GUILTY IL - Coach Michael Cardamone accused of sexually abusing 14 gymnasts

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golfmom

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This trial started last week. I'm surpised that this trial hasn't been reported in the national news.

WHEATON, Illinois (CBS 2) Security is tight at the Dupage County Court House for the trial of a gymnastics coach who's charged with sexually abusing 14 of his students.

Michael Cardamone is accused of molesting 14 girls while working as a coach at the family-owned American Institute of Gymnastics in Aurora. All of the girls were his gymnastic students. Cardamone has denied the accusations.

http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_020174137.html
 
golfmom said:
This trial started last week. I'm surpised that this trial hasn't been reported in the national news.

WHEATON, Illinois (CBS 2) Security is tight at the Dupage County Court House for the trial of a gymnastics coach who's charged with sexually abusing 14 of his students.

Michael Cardamone is accused of molesting 14 girls while working as a coach at the family-owned American Institute of Gymnastics in Aurora. All of the girls were his gymnastic students. Cardamone has denied the accusations.
I am also surprised that this trial has not generated more publicity nationally, and that it has not been discussed more here.

The sentencing hearing concluded last Thursday, December 1st, and the judge is set to pronounce the sentence today. The prosecution has asked for 35 years, and the defense has asked for probation. Cardamone has remained steadfast in denying all of the charges and claiming that the prosecution case was an "avalanche of lies".

This is another case of malicious prosecution by the infamous DuPage County, Illinois State's Attorney's Office of the Jeanine Nicarico/Rolando Cruz case fame.

Michael Cardamone was railroaded by a bunch of lies made into a Salem-style witch hunt by manipulated accusers, incompetent child welfare so-called professionals, inept police who conducted a shoddy and biased investigation, publicity-seeking prosecutors eager to add another conviction to the notches in their belt without any regard to truth or ethics or guilt or innocence, and a judge who came to the bench straight from the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office where he spent his entire legal career as a prosecutor, and whose rulings from the very beginning have been heavily biased in favor of the prosecution and eliminated any chance of a fair trial.

To some this might sound unbelievable, but we have seen a number of cases in this country like this of false accusations that later were proven to be unfounded. Sometimes after many years and ruining the lives of both the wrongfully convicted accused and the false accusers.

The Cardamone family has retained attorney Kathleen Zellner to pursue the appeal. She was not the trial attorney. She is the attorney who represented and freed Kevin Fox from his wrongful imprisonment in the murder of his daughter, Riley Fox. In that case, and in others where she has had death row inmates exonerated, DNA evidence eventually led to exoneration.

This case will be a much bigger challenge for her, as it is not based on DNA evidence. She will have her work cut out for her in finding reversible error in this trial and convincing the Appellate Court and possibly the Illinois Supreme Court that this horribly unjust verdict should be overturned.
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BillyGoatGruff said:
Whenever I see/hear the words "witch hunt" in relation to chil molestation charges, I automatically think Guilty As Charged, since that is the buzz-word of choice favored by various pro-pedophile lobbies/organizations. Injustice Busters.com being high on that list, IMO.
For results of the trial:
http://www.nwherald.com/MainSection/local/313706451580027.php
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Hmmmm -- whenever you see/hear the words "witch hunt" you "AUTOMATICALLY THINK".

So much for kneejerk reaction vs. rational analysis. I thought this was a site for "websleuthing" and discouraged automatic thinking. Sorry for my mistake.

Also, if you are basing your opinion on press reports from the Daily Herald, you should know that their legal affairs writer, who has written all of the stories on the case except one, allegedly is in a serious relationship with one of the prosecutors in the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office, and her stories are little more than regurgitation of that office's press releases. So much for objective journalism there.

