Wednesday, October 24, 1990

Case of Rabbi Chaim Ciment

Case of Rabbi Chaim Ciment
(Williamsburg) Brooklyn, NY
New Square, NY

 
Chaim Ciment was charged with first-degree sexual abuse, after allegations were made that he fondled a 17 year old girl in an elevator.  

Note: there are several individuals with the name of Chaim Ciment.  The alleged offender was born around 1953 and resides in New Square, NY.  If anyone has more information on this case or a photograph of Chaim Ciment, please forward it to The Awareness Center.
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Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves if the resources meet their own personal needs.
 
Table of Contents:
1990
  1. Sex Arrest Stirs Hasidic Rage Mob storms Brooklyn precinct; 12 officers hurt  (10/24/1990)
  2. Hasidic Leaders, Brooklyn Police Meet on Melee  (10/25/1990)
  3. Melee Follows Arrest of Hasid on Sex Charge (10/25/1990)
  4. Melee's Wake: Everybody's Mad  (10/25/1990)
  5. Hispanics Cite Bias (10/27/1990)
     
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Sex Arrest Stirs Hasidic Rage Mob storms Brooklyn precinct; 12 officers hurt
By Bob Liff and Curtis L. Taylor
Newsday - October 24, 1990
 
A mob of Hasidic Jews stormed the 90th Precinct police station house in Brooklyn's Williamsburg section last night to protest the arrest of an Hasidic man on a sexual abuse complaint, authorities said.

Police said about dozen officers were injured, none seriously, before the protesters were forced back onto Union Avenue, where about 200 held a vigil in the the rain for two hours before dispersing about 11:15 p.m.

A group of about 30 Hispanics at the same time staged a counter demonstration, shouting, "Lock him up. Lock him up." Hasidic community leaders said they believed the man had been falsely accused and charged that he was roughly handled by police.

Hispanic protesters said they feared the arrested man would be given special treatment.
Police said no formal charges had been filed late last night and that an assistant district attorney was being called in to evaluate the situation.

The incident that led to the filing of the complaint occurred at the Clemente Plaza, a Mitchell-Lama housing development that is home to both Hispanics and Hasidics and has been a flashpoint in disputes between the two groups over community issues, officials said.

According to officials and Hasidic community leaders, a woman who lives in the building charged that a Hasidic visitor to the development sexually assaulted her in an elevator.

But the Hasidic leaders said the woman has a history of harassing Hasidics and is facing eviction from the complex.

Angelo Rodriguez, the development's manager, said the woman's family is disruptive and that an eviction hearing is scheduled for next week.

The family, he said, has been the subject of complaints of harassment against blacks and Jews.

Rodriguez said security officers told him that they saw the woman chasing the man into the building.

But Saul Nieves, one of about 25 Hispanic counter protestors at the station house, said the Hasidics are accorded special treatment and that Hispanic complaints are often brushed aside.

"These people do this all the time," Nieves said. "They can't just abuse our women and expect nothing to happen."

Rabbi Moses Teichman, who lives in the complex, said he would file a complaint with the Civilian Complaint Review Board charging that the  officers who arrested the man roughed him up.

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Hasidic Leaders, Brooklyn Police Meet on Melee
By The Associated Press
The Bergen Record - October 25, 1990
NEW YORK:  Police officials and Hasidic leaders met Wednesday to ease tensions in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn after hundreds of Hasidic Jews stormed a police station to protest the arrest of one of their colleagues on sexual assault charges.
 
Forty-four officers suffered minor injuries in the melee.
 
Wednesday's meeting was aimed at "seeing how we can prevent future incidents like this from happening," said Assistant Chief Thomas Gallagher, commander of patrol officers in northern Brooklyn.
 
Most of the officers were treated for cuts and bruises and their injuries were not considered serious, police said. "There were no assaults on the officers; they were injured while establishing order on the street," Gallagher said.
 
"It's unfortunate that this happened, but it was an instantaneous outburst of emotions," said Rabbi Moses Teichman, president of the tenants association at Roberto Clemente Plaza, a private, low-income housing development at 541 Wythe Ave. in Williamsburg.
 
The arrest that led to the melee outside the 90th Precinct stationhouse occurred in the housing development after a 17-year-old woman complained that Chaim Ciment, 36, a Hasidic Jew from Spring Valley, had fondled her breasts while they were riding an elevator in the complex.
 
Ciment was charged with first-degree sexual abuse.
 
The Clemente Plaza development, which is home to both Hasidic Jews and Hispanics, has been a flashpoint in disputes between the two groups over community issues, police and tenant leaders said.
 
