Posted on 08/17/2002 10:15:40 AM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl
Before assuming the office of Attorney General, Janet Reno was District Attorney in Miami's Dade County. During her tenure in office she launched a case to help children she alleged were victims of sexual abuse. She brought in so-called "experts" who tend to use typical brainwashing techniques to convince children they are victims of abuse. In such cases the children typically invent fanciful tales of abuse and in this case the same scenario played itself out.
Reno's victim, however, wasn't some adult pedophile but a young boy who Reno insisted, be tried as an adult. Bobby Fijnje moved to Miami with his family in 1981. His father had been a diplomat for the Dutch government in the Antilles. The family had decided to make the United States their new home. They joined a local church where Bobby helped work in the Sunday School.
On August 28, 1989 the police arrived at the Fijnje home. They were given permission to search the house for evidence against young Bobby. They ripped his room apart looking for pornography but found nothing incriminating. The police took the boy into custody and put him through a long, drawn-out interrogation. For the first two hours the boy's father was allowed to be present but he was then told to leave the room so the police could talk to Bobby alone.
The newsletter Casualties of Sexual Allegations (January 1997) says that young Bobby was an insulin-dependent diabetic who "became ill and unsteady during 7 hours of questioning during which he had almost no food. Promised he could leave if he confessed, he made a sort of confession, but when immediately taken into custody, he reasserted his innocence."
That evening the boy was put into state custody at the Juvenile Detention Center where he was forced to remain for almost two years while Janet Reno engaged in another one of her crusades to help children. Bobby's father explains what happened:
"During Bobby's imprisonment, we twice asked for him to be released on bond, the second time in the care of his aunt and uncle (a retired Connecticut State Supreme Court judge), but this was refused because 'Bobby was a threat to the community' and because it was said that our family would flee the country. Bobby pleaded not guilty, and was tried as an adult on the motion of the Dade County prosecutor's office, headed by Ms. Reno.
"The pre-trial hearings finally began in early August 1990 with Judge Norman Gerstein presiding. Pre-trial hearings lasted until the middle of January 1991, at which time a jury was selected. Before and during the trial, we were repeatedly urged to accept a plea-bargain and warned of the dangers Bobby faced in prison. We were told that he would have AIDS within a week after entering prison. We were told what a horrible time he would have in prison, where the jailers are mere administrators and the prison is actually ruled by the prisoners. But we knew Bobby was innocent, and we refused to accept a plea bargain.
"During the trial, not a single witness ever testified that he or she had seen anything improper. Over 800 members of the church stepped forward and offered to testify on Bobby's behalf. At least 14 motions for mis-trial were filed by Bobby's lawyers, Mr. Mel Black and Mr. Peter Miller. Over 500 sidebar conferences were held in this case, which cost the taxpayers well over $3 million, money that could have been used to feed the poor, improve public health, or shelter the many homeless people who roam the streets of Miami. Instead, this money was spent on the longest trial ever held in Dade County, all in an effort to send an innocent boy to jail for life.
"On the morning of 4 May 1991, the jury advised Judge Gerstein that a verdict had been reached, but we waited an hour and a half for that verdict to be read. Judge Gerstein advised our lawyer that we must wait for Ms. Reno's arrival. She wanted to be present when the verdict was read.
"Bobby was acquitted on all counts.
"During this period, our family had to endure daily attacks and lies in the newspapers and on television. My wife and I were accused of being drug dealers and ringleaders in a child pornography business. Death threats were sent to us and left on our telephone answering machine. In addition to local and county police departments, the FBI was also called in to investigate us. Unmarked police cars cruised through our street, while a police helicopter with a searchlight flew overhead at night. Television reporters knocked on every door and window in the house, but we refused to give interviews because we believed that the media would not truthfully report them.
"Ms. Janet Reno was the Dade County Prosecutor at the time of the investigation and prosecution of our son, and as such she must bear the primary responsibility for what was done to him. Is Ms. Reno the right person to head the United States Justice Department? Is she really a crusader against child abuse? Is she aware the she abused my son by her actions and robbed him of one year, eight months, and one week of his life?"
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal psychologist David Raskin said that Reno's treatment of this child was the "most inhumane and despicable" case he had seen in over twenty years of practice.
Typical of accusations obtained through brain washing, the alleged victims of Bobby Fijnje said that the boy dug up graves. They reported that one woman turned herself into a witch and that Bobby used to dance naked on the roof of the church in full public view—which, of course, no one else noticed. On top of this the boy was accused of eating a new born infant.
When the case was finally over, the Fijnje family decided to leave the United States. Their attorney told them that Janet Reno was not finished with them yet and was looking into further charges against the tormented child. Though they wished to remain in America, the family left fearing that Reno hadn't finished with her child-saving crusades. And they were right. Since then she moved on to Waco and now her attention is focused on young Elian. For years people have laughed at the punch line, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you." When it comes to Janet Reno these words loose their humor and become frightening instead.
Half the time I think that Janet Reno doesn't exist, and couldn't exist, except, perhaps, in the pages of a Stephen King novel.
Jim Peron is a South African journalist who was interviewed by Alberto Mingardi in a recent issue of The Laissez Faire City Times. He has recently finished a book entitled Two Masters: the Conflict Between Christianity and Capitalism. Email: peron@global.co.za.
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from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 4, No 16, April 17, 2000
(Excerpt) Read more at zolatimes.com ...
His gofer, Algore, limped around asylum cemeteries for the various bodyparts.
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