Dear Friends, Thank you for your continued support of the effort to exonerate Jesse Friedman. We’re happy to report several key developments as the case moves forward. We Have Been Granted an “Actual Innocence” Hearing We are pleased that the Nassau County DA finally granted Jesse an evidentiary hearing to prove his “actual innocence” of the outrageous charges against him. However we were alarmed to learn that the judge assigned to the case – Nassau County Court Judge Teresa Corrigan – is a former employee of the Nassau County DA’s office and a close associate of ex-DA Kathleen Rice (who has long been our chief opponent in getting Jesse exonerated). In fact, Judge Corrigan is currently a co-defendant alongside Kathleen Rice in a malicious prosecution case, and relying on Nassau County to pay her legal fees. So her interests are especially closely aligned with Rice and Nassau County. Assigned Judge is Forced to Step Down Due to Conflict of Interest We petitioned Judge Corrigan to recuse herself and have the case assigned to a judge without the same conflicts of interest. Not surprisingly, she denied our request. We then approached Professor Bruce Green (one of the country’s most respected experts in judicial ethics, and former chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics) who agreed to evaluate the case, pro-bono. Professor Green drafted a powerful legal opinion recommending that Judge Corrigan step down. After receiving the letter, the Judge reversed her decision and agreed to recuse herself. The case has now been reassigned to Acting Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Terence Murphy, and we are hopeful that he will give Jesse a fair and unbiased review. Nassau County Claims to Have “Lost” Original Case Records In related news, when we approached the DA’s office to ask for detailed information on the charges to which Jesse pled guilty in 1988, they claimed to have “lost” the records of Jesse’s guilty plea. They made the legally incorrect argument that it didn’t matter that they had lost the records because Jesse should have to prove innocence of all of the hundreds of absurd charges in the original indictment, including those of which he was never convicted. It is especially telling that after claiming to have done a three year “exhaustive” review of the case against Jesse, the DA’s office now admits it never even checked the record to learn which charges Jesse had been convicted of. To identify the specific charges, so that Jesse can prepare his case, we have filed a petition with Judge Murphy to order a hearing to reconstruct the records that Nassau County claims do not exist. We suspect that the DA’s office may be able to “find” the lost documents but we are prepared for either outcome. To learn more about the brief filed see the link below: http://www.freejesse.net/images/pdfs/FriedmanMotionToReconstructRecord.pdf New Witnesses Come Forward to Support Jesse We’re thrilled to report that we now have identified a total of 40 eyewitnesses to the Friedman computer classes who support Jesse’s innocence, and state unequivocally that nothing untoward ever happened to them or anyone else. This total includes five of the original complainants who now recant the allegations attributed to them, parents who visited the classes, and many former computer students who were present in the very same classes in which the police alleged abuse had occurred. This may prove to be the most important evidence of Jesse’s innocence. Our Effort to Get Access to the Case Files As you may recall, in August, 2013 Nassau Supreme Court Judge, F. Dana Winslow, ordered the Nassau DA’s office to turn over “every piece of paper” in their files dating back 27 years. However, the DA’s office refused to honor the Judge’s order, and instead appealed the decision to the New York State Appellate Court for the Second Department. If the appeals court chooses to uphold Judge Winslow’s decision, it is likely we will soon have access to the files the DA has kept hidden for three decades. On February 9, The New York Times wrote an editorial supporting our effort: “There is no good reason for Nassau County’s acting district attorney, Madeline Singas, to continue to hide the record. If the Nassau County district attorney’s office is so confident of [Friedman’s] guilt, and the legitimacy of its prosecution, what is it afraid of?” So we are hopeful and energized, and hoping that 2015 is the year we finally get access to the secret information used 27 years ago to prosecute Jesse and send him to jail. What You Can Do We appreciate your reading this update and caring about justice for Jesse and others. One thing we can all do is to try to change the culture of justice in Nassau County, fraught with cronyism and secrecy. If you are a democrat living on Long Island please consider voting in the democratic primary election on September 10th. If you have friends or family registered voters in Nassau County please consider encouraging them to go out and vote in the primary as well. The acting DA, Madeline Singas, is the person who led the shoddy and disingenuous “conviction review” of Jesse’s case. We hope you will vote for Michael Scotto, a democrat who has an excellent track record and meaningful experience as a prosecutor in Manhattan. While we can’t know how Mr. Scotto will handle Jesse’s case, we know that he will bring a level of fairness to Nassau County that is sorely needed. The first step in criminal justice reform is electing a DA with integrity. With gratitude, Lisabeth Friedman, and the rest of the pro-bono team working to exonerate Jesse Friedman.