The woman who leveled the charge against Ciment is in the process of being evicted from the building and has a history of abusing tenants, Teichman claimed. She is neither Hasidic nor Hispanic.
 
"We're dealing with a woman who has a deep emotional hatred against Jews and blacks," Teichman added. "This is not a question of Jews against Hispanics, or Hispanics against Jews."
 
After Ciment's arrest, some 300 Hasidic Jews tried to enter the 90th Precinct, but were pushed back by police officers onto Union Avenue, where the melee occurred at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
 
Officers from 10 other Brooklyn precincts were called to the scene and restored order about 90 minutes later, police said. Only one demonstrator, Abraham Fruend, 33, of 61 Harrison Ave., Brooklyn, was charged. he was accused of assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.
 
"This was just an outburst of built-up emotions of people who had cases with this woman, who believed this incident never happened," Teichman said.
 
The rabbi blamed a police lieutenant at the precinct for sparking the melee, and said he had filed a complaint with the Civilian Complaint Review Board.
 
"The desk lieutenant used foul language in answer to our request to sit down and explain the situation," Teichman said. Police had no comment on the rabbi's allegations.
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 Melee Follows Arrest of Hasid on Sex Charge
By DAVID GONZALEZ
The New York Times - October 25, 1990, Thursday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section B; Page 3; Column 2; Metropolitan Desk 

A melee erupted in Brooklyn's 90th Police Precinct Tuesday night when hundreds of Hasidic Jews surrounded the station house to protest the arrest of a Jewish man who, they said, had been falsely accused of fondling a teen-age girl. 

Three hundred demonstrators were involved in the pushing and shoving on a rainy night that left 32 police officers slightly injured. One Hasidic man was charged with assaulting an officer, a police spokesman said. 

The incident was the latest in a long period of tensions between the Hasidic population and other residents in the area, which is in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge. 

The Hasidim say they have been the target of anti-Semitic slurs and in some cases attacks by a few troublemakers. But other residents complain they have been harassed by the Hasidic community, which they contend is bent on forcing them out of the neighborhood. 

Elevator Encounter Reported
Tuesday's incident began when (Name Removed) , 17 years old, told the police that she had been accosted by Chaim Ciment, 36, in the elevator of 541 Wythe Avenue in the Roberto Clemente Houses, a mixed-income subsidized housing development. 

"He pulled out a $20 bill and said: 'This is for you. Don't worry everything will be O.K.,' " (Name Removed) said in an interview. She contended that Mr. Ciment had followed her and offered her money in the past. 

(Name Removed) , who lives in a four-room apartment with her infant son, two brothers and her mother, said Mr. Ciment had jumped on her and fondled her before she managed to push him away and cry out for help. She said he left the elevator on the 11th floor and ran downstairs to the lobby, where she and an aunt caught up with him and had security guards detain him until the police arrived. 

Mr. Ciment was taken to the police station, where he was charged with first-degree sexual abuse. He could not be reached for comment yesterday. 

Woman's Account Disputed
Isaac Abraham, who lives in the housing complex, which abuts the waterfront, said he went to the station house with several women who were in the lobby when the guards stopped Mr. Ciment. Mr. Abraham said they wanted to tell the police that (Name Removed) had previously started fights with other Hasidic Jews. 

"This family has created a lot of panic in the complex," Mr. Abraham said of Ms. Howe and her family. "People stay out of the elevator and keep their kids out of the playground when they see her." 

Mr. Abraham said a police officer in the station house had treated him rudely. By then, several hundred protesters had congregated outside, and the police got into a shoving match with them as they tried to clear the area. 

Hitting by Police Reported
"They were hitting Jews who just came to protest," reported Esther Gold, who said she had gone to the station house to tell the police that (Name Removed) was accusing Mr. Ciment without provocation. 

Several women congregated in the broad courtyard outside(Name Removed)'s building yesterday and defended her, saying she did not start trouble. Many were indignant at the Hasidic protesters. 

"If they attack our police officers, they are saying they are above the law, so what can we expect?" said Elisa Torres, a tenant organizer who has tried to negotiate past conflicts with the Hasidic Jews. 

She said tensions had been on the rise in the area for more than a decade. 

GRAPHIC: Photo: (Name Removed) , right, says she was sexually abused by a Hasidic man in a housing project in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Hundreds of Hasidim protesting the man's arrest surrounded the 90th Precinct station house on Tuesday night. With Ms. Howe yesterday was her mother, Eilaine Herling. (Vic DeLucia/The New York Times)
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Melee's Wake: Everybody's Mad
Newsday - October 25, 1990

One day after a mob of 300 Hasidic men battled with police at Williamsburg's 90th Precinct station house, Hasidic and Hispanic leaders - as well as police - yesterday began assessing the fallout from the most recent uproar. 

