Brian Dickerson: How judicial cowardice prolonged a travesty

[Bozita]

Brian Dickerson: How judicial cowardice prolonged a travesty
7:45 PM, Jun. 18, 2011
BY BRIAN DICKERSON
DETROIT FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

The only thing scarier than watching police and prosecutors run roughshod over innocent people is watching judges look the other way while they do it.

-snip-

Now exonerated, the Wendrows have sued nearly everyone who played a part in making that train go. The musty legal doctrine of governmental immunity protects many of the principals from civil liability, but most will ultimately be required to answer in some way for their participation in the Wendrows' persecution.

Insurers for West Bloomfield Township, whose police officers arrested the Wendrows and subjected their teenage son to a marathon interrogation of shocking cruelty, already have agreed to pay the Wendrows $1.8 million in damages.

Among the few principals likely to evade any accountability are two judges who declined to rein in prosecutors even after it became clear that their case against the Wendrows was fictional. I write today to highlight the role those judges played in perpetuating the Wendrow family's ordeal.

The allegation that Julian Wendrow had sexually assaulted his autistic teenage daughter repeatedly while his wife ignored the daughter's pleas for help was founded entirely on a brief account that the girl, who has never been able to speak or write a single word on her own, had allegedly provided via a controversial method known as facilitated communication. (Prosecutors initially maintained the girl's allegations were supported by physical evidence of an assault, but that assertion, like so many others, turned out to be a lie.)

-snip-

more...
http://www.freep.com/article/20110619/COL04/106190447/Brian-Dickerson-How-judicial-cowardice-prolonged-travesty?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE