No One Invented McMartin `Secret' Techniques Were Right Ones to Get at Facts, Help Victims

No One Invented McMartin `Secret' Techniques Were Right Ones to Get at Facts, Help Victims
By Roland Summit
Los Angeles Times - February 5, 1986

The latest pronouncement in the McMartin Preschool saga takes us further into Wonderland. Like some hapless Alice plunging into a rabbit hole, the case has been trapped in paradox for two years, growing and shrinking on cue, both too large to fit in and too small to climb out. And somewhere in the uneasy alliance of adversary attorneys is a cardboard monarchy dispensing justice. The edict is clear: "Off with their heads." The question of whose head must roll shifts as capriciously as the apparent size of the case.

With the announcement by Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner that all charges would be dropped against five of the seven defendants, the case is small again. Now those five have gone from supposed villains to certified victims.

"There simply isn't any evidence" to justify their extended ordeal throughout the monstrous preliminary hearing, Reiner's office says. And hundreds of parents and their children are cast as fools.

Everyone caught up in this case has reason for agony and fury. Someone must be stupid or evil or both. But who? Now the legal adversaries are in concert: The blame lies on the head of the messenger. The social workers who claimed to speak for the children gave us an unacceptable message.

What about these messengers? Were their controversial techniques so unusual or inappropriate? Did they reward children for the wrong stories? If we don't trust the sometimes fabulous stories told by children, should we trust those who claim to translate such fancies into fact?

Whatever the eventual judgments in the McMartin case, it should be clear that there was both reason and precedent for the methods used in the initial interviews with children. And, despite all the wondrous processing of those interviews through the tunnels of the adversary process, it is not too late to recover the light of reason that those recorded images can provide.

Child psychiatrists have recognized for most of this century that children don't freely voice their complaints. Psychiatric diagnosis depends on inferences drawn from the way a child relates through toys in a structured playroom. Words and conflicts too difficult to verbalize may be expressed through puppets and dolls, trucks and tanks, crayons and clay.

But it was not until 23 years ago that pediatricians discovered the concept of child abuse, the "battered-child syndrome," through patterns disclosed in X-rays. In turn they learned that victimized children were seldom able to speak about what had been done to them; they were too fearful of adults in positions of authority. Something more incisive than therapeutic play was needed in order to unlock those secrets.

With this dreadful knowledge of the battered-child syndrome came the obligation to recognize signs of abuse and to provide protective intervention. Emerging specialists developed interviewing techniques that combined interpretation of play with direct questions and gentle reassurance to coax children into sharing their fearful secrets.

Sexual abuse was eventually found to be the most sinister of those secrets. It took 15 years of child-abuse awareness before child-protection workers, emergency-room nurses, rape counselors, sociologists and others discovered that sexual assaults against children were a substantial and almost totally neglected problem.

By 1978 professional and popular information about the sexual abuse of children had proliferated. Specialists in police departments pioneered the use of anatomically specific dolls to help children find words and gestures to express the unspeakable. Federally supported sexual-abuse treatment centers attracted thousands of previously silent victims. For the first time in history, police, treatment specialists and prosecutors developed teamwork to hold child molesters accountable.

The one person in the country who shepherded this growth and who was most known and respected throughout the field was a young social worker, Kee MacFarlane, the coordinator for sexual-abuse programs at the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington.

When MacFarlane came to Los Angeles in 1982 to become director of the Child Sexual Abuse Diagnostic Center at the Children's Institute International, she brought with her the state of the art in clinical evaluation of suspected sexual abuse. That art-highly evolved, intensely specific and largely unknown outside the fledgling specialty of child-abuse diagnosis-is an amalgam of several roles. It combines the knowledge of a child-development specialist to understand and translate toddler language, a therapist to guide and interpret interactive play, a police interrogator to develop evidentiary information and a child-abuse specialist to recognize the distinctive and pathetic patterns of sexual victimization.

Most of that specialist understanding is both unexpected and counterintuitive. Sexual assault is not a rarity for children. Only molestation by strangers is rare; 90% of the risk is from people whom we know and trust. Molestation leaves only subtle traces, usually not evident to parents or doctors. Even when bleeding or discharge is present, parents and doctors will usually find some harmless reassurance to explain the injuries. Children who have been molested are typically ashamed, fearful and specifically forbidden to tell. Mothers are usually the last to know. Children are especially afraid of telling them for fear of causing distress or losing their love. Even if children can be encouraged to admit to abuse, they may withhold the worst problems at first and may take back various disclosures if the accounts are seen to be upsetting or unbelievable to their listeners. A forthcoming, clear, consistent, durable accounting is not only rare but also suspicious. It is simply not normal for a child to tell, or for a parent to believe, that a solid citizen could be sexually dangerous.