The claims of previous complaints against Cardamone have mostly been orchestrated by Terry Ekl and John Flowers, the plaintiffs' attorneys in the civil suits, which they filed both before and after the criminal trial. Sounds like the accusers and their parents are really just after money here. And Terry Ekl has been the campaign manager and chief fund raiser for Joe Birkett the DuPage State's Attorney and regularly represents criminal defendants against Birkett's prosecutors and, for some reason, has an astounding success rate in getting acquittals. Ekl also has several other ethically challenging incidents in his background. And the best the prosecutor could come up with at the sentencing hearing was minor traffic offenses, riding a moped with alcohol on his breath and kicking a locked bike. Sounds like a real hardened criminal there, eh? I am sure, given the way they conducted the trial, if the prosecutors had anything better than that they would have hung it out there.

As for witch hunts later proven false, a few come to mind immediately -- the McMartin pre-school case in California where, by the way, the pre-school was owned by the mother; the Kelly McMichaels case in New Jersey; and a case in the South Suburbs of Chicago -- I can't recall the name of the lady who owned the pre-school. In any event -- these cases were big-deal, multi-accuser matters and all blew up in the prosecutions' faces after they were exposed as totally unfounded.

As for your labelling certain organizations "pro-pedaphile" -- sounds like reckless hurling of accusations without any proof to back it up. As an example, it would be equally reckless of me to summarize this blog as a "pro defender of law enforcement actions under any circumstances regardless of how egregiously outrageous their actions are" organization.

And Cardamone had 86 witnesses testify for him -- many respected in the community. I doubt that they were all brainwashed or coerced. There is a chasm the size of the Grand Canyon filled with reasonable doubt about this case.
 
It was just reported on the CBS Channel 2 Chicago web site that Michael Cardamone was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The appeal will begin now. His appellate lawyer, Kathleen Zellner, will really be challenged on this one. However, if anyone can get this unjust verdict overturned and expose the "avalanche of lies", as Cardamone called it in his statement to the judge last Thursday, Zellner is the one.
 
genecam said:
Hmmmm -- whenever you see/hear the words "witch hunt" you "AUTOMATICALLY THINK".

So much for kneejerk reaction vs. rational analysis. I thought this was a site for "websleuthing" and discouraged automatic thinking. Sorry for my mistake.

Also, if you are basing your opinion on press reports from the Daily Herald, you should know that their legal affairs writer, who has written all of the stories on the case except one, allegedly is in a serious relationship with one of the prosecutors in the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office, and her stories are little more than regurgitation of that office's press releases. So much for objective journalism there.

The claims of previous complaints against Cardamone have mostly been orchestrated by Terry Ekl and John Flowers, the plaintiffs' attorneys in the civil suits, which they filed both before and after the criminal trial. Sounds like the accusers and their parents are really just after money here. And Terry Ekl has been the campaign manager and chief fund raiser for Joe Birkett the DuPage State's Attorney and regularly represents criminal defendants against Birkett's prosecutors and, for some reason, has an astounding success rate in getting acquittals. Ekl also has several other ethically challenging incidents in his background. And the best the prosecutor could come up with at the sentencing hearing was minor traffic offenses, riding a moped with alcohol on his breath and kicking a locked bike. Sounds like a real hardened criminal there, eh? I am sure, given the way they conducted the trial, if the prosecutors had anything better than that they would have hung it out there.

As for witch hunts later proven false, a few come to mind immediately -- the McMartin pre-school case in California where, by the way, the pre-school was owned by the mother; the Kelly McMichaels case in New Jersey; and a case in the South Suburbs of Chicago -- I can't recall the name of the lady who owned the pre-school. In any event -- these cases were big-deal, multi-accuser matters and all blew up in the prosecutions' faces after they were exposed as totally unfounded.

As for your labelling certain organizations "pro-pedaphile" -- sounds like reckless hurling of accusations without any proof to back it up. As an example, it would be equally reckless of me to summarize this blog as a "pro defender of law enforcement actions under any circumstances regardless of how egregiously outrageous their actions are" organization.

