Up to 3,000 fraudulent child abuse claims in Santa Clara County?

MensNewsDaily.com ^ | December 12, 2008 | Robert Franklin

[RogerFGay]

Last year, Agustin Uribe’s conviction for sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl was overturned by California’s Sixth Court of Appeals. Why? The San Jose Mercury News reports that the hospital at which the girl was examined maintained a videotape of the examination which showed that no abuse had occurred. Read the story here.

Now it develops that the hospital has some 3,000 videotapes of similar examinations in child abuse cases since 1991. As you might expect, defense attorneys in pending and closed cases are seeking access to those tapes.

So far we don’t know what was on the tape in the Uribe case that caused his conviction to be overturned. We also don’t know what, if anything, other tapes will reveal, but we should know soon. One defense attorney has already brought up the specter of the McMartin Pre-School case in which blatant fraud was used to accuse teachers of the most bizarre acts of child sexual and physical abuse. The methods used in that case to elicit false allegations from very young children have become the standard for what not to do in determining whether a child has been abused.

The Mercury News article suggests that Mary Ritter, coordinator of the Center for Child Protection at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center may be at the center of this controversy. An expert witness in a second case has said that his review of the videotape "clearly contradicts Mary Ritter's conclusion" that sexual abuse occurred.

These videotapes have the potential to overturn a great number of abuse convictions. That’s important enough, but they also may open a window on the ways the children in those cases are treated by authorities. Were they allowed to tell their stories honestly or were they manipulated into telling falsehoods by adults bent on the incarceration at all costs of the accused who are mostly men?

Stay tuned and find out.

Thanks to Kevin, a reader, for sending it.

[Clint Williams]

But we hear from all sorts of FReepers that there are no wrongful convictions, that child molesters repeat over and over, and that every single one of them should be shot.

The last might be merciful.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Great!

Now we’ll have a field day for abusers.

If there is no middle ground between "guilty even if proven innocent" and hyperskepticism of legitimate child abuse charges, it's likely that we will have both of those outcomes.

[seemoAR]

Great! Now maybe some innocent people might not lose their children and be put into prison. My ex-wife tried the child abuse gig with me. I was extremely lucky, was never without a chaperone after our break up. It really put a strain on visitation with my kids.

[starlifter]

Spoken like a true CPS supervisor.

[starlifter]

Except for that guy in Houston who was sprung this week, and the McMCartin pre-school people. They were ALL convicted in court and should have be executed. Even though years later they were exonerated.

[nmh]

I might not have been clear.

What I see these kinds of groups focus on are kids who are NOT being abused. The ones that ARE abused are ignored or neglected. Seeing this, I sadly assume that kids being abused will continue to be ABUSED and IGNORED EVEN MORE since the tendency has been to EXCUSE ABUSE for the ABUSED.

Oh help! Liberal logic is hard to explain. I get a freaking headache!

To those of you who have had trumped of abuse due to a divorce, in no way do I aim my arrow at you. I am heart-fully sorry that you were wrongly accused. So accept my apology if you misunderstood me.

[nmh]

“Mayhap the liberal weenie case workers are afraid of the real abuse perpetrators and prefer to terrorize those parents who would not ever consider violence against the system?”

Thank you!

That better explains my remarks.

I think they LIKE it when kids are legitimately abused and WHY they ignore and neglect them. I believe they DO want to TERRORIZE families when there is NO abuse.

Sometimes, I truly struggle to explain LIBERALS.

[seemoAR]

Also, The case workers have to “find” or manufacture child abuse cases or lose their jobs. There is nothing like a little job security. ;0)

[RobRoy]

Anybody remember the imaginary “sex rings” in Wenatchee, WA.?

http://www.religioustolerance.org/wenatche.htm

Google: http://www.google.com/search?q=WENATCHEE+CHILD+ABUSE&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Quotations:
-— “Wenatchee may be the worst example ever of mental health services being abused by a state, its social workers and hired therapists, to control and manage children who have been frightened and coerced into falsely accusing their parents and neighbors of the most heinous of crimes.” Dr. Phillip Esplin, a forensic psychologist and senior research consultant with the National Institute of Health’s Child Witness Project.

-—”The ghost won’t lie still: Ten years after first arrest, ‘sex-ring’ episode still haunts the community” Headline of a newspaper article written by Martin Salazar on 2004-APR-11.

-—”It began with the cry of a young girl and escalated into the victimization of dozens of citizens for allegedly committing horrific sex crimes against children. Soon families were broken up, adults were accused of heinous crimes and were prosecuted, without anyone questioning the methods of the so-called experts. Now, an independent attorney, who spent a year in Wenatchee, pieces together the story of one of the most blatant cases of misuse of power and miscarried justice since the McCarthy witch-hunts.” Review of the book “Witch Hunt” which chronicles the Wenatchee disaster.