At the clinical level the goal of most child-abuse diagnostic specialists is to discover and help victims. If a child suspected of being abused is unable to volunteer information, it must be elicited with warm reassurance and specific, potentially leading questions. A child who can only answer "yes" to specific questions, and who is obviously terrified at the mention of a suspect's name, is of no value as a witness for the prosecution. But that provisional confirmation can lead to therapy and healing for the child and family.

To apply a criminal-justice standard to clinical diagnosis is an absurdity confined to this unformed, multiturf world of child sexual abuse. It's like saying that we should discard any culture for strep throat if it merely diagnoses the illness without proving who is to blame for infecting the patient. By further analogy to the theories of the courtroom, if the doctor can't prove where the infection came from, then we'll blame the doctor for implanting the germs.

Fortunately, we do not have to depend on courtroom oratory or reductionist strategies to search for the lessons in the McMartin ordeal. The entire diagnostic process at Children's Institute International is recorded on videotape. Videotaping was intended to reduce the number of interviews in the investigative process. It also helped families in the crisis of fear and denial. Parents could believe from a tape what they might never personally hear from their children. The tapes built an unexpected support between parents and children and a bridge to follow-up communication and recovery. Unfortunately, the tapes also provided shortcuts from standard witness-screening practices. This left prosecutors poorly acquainted with their witnesses and unprepared for their testimony.

The preliminary hearing process of the McMartin case has shown us a few moments out of thousands of hours of videotape records. Furthermore, these are fragments selected by defense attorneys to make the diagnostic procedures look corrupt. Professional skeptics have used a microscope to pick out a few bacteria that don't fit the streptococcal pattern. Accurate diagnosis requires an overview of the whole growth.

Since the case in court continues to shrink, there will be no access there for understanding the plight of hundreds of children who were diagnosed as abused but discarded by the criminal-justice system. Any child who can't prove a charge beyond reasonable doubt doesn't count.

The residual dust of the case must be viewed as the most meticulous pickings from the millstones of justice. This processed flour offers no track to the bundles of grain that went into the mill. Most of the wheat has been discarded along with the chaff. We would do well to develop some process of secondary recovery to examine the lawyers' dumpheap before it is lost to the broader interests of society.

We need to know what happened-not only what happened to the children but what happened to the investigation. No citizen should be branded and criminalized for two years (or even two days) without evidence. A public should not be polarized into fearful, warring camps over false issues. And professionals attempting to help children and families should not be sources of confusion or potential abuse.

But if there is a danger out there-if children aren't always safe with people whom we trust, if some apparently safe places must be unmasked as fronts for perversion and exploitation-then we must look to sources apart from the criminal-justice system to show us the danger.

I watched the McMartin investigation develop. I heard MacFarlane's dismay as she recorded unexpected accounts from increasing numbers of children. I talked to parents searching for answers. And I have seen all of us-parents, professionals, police, prosecution, press and public-paralyzed and befuddled by the immensity of the implications and the shrinking away of the proofs. I know that the process of investigation was an honest one, just as I know that everyone involved was handicapped with imperfect knowledge, inadequate resources and intolerable urgency.

MacFarlane and the Children's Institute were asked to do a job that seemed at first to be perfectly matched to their resources. For all the burgeoning and punishing demands on that one agency, there emerged hundreds of children who could share with their parents and therapists a secret so dangerous that no one had shared it before.

Now some would say that MacFarlane invented the secret. Let it be a hysteria rather than a horror-merely a reinforcement of fantasy between children and "the puppet lady." But this is missing the point. Her diagnostic techniques were meant to find victims of abuse, not prosecute the perpetrators. Rather than discredit MacFarlane, the criminal-justice system needs to better understand the problem of child sexual abuse and make accommodations to new sources of evidence.

The court record will not reflect the representative experience of the children. And charges, convictions or acquittals will not guide our trust and judgment toward the many institutions still clouded with uncharged suspicions and incredible accusations. The record that we need to see and the testimony that must be analyzed remain under wraps-never transcribed or indexed, never even reviewed by any single observer-encrypted on miles of magnetic tape.

