Jerusalem – The state prosecution withdrew an indictment against an ultra-Orthodox couple charged with kidnapping and raping two girls, aged 6 and 3, citing discrepancies in the girls’ testimonies.
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A police interrogator decided the complainants’ accounts lacked validity even though they had a “factual basis,” due to the influence of the girls’ families.
Last July, police received complaints that two young girls living in the Jerusalem area had been sexually assaulted by a man, and that his wife had acted as his accomplice.
The couple, who have no children, were known as a quiet and harmless. Soon after the story broke, they became unwelcome in their community. Fliers hung in their neighborhood demanded that they leave immediately, and on one occasion, local residents broke into their house and threatened them.
Defense attorneys sharply criticized how the police interviewed the girls, saying their accounts had been warped by their families’ influence. Police child interrogation specialist Keren London particularly came under attack for allowing the younger girl’s mother to be present during the questioning of her child.
“I was questioning a 3-year-old, so I brought in her mother to help the girl focus,” she said. “I’ll admit that the mother was more dominant [during the interrogation] and I take responsibility for letting her in [to the room.]”
Due to the defense’s complaints, the child was questioned again by child interrogation specialist Micha Haran last September. During that interview, the child contradicted her previous accounts to police.
The defense also criticized the police for not physically examining the complainants, and for taking three months to carry out a reconstruction.
“In my opinion the girl’s testimony was tainted by the large number of interrogators, which can be seen in several things she said that are unusual for someone her age, such as, ‘They were in it together’,” Haran wrote in his report. He also said the girl’s description of the room where she was assaulted was inconsistent.
Haran concluded that the girls stories contained “a certain seed of truth upon which the child probably expanded in a way that does not necessarily reflect what happened.”
“Children frequently hear things from others that become an inseparable part of their consciousness,” said attorney Ariel Atari, who specializes in cases of child sexual abuse.
“When they are interrogated it is impossible to tell when they are talking about something factual or something imagined, which is why they may sound perfectly valid even when they are making things up.”
The state prosecution defended its original decision to indict the couple, saying it had believed there was enough evidence to convict them, before this evidence was undermined.
“The prosecution received new material that made it change its mind about pursuing this case,” it said. “After much deliberation, we decided not to continue.”
“Soon after the story broke, they became unwelcome in their community. Fliers hung in their neighborhood demanded that they leave immediately, and on one occasion, local residents broke into their house and threatened them. “
Now where do the defendants get back their reputations? Will the people who printed up the fliers apologize? How about the ones who broke into their house?
This is a troubling case….there is legitimate doubt and unless there has been some prior evidence or allegations of abuse, the “testimony” of a 3 year old alone taken under questionable circumstances cannot be allowed to ruin the lives of this couple.
Finally people are waking up here is my feeling about the merkey bill because if people can see discrepcies now from a small child what can they believe 25 or 30 years later? Isn’t that unbelievable? It is ridiculous when adults say they recall the full story 3 decades later.
Sorry… but you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.
There will be a few cases like this, but the overwhelming majority will be legitimate. It is sad that there will be collateral damage, but sometimes that is what needs to be done. Nobody said it would be pretty.
The shanda is that neither the parents nor the police are knowledgeable enough to handle such an investigation with babies. Where were the doctors in all this? What is Israel’s protocol? Why wouldn’t the mother or at least the child’s pediatrician a recognizable adult and one she could trust sit quietly nearby in the room?
Why would children that young know anything sexual if the weren’t exposed and traumatically? And 3year old and 2 year old rarely hang together and get that close.
unfortunately in Lakewood a family was falsely accused many years ago and although it was beseless they were harrased ans suffering till today
Before you all start defending him realize this: The couple may have gone free (due to lack of credible evidence) however this does NOT prove they are innocent! Remember, “There is no smoke without fire!”
The sad thing about all those stories, that people tend to buy and believe any such type of accusation, even if the accuser is a hoodlum bum and the accused is a well known man for years.
Too many lives and families have been destroyed by such libels, some measures have to be taken to draw the line between real abusers (that have to be prosecuted and taken off the streets) and innocent victims of false accusations.
And that is why there is due process. Even due process will have its mistakes. One of the initiatives we need to is to have additional steps of verification to insure that a complaint is credible before allowing it to move to prosecution. To adjudicate a case is also to make it public – which ruins the lives of a alleged perpetrator, his family, and employer, even when there is INNOCENCE (beyond just not guilty). As it is, these things happen. But to create a system where this can happen is unacceptable. For those who oppose the efforts to create a system, the apprehension makes sense, but this process must be allowed to take its time to be developed so that it can be done right. For those advocates who are impatient for this system to be implemented, your impatience is understood, but it is better to get the program a bit later and to have one that works.
