Jesse Friedman, one of the subjects of the Academy Award–nominated 2003 documentary Capturing the Friedmans, lost his latest bid to clear his name in the 1988 Long Island child sex-abuse case in which he (and his father) pleaded guilty. Friedman was paroled in 2001, but has sought to overturn his guilty plea ever since learning from the movie made about his family that the prosecution used evidence based on hypnosis and other recovered memory techniques on alleged victims. While the film’s ambiguity as to Friedman’s innocence or guilt was part of what made it so compelling, many critics and audiences thought the younger Friedman didn’t receive fair treatment by the prosecution during a time in the eighties when child sex-abuse “witch hunts” were going on in many suburban communities. There is good news for Friedman, however: Despite the ruling, which was based on a missed filing deadline, the court recommended a “complete review” of the entire case.
Conviction Upheld in ‘Capturing the Friedmans’ Case [New York Post]