If the process was honest, if the stories of all the children interviewed combine into an integrity that could not have been suggested by the contributions of the interviewers, then we deserve to know that, especially if the stories define a public health hazard that cannot be proved in courts of law. If those stories do match with physical injuries as indicated in the preliminary hearing, what can we expect of medicine to define the hazard? We must remember that the battered-child syndrome came out of a medical publication, not a court decree. There was no attempt to prove who broke the bones pictured in those X-rays.

There is still another rational, clinical record deserving of attention. There are children examined in other clinics, some in other states, who gave indication of abuse in the McMartin school.

We are not trapped in Wonderland unless we choose to be. The way out was charted on the way in. Rather than decapitate the messenger, we might better take a second look at the message.

Honoring Sharon R. Lowenstein: The Bond Abused: A Survivor of Incest Breaks the Silence

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Honoring Sharon R. Lowenstein

Sharon Lowenstein is one of the first Jewish survivors of incest to speak out publicly about  being abused by her father.  Her bravery has helped thousands of survivors since her historic article was published in Moment Magazine back in 1986.  Sharon currently is a Kansas and Missouri collaborative law attorney, author, mediator and mediator trainer in Greater Kansas City. 

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The Bond Abused: A Survivor of Incest Breaks the Silence
© (1986) by Sharon R. Lowenstein, Phd
(The following article was originally published in Moment Magazine, January/February 1986, Volume II, Number 2.) 

“Incest” is a word not spoken in the Jewish community. That means Jews don’t talk about it. It does not mean that they don’t do it. 

I am a middle-aged professional woman and Jewish communal leader. I am married to a successful businessman, and we have raised children, now grown, who share our Jewish values. Our family is seen as exemplary, and indeed it is. My family of origin was also seen as exemplary, which in fact it was not. I am an adult survivor of prolonged child sexual abuse and of a failed teenage suicide attempt. 

I have met a number of other Jewish victims. I know that incest and child molestation occur in Jewish families. I know that Jews prefer not to confront this issue. And I know how much denial brings further harm to victims and adds to family and community disinergration. 

I share my story because I know for a fact that among the perpetrators are not only marginal Jews, but also Jewish leaders and Talmud scholars. They are not only men (and some women) who are obviously sick, but also respected physicians, attorneys and businessmen. To my great shock- even I can still be shocked-I recently learned that a very dear male Jewish friend is yet another perpetrator. 

Perpetrators may or may not be deeply involved in the Jewish community, but I have yet to meet a victim who involvement is as extensive as mine. We Jews traditionally have maintained high standards for individual conduct and family life not only because Judaism teaches ethical precepts and oral values but also because we have considered our community better off without those Jews who “don’t fit.” With the community’s tacit approval, such people simply drift away from us, into the larger society. Ironically, it is the victims who are again victimized; feeling themselves terribly unworthy , they are likely to accommodate the community by “dropping out.” The perpetrators are more likely to remain within. 

As a child trapped in an incestuous relationship-my father molested me from infancy until I left for college-I understood that I was treif (not kosher). Every victim knows that feeling. I have not yet, however, met another who managed to find refuge-as I did-in the synagogue and in the Jewish community. I did this by so thoroughly blocking conscious knowledge of my nighttime life that I could continue to think of myself as innocent. This form of extreme denial enabled me to develop a strong Jewish identity and later to take a husband, but id did not protect me from brutal self-hatred and repudiation of femininity. 

When we are forced to acknowledge that incest exists among us, we prefer to think it occurs only in “bad” or “sick families. But while incestuous families indeed aberrant, they often appear to be “healthy , normal”. 
 

My family attended shul with some regularity. I sat with my mother in the women’s balcony and watched my father daven (pray) with great sincerity in the pews below. My parents, of modest means, were respected as hardworking, good family and synagogue people who lived in accordance with somewhat loosely defined expectations for observance in midwestern Orthodoxy. 

My father, a delivery man and salesman, had a solid reputation for generosity and integrity. A man who was, in my mother’s eyes, “honest to a fault,” he had a habit of bringing home strangers who needed a meal or an opportunity to earn a few dollars for household work. A few years after I had left for college and established a life of my own, he killed himself. For months afterwards, my mother received condolence notes with small checks for repayment of loans my father had made to people unknown to her. We wonder how “good” people can do bad things; we accept character references as a defense for a man accused of child molestation. But such references say nothing about the man’s guilt, only about his capacity for deception, of self, others- and about our desire to be deceived. 