Hasidic Jews questioned the alleged fondling - and subsequent arrest - that triggered the melee. Hispanics accused police of showing favoritism toward the Hasidim, yet the Hasidim said that police used undue force while arresting one of their members. 

And police union officials were miffed that while 44 officers suffered minor injuries during the rock and bottle throwing fracas, only one person was arrested. 

The uproar was prompted by a 17-year-old resident of Roberto Clemente Plaza in Williamsburg, who told a security guard Tuesday night that a man had tried to fondle her in an elevator at 541 Wythe Ave. That report led to the arrest of Chaim Ciment, a 36-year-old Hasidic man from Spring Valley in Rockland County, who was awaiting arraignment last night on sexual abuse charges. 

The teenager, who police say is of Irish and German descent, is from a troubled family that Roberto Clemente Plaza management has been trying to evict for more than a year, according to Clemente managers. 

Police commanders - in between meetings with leaders from the Hispanic and Hasidic communities - meanwhile tried to calm their own officers' anger that only one of the hundreds of black-clad Hasidim who mobbed the station house to protest Ciment's arrest was arrested. 

Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Phil Caruso, outraged at what he called "the actions of ostensibly law-abiding citizens," said officers will try to identify those who assaulted officers during the melee. 

"No one has the right to storm a precinct and wantonly injure police officers," said Caruso, who asked for a meeting with leadership of the Satmar Hasidim, the largest Hasidic community in Williamsburg, to try to calm tensions. 

Forty-four police officers reported injuries in the station house confrontation, including one who was repeatedly kicked in the ribs by a circle of Hasidic men as he lay on a rainy sidewalk. Other police officers said that Hispanic youths on a nearby rooftop threw eggs and bottles as the melee raged below. 

At one point, Hasidic activists using a private radio channel tried with little apparent success to rally Orthodox Jews from other neighborhoods to block access to the precinct for the police reinforcements who were called in from across northern Brooklyn. 

Sources said department officials are questioning whether dispatchers who put out an "officer in distress" call over police radios for almost 10 minutes added to the chaos and tensions. 

City Human Rights Commissioner Dennis DeLeon is also trying to bring together Hasidic and Hispanic leaders. 

While the alleged victim in Tuesday's incident was not Hispanic, Hispanic activists quickly renewed the charge that police show favoritism to the Hasidim because of the political clout of prominent rabbis. 

"If police act with such fear {of Hasidic power} that they can't even protect each other, how can they protect us?" said Carmen Calderon, a Hispanic activist who is also a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit charging that the city has favored the Hasidim in disposing of urban renewal land in the neighborhood. 

But Rabbi Moses Teichman, who said he witnessed the rough treatment Ciment received, said the melee had nothing to do with disputes with Hispanics. "It was an instantaneous burst of built-up emotion and frustration because there is a perception {within the Hasidic community}, which is not necessarily always true, that nothing is being done by police," he said.

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 Hispanics Cite Bias
 By Bob Liff 
Newsday - October 27, 1990
As Jewish leaders in Brooklyn denounced Tuesday night's assault on a Williamsburg precinct house by 300 Hasidim protesting the arrest of a community member, Hispanic leaders met with city officials to press their argument that Hasidim get favored treatment from local police. 

The assault on Union Avenue's 90th Precinct station house, in which 44 officers reported injuries, followed the arrest of a Hasidic man on sexual abuse charges. Chaim Ciment, 36, was arrested after a 17-year-old girl complained to security guards that the man attempted to fondle her in an elevator at the Roberto Clemente Plaza houses. 

Hispanic leaders led 500 people in a vocal protest in front of the same precinct house Thursday night, with several police officers contradicting their commanders by privately saying Hasidim do receive special treatment. 

"What happened Tuesday is a reflection of the attitude of the Hasidic community," said David Santiago, a leader in the South Side Political Action Committee who met with city Human Rights Commissioner Dennis deLeon yesterday. 

Santiago charged that the Hasidim use their clout to intimidate police and to control city housing policy, a reference to a federal lawsuit in which Hispanic plaintiffs have assailed the sale of city urban renewal land to Hasidic developers. 

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For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml . If you wish to use copyrighted material from this update for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. 


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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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Sex Arrest Stirs Hasidic Rage Mob storms Brooklyn precinct; 12 officers hurt

Sex Arrest Stirs Hasidic Rage Mob storms Brooklyn precinct; 12 officers hurt
By Bob Liff and Curtis L. Taylor
Newsday - October 24, 1990 

For more information about this case go to The Case of Rabbi Chaim Ciment

A mob of Hasidic Jews stormed the 90th Precinct police station house in Brooklyn's Williamsburg section last night to protest the arrest of an Hasidic man on a sexual abuse complaint, authorities said. 