And Cardamone had 86 witnesses testify for him -- many respected in the community. I doubt that they were all brainwashed or coerced. There is a chasm the size of the Grand Canyon filled with reasonable doubt about this case.
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Since I have had (extremely distasteful) personal experience with a child molester/pedophile--one that groomed his numerous victims and their parents for over a 25 year period--I have a far better understanding of how pedophiles and their supporters try and make themselves appear to the press.
Pedophile supporters fall into two general categories:
1. fellow travelers
2. Friends/associates/family members who are in denial and afraid to admit they may have placed children in danger by overlooking or ignoring certain behaviors.
I have no idea which category you fall into, but you will notice that the many of the people who post on this board have had some kind of exposure/dealings with pedophiles and their supporters, and aren't easily gulled. Just ask Michael Jackson.

P.S. Having 1000 people testify about the time someone DIDN'T molest a child in their presence means nothing in a court of law. You can't prove a negative.
And the previous complaints of similar behavior prior to his arrest? As to his appeal--well, I hope he uses his gymnastic skills re picking up soap without bending over while he waits.
 
BillyGoatGruff said:
Since I have had (extremely distasteful) personal experience with a child molester/pedophile--one that groomed his numerous victims and their parents for over a 25 year period--I have a far better understanding of how pedophiles and their supporters try and make themselves appear to the press.
Pedophile supporters fall into two general categories:
1. fellow travelers
2. Friends/associates/family members who are in denial and afraid to admit they may have placed children in danger by overlooking or ignoring certain behaviors.
I have no idea which category you fall into, but you will notice that the many of the people who post on this board have had some kind of exposure/dealings with pedophiles and their supporters, and aren't easily gulled. Just ask Michael Jackson.

P.S. Having 1000 people testify about the time someone DIDN'T molest a child in their presence means nothing in a court of law. You can't prove a negative.
And the previous complaints of similar behavior prior to his arrest? As to his appeal--well, I hope he uses his gymnastic skills re picking up soap without bending over while he waits.
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I am sorry you had a personal experience with a pedophile. It is a tragedy I would not wish on anyone

I am in no way, nor ever have been, a fellow traveler of or a supporter of a pedophile and I strongly resent your inference that I am one. My family has had an experience with molestation also, and I am not as gullible as you accuse me of being.

Michael neither groomed nor isolated his accusers. All of the accusers stated he did it in the main gym in front of as many as 100 people while he was the center of attention and everyone was looking at him. And if you add up the number of times the accusers said this happened, he never would have had time to coach. And he obviously didn't groom the parents. They have been vicious throughout, and the prosecution never presented any evidence that the parents were groomed, and the mothers never testified to that. And the fathers, for the most part, were absent from all of the proceedings -- go figure that one.

From following the trial, I just see a great deal of reasonable doubt here. No one corroborated the girls' testimony. In fact, several fellow students refuted the specific allegations. Without being there, neither you nor I can know which girls were truthful and which were not. And I do not think the defense could have gotten 86 people to conspire to lie. And Birkett's office has a notorious reputation for malicious prosecution. And I think Zellner will successfully point out all of the reversible error of the judge's biased rulings during the trial. If you examine them from the beginning, it looks like the judge was part of the prosecution team. And he came to the bench straight from the prosecutor's office. They even socialize together.

Since oversimplifying and making rash generalizations and hurling unsupported insults are your basis for refuting people who don't believe as you do, I'll throw in a generalization of my own -- this trial is more proof that no one gets a fair trial in DuPage County.

And I repeat, there is ample evidence of witch hunts of this type that have occurred with the false accusations later being exposed. Obviously, you refuse to believe that. And I won't even dignify your comment about the soap with a reply. I have heard the fate child molesters, whether wrongfully convicted or not, suffer in prison. I am sure he will be assaulted after he gets to the state pen. And he might even be murdered. And if that happens, and the accusers finally admit this never happened, their lives will be ruined, too, and deservedly so.