My mother, articulate but tactful, worked hard, ably managed limited resources, made most of the family’s decisions and maintained a well-kept home. Before her Depression-era marriage, she had completed two years of college and had worked as an executive secretary for a large retailer. She readily made and retained friends and never voiced dissatisfaction or disappointment. Sacrificing without complaint, she thought that appropriate as “a mother’s role” and knew instinctively how to use her self- denial to evoke guilt in the family members and thus guarantee that she would retain control. She gave me love as a baby but withdrew emotionally as she became absorbed in her own problems, finding it increasingly difficult to deal with her growing resentment of me, the “other woman.” I buried myself in work. My achievements and her friends’ accolades gave proof of her success as a wife and mother. Strong-willed and proud, determined to see her family as she wished it to be, she blocked out much-I learned the technique from her-and lied about the rest. 

We are repulsed by incest and child abuse and see no need to talk about it. Secrecy, however, is the ally of the perpetrator. It enables the perpetrator to continue the abuse and the spouse/collaborator to maintain her marriage. But secrecy is the enemy of the victim and, ultimately, of the community. It permits the victim to continue believing that she

is “bad”, that she is the cause of her parents’ behavior and that she deserves what is happening to her. Furthermore, she knows that disclosure may destroy the family and she believes herself responsible for keeping the family intact-a feat possible only so long as she continues to be silent, and thus continues to be the victim. 

 

Similarly, the Jewish community believes that disclosure will undermine cherished values and family life, and also will embarrass the community itself. But by its denial the community abets the perpetrator, entraps the family, perpetuates the problem.
People who place great value on children, as do Jews, can still be child abusers and coconspirators, but they must rationalize more. My father’s rationalizations: 

1. I will never hurt you.
2. I do this out of love and I love only you.
3. This is for your own good because you can trust only me not to hurt you; and
4. It is better for you to learn from me than from any one else because no one can love you as I do.

My mother’s rationalizations:

1. When you were five, I asked him if was doing anything to you -- he wasn’t supposed to, he denied it, and I believed him.
2. When you were a teenager, I asked him why he went to your room late at night, he said to check your covers, and I believed him; and
3. When you tried to kill yourself, he said that all teenage girls do such things, and I believed him. After all, he always told the truth. 

When I was 15 I swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills, My mother discovered me. She screamed, “How could you do this to me!” while he poured soapy water down my throat and repeatedly forced me to vomit. They walked me for hours before permitting me to sleep. Soon after, my father succumbed to severe depression punctuated by hysterical outbursts. Two months later, they left on vacation so that he could get a grip on his nerves. Neither ever discussed my suicide attempt with me. Life continued as usual, and I was left to survive on my own. After I left for college, I rarely returned home. 

Today I view my father’s suicide as a self-inflicted execution brought on by guilt. At the funeral, the rabbi, who believed himself close to each of us, shared with us his bewilderment and broke into tears. My mother and I did not discuss my father’s suicide during shiva or afterwards. Like the incest and my attempt at suicide, it remained a closed book. 

I was a victim of “velvet glove” incest; my father used persuasion rather than brutality. I suspect that we jews find it hard to believe that Jews molest children in part because we associate child molestation with brute force, and we known, of course, that Jews shun violence. But Jews do use brut force; among us there are also wife beaters and rapists. I know victims of Jewish family violence. I would like to think that they are few in number, but the fact is that none of us knows for sure. This is another subject that we prefer not to examine too closely. 

Whatever the incidence of family violence, however, it does not follow that the number of Jewish men so emotionally troubled as to become sexually involved with children, over whom they have unquestioned power and before whom they do not have to concern themselves about performance, also is disproportionately small. In the face of overwhelming empirical evidence for the widespread existence of the problem in the general community (only the attention it is receiving is new), can we afford to remain so complacent, so assured that the problem does not plague us, as well? Which of society’s other problems-suicide, drug abuse, alcoholism- do we know for a fact has passed over us and left us unscathed?

And then there are the ripple effects: Every suicide is not a victim of sexual abuse, but I have yet to meet a victim of sexually abuse who has not been suicidal-half of the dozens of adult survivors I’ve met have attempted suicide at least once and I’ve known one who succeeded. 