Police said about dozen officers were injured, none seriously, before the protesters were forced back onto Union Avenue, where about 200 held a vigil in the the rain for two hours before dispersing about 11:15 p.m. 

A group of about 30 Hispanics at the same time staged a counter demonstration, shouting, "Lock him up. Lock him up." Hasidic community leaders said they believed the man had been falsely accused and charged that he was roughly handled by police. 

Hispanic protesters said they feared the arrested man would be given special treatment.
Police said no formal charges had been filed late last night and that an assistant district attorney was being called in to evaluate the situation. 

The incident that led to the filing of the complaint occurred at the Clemente Plaza, a Mitchell-Lama housing development that is home to both Hispanics and Hasidics and has been a flashpoint in disputes between the two groups over community issues, officials said. 

According to officials and Hasidic community leaders, a woman who lives in the building charged that a Hasidic visitor to the development sexually assaulted her in an elevator. 

But the Hasidic leaders said the woman has a history of harassing Hasidics and is facing eviction from the complex. 

Angelo Rodriguez, the development's manager, said the woman's family is disruptive and that an eviction hearing is scheduled for next week. 

The family, he said, has been the subject of complaints of harassment against blacks and Jews. 

Rodriguez said security officers told him that they saw the woman chasing the man into the building. 

But Saul Nieves, one of about 25 Hispanic counter protestors at the stationhouse, said the Hasidics are accorded special treatment and that Hispanic complaints are often brushed aside. 

"These people do this all the time," Nieves said. "They can't just abuse our women and expect nothing to happen." 

Rabbi Moses Teichman, who lives in the complex, said he would file a complaint with the Civilian Complaint Review Board charging that the officers who arrested the man roughed him up. 

For more information about this case go to The Case of Rabbi Chaim Ciment

Sunday, July 29, 1990

Case of Ross Goldstein

Case of Ross Goldstein
("Capturing The Friedman's)

Great Neck, NY


Convicting of sodomy in the first degree (three counts) and use of a child in a sexual performance.  He was Sentenced to four concurrent indeterminated terms of 2 to 6 years imprisonment.

Please note that there are several people who go by the name of Ross Goldstein.  

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Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves whether the resources meet their own personal needs.

Table of Contents:  

1990 

  1. The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Ross G., Appellant (07/18/1990)
  2. Victims' Parents Denounce Abuser's Release  (07/29/1990)

2013
  1. Teenager’s 1988 Sexual-Abuse Conviction Was Justified, Report Says  (06/24/2013)


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Please Note: Ross Goldstein - court proceeding (document does not use full name)
163 A.D.2d 529, *; 558 N.Y.S.2d 603, **;
1990 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8786, ***

The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Ross G., Appellant
No. 1081E

Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division, Second Department
163 A.D.2d 529; 558 N.Y.S.2d 603; 1990 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8786
June 28, 1990, Argued July 18, 1990


PRIOR HISTORY: [***1]
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Nassau County (Boklan, J.), rendered May 3, 1989, convicting him of sodomy in the first degree (three counts) and use of a child in a sexual performance, upon his plea of guilty, and sentencing him to four concurrent indeterminate terms of 2 to 6 years imprisonment.


DISPOSITION: ORDERED that the judgment is modified, as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, by (1) vacating the provision thereof convicting the defendant of sodomy in the first degree (three counts) and use of a child in a sexual performance and substituting therefor a provision adjudicating him a youthful offender, upon his plea of guilty to sodomy in the first degree (three counts) and use of a child in a sexual performance, and (2) reducing the sentence to a term of six months imprisonment and five years probation, with the terms of imprisonment running concurrently with and as a condition of the term of probation; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed, and the matter is remitted to the County Court, Nassau County, to fix the other terms and conditions of probation.


CASE SUMMARY
PROCEDURAL POSTURE: Defendant sought review of the decision of the County Court, Nassau County (New York), which convicted him of sodomy in the first degree and use of a child in a sexual performance, upon his plea of guilty, and sentenced him to four concurrent indeterminate terms of two to six years imprisonment.