And since you have a closed mind, and all you can do is hurl insults, it is impossible to have any reasonable discourse with you about this, so I am out of here and back to the jury room and the parking lot as far as you're concerned.

I'll be back when Michael's successful appeal overturns his conviction, and after the accusers and their parents' pure greed is exposed during the civil trials. The former should be in about 18 months, if he is allowed to live that long, and the latter in about 4 years.
 
Genecam, not EVERYONE is innocent. Sometimes they really do convict the guilty people! I went to high school with this guy. I don't know if he did this or not, but I do remember him as quite the arrogant *advertiser censored**hole. He always thought he was better than everyone. He came off as a spoiled jerk who always told everyone how much better he was than them. Just as the judge said, he has shown no remorse whatsoever. Now, his sister said he shows no remorse because he is not guilty of anything. On the other hand, when someone is as arrogant as this guy was, why would he show regret? He thinks mom and dad will get him off. He believes he cannot be touched.

However- I think its odd he was convicted of molestation on 7 out of the 14 girls who accused him. Why not all 14? The other girls changed their stories and nothing could be proven. Hmmm. I also have a hard time wrapping my brain around Zellner taking over the appeal if she doesn't believe in his innocence. But, I guess shes just doing her job.
 
Maddy's Mom said:
Genecam, not EVERYONE is innocent. Sometimes they really do convict the guilty people! I went to high school with this guy. I don't know if he did this or not, but I do remember him as quite the arrogant *advertiser censored**hole. He always thought he was better than everyone. He came off as a spoiled jerk who always told everyone how much better he was than them. Just as the judge said, he has shown no remorse whatsoever. Now, his sister said he shows no remorse because he is not guilty of anything. On the other hand, when someone is as arrogant as this guy was, why would he show regret? He thinks mom and dad will get him off. He believes he cannot be touched.

However- I think its odd he was convicted of molestation on 7 out of the 14 girls who accused him. Why not all 14? The other girls changed their stories and nothing could be proven. Hmmm. I also have a hard time wrapping my brain around Zellner taking over the appeal if she doesn't believe in his innocence. But, I guess shes just doing her job.
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Maddy's Mom - Thank you for providing your usual cogent insight here in analyzing all sides of a situation. I am glad to see that not everyone on this site is on "automatic think".

I was trying to point out the vast amount of reasonable doubt that seems to be apparent here, and I don't see how questioning the rationale for the verdict automatically makes one a pedophile supporter or "fellow traveler."

I have also seen false accusations first hand. My family was involved in a trial where some witnesses lied with encouragement from the prosecutor, and the lying witnesses were praised by the judge while the truthful witnesses were roundly castigated by him as "lacking credibility." That is one reason why I have such skepticism of the criminal court system.

I think all lawyers are prostitutes of one form or another -- both prosecutors and defense attorneys and the ambulance chasers. If I was a criminal defendant, I would want the meanest, nastiest most amoral attorney of all. I don't really think Michael's lawyers did a very good job for him here, and probably cost the family a lot of money. Both Donohue and Laraia are part of the DuPage old boy network, along with Terry Ekl and John Flowers, the plaintiffs attorneys in the civil suit. I think the Cardamones would have been better off getting a lawyer from outside DuPage. Someone like Thomas Breen, Rolando Cruz's last attorney, a former prosecutor who has exhibited a sense of fairness and a tough streak and, from his remarks after the last Cruz trial, has nothing but contempt for the DuPage State's Attorney's Office.

I am sure Michael was as arrogant as you say. He seems to have done a lot of "interesting things" while he was in high school and college. However, being an arrogant a$$h**e does not automatically translate into being a pedophile. And sometimes people mature and change for the better after high school. I am sure we have all done things in our youth that we now regret.