While this story underlines the flaws in the system and by no means is this limited to this particular crime, it is a bigger crime to ignore complaints and to dismiss out of hand stories of molestation. Yes due process and proper investigation is definitely needed. Better training for investigators and prosecutors. We have special prosecutor divisions for financial crimes, lewd crimes, and even quality of life but not for minors who are molested – that falls under the same hand as prosecuting kurvahs. The Israeli prosecutor was probably thinking that if this were my child, I would want to be in the room, like in the hospital. Unfortunately this way of thinking compromises testimony. Regarding the cases where such accusations are proven unfounded and that reputations and lives have been ruined. I believe that you can and should sue the pants off the accusers and the state for malicious libel and slander. It’s a two way street. You shouldn’t live with the harassment if you are exonerated and you shouldn’t be allowed around children if you are proven guilty. A court issues a writ when a case is unfounded or dismissed. That writ is the basis for a civil law suit against your accusers.
Think long and hard before stating what’s in your stomach, people. We are all mostly good, decent people who would tear apart anyone caught harming a child. However, taking this nonchalant attitude toward victims of such libel is unforgivable enough. Pouring salt on the wounds of others by posting self righteous comments about the system being imperfect and how it’s just too bad on those on the receiving end of this imperfection… I don’t know how to finish the last sentence, all I can say is I’m glad I won’t be in your shoes when you stand before the Ultimate Judge after 120.
As someone who works with children on a daily basis, I feel that most three year olds and quite a few 6 year olds aren’t articulate enough to be able to tell over something like this accurately, also they use their imaginations a lot, so things they say might not even be true. If you feed their imaginations by making suggestions as to what could have happened, they’ll make up a story based on those suggestions. You can’t take innoccent people and destroy their lives based on a tot’s story.
When we fight a war, innocent people are injured and even killed. We psychologically accept the collateral damage because it happened to “them” and not “us”. When one innocent yid is killed we all cry. When an innocent Arab child lies dead in the street, we barely take notice.
The issues that we have here is not the objection to collateral damage. We object to JEWISH collateral damage. Unfortunately, we are in a situation in the frum community where we have let rapists and abusers get away with their crimes for so long, that we now have an actual war on our hands. Yid against Yid. There WILL BE collateral damage, but that does not mean we should stop fighting the war. I am less concerned about this generation (we caused the problem to blow up) as I am about the next generation. Yes, some may be falsely accused. However, that is extremely rare, although no less heart breaking when it happens. For the sake of our future generations we have to be willing to fight this fight. Once we rid ourselves of these rapists, we can work on ways to prevent abuse. We can work on ways to quickly identify and prosecute these criminals. We can work to ensure that we protect every child… but we can’t get there unless we are willing to fight this war.
We need to wake up to the fact that in this crazy world that we are helping to build its becoming more and more difficult for teachers,morahs,camp counselors,shul candy man,or even just a freindly zaidy,to say good shabbos to a child to pinch his/her cheek to pick them up if crying to fix their tzitzis,tuck them in dust them down put them on your lap to tell them a story or seperating 2 fighting kids etc without some stupid adult thinking or worse saying something,or the kid saying something based on what he was told innappropriate touching us.
Unfortuneately, there is no basis to believe that anything which occurs in the courts is valid. These proceedings, along with all “orders of protection” are not actually law proceedings as it is understood in Judaism. They are social policy courts, and their role is to enforce policy. They are based on nazi and pre- WWII “laws”, and we have seen how bad it is for family members to do this.
False accusations are a violation of torah mitzvoth, and must be seriously regarded in the Jewish community.
It ws written above:
“… Yes, some may be falsely accused. However, that is extremely rare, …”
No, it is not rare.
The investigations are like witchhunts, and show little concern for facts.
This is not to say that some are not correct, but it is a violation of Jewish values and law to assume accusations are valid. Judaism requires cautious investigation.
CrimeStoppers shows an actual conviction rate on molestation of over 95%. Cases are not brought to trial without subastantial evidence. Without a doubt many of the 5% who are not convicted are guilty but could not be proven to a jury.
If there are 19 rapist predators right now using your community as their hunting grounds, and one guy you have heard rumors about… but you can’t go after the 19 because you know that they will all point to #1 in court and say he is one too, do you still charge them?
OF COURSE YOU WOULD!
How do you know that “Many innocent people…”???
The problem with your statement is that you have no idea if many innocent people are convicted. You have no idea how many ‘innocent’ people are coerced into plea deals. Do you actually know how many people’s lives were ruined by ‘dropped charges’??
I will also point out that many people who take plea deals later claim they were really innocent but didn’t want to face trial. Who is to say they are telling the truth? They go into court, admit to everything they did (a condition for plea deals), and then go and say they are “innocent” later. I’m sure plenty are just trying to salvage their repuations. When were they lying? In court? Or when they proclaimed their innocence?
You must also keep in mind that MANY guilty people have the charges dropped before trial because the evidence is shaky. MANY times the child is has been so scrambled psychologically that they are unable to give reliable testimony. I know of two cases that were dropped because the case relied too heavily on the words of the children which were inconsistent thanks to their stupid parents putting words in their heads before trial.