OVERVIEW: In connection with the investigation of a child molester, police were led to defendant, a friend of the accused molester, who had also sexually abused some of the boys. Defendant was 15 and 16 years old when he committed the crimes. The prosecution agreed that in return for defendant's testimony, it would recommend that defendant receive a sentence of no more than six months in jail, youthful offender status, and probation in exchange for his testimony against the molester. After receiving the benefits of defendant's testimony, the prosecution represented to the victims' families that defendant would not be allowed to plead guilty to anything less than class B violent felonies. The sentencing judge did not grant defendant youthful offender treatment and the prosecution prevented defendant from being sentenced to anything less than two to six years. The court modified the sentence and held that defendant acted to his detriment on the promise of the prosecution, and it was not enough to permit defendant to withdraw his plea, or to promise to foreclose the use of his grand jury testimony if he chose to go to trial because defendant had already complied with his part of the agreement.

OUTCOME: The court modified the judgment by vacating the conviction of defendant of sodomy in the first degree and use of a child in a sexual performance and substituting therefor a provision adjudicating him a youthful offender. The court also reduced the sentence to a term of six months' imprisonment and five years' probation, with the terms of imprisonment running concurrently with and as a condition of probation.

CORE TERMS: youthful offender, cooperation, imprisonment, guilty plea, sentenced, sentence, probation, arrested, sexual, sodomy, judgment of conviction, term of imprisonment, violent felonies, plea of guilty, pleaded guilty, plead guilty, convicting, indictment, sentencing, six-month, cooperate, suspected, attending, recommend, modified, complied, supplied, top

COUNSEL: Kartagener & Stavis, New York, New York, (Steven R. Kartagener [***2] and Roger L. Stavis of counsel), for appellant.

Denis Dillon, District Attorney, Mineola, New York, (Bruce E. Whitney and Kenneth Harris of counsel), for respondent.

JUDGES: Thompson, J. P., Rubin, Rosenblatt and Miller, JJ., concur.

OPINION: [*529] [**603] Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Nassau County (Boklan, J.), rendered May 3, 1989, convicting him of sodomy in the first degree (three counts) and use of a child in a sexual performance, upon his plea of guilty, and sentencing him to four concurrent indeterminate terms of 2 to 6 years' imprisonment.
Ordered that the judgment is modified, as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, by (1) vacating the provision thereof convicting the defendant of sodomy in the first degree (three counts) and use of a child in a sexual performance and substituting therefor a provision adjudicating him a youthful offender, upon his plea of guilty to sodomy in the first degree (three counts) and use of a child in a sexual performance, and (2) reducing the sentence to a term of six months' imprisonment and five years' probation, with the terms of imprisonment running concurrently with and as a condition [***3] of the term of probation; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed, [**604] and the matter is remitted to the County Court, Nassau County, to fix the other terms and conditions of probation.

In 1987, Arnold Friedman, a retired high school teacher, was arrested on Federal charges for using the mails to send and receive child pornography. A subsequent investigation disclosed that Friedman, who ran an after-school computer program in his Great Neck home, and his son, Jesse Friedman, had been sexually abusing the young boys who had been regularly attending the computer classes. Arnold Friedman was arrested on State charges with respect to the sexual abuse crimes, and upon his guilty plea, was sentenced, inter alia, to 8 1/3 to 25 years' imprisonment, in addition to his sentence on the Federal charges. In connection with the investigation of the Friedmans, police were led to the defendant, a friend of Jesse Friedman, who had also sexually abused some of the [*530] boys who had been attending the computer classes. The defendant, who was 15 and 16 years old when he committed the crimes, became repulsed by them, and six months before the Friedmans were arrested, the defendant [***4] disassociated himself from Jesse Friedman and his activities. Following the defendant's indictment for a number of sex crimes, including class B violent felonies, the prosecution, with the approval of the victims' families, approached the defendant's counsel and sought the defendant's assistance in strengthening the case against Jesse Friedman, and in providing information concerning two other individuals suspected of being involved in the crimes.

On September 8, 1988, the defendant agreed to cooperate, and the terms of the agreement between the defendant and the prosecution were placed on the record. The prosecution agreed that in return for the defendant's testimony, it would recommend to the sentencing court that the defendant "receive a sentence of no more than six months in jail, youthful offender status, probation and any and all therapy contingent upon that probation which the probation department deems is necessary".

There is no question that the defendant complied with his part of the agreement. The prosecution acknowledged that the defendant "cooperate[d] fully with the Nassau County Police Department and District Attorney's office", and gave extensive testimony before [***5] the Grand Jury. Because of the defendant's cooperation Jesse Friedman pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 6 to 18 years' imprisonment, and the two other individuals suspected of being involved in the crimes were brought to the attention of the police.

