An appeals court today cast serious doubt on a notorious sex-abuse conviction that was the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary “Capturing the Friedmans.”
But the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld Jesse Friedman’s 1988 guilty plea on a technicality, saying he failed to meet a one-year deadline for challenging the use of hypnosis on an accuser after learning about it from the film.
In a 2-to-1 ruling, the court said it hoped the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office would conduct a “complete review” of Friedman’s claims that he was railroaded into pleading guilty through the use of questionable “recovered memories” from his accusers.
Friedman — who was paroled in 2001 — and his father, Arnold, admitted molesting more than a dozen boys in their Great Neck, Long Island, home in a case that the court said came during “a series of highly-questionable child sex abuse prosecutions” across the country.
“The record here suggests ‘a reasonable likelihood’ that Jesse Friedman was wrongfully convicted,” Judge Edward Korman wrote for the majority.
“The ‘new and material evidence’ in this case is the post-conviction consensus within the social science community that suggestive memory tactics can create false memories and that aggressive investigation techniques like those employed in (Friedman’s) case can induce false reports.”
In a separate opinion, Judge Reena Raggi also denied Friedman’s appeal but said there was no need to “assume the truth” of his misconduct allegations against the cops, lawyers and judge who handled his case.
“While the facts alleged are disturbing and may well warrant further inquiry by a responsible prosecutor’s office, I cannot predict whether the outcome of any such inquiry will be favorable to (Friedman), whose conviction is based on a plea of guilty that he thereafter publicly confirmed,” she wrote.
A spokeswoman for the Nassau County DA’s Office said: “We are reviewing the decision and will be giving the court’s opinion serious thought and consideration.”