``She demonstrated how she was abused. And at the end of all this, the judge basically said he didn`t believe her.``

The girl`s mother and others, including University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration professor Jon R. Conte, called Tuesday for a change in state laws to make courtrooms more amenable for child victims.

But Conte, who has followed the Rogers Park case as well as child abuse cases in Jordan, Minn., Los Angeles and Miami, admitted that asking a judge to believe allegations by 4- or 5-year-old children over the denials of an adult when there is no physical evidence is ``tough.``

``This is not a surprising scenario,`` Conte said. ``The whole handling of child abuse is at a pivotal point now. Our social policies must change.``

The Parks case made headlines within days of the first allegation of abuse on April 13, 1984. Parks was indicted on May 11, 1984, on charges of indecent liberties and others in three alleged attacks.

State social workers, police and prosecutors investigated 246 allegations of abuse made by some children against several adults at the center, but no indictments ever followed.

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Day-care center sued for $50 million

Chicago Sun-Times - February 22, 1986

The parents of a girl who they contend was sexually molested while attending a Rogers Park day-care center filed a $50 million lawsuit yesterday against the center and four employees.

The suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, says the girl, then 2 years old, was "brutalized, assaulted, battered and tortured" while attending the now-closed Rogers Park Jewish Community Center, 7101 N. Greenview.

Named as defendants in the case are the center, Jewish Community Centers of Chicago, Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, and employees Deloartic Parks, Peggy Compton, Rochelle Marcus and David Kay.

The defendants "jointly and severally engaged in a pattern of conduct to physically, sexually, and mentally abuse" the child "and other children in her presence," lasting from September, 1983, to April of 1984, the suit states.

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Major Day-Care Abuse Cases

The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA) - April 23, 1992

April 1984 - Chicago: A janitor is charged with the sexual assault of preschoolers at the Rogers Park Day Care Center. Children also accuse teachers of abusing them in satanic rituals. The janitor is acquitted. Child services investigators determine that most of the allegations involving other staff members are unfounded. Prosecutors drop the remaining charges in February 1986.

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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."--Margaret Mead

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Friday, April 20, 1984

Case of Rochelle Marcus

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