After receiving the maximum benefits of the defendant's testimony, the prosecution entered into another set of promises, unbeknownst to the defendant, representing to the victims' families that the defendant would not be allowed to plead guilty to anything less than the top counts of the indictment, which were class B violent felonies. This was not made known to the defendant until February 3, 1989, five months after September 8, 1988, the date of his cooperation agreement, and after he had fully performed his part of the agreement, and had supplied the information and testimony which led to Jesse Friedman's guilty plea and imprisonment.

The defendant entered his guilty plea on March 22, 1989, and was sentenced on May 3, 1989. At the time the defendant pleaded guilty, Judge Boklan stated that based on her review [*531] of the defendant's candid revelations before the Grand Jury (the very testimony which the defendant supplied, [***6] postindictment, by way of cooperation with the prosecution), she would not grant the defendant youthful offender treatment. The prosecution then rejected the defense counsel's urging that the prosecution consent to a guilty plea to a class D felony, which would have enabled the court to impose a six-month term of imprisonment, in keeping with the prosecution's recommendation. After learning that the court would not grant the defendant youthful offender treatment, the prosecution, by refusing to let the defendant plead guilty to any crime below a class B violent felony, prevented the defendant from being legally sentenced to anything less than the 2-to-6-year term of imprisonment which was imposed.  [**605] Thus, the prosecution rendered hollow its express promise to recommend a six-month term of imprisonment.

The defendant asserts on appeal that the prosecution's representation to the victims' families, that it would insist on guilty pleas to the top counts, constituted secret, double dealing which violated the "fair import and spirit" of the prosecution's cooperation agreement with the defendant, and that, therefore, the defendant's sentence should be adjusted to reflect the [***7] terms of his cooperation agreement with the prosecution.

We find that by extending promises to the victims' families, after negotiating the cooperation agreement with the defendant, the prosecution betrayed the spirit of the cooperation agreement and its promise to the defendant as to the prospects of his receiving youthful offender treatment and six months' imprisonment. The prosecution has acknowledged that the defendant fully complied with his part of the agreement, and that he was instrumental in the prosecution of one of the key figures in the crime. Although the court, when refusing to grant the defendant youthful offender treatment, gave him the opportunity to withdraw his guilty plea, that offer, under the circumstances of this case, could not adequately remedy the situation created by the prosecution. At that point, the defendant had already totally complied with his part of the agreement, and the prosecution had received and fully benefited from his cooperation. We find that the defendant acted to his detriment on the promise of the prosecution, and it was not enough to permit the defendant to withdraw his plea, or to promise to foreclose the use of his Grand Jury testimony [***8] if he chose to go to trial (see, People v McConnell, 49 NY2d 340, 347-349).
[*532] We cannot countenance a judgment of conviction obtained under these circumstances and therefore vacate the judgment of conviction and adjudicate the defendant a youthful offender. Although there is some question as to whether Judge Boklan applied the proper standard in denying the defendant youthful offender treatment (see, People v Thiessen, 76 NY2d 816), we find that under the circumstances of this case, in light of our determination regarding the prosecution's conduct, it would be inappropriate to remit the matter for resentencing. In the exercise of our discretion in the interest of justice, we reduce the defendant's sentence to the very terms recommended and agreed to by the prosecution. Additionally, we note that the defendant has been incarcerated since being sentenced on May 3, 1989, and thus, has served over one year of incarceration.

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Victims' Parents Denounce Abuser's Release 
By Jack Curry
New York Times -  July 29, 1990

Parents in Great Neck, L.I., are upset at the recent release from prison of a teen-ager who was part of a group that sexually abused children during computer classes at the home of a former high school teacher there.

''The children have exhibited a real fear of this person,'' said the mother of one of the victims, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. ''If we drive by the house, they hit the floor in the car. They ask constantly when he is going to get out of prison or if he could escape.''
The former prisoner, Ross Goldstein, 19 years old, was released from Collins Correctional Facility in Helmuth, N.Y., on July 21 and his criminal record was sealed after the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn ruled that prosecutors had failed to keep an agreement with him in return for his testimony against Arnold and Jesse Friedman, the father and son who led the group abusing the boys
The appellate court ruled that the prosecution ''betrayed the spirit of the cooperation agreement'' by promising the victims' families that Mr. Goldstein would not be allowed to plead guilty to any crime carrying less than a 2-to-6-year sentence.