Your mentioned one of the main factors leading to my reasonable doubt here --the fact that all 14 stories appeared to be the same, and the testimony was related the same way, yet the jury curiously believed 7 and dismissed 7. And it was late on a Friday afternoon, and several jurors were overheard to be griping about not wanting to be sequestered over the weekend. Sounds like it could have been a simple mathematical compromise to reconcile opposing viewpoints in the jury room and get things over with before the weekend -- with no regard for the life-ruining consequences for a defendant that they may not all have thought was guilty. That would be disgusting if they were that cavalier about it. The only juror statements I saw after the trial were from one older woman who thought he should have been convicted on all of the charges, and from the jury foreman who gave a totally disjointed and unintelligible explanation for the verdict. Taken together, these statements provided more questions than answers about how the verdict was reached. There have been no juror statements since then, as is their right, so we will probably never know.

And we both know, as you said, Zellner wouldn't have taken this one on unless the odds were good for winning. There is no DNA, so it is a challenging one for her. If she gets this verdict overturned her reputation will skyrocket.

And I know one thing for sure -- if Birkett got this one wrong, on top of Nicarico, he is toast politically, and the DuPage State's Attorney's Office will need a complete purge if it is to have any credibility whatsoever.

We will have to wait a few years to see how this one turns out. I hope Michael survives that long.
 
He has a history of people complaining about his inappropriate touching. Girls reported him as far back as 1996 that he was doing it. It was reported to his mother, the owner of the gym, who didn't take the reports seriously. The parents back then should have taken it further.

"The suit, which also names the gym, raises new allegations that three other young female gymnasts complained between 1996 and 2000 that Cardamone improperly touched them. Despite those earlier complaints, Lynch allowed him to continue working with children, the suit contends."

And she is just as arrogant as her son:
"How dare these people come after me,'' Lynch said. "It is laughable -- laughable -- that they're going to come after me.''

Its HER gym, she did NOTHING about the reports in 1996 or the ones in 1999. Why shouldn't they come after her? She was aware of it, and let it happen. And she finds it laughable.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-gymcoach25.html
 
Maddy's Mom said:
He has a history of people complaining about his inappropriate touching. Girls reported him as far back as 1996 that he was doing it. It was reported to his mother, the owner of the gym, who didn't take the reports seriously. The parents back then should have taken it further.

"The suit, which also names the gym, raises new allegations that three other young female gymnasts complained between 1996 and 2000 that Cardamone improperly touched them. Despite those earlier complaints, Lynch allowed him to continue working with children, the suit contends."

And she is just as arrogant as her son:
"How dare these people come after me,'' Lynch said. "It is laughable -- laughable -- that they're going to come after me.''

Its HER gym, she did NOTHING about the reports in 1996 or the ones in 1999. Why shouldn't they come after her? She was aware of it, and let it happen. And she finds it laughable.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-gymcoach25.html
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There is a certain type of child molester who seems to have had extensive family collusion involved in their manufacture. This fellow is a shining example.
And the pedophile I knew shared this SOB's arrogance/haughtiness, thinking himself "untouchable", even though it turns out he had arrests/complaints for similar behavior dating back to his teenage years. Eventually they all exhaust their "get out of jail free" cards.
 
I am a former gymnast who was coached by both Michael and his mother. I have also been coached by several others coaches over my 16 years involved in gymnastics. Let me say first and foremost that Coach C never touched me inappropriately ever. Did he touch areas of my body that most people would consider inappropriate yes. But he is also a gymnastic coach of young children. If an athlete is learning a flip on the floor on the bars the coach is there to catch them when they fall. There have been several times over the years that I have fallen and unfortunately there is no good way to be caught. There have been times when I have been caught near by backside by my breasts you name it. That is part of learning the sport. This is not inappropriate this is spotting.
I am not saying that he is not guilty because I was not there. I can just tell you the way I see things. I have also been to the gym in question and do not see exactly where this could have happened. Furthermore I find it so strange that only half of the girls in questions were deemed believable. This lead to question are these parents who are perhaps a little too politically correct and deem "coaching" inappropraite touching. I have a very hard time with this because these are the same parents who would be up in arms if there little girls fell and got hurt. They would also be the first to contact a lawyer because he did not coach properly.
As for the girls side of things. I am very distressed to see in the media that the girls have taken some verbal abuse from the coach's family and friends. These are young children and should not be in the spotlight being called liars on TV and in media. I like the Cardamone family but the mudslinging towards the girls goes against everything that they once beleived in that was working with children to help them learn a sport as well good sportsmanship.
 
