Friedman v. Rehal

• Decision Date: 16 August 2010
• Docket Number: Docket No. 08-0297-pr.
• Citation: 618 F.3d 142
• Parties: Jesse FRIEDMAN, Petitioner-Appellant,v.Joe REHAL, Parole Officer, Robert Dennison, Chairman of the New York State Division of Parole, and Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General of the State of New York, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

618 F.3d 142

Jesse FRIEDMAN, Petitioner-Appellant,v.Joe REHAL, Parole Officer, Robert Dennison, Chairman of the New York State Division of Parole, and Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General of the State of New York, Respondents-Appellees.

Docket No. 08-0297-pr.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: July 8, 2009.

Decided: Aug. 16, 2010.

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Jennifer Bonjean (Ronald L. Kuby, David Pressman, on the brief), Law Offices of Ronald L. Kuby, New York, N.Y., for Petitioner-Appellant.

Judith R. Sternberg, Assistant District Attorney (Kathleen M. Rice, District Attorney, Peter A. Weinstein, Assistant District Attorney of Counsel, on the brief), Nassau County, N.Y., for Respondents-Appellees.

Before POOLER and RAGGI, Circuit Judges, and KORMAN, District Judge. ^*

EDWARD R. KORMAN, District Judge:

This is an appeal from the denial of a writ of habeas corpus in a case in which petitioner who pled guilty seeks habeas corpus relief on the ground that exculpatory evidence was withheld from him. Because his petition was not filed timely, he also argues that his failure to do so should be excused on the ground that he is actually innocent. We affirm the judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Seybert J.) denying the writ without reaching the latter issues, because we conclude that the grounds asserted in the petition would not justify habeas corpus relief.

BACKGROUND

We summarize below the facts as alleged in the petition, as well as the affidavits and supporting materials, including the transcript used in the documentary film Capturing the Friedmans, and the memoranda of interviews taken in preparation for the film. These materials, some of which were also filed as part of the record in petitioner's post-judgment motion in the Nassau County Court, are included as part of the record in the district court. The District Attorney's submission in opposition to the petition focused principally on whether the petition was timely filed and not on the merits of the allegations in the petition.

A. The Investigation

In 1982, Arnold Friedman, a retired school teacher, began teaching computer classes to children in his family's home in Great Neck, New York. In September 1984, Arnold asked petitioner, Jesse Friedman, the youngest of his three sons, to assist him in teaching classes. Petitioner was fifteen years old, and in tenth grade, at the time. Petitioner continued to assist his father until September 1987, when he left to attend college.

After a customs agent intercepted a package containing child pornography addressed to Arnold Friedman, federal agents obtained a search warrant and executed a search of the Friedman home. During the search, they seized a list of names and phone numbers of eighty-one students enrolled in Arnold Friedman's computer classes. Subsequently, Detective Sergeant Fran Galasso, head of the Nassau County Police Department's Sex Crime Unit, sent out two-detective teams to interview students who were currently or formerly enrolled in Arnold Friedman's computer classes about possible abuse.

On November 25, 1987, Arnold Friedman and petitioner were arrested on a felony complaint alleging child sexual abuse. Between December 1987 and November 1988, petitioner was charged with two hundred and forty-three counts of sexual abuse in three separate indictments and arraigned in the County Court, Nassau County (Boklan J.). The indictments originally included allegations from fourteen complainants, all male children ranging in age from eight to twelve years old. Prosecutors had no physical evidence and relied entirely on allegations made by computer students after being questioned by Nassau County detectives. No student had ever complained of abuse, nor had any parent ever observed suspicious behavior, prior to the investigation. Indeed, Assistant District Attorney Onorato acknowledged that “there was a dearth of physical evidence.” [ Capturing the Friedmans Tr. 36, A-316.] Nor was this what he described as “the best case scenario,” where “you would like to find videotapes of Mr. Friedman actually sexually abusing the children or at the very least some photographs of some of the children in sort of compromising sexual positions.” Onorato admits that “[w]e didn't find any of that.” [Jarecki Aff. ¶ 10 (quoting “DVD Extra Material”), A-429.]

