OT: Parents Cleared In Sex Case File Suit

[Guest guest]

This, IMO is one of the more egregious abuses of power under color of

law, and under the guise of protecting the children, and it also

illustrates the toxic nature of Facilitated Communication.

-Lenny

Parents Cleared In Sex Case File Suit

Our autistic kids suffered, they say

By L.L. Brasier, Detroit Free Press http://tinyurl.com/3lbwm8

Thal Wendrow was at her mother's home when the police came to

get her. Four West Bloomfield patrol cars pulled up to the curb. Her

husband, n, at their home a few blocks away, also was being

arrested that day last December, the couple, who had no criminal

history, suddenly faced decades in prison. He was charged with

repeatedly raping their 15-year-old, severely autistic daughter, and

she was charged with child abuse for failure to stop it.

Thus began a four-month ordeal, a prosecution based solely on

statements their mute child reportedly made while using a widely

discredited method called " facilitated communication, " in which

messages are typed on a keyboard with the help of an aide called a

facilitator.

Thursday, the Wendrows, who saw all charges against them dropped

in March, filed a lawsuit in Oakland County Circuit Court, alleging 38

counts of wrongful imprisonment, invasion of privacy, violation of

their due-process rights, malicious prosecution and other misdeeds.

Lawsuits on behalf of their daughter and her 13-year-old brother, who

was repeatedly interrogated by police, are expected to be filed today.

They are seeking unspecified damages.

'It doesn't get much worse'

" It was as if our lives were pristine, and then this tornado

tore through and devastated everything, " Thal Wendrow told the Free

Press on Thursday at the Bloomfield Hills office of her attorney,

Deborah Gordon.

n Wendrow, who spent 80 days in jail without bond before

prosecutors dropped the case, is furious.

" My son was emotionally raped by the state, and my daughter was

clinically and emotionally raped by the state. I felt so helpless, " he

said. " You're supposed to protect your children, and these malevolent

no-gooders kept me from them. "

Gordon called the case " horrific. "

" It doesn't get much worse. They literally broke up a family, "

Gordon said. " These people are out of control. We're hoping this

lawsuit stops this insanity. "

Oakland County Prosecutor Gorcyca and his chief assistant,

Deborah Carley, named in the suit, did not comment Thursday. Assistant

Prosecutor Dean, who handled the case, also is named in the

suit, along with the West Bloomfield Police Department and ph

Brousseau, the detective who interrogated the couple's son.

Lt. Carl Fuhs, the department spokesman, who is also named in

the suit, did not respond to a call for comment.

The Walled Lake school district and several employees also are

named in the suit because the girl reportedly made the statements in a

classroom, with the help of a paraprofessional who was guiding her

hands. A school spokesperson said Thursday that the district had not

seen the suit and would have no comment.

Also named as defendants are the Oakland County Sheriff's Office

and the state Department of Human Services.

Facilitator hopes go wrong

The Wendrows were living a seemingly simple life in December

2007. n Wendrow owned his own painting company. Thal Wendrow

worked as a research clerk for Oakland County Circuit Court. They were

active at their synagogue and involved in their children's schooling.

Both children had been diagnosed with autism. But their daughter

was, by far, the more impaired, with a low IQ and an inability to

speak. Their son, two years younger, was diagnosed with Asperger's

syndrome, a milder form of autism.

Although facilitated communication had been widely discredited

by major universities and researchers, the Wendrows were hopeful it

would help their daughter and insisted that Walled Lake schools train

a paraprofessional to become a facilitator.

In November, the girl reportedly typed a statement accusing her

father of raping her since she was 6, and claiming that her mother

knew of the assaults but did not stop them.

A physical exam showed the girl's hymen was intact. But

prosecutors pushed forward with the case.

Fallout changes family Within days, the girl was placed in a

foster care home in Detroit, and the boy in a Pontiac facility for

delinquent minors, even though he had no history of trouble.

Thal Wendrow was released on a tether after five days in the

Oakland County jail, but n remained for weeks.

When the couple's daughter was unable to answer questions on a

keyboard in March during a courtroom demonstration to determine

whether the alleged facilitated statement would be admissible in

trial, prosecutors decided to drop the charges.

The girl, now back in school, shows signs of anxiety much of the

time, her mother said. And the boy is struggling with his studies and

prone to tears.

" This should never have happened, " Gordon said. " The

prosecutors... just couldn't let it go and own up that they'd made a

terrible mistake. "