Great post, crash. Nice to get information from someone who knows the family and was a student there, and can see the plethora of reasonable doubt here, culminating with the jury's very curious verdict.

As for the mudslinging - it has gone both ways. Some of the biggest slingers have been State's Attorney Birkett and Alex McGimpsey and Mike Pawl, the Assistant State's Attorneys who prosecuted this case. And the mothers of the accusers.

Birkett, as usual, in his press conference following the sentencing, tossed out a lot of moralistic, self-righteous bs. The Cardamone family has a right to defend itself in the media, and that's all they were doing. Last I heard, that was not a crime, even in DuPage County.

The mothers' allegations of harrassments by the Cardamones and their supporters are not factually substantiated. The mothers have done a lot of lobbying of other families to coerce them into saying their daughters were molested by Michael, and they failed in many instances. This was reported by those who were contacted and refused to join in this clusterf**k. I have a hard time seeing them as victims of harrassments. They are big girls who take care of themselves very well. And their daughters seem to be having a grand old time enjoying what they did, and their education and social life seem not to have missed a beat. None of them even look like victims.

Also, don't believe everything Terry Ekl and John Flowers put out in pushing their clients' civil suit. Wait for the facts to come out. Like, prior to the allegations that were the subject of the trial (1999-2002), there were never any substantiated complaints of molestation against Michael. This seems to be a figment of Terry Ekl's imagination. Don't you think if there were, the prosecutors would have brought it up at the sentencing hearing, and they didn't. These allegations would have certainly been more substantive than riding a moped without a bike flag five years ago.

And where are the fathers of these girls? Most of them didn't attend any part of the trial, and they were not there at the mothers' post-sentencing press conference. Do they know what a crock this is and have washed their hands of it? Or are they afraid they might get caught up in the mass hysteria and be accused of molesting their daughters?

There are certain types of women that, at every opportunity presented, pursue a consuming desire within them to emasculate men, especially strong men. These mothers look like shining examples, complete with the self-righteous haughtiness and accompanying hyperbole. There is a two-word name for them - it consists of the gerundal form of the operation to remove certain male sex organs + the plural of the common name for the female dog.
 
Genecam,

I understand your strong opinoins regarding the harrassment of the alleged victims. But please keep in mind that people everyone keep calling liars and various other names are children. Both sides are mudslinging and unfortunately there are kids in the middle and both sides of this case should present themselves a professionals.
If this was not a case of reasonable doubt and it was a rape case we would find the behavior distasteful. It is tantamount to trying the victim for a perpretrator crime.
 
crash676 said:
Genecam,

I understand your strong opinoins regarding the harrassment of the alleged victims. But please keep in mind that people everyone keep calling liars and various other names are children. Both sides are mudslinging and unfortunately there are kids in the middle and both sides of this case should present themselves a professionals.
If this was not a case of reasonable doubt and it was a rape case we would find the behavior distasteful. It is tantamount to trying the victim for a perpretrator crime.
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Some of these "children" are teenagers. And they have been laughing and joking about this situation during breaks in the trial throughout the whole time. One of them even jumped up and clicked her heels after she testified at the sentencing hearing about how this has ruined her life so much -- reading a statement written by the prosecutors, by the way.

If it turns out in the end that nothing ever happened -- something not to be completely discounted given all the reasonable doubt -- then their testimony will be exposed as lies -- thus making them liars.