Victims of child sexual abuse grow up as heterosexuals as well as homosexuals. some go into the most respected professions, some go into the oldest profession. Many deny themselves the privilege of raising children because they fear doing so, others raise abused child, and some parents psychologically healthy children. I suspect, however, that few free themselves from feelings of worthlessness or achieve what they might otherwise have achieved. I suspect also that most Jewish victims choose to opt out of the Jewish community or to live on its periphery. 

I was more fortunate than most. My mother gave me a good start as an infant and my daytime father always showed normal, healthy paternal interest and affection. From my mother I learned stamina, from the kind honesty of which my daytime father was capable, I developed a certain straightforward integrity, two traits that proved especially useful when I entered psychotherapy. I married a man who, like my daytime father, is generous and fair minded but who, in addition, has a healthy sexuality and enormous patience. he made it possible for me to undergo psychoanalysis. Neither my husband nor my children learned of my long struggle against suicide until I had clearly won the battle. When I grew sufficiently strong to take our children into my confidence, they too supported me on my journey to full health. 

But what of the many victims who have neither my resources nor my opportunities? 

I consider myself luck to be Jewish, but my Jewishness has also been a terrible burden in ways that were unnecessary. Are we strong enough to accept the knowledge that every human problem, every sickness and every aberrant behavior also exists among Jews? Do we have the sensitivity and fortitude to establish an all-inclusive caring community in which every Jew-even the Jew who is a perpetrator-can feel assured of understanding and help? Would we lose as many to suicide, personality dysfunction, apathy or even cults if such a community existed? 

What should we do? Beginning with their outreach to Jewish singles a few years back, the Council of Jewish Federations, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the United Synagogue and a number of other bodies have begun to devote programs and task forces to the problems and needs of individuals and families who do not fit the mold of the stereotypic suburban nuclear family. We have at least taken the first steps toward becoming an inclusive rather than an exclusive community. Although homosexuality, for example, remains a subject many of us might prefer to ignore, the community has begun to recognize homosexual Jews. 

But sexual molestation and family violence are not yet included on any Jewish agenda. I write anonymously because I want to be listened to without becoming the target of sensationalism and vituperation--we adult survivors have learned that perpetrators and spouse/collaborators who feel threaten are likely to be vitriolic when the issue is raised. Let us begin thoughtful discussion. Let healing take place within a Jewish context. Only in that way can we establish the caring community that will help to assure our survival as a community of meaning.

Case of Israel Goluboff

Case of Israel Goluboff

(AKA: Lester Guloboff, Lester Mor)

Whiting, NJ

Convicted in Essex County (NJ) in 1985 of aggravated sexual assault on a girl under the age of 13. He has served his time and is considered a Tier 2, or moderate-risk, sex offender by the state of New Jersey. According to his listing on the State Police sex offender Web site, he had victimized children who worked with him in his caricature sketching business.

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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:

1985

1. Date of Conviction: December 6, 1985 

2005

1. Sex offender working at fair  (07/29/2005)
2. Bills aim to limit jobs sex offenders can hold (07/29/2005)
3. NJ sex offender registry (07/29/2005)
4. Freeholders OK curbs on sex offenders - Banned from facilities where children gather  (10/28/2005)

2013

1. New Jersey Sex Offender Registry (12/01/2013)

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Sex offender working at fair

By Joseph Picard and Bob Jordan

Asbury Park Press - July 28, 2005

A registered sex offender was a vendor at the Ocean County Fair last week and has a booth at the Monmouth County Fair this week, and is within his rights in operating his business, authorities said.

But the director of the Ocean County freeholders said the state should change the law regarding sex offenders to better protect children from pedophiles. And Monmouth County officials said they will consider performing background checks on prospective fair vendors and possibly ride operators.

Israel Goluboff, 77, of the Whiting section of Manchester was convicted in Essex County in 1985 of aggravated sexual assault on a girl under the age of 13. He has served his time and is considered a Tier 2, or moderate-risk, sex offender by the state.

Goluboff, who uses the name Lester Mor in his business, said Wednesday that he had served six years at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in the Avenel section of Woodbridge. According to his listing on the State Police sex offender Web site, he had victimized children who worked with him in his caricature sketching business.

