On November 8, 1989, a grand jury indicted Bobby on eight counts of
sexually abusing three girls. At a bond hearing, Prosecutor Abbe Rifkin
claimed the state had evidence that Bobby abused 17 children. He posed
a flight risk, she argued.
The judge denied bond.
CORAL GABLES attorney Thomas Gary had been conducting an independent
investigation for Old Cutler's insurance carrier - the Wisconsin based
Church Mutual Insurance Co. Gary and his team interviewed 600
parishioners and examined every inch of the church building. This was a
busy church, with people passing to and fro all the time. There were
windows between the nursery and crib rooms, allowing a clear view of
what was happening. No one remembered anything that might have led them
to suspect abuse.
At the conclusion of his probe, Gary was convinced he was dealing with
an epidemic of false charges. Many of the allegations were simply not
credible. Some children claimed the Fijnjes had driven them various
places in a red truck. The family didn't own such a vehicle. One
five-year-old boy claimed that he donned his Superman uniform to fly
through a window and rescue his sister from Bobby's clutches.
Meanwhile, Bobby's attorney, Mel Black, got a call from Judith Wilson,
head of an organization called Justice for Sexually Abused Children.
Wilson apparently believed that there was a Satanic cult at work and
that others - most likely the entire Fijnje family - were involved in
an international child pornography ring. Black shook his head in
disbelief.
However, in Giselle Fernandez, a reporter/anchor for the CBS-owned
WCIX-TV, Wilson found someone to broadcast her message. In January, the
two of them visited Tom Myers, who handled pornography cases for the
FBI's Miami office.
The Bureau rarely got involved in a child sex abuse case like Fijnje's
unless asked, and neither the Metro Dade police nor the State
Attorney's office had done so. Although the police had turned up
nothing at the Fijnje home, the two women told Myers that some of the
children claimed they had been photographed or videotaped while engaged
in heinous acts.
The films may have been transported "interstate or internationally,"
and that was within FBI jurisdiction. On January 17, 1990, the Bureau
opened the case and assigned it to Myers.
The media focus on the Fijnjes sharpened. A helicopter with a
searchlight flew over their house at night. In one report on WCIX, an
unidentified father told Fernandez his two sons had been forced to
perform oral sex on Bob Fijnje. Children were saying that Vivian, too,
had played sex games with them.
The Fijnjes were stunned by the dirty rain of unsupported charges now
descending on them. "This is justice gone crazy," Bob thought.
With "sweeps" period approaching, Miami's TV ratings war intensified.
"Sexual abuse, Satanic-like rituals" trumpeted a teaser for a series by
Giselle Fernandez, "Was There a Devil in Our Church?" Fernandez went on
to assert, "Investigators now believe - and parents fear - the number
of alleged victims could be closer to two dozen."
A second bond hearing for Bobby was held in June 1990 before Judge
Gerstein. Bobby's uncle, a retired justice of the Connecticut Supreme
Court, had said he would welcome the boy to his home, and see to it
that he always wore an electronic ankle bracelet that revealed his
whereabouts.
Prosecuter Rifkin opposed bail, calling Bobby "a danger to children."
Judge Gerstein denied bond.
DEFENSE ATTORNEY BLACK had recruited civil attorney Peter Miller to
help find gaps in the prosecution's case. By the summer of 1990, Black
and Miller had compiled a list of 700 people who had been at or near
the places where the alleged incidents had taken place.
Gerstein ordered the defense attorneys to supply him with detailed
summaries of what each individual would say. After they had complied,
prosecutors - the number of assistant state attorneys working on the
case reached two dozen - began taking depositions. The pile of paper
grew higher by the day.
Reno's top aide, John Hogan, supervised the prosecution's case. The
trial team did most of its work in the large conference room adjacent
to her office. Hogan often stopped by to check on their progress and
kept Reno apprised.
After finding no evidence to substantiate the pornography allegations,
the FBI closed its case. The charges being handled by the state
attorney's office, however, would remain.
The children whose allegations were the basis for the criminal charges
had already been questioned repeatedly by parents, police and
therapists who would testify for the state. Nevertheless, Judge
Gerstein refused to allow Black and Miller to cross examine the
children, ruling that it would be too traumatic for them. The defense
attorneys asked if they could hire a therapist to interrogate the
children on closed-circuit TV. Gerstein said no again.
Defense attorneys knew that the prosecutors were going to put
therapists on the stand who would testify that they believed their
patients had been abused. But Gerstein ruled that the opinion of Sylvia
Santos - the caseworker who had examined Debbie Smith and concluded
that no abuse had occurred-was inadmissible because she was not an
expert
Black and Miller feared they'd lost the case before the trial began,
but Bobby remained upbeat. He phoned his parents every night and read
his Bible. It filled him with confidence.
The trial finally began on January 30, 1991. At the last moment, the
charges were reduced to six counts of sexual battery against two girls
and one count of lewd and lascivious assault. Allegations from a third
child - who insisted she had seen a woman turn into a witch and fly -
were dropped.
Prosecutor Rifkin spoke first. "One child after another began to talk
about the devil," she said in her opening statement. "Children
screaming in the night about the Big Bad Wolf. Children being tied up
and put in what they referred to as cages."
The prosecution played the videotaped therapy sessions of the kids.
Keeley and the other therapists explained how they had counseled the
children. Detective Martinez recounted the investigation. Doctors
described signs of abuse. On March 19, after 48 days, the state rested
its case.
Black and Miller couldn't appear to badger the parents, who clearly
believed that their kids had been abused. Still, they had to respond to
a fundamental question: if no abuse had occurred, why did the children
tell such tales?
The attorneys believed that in the parents' justified alarm, fears had
become facts. On the witness stand, Black got some parents to concede
they had shared information. One mother even admitted she had heard a
grisly allegation on TV, asked her daughter if that had ever happened
to her and got confirmation at once.
Black also cross-examined psychologist Keeley. Studying the transcripts
of Keeley's interviews with Debbie, Black believed he saw a pattern.
When the child would say something that couldn't possibly be true,
Keeley would often interject: "Is that real or make-believe?" Keeley
insisted that her questioning had been neutral. But Black argued that
by asking that question, Keeley was signaling Debbie that her account
was not credible; she wanted something more believable.
How often had she used the question? Keeley had no idea.
"Would you be surprised to know it was in excess of 50 times?"
"I wouldn't," Keeley replied.
To Black, it was clear that Keeley had been asking the child leading
questions. He decided to show the jury how. "Do you see the sequence of
asking 'What is this?' by pointing to the vaginal area and then asking,
--- FMail/386 1.0g
(1:2629/124)
---------------