An award-winning documentary about a Long Island father and son imprisoned in the late 1980s for sexually abusing dozens of children shows that prosecutors withheld "important facts" that could have led to the younger man's exoneration, his lawyer said Wednesday.
Manhattan attorney Earl Nemser said he intended to file papers in Nassau County Court seeking a new trial for Jesse Friedman, 34, the youngest member of the Great Neck, N.Y., family featured in "Capturing the Friedmans."
The documentary was judged best nonfiction film by the New York Film Critics Circle and has been mentioned as a possible Oscar nominee.
Friedman was 19 when he pleaded guilty to child sex abuse in 1988 after being charged with hundreds of counts alleging he and his father, Arnold, molested children during computer classes in their home.
Jesse Friedman was sentenced to 6 to 18 years and was paroled after 13 years in prison; he is now a registered sex offender who lives in Manhattan. His father, an admitted pedophile who was also convicted of sending child pornography through the mail, died in prison in 1995.
"Had Jesse known at the time about the doubts which the prosecutor knew about, it could have been used in his defense," Nemser said. "He would not have pled guilty and he ... would have had a very, very good chance of being acquitted."
Details here from the AP via Newsday.com. (I haven't seen the film, but I look forward to it.)