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Elizabeth
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June 2003

Question for Jesse	Sun, 29 June 2003 01:33

Hi Jesse, I saw the 7:30pm show tonight at the Chelsea Clearview and got to talk to Andrew and briefly say hello to you and take one of your cards. My question is this: were there any girls in these computer classes? The film only mentions boys and I thought it would be odd that there were no girls enrolled. Was this the case, and if so, why? Liz [Report message to a moderator]

Anonymous User

Re: Question for Jesse	Sun, 29 June 2003 11:25

I wondered the same thing. Also, what was the nature of the day care that your mom was running upstairs? Were those kids questioned? And were your father's piano students (who i understand didn't come forward during the whole ordeal) ever formally questioned either? If not, was it just because they didn't appear on a printed list? All of the police work just seems so pitifully onesided -- like once they had an idea in their heads, they were just going to keep going no matter what. [Report message to a moderator]

Jesse
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June 2003

Mom's daycare center	Thu, 03 July 2003 10:17

Mom had a "playgroup" day care center for toddlers in the same room as where the computer classes were run -- the large family room on the ground floor of our house. One of the main reasons for my father to "hire" me to help with the classes was because I had to come home three days a week to put away all the toddler stuff, take all the computers off the storage shelves, set up tables, and chairs, plug everything together, run extension cords and such. Then after the computer classes I had to put everything away again so Mom had the room clear for the playgroup in the morning. Newsday reported on November 13th 1987 -- a week and a half before my father and I were arrested that the police were "investigating an illegal day care center" at the house and my father in a pornography investigation. That article made absolutely no mention of any sexual abuse allegations. I do not know how many, if any, of my mothers toddlers were questioned. [Report message to a moderator]

Jesse
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June 2003

Girls in computer classes	Thu, 03 July 2003 10:41

There were some girls in the computer classes, but few. In 1986 computers were still a guy kind-of-thing. Girls were being sent to after-school activities such as violin lesions, ballet and ice skating. Boys had soccer, karate, and in some cases, computer classes. Not one person who ever took private piano lessons from my father came forward to report inappropriate actions on the part of my father even after our highly publicized arrest. Not even one person from the computer classes approached the police about abuse unless the police first approached them. The only people who have ever claimed to have been victimized are those who the police actively approached and then interviewed repeatedly. I was told that the local elementary schools made announcements over the P.A. system to the effect of, “If there are any students were in Arnold Friedman’s computer classes and want to talk about the experience please come to the Guidance Office.” There was a community meeting held at Temple Beth El where Galasso talked (as did the therapists who had some of the “victims” in treatment) and told the crowd that anyone who had even causal passing contact with Mr. Friedman should be consider by his parents to being a victim of Mr. Friedman and should be put in therapy. [Report message to a moderator]

Elizabeth
Junior Member

Posts: 2
Location:
NYC
Registered:
June 2003

Re: Girls in computer classes	Thu, 03 July 2003 10:50

OH GOD. I soooo hope you sue the Nassau County police department for millions and never have to work one day in your life. [Report message to a moderator]

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Current Time: Sun Dec 19 04:44:50 EST 2004

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I don't long to be free," Jesse said in the prison interview. "I don't miss my old life."

Ross Goldstein, who was indicted on 118 counts of various sexual abuses, cooperated with authorities and implicated Jesse Friedman before a grand jury. He pleaded guilty March 22 to three counts of first-degree sodomy and one count of using a child in a sexual performance. He was sentenced May 3 to two to six years in prison.

Mrs. Friedman pleaded guilty to attempted assault, second degree, and obstructing governmental administration. She was sentenced Oct. 20, 1988, to three years probation and a $1,000 fine.

Two additional suspects - teens referred to by the children and named by Goldstein - remain at large. The children were unable to identify the two positively in police line-ups

Posted by The John and Ken Show @ 2:56 pm

As the Laci Peterson case unfolds with tales of possible satanic cult involvement, there is probably no better time than now for this movie to be released. You may not remember the case of Arnold and Jesse Friedman as it came from the East Coast and followed on the heels of the crazy story out here involving the McMartin Day Care Center.

Back in 1988, Arnold Friedman, a former high school teacher and later an after school computer instructor, was charged with the physical and sexual abuse of a number of his students. Also charged was Arnold’s then eighteen year-old son, Jesse. All the alleged victims were boys, most of them around ten years old.

Let’s get right to the extraordinary thing about this movie – access. Not only are interviews conducted with all of the major participants today (except Arnold), but woven into this fascinating “documentary” is archival footage of the story from the late ‘80’s as it unfolded on local television. Yet even better is something I’ve never seen in a movie like this (actually, I’ve never seen a movie like this before) and that is “home movies” taken by the family back when the charges were filed.

Doing most of the talking in this movie is David Friedman, the oldest son. Believe it or not, his job today is as a children’s party clown. He seems to believe in his father and brother’s innocence, but that isn’t always clear because the guy is just so weird. Loud and dramatic and annoying, he comes off as a phony. That earnest look, that melodramatic pause in just the right place tells me he’s acting. But in his defense, his behavior is consistent both then and now – he even put underwear on his head as his father was being arrested. He also recorded himself back in 1988 and demonstrated the same strange behavior. How was he to know this would all end up in a movie

. Where to start – she’s the only one who isn’t so sure old Arnie didn’t molest those kids and her sons hate her for that. She’s cold, shrugs a lot, and is close to no one in this family. And, for a while there, you might take Mom’s side. After all, it’s pretty clear the guy did possess child porn. So why not believe the charges?

Because there is no evidence other than the porn and the boys testimony. The lingering question is “how could so much have been done to them during those computer classes and not one let on until the police came knocking on their doors over Arnie’s child porn collection?” Two “victims” (anonymously) agreed to be interviewed – you can draw your own conclusions but they are pretty weird too. We also hear from two other guys who say they were not molested plus the father of another kid who also believes nothing went on.

It’s clear Arnold Friedman deserved some kind of jail time and he got it. But the movie takes a shocking twist when it comes to Jesse Friedman’s case. I won’t spoil it- let me just say I had to tell myself this really happened and these are not actors. I couldn’t believe what I heard! It makes for a sloppy ending, but who cares?

“Capturing The Friedmans” puts junk like “The Osbournes” and “Jerry Springer” to shame. It was put together in top- notch fashion. In the end, you must be the jury because nothing is all that clear. I reconciled it this way – they were a strange family which got just about what it deserved. And now David Friedman the clown is hoping none of his clients finds out about his family history. Right – so go make a movie about it then. That will surely bury it. It doesn’t get any wilder or stranger than this and that’s why I go to the movies. I give “Capturing The Friedmans” a “10.0” on the scale. When’s the next installment?

You have to wonder, first, if you have any right to be watching. Early on, a younger and leaner David sits on his bed and addresses the camera: This video is for him and him alone, he says, and if you're not him, and especially if you're the police, "Fuck you." And even though David presumably turned the tape over to Jarecki, he clearly never thought that the resulting feature would turn up at his local multiplex.