"That was so long ago. I'm not a pedophile. I'm not interested in kids," said Goluboff, sitting in his booth shortly after the Monmouth County Fair opened at East Freehold Park, Freehold Township. The fair continues through Sunday.

Goluboff is a caricaturist and rented an open air booth at both county fairs to sell impromptu drawings of patrons.

"It was a mistake many years ago. I've been working at fairs and shows for years up and down the East Coast and have never had a problem. I travel all the time," Goluboff said. "If I don't do this for a living, I'll be on welfare."

Goluboff pointed out that his wife is part of the business and she is with him at the fairs.

Megan's Law explained

Vera Kahlert, an assistant Ocean County prosecutor who supervises the county's Megan's Law unit, explained that local police departments report to the county regarding registered sex offenders.

"There is nothing in Megan's Law that allows us to condition where an offender lives or works," Kahlert said.

Megan's Law is the state statute on community notification of convicted sex offenders, named after Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old Mercer County girl who was raped and murdered by a convicted sex offender in 1994.

The law ranks sex offenders in three tiers: Tier 3 contains the most dangerous offenders, and Tier 1 the least dangerous. Goluboff is ranked in Tier 2. As Kahlert explained, the law is not meant to be punitive or an extension of imprisonment, probation or parole.

"The law is intended as a system of notification of possible risk to the community," Kahlert said.

Goluboff said Monmouth County Fair officials did not ask him about his criminal record.

Bruce A. Gollnick, assistant director of the Monmouth County Park System, which administers the fair, said four staff members are assigned to manage the fair's many vendors and one staffer is assigned to the ride operators.

"We don't do criminal background checks, but it's something that we could possibly familiarize ourselves with, find out what we can and can't do, and look into," Gollnick said.

Gollnick said the information about Goluboff would be relayed to the Freehold Township Police Department, which supplies security at the fair. The county also assigns many of its park rangers to the fairgrounds.

"We'll alert everybody that this has come to our attention," Gollnick said.

Background checked

A spokeswoman for the Ocean County Fair Committee said the organization was aware of Goluboff's status, but decided that it could not deny renting him the space.

"We did a background check, saw that he was a Tier 2 offender and contacted the Berkeley police, who serve as our security force at the fair," said Kitty Meyer, wife of fair committee chairman O.J. Meyer.

Meyer said the committee spoke with local law enforcement two or three years ago, when Goluboff first applied to do business at the fair, and were informed that he could not be banned from the fair, "since he had the same right to work as anyone else," she said.

Under Megan's Law, the sex offender is required to register with the police department in the town in which he lives, and to notify the police if he changes jobs or moves. The local police then inform the prosecutor's office.

Joseph Vicari, Ocean County freeholder director, said that the state Legislature needs to revisit Megan's Law.

"State legislators need to think this matter through and come up with a unified set of enforcement regulations regarding sex offenders," Vicari said. "If there is doubt whether someone is rehabilitated, then we should err on the side of caution and keep the offender locked up. Children go everywhere. We must protect them from pedophiles."

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Bills aim to limit jobs sex offenders can hold

Asbury Park Press - July 29, 2005

By Joseph Picard

No law in New Jersey prohibits Israel Goluboff, a registered Tier 2 sex offender, from plying his trade of caricaturist at county fairs. But that will change soon if certain state legislators from the Shore area have their way.

Goluboff, 77, of the Whiting section of Manchester, was convicted in Essex County in 1985 of aggravated sexual assault on a girl under age 13. He served six years at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Woodbridge and is on the state's Megan's Law Web site.

Last week, Goluboff rented a booth at the Ocean County Fair in Berkeley, selling paintings and caricatures.

This week, he did the same thing at the Monmouth County Fair in Freehold Township. But after his past became public knowledge, he did not appear at the fair Thursday.

"He's no longer at the 2005 Monmouth County Fair," Monmouth County Park System spokeswoman Laura Kirkpatrick said, declining to comment further

Freeholder William Barham said at Thursday's meeting that a county parks official spoke to Goluboff earlier in the day and the two arrived at an "amicable" decision that Goluboff would leave the fair.

"That should put people's minds at ease," he said.

Barham would not identify the parks employee who spoke to Goluboff, other than to say the person was "in the hierarchy." The vendor's fee was refunded, Barham said.