The appellate court said Nassau County prosecutors had already promised Mr. Goldstein that they would recommend that he be sentenced to no more than six months and be treated as a youthful offender, meaning that his criminal record would be expunged once his sentence was served. He was 15 and 16 years old when the crimes were committed.
Court Vacates Harsher Sentence
When he was sentenced, the appellate court said, Judge Abbey Boklan of Nassau County Court refused to accept the six-month limit or to treat him as a youthful offender because of the crimes he had admitted in his grand jury testimony. The prosecution then offered him only a chance to plead guilty to Class B felonies - sodomy and using a child in a sexual performance - which carried a minimum 2-to-6-year sentence.
On July 18, the court, criticizing both the District Attorney's office and the lower court judge, vacated Mr. Goldstein's sentence and gave him youthful offender status. He had served 15 months, so he was released.
Many parents said they were furious over the youthful offender designation.
''He can become a teacher or work at a day-care center and no one will know what he did,'' said the mother of another victim. ''This should be part of his life just as it is part of ours.''
''The deal was made to get Jesse Friedman,'' the mother said. ''We didn't need a deal like that. We had him anyway.'' Arnold Friedman, a former teacher at Bayside High School in Queens, and his son, Jesse, were arrested on Nov. 26, 1987 and eventually charged with more than 400 counts of sexual abuse of boys from 7 to 11 years old during computer classes at the Friedman home. Mr. Goldstein was charged with 118 counts of sexual abuse.
In December 1988, after Mr. Goldstein testified before the grand jury, Jesse Friedman pleaded guilty to 25 counts of sexual abuse and was sentenced to six to 18 years. Arnold Friedman, then 58, had pleaded guilty earlier to distributing child pornography through the mail and to sexual abuse. He is serving a 10-to-30-year sentence. The District Attorney's office said its plea deal was misunderstood.
''He was never promised that we were going to knock down his plea of guilty,'' said Edward Grilli, a spokesman. ''We said we would recommend a six-month sentence and we did.''
Several parents criticized the prosecutors' strategy, but Mr. Grilli said the case ''wasn't thrown away.''
''Ross Goldstein served time in prison and the principals involved are serving long prison terms, in large part because of him,'' he said. ''We were able to obtain guilty pleas because of his testimony.''
Michael Cornacchia, Mr. Goldstein's lawyer, said his client was getting counseling.
''Any thought that he is a threat is totally baseless,'' he said. ''Ross wasn't a monster. He was a 15-year old kid when this happened.''
He refused to say where Mr. Goldstein will live.
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Teenager’s 1988 Sexual-Abuse Conviction Was Justified, Report Says
By Peter Applebome
New York Times - June 24, 2013


Jesse Friedman, the Great Neck, N.Y., teenager whose role in a sexual abuse case a quarter-century ago was portrayed in the Oscar-nominated documentary “Capturing the Friedmans” and came to symbolize an era of sensational, often-suspect accusations of child molesting, was properly convicted and should not have his status as a sexual predator overturned, according to a three-year review that was released on Monday.