And it's a known fact that 10 to 15 year old girls lie -- about everything and with no regrets. At that stage in their life, they are so self-absorbed the difference between truth and lies is totally meaningless to them. Ask any long-time elementary school teacher. I bet they'll all agree with this. Girls are much more vicious than boys at that age.

Also, a number of girl gymnasts of the same age testified in support of Michael. They have been called liars, too -- by the judge, by the state's attorney, by the prosecutors, by the mothers of the accusers, and by the accusers themselves -- at school, at gym meets, in stores, on the street, all over. How about some sympathy for them.
 
I don't know much about this case or the families involved BUT I find it hard to believe that 14 kids would get together and decide to send this man to prison. What bothers me even more are the time that kids complained in earlier years....to the owner of the gym who did nothing about it. It was her duty to investigate the complaints even though it was her son who was being
accused.

My grandaughter attended gymnastics for quite a while. She mainly had female coaches....owners of the gym....there was one male who worked with the older more experienced kids. I stayed for every session and watched. I don't ever remember any of the coaches touching any of the kids in places that they shouldn't. Even if the child was falling off a beam.

It's a well known fact that pedo's love to work where there are lots of children....coaches for swimming....baseball....gymnastics, scouts, etc. It is also easy for them to get a little feel here and there while showing a kid how to do a certain thing. It goes on all of the time.

If children have been complaining for years about this man then I would guess there is something to the complaints. Every single child that has complained for years couldn't be making it up.

If this man is innocent then he shouldn't spend time in prison but if he is guilty
he should have to serve every single day that he was sentenced. The jury must have had some reason for believing that he did hurt some of those kids. I find it hard to believe that they settled on 7 kids out of 14 because they didn't want to spend the weekend in hotel rooms. I doubt that they were in cohoots with the Pros, judge, and everyone else. They had a serious job to do and I would hope that they looked at it that way.
 
There have never been any substantiated previous complaints. The allegations of previous complaints were brought up by Terry Ekl, the attorney for the accusers in their civil suit which they are pursuing for money, since they are not satisfied with just seeing him convicted on the criminal charges. The accusers pursued a civil suit for money, first, even before the criminal charges. In fact, they didn't even think about criminal charges until the prosecutors brought it up. So they dropped the civil suit until the criminal trial was over, and then refiled as soon as it was completed.

Terry Ekl is making the allegations of previous complaints in order to try to increase the amount of money they can get in the civil suit. There were no substantiated allegations of previous complaints brought up at the sentencing hearing when the prosecutors dragged in everything they could to get the judge to consider a long sentence. If they had evidence of prior complaints, don't you think they would have brought that up at the sentencing hearing? It would have been a lot more substantial than the charges of riding a moped without a bike flag, or 10-year-old traffic tickets.

As for the jury finding 7 stories believable out of 14 when the 14 were identical -- well, everyone's entitled to their own opinion. It was Friday afternoon, and they were overheard complaining, and you'd be surprised at what kind of compromises go on in jury rooms. There's a lot more going on than just discussing the evidence sometimes. I've heard plenty of stories. Some parts of the system, sadly, are just a big game, with lots of serious consequences. The jury foreman's statement afterwards trying to explain the basis for the verdict was a pathetic, unintelligible, disjointed mess. He works for American Airlines. I'm glad I always fly United.