Bills in the hopper

According to his listing on the State Police sex offender Web site, Goluboff, who works under the name Lester Mor, had victimized children who worked with him in his caricature sketching business. Tier 2 is the mid-level ranking for sex offenders, with Tier 3 being those considered at greatest risk of repeat offenses.

Goluboff told the Asbury Park Press Wednesday that he's been working at fairs up and down the East Coast for years without incident. Megan's Law, the statute requiring sex offenders to register with police where they live, does not limit a person's right to work.

But Goluboff will no longer be permitted to peddle his goods at county fairs in New Jersey if a bill introduced in June by state Sen. Andrew R. Ciesla, R-Ocean, becomes law.

"We cannot have the fox guarding the henhouse," Ciesla said. "The most heinous crimes are perpetrated against children. Therefore, we have to do all we can to protect them."

Barham also said he is asking the county's legal department to research whether the county can ask potential vendors at future fairs whether they have been convicted of a crime.

Ciesla's bill (S-2610) would prohibit anyone convicted of a sexual offense against a person under 18 from working on frozen dessert trucks or in amusement parks.

Ciesla said he is having the state Office of Legislative Services study his bill to determine if county fairs would fall into the latter category. If it doesn't, "we'll ask for an amendment to the bill" to include them, Ciesla said.

Fairgoers' opinions

Wall resident Scott Schleuss said he'd support Ciesla's move to ban registered sex offenders from working at fairs.

"I don't think they should be allowed to work in general-public jobs," said Schleuss, 41, as he visited the Monmouth County Fair with his daughters, ages 3 and 6.

Ron Kudile had similar thoughts as he entered the fairgrounds late Thursday afternoon.

"I have a concern . . . but (registered sex offenders) still have a right to work," said Kudile, of the Lincroft section of Middletown. "But they should probably be restricted to places where they don't have access to young children."

"We won't be going to that booth with our children," interjected his wife, Carey Fox, 49.

Ciesla's fellow 10th District legislators, state David W. Wolfe and James W. Holzapfel, both R-Ocean, plan to introduce an identical child protection bill in the Assembly in September.

In addition, Assemblyman Sean Kean, R-Monmouth, said he's drawing up a bill, also for introduction this September.

"Parents should be able to take their children to the fair or boardwalk without having to worry that they may be inadvertently exposing their children to sexual predators," Kean said.

Kean said his bill will bar sex offenders from holding jobs that put them in close contact with children, such as at fairs and amusement parks, on ice cream trucks, and at boardwalk concessions and rides.

Goluboff said he made a mistake over 20 years ago and has not repeated it since. He insisted that he is no danger to children or anyone and should be allowed to work. His wife always works with him in the booth.

Marjorie Paynter, 73, a grandmother from Jackson, agreed that Goluboff should be allowed to work.

"We have to stop pursuing people who have paid their debt to society," Paynter said.

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NJ sex offender registry

http://www.njsp.org/info/reg_sexoffend.html

As of July 29, 2005

County: OCEAN

Individual Information Image Date: 06/23/2005

Name: ISRAEL L GOLUBOFF

Sex: Male

Race: White

Height: 5-07

Weight: 165

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Grey

DOB: 11/04/1928 AGE: 76

Tier: 2-Moderate

Date Published: 07/05/2002

Aliases

ISRAEL GOULUBOFF

LESTER GULOBOFF

LESTER MOR

Distinguishing Marks

SCAR CHEST - SURGERY

Address Information

Home

Address 7B EASTON DRIVE

WHITING, NJ 08759

Offense and Conviction Information

Offense: AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT

Date of Conviction: 12/06/1985 Place of Conviction: ESSEX

Victims: x - Under13 x - Female

Modus Operandi / Significant Event Details

VICTIMIZED CHILDREN WHO WORKED WITH HIM IN HIS CARICATURE ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS.

Motor Vehicle Information

Year - 1989                 Make - CHEVROLET

Model - VAN State - NJ

License Plate - IM263M  Color - GOLD/GRAY

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Freeholders OK curbs on sex offenders

Banned from facilities where children gather

BY Andrea Alexander 

Asbury Park Press - October 28, 2005

FREEHOLD â¤" Convicted sex offenders are now banned from county-run facilities where children gather, including the parks and libraries.

The Monmouth County Board of Freeholders adopted a resolution Thursday prohibiting convicted sex offenders, who are required to register under Megan's Law, from entering or trespassing at county facilities. It also creates a maximum $200 fine with the possibility of up to 90 days in jail.