In a 155-page report written with very little ambiguity, the Nassau County district attorney, Kathleen M. Rice, concluded that none of four issues raised in 2010 in a strongly worded ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit were substantiated by the evidence.
Instead, it concluded, “By any impartial analysis, the reinvestigation process prompted by Jesse Friedman, his advocates and the Second Circuit, has only increased confidence in the integrity of Jesse Friedman’s guilty plea and adjudication as a sex offender.”
The review concludes another chapter in a case that came to national attention after the 2003 release of the film, which portrayed both the breakup of a deeply troubled family and what was characterized as a flawed, biased police investigation and judicial process. The case led to guilty pleas in 1988 by Jesse Friedman, then 18, and his father, Arnold Friedman, who ran a popular computer class at his house on Piccadilly Road in the affluent Long Island community of Great Neck.
The report’s conclusion was not entirely unexpected, even by Mr. Friedman and his advocates, given the explosive nature of the charges, the impossibility of a definitive finding on many of the allegations more than 25 years in the past and the high bar for prosecutors to overturn convictions, especially those based on confessions.
Still, Mr. Friedman’s lawyer, Ron Kuby, and the film’s director, Andrew Jarecki, reacted with disappointment and anger, saying the report was a biased whitewash by the office that originally botched the case. Mr. Kuby promised to pursue appeals.
“D.A. Kathleen Rice has made a craven, but not surprising, political decision in failing to admit to the wrongdoing of the Nassau County D.A.’s office and former sex crimes chief Fran Galasso, in the face of overwhelming evidence of Jesse’s innocence,” Mr. Jarecki said.
Mr. Kuby said that the district attorney’s office had fought Mr. Friedman’s efforts at every turn and that this was just more of the same.
“My immediate reaction is that we have spent three long years in a pointless waste of time waiting for D.A. Rice to issue this report,” Mr. Kuby said.
“Fortunately, the conclusion of this bogus reinvestigation clears the way for the Friedman team to return to court based upon the new evidence we’ve collected as well as the increasing likelihood of obtaining the original case documents.”
The review led both to evidence supporting the conviction and to evidence suggesting it should be overturned. Perhaps most powerful for the defense was a detailed and chilling statement that it obtained from Ross Goldstein, a high school friend of Jesse Friedman, who was the only person other than the Friedmans convicted in the case. Mr. Goldstein said his confession had been a lie coerced by intimidating police conduct and the threats of a draconian sentence.
In its 2010 decision, the Second Circuit reluctantly upheld the verdict on technical grounds but harshly criticized the trial judge, prosecutors and detectives in the case. The court said there was a “reasonable likelihood” that Jesse Friedman, who served 13 years in prison before being released in 2001, was wrongfully convicted and suggested that Ms. Rice reinvestigate the case. Arnold Friedman died, apparently a suicide, in prison in 1995.
Yet Ms. Rice’s report, in all instances, found that the preponderance of evidence pointed toward upholding the conviction. And her report comes with a limited, but potentially powerful, seal of approval in a case that is also being played out in the court of public opinion.
When she began her review, Ms. Rice, a Democrat first elected in 2005, appointed a four-member independent advisory panel to guide and oversee the work. It included Barry Scheck, a founder of the Innocence Project and one of the country’s leading advocates for overturning wrongful convictions.
The report was prefaced by a four-page statement by the panel. It said its job was about process more than findings. It did not reinvestigate the case itself, and it was not given access to key documents like grand jury records and interview reports.
Still, it commended the investigation, and said that if the evidence had pointed toward exoneration, “we have no doubt the Review Team was prepared to recommend without reservation that Friedman’s conviction be overturned.”
The statement, signed by all four members, said it was not the role of the panel to make an ultimate judgment about Jesse Friedman’s guilt, but added: “We do have an obligation to express a view as to whether we believe the conclusions expressed in the Review Team’s report are reasonable and supported by the evidence it cites. We think they are.”
The report centered on four points raised in the film and by the appeals court: that the case may have been tainted by repeated police interviews that pushed children toward confessions; that children may have been hypnotized to recover memories not based on fact; that the case was distorted by a “moral panic” that created false accusations and a predisposition toward conviction; and that Jesse Friedman’s guilty plea may have been unlawfully coerced by the police, prosecutors and a hostile judge.
The review rejected them all. It said that though some interviews late in the case may have been flawed, the rapid pace and early flow of accusations from children in the classes indicated that the allegations arose from spontaneous accounts, not from investigators pushing children toward accusations. It said the first child interviewed reported improper behavior, 12 children leveled accusations of illegal sexual behavior at Arnold Friedman in the investigation’s first two weeks and, five weeks into the investigation, 13 boys described criminal behavior by Jesse Friedman.
It said, that despite one student’s account in “Capturing the Friedmans” of making allegations after being hypnotized, any use of group therapy or hypnosis came after all the indictments were filed. It disputed the one account of hypnosis in the film.
The review said the Friedman case was “in no way similar” to other notorious cases of its time, like the McMartin preschool case, which produced allegations of satanic ritual abuse of children but ended with no convictions. The review said that the children in this case were twice as old as in that one and that many victims complained of abuse early rather than through months of questioning.
And it said Jesse Friedman had competent legal representation, weighed his options intelligently and pleaded guilty after determining it was “the optimal strategy” in light of the available choices.
It cited other evidence damaging to Mr. Friedman’s case — students and parents who stuck by their accounts and added fuller details, a psychiatric evaluation conducted for his defense that labeled him “a psychopathic deviant” and a telephone interview with Arnold Friedman’s brother, Howard Friedman, in which, according to the report, he said: “Jesse is guilty and you’re going to ask me how I know. Because Arnold told me.” He said Arnold Friedman had confessed that both he and his son had “misbehaved” with children in the class, but it is not clear from his statements what that misbehavior might have entailed.
Still, the panel and the review team cited the enormous difficulty in getting to the truth because of the passage of time, incomplete and shoddy record keeping and faded memories. Participation was entirely voluntary, so only some of those involved in the case took part in the investigation. Only three original accusers repeated their accounts to the review team. And many of the figures in the case gave different accounts at different times, making evaluation difficult, the investigators said.
Most glaring of the conflicting accounts was the one given by Mr. Goldstein, who said that “every single thing” in his grand jury testimony had been a lie and that he had been “coached, rehearsed and directed” by a prosecutor and a detective to tell the story they wanted, which was devastating for Jesse Friedman’s defense. The review said his recantation was unreliable.

Ms. Rice said in a statement that “instances of wrongful conviction are real and exist in far greater numbers than any of us would like to admit.” But she added: “The case against Jesse Friedman is not one of them.”

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