And I wouldn't believe anything coming out of the DuPage County State's Attorney's office -- they are a bunch of lying scumbags, led by the biggest of all -- Joe Brickhead.
 
crash676 said:
Genecam,

I understand your strong opinoins regarding the harrassment of the alleged victims. But please keep in mind that people everyone keep calling liars and various other names are children. Both sides are mudslinging and unfortunately there are kids in the middle and both sides of this case should present themselves a professionals.
If this was not a case of reasonable doubt and it was a rape case we would find the behavior distasteful. It is tantamount to trying the victim for a perpretrator crime.
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Whenever you see adults slandering and verbally absuing children, especially those who have come forward in a sexual abuse case, it tends to make one view the adults in a less than favorable light. Clearly the jury felt there was weight and substance to the case, or this man would not have been found guilty. And discovery of previous complaints dating back several years and involving totally different children lends even greater weight to the evidence that convicted him. Are we to believe that a vast conspiracy of pre-adolescent girls have been at work for years, in an elaborate cross between a relay race teamm and a witchers' coven, working to fabricate evidence that this man is a pedophile?
 
BillyGoatGruff said:
Are we to believe that a vast conspiracy of pre-adolescent girls have been at work for years, in an elaborate cross between a relay race teamm and a witchers' coven, working to fabricate evidence that this man is a pedophile?
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In answer to your question, I refer you to the following editorial that appeared in the December 31, 2005 edition of the Chicago Tribune, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the McMartin Pre-School case in California. (note: being a registered user of the Tribune website, I have permission to download and reprint this here in its entirety.)

Please read the last paragraph carefully. I don't think the judge, state's attorney, prosecutors, Aurora Police, Illinois DCFS psychologist Dee Fischer or caseworker Casey Woodham learned anything from McMartin. It looks like they used the same flawed techniques the McMartin investigators used 20 years ago, and I think they got the same results. The lies of the children and their parents are all going to come out in the end. There was so much reversible error in this trial that they won't even retry him after his appeal is successful.

Who were the real abusers?


Published December 31, 2005

Molestation of children in hot-air balloons and in secret tunnels beneath a school. Ritual murder of infants and the drinking of their blood. Children forced to ride naked on horses and to watch a former Marine sodomize a dog. Twenty years ago, that was the stuff of children's imaginations, encouraged by grownups who allowed mass hysteria to usurp common sense.

Those allegations and hundreds more were leveled against seven workers of the California-based McMartin Preschool, where more than 100 students were believed to have been abused. That case, one of the first and by far the most sensational of the child molestation cases that swept the nation in the mid-1980s, resulted in one of the longest and costliest trials in U.S. history. It resulted in not a single conviction.

Journalist Debbie Nathan, who co-authored a book about ritual-abuse cases, found that the panic of parents, faulty interviewing techniques by investigators, unreliable medical testing by doctors and overzealousness on the part of police and prosecutors caused profound damage.

"The kids involved in this hysteria have indeed suffered, but not at the hands of their teachers. And the abuses perpetrated against them by the child-protection movement gone mad are every bit as awful as the tyranny of incest," Nathan wrote.

One child, Kyle Zirpolo, now 30, says he lied, and knew he was lying the whole time. The Los Angeles Times recently published Zirpolo's lengthy explanation for his lies and a belated apology for his role, as an 8-year-old, in giving the case momentum and credibility. The McMartin workers "never did anything to me, and I never saw them doing anything," he stated. "I said a lot of things that didn't happen. I lied."

Zirpolo said he would try to imagine the most harmful kinds of acts one could do to a child. "I remember once I said that if you had a cut, instead of putting a Band-Aid on it, the McMartin teachers would put on dirt, then put the Band-Aid over the dirt. That was just something in my head that was bad. I just thought of it and told [the investigators]." Zirpolo said he lied because he was eager to please his parents and investigators, and that's what they seemed to want to hear.

Zirpolo described one moment at age 10 when, through sobs, he confessed to his mother that he had made everything up. She refused to believe him. She clung to those fabrications, Zirpolo said, as a way of neatly explaining away all the dysfunction in their family.

Lessons learned from the McMartin Preschool case and others have changed the way social workers and police investigators do their jobs. They are more wary of leading questions, of pushing kids to "think harder" about whether something bad happened to them, because that might prompt them to make something up. They are more wary of providing rewards for information. There are lessons for parents too. Their influence over children is profound, even when they're not trying.
 
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