Posted on 12/18/2001 1:46:31 PM PST by Darkshadow
With a second witness testifying Monday that he was asked to lie by the student Beth Friedman allegedly seduced, the attorney for the former Silver Lakes Middle School teacher rejected the state's request to allow the jury to convict her on lesser charges.
Jonathan Tucker, 21, testified that the boy with whom Friedman is accused of having an 18-month affair asked Tucker in 1996, ``If I pay you, would you testify in court? We're going to try and get some money from my teacher.
``We're gonna say she was bribing me to have sex with her. ... I'm going to say, `I didn't know what I was doing. I was a little boy,' '' Tucker recalled the student -- then his neighbor -- telling him as they drove around Hollywood one evening.
The alleged victim, who was 14 when he met Friedman, asked Tucker to lie under oath that he saw the pair ``kissing, hugging and flirting,'' said Tucker, adding that he refused to lie. Tucker also testified that the boy offered to pay him with money he would get from suing Friedman.
`DAMAGING EVIDENCE'
Tucker contacted Friedman's defense team after seeing the trial on television last week and remembering the conversation.
``I couldn't believe it,'' he said in court. ``That really hit me that this was wrong.''
``I think that's such damaging evidence,'' defense attorney David Bogenschutz said after the court adjourned. ``I thought he was an extremely vital and strong witness. He had the ring of truth.''
Friedman is charged with three counts of felony indecent assault, three counts of felony unlawful sexual activity with a minor and one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
If the jury cannot find her guilty on those charges, prosecutors requested the jury consider the lesser charge of lewd and lascivious behavior, a second-degree misdemeanor. Broward Circuit Judge Stanton Kaplan will decide on the motion.
PROVE THE CHARGES
``We don't want lesser included offenses because she's been sitting here under these charges for three years and it's time for the state to prove them,'' said Bogenschutz.
Tucker was the second witness to say he was asked to lie. Eva Rudnick said in court last week that the student and his mother asked her to change her testimony.
Rudnick, who lived with Friedman during her senior year in high school, testified last week that the teen's mother and neighbor -- both key witnesses in the case -- visited her at work asking her to make statements about the relationship between Friedman and the teen.
``They wanted me to imply things about [the teen] and Beth,'' said Rudnick, even though she said she never saw anything inappropriate between Friedman and the teen, who moved in after Rudnick moved out.
CREDIBILITY FACTOR
Credibility of witnesses has been the major issue in the trial. Among the witnesses whose credibility has been questioned:
Broward Circuit Judge Stanton Kaplan told jurors they should take Honowitz's instructions to Burroughs into account when ``assessing his credibility.''
Under cross-examination, she admitted that she never mentioned seeing the hug between Friedman and the boy in earlier statements.
don't what to think- on the one hand, if she did mess around with a 14 year old, that's pretty bad, even if it was a male, and willing.
on the other hand, he and his mom sound like a pretty rotten wad of maggotry...maybe we should hope they all go on jerry springer, and a giant meteorite screams down out of the sky, killing the teacher, the mom, the kid, the audience, and sparing jerry springer, since he has money and will continue paying taxes throughout his lifetime.
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