The action will affect more than 30 county parks visited by 4 million people each year and a county library system of 11 branches in Manalapan, Shrewsbury, Allentown, Colts Neck, Hazlet, Holmdel, Howell, Marlboro, Ocean Township, Oceanport and Wall.

Park rangers will be able to issue a summons if they determine that a convicted sex offender is using the county parks, said County Counsel Malcolm V. Carton. Library workers can also contact the sheriff's officers if they determine that a sex offender is using the library, Carton said.

The county can also seek an injunction to keep a convicted sex offender out of the libraries, Carton said. The person would face stiff penalties for violating the court order, he said.

"There is a huge need for our children to be protected and safeguarded," Freeholder William C. Barham said.

"Tonight we, the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders, took decisive action to put those who want to participate in that kind of conduct on notice that Monmouth County and all of our facilities will not tolerate that type of behavior," Barham said.

The county is also moving forward with its plans to create a screening process to bar convicted sex offenders from becoming vendors at the county fair, Carton said.

The action follows a revelation over the summer that a registered Tier 2 sex offender rented a booth to sell paintings and caricatures at the Ocean County Fair in Berkeley.

Israel Goluboff, 77, of the Whiting section of Manchester was convicted in Essex County in 1985 of aggravated sexual assault on a girl under age 13. He served six years at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Woodbridge and is on the state's Megan's Law Web site.

Goluboff also had rented a booth at the Monmouth County Fair but left the event after his past became public.

The county will require vendors seeking to rent space at the fair to declare on an application if anyone working at their booth is a convicted sex offender, Carton said. The new application also would make it clear that those who lie about their status as convicted sex offenders would be removed from the fair.

The application will also require the Social Security numbers and date of birth of everyone working at the booth to allow county officials to verify the information, Carton said.

"We are trying to tighten it up every way we can," Carton said.

"I was happy to see you passed the pedophile-free zone resolution," said Manalapan Township Committeewoman Rebecca Aaronson, a Democratic candidate for freeholder.

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New Jersey Sex Offender Registry

December 1, 2013

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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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Experts Ponder Child Abuse Policy

Experts Ponder Child Abuse Policy

Newsday - November 14, 1985

 

For a judge trying a child abuse case, the issue is clear. "My bottom line is the one little girl sitting on the witness stand crying," Family Court Judge Jeffrey H. Gallet said yesterday ata conference at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. "I have to decide whether to send her home, and I want to know as much as possible about that case." 

But for a minister who may have heard the whole story from someone who abused a child, there is another issue to weigh - a congregant's legal right to confidentiality. 

"People come to us for help and expect what they say to be held confidential," said Rev. Kevin Sullivan, of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. "It's right that that expectation exists, and we should do everything in our power to support it." 

Sometimes the interests of the courts clash with the right to privacy, a central issue in a growing nationwide debate on clergy confidentiality. A year ago, a Florida clergyman was the first minister in the country jailed for refusing to divulge details of his conversation with a parishioner accused of child abuse. And as public awareness about child abuse continues to grow, clergy say they have to walk a fine line between protecting the rights of abusers who confide to ministers and protecting the rights of the children harmed. 

One solution, members of the clergy said yesterday, is to actively encourage abusers to seek professional help. "Faith must be fleshed out and become action," said Rev. Robert Ross Johnson, pastor and founder of St. Albans Congregational Church, and one of 30 people attending the conference. "Prayer must be accompanied by actions." 

He recalled an incident in which a teacher came to him and told him of a preschool student who was displaying behavior indicative of sexual molestation victims. 

"What should I do? Well, I didn't just pray about it," Johnson said. "I picked up the phone and got help," both for the child and her stepfather, who had been molesting her. 

Despite such success stories, sometimes health care professionals, who are legally required to report abuse, may not understand why the clergy doesn't follow the same procedures. "About a year and a half ago, two abused children were admitted to the hospital, and in each case the mother had gone first to the clergy," said Dr. Bruce Bogard, director of the Child Protection Team at LIJ. "They didn't report the cases. Both those kids got abused again and ended up in the hospital." 

But clergy members contend there is no clear solution to balancing both concerns.

"I don't think you can give a definitive answer," said Rabbi Herschel Billet, of Woodmere. "There are any number of possibilities, depending on a situation."