The Nassau County Police Department never produced transcripts, recordings, or videotapes of the student interviews that preceded the indictments. Moreover, because Arnold Friedman and petitioner ultimately pled guilty, the circumstances surrounding the interviews were not explored at trial. Some former students and their parents, however, recall with great consistency that detectives employed aggressive and suggestive questioning techniques to gain statements from children who had attended Arnold Friedman's computer classes. Detectives generally entered an interview with a presumption that a child had been abused and refused to accept denials of abuse. If a child denied being the victim of abuse on a first visit, detectives would often visit the child repeatedly for followup interviews, each lasting as long as four hours, until the child admitted abuse. In one case, detectives visited a child fifteen times and assured the child's mother before the final visit that they were going to stay “as long as it takes.” [Kuhn Aff. ¶ 10, A-530.]

Likewise, detectives often insisted that they knew that the child they were interviewing had been abused. For example, detectives would often tell children that Arnold Friedman or petitioner had already admitted molesting them or that other students had claimed to have observed them being molested. As one former student described it,

I remember that they made specific suggestions to me about things that they believed happened in the computer classes, and that they told me repeatedly that other students in my class had already told them that they had been abused, and that they were certain that in fact I had also been abused and that I should tell them so.

[Brian Tilker Aff. ¶ 5, A-790.] This strategy was designed to force children to agree with the detectives' story. Detective Squeglia, who conducted many interviews in the case, explained in a recorded interview:

Well, if you talk to a lot of children, you don't give them an option, really.... [Y]ou have to tell them pretty honestly that we know you went to Mr. Friedman's class, we know how many times you've been to the class. You know-we go through the whole routine. We know there was a good chance that he touched you or Jesse touched you or somebody in that family touched you in a very inappropriate way.

[Squeglia Tr Capturing the Friedmans Interview, A-459.]

The detectives would reward cooperative children with “pizza parties” and police badges. When children did not admit to experiencing sexual abuse, however, detectives would persist in their questioning, sometimes taunting the children for failing to offer the desired answers. The tactics were so aggressive that several former students admit that they responded to them by falsely alleging instances of abuse. Although these children were aware that they were lying to the detectives, they ultimately surrendered to the pressure and “remembered” instances of abuse just to “get [the detectives] off [their] back[s].” [ See Capturing the Friedmans Tr. 99, A-379; Brian Tilker Aff. ¶¶ 8-9, A-790.]

These questioning techniques were used in the police interview of Gary Meyers, a former computer student, which was secretly videotaped by his mother. The videotape portrayed detectives using hostile techniques, including suggestive and harassing questioning, while interrogating Meyers, who was then thirteen years old. Throughout the videotape, detectives pressured Meyers to admit that he was sexually abused. Nevertheless, Meyers maintained that he was never exposed to or witnessed any abuse. When Meyers refused to admit sexual abuse, a detective told Meyers's mother that he did not “like his answers” and referred to Meyers as a “wise guy.” [ See Meyers Tr., A-804.] At some point before the third indictment was handed down, either Arnold Friedman or petitioner informed petitioner's attorney, Peter Panaro, about the videotaped interview. Panaro claims that after viewing the videotape, he informed Assistant District Attorney Joe Onorato about it and requested that Onorato provide any evidence of similar “hostile” techniques employed during eyewitness interrogations. The prosecution did not turn over any evidence that detectives used similar techniques during other interviews.

As the detectives continued to aggressively pursue potential victims, the charges against petitioner expanded dramatically in both number and scope. While the first indictment included fifty-four counts, ten of which were against petitioner, the third indictment included three hundred and two counts, one hundred and ninety-eight of which were against petitioner. The allegations also grew increasingly bizarre, sadistic and even logistically implausible. For example, the third indictment described several group molestation exercises, including “Leap Frog,” in which Arnold Friedman and petitioner allegedly sodomized an entire class of naked boys by “leaping” from one to the next.

As the case expanded, members of the Nassau County District Attorney's office also began to speculate that a “sex ring” had been operating from the Friedman home and that other teenagers had been involved. Petitioner alleges that, through great pressure, the District Attorney was able to secure a cooperation agreement from an acquaintance of petitioner, Ross Goldstein, in exchange for a favorable plea agreement. Goldstein had until then vehemently denied any knowledge or involvement. Indeed, more than half of the charges against Goldstein were alleged to have taken place before the petitioner and Goldstein had even met....