Im only doin good when im havin fun an i dont have to please no one an i dont give a damn bout my Bad Reputation oh no no no no no not me me me me me oh no no no no no not me me me me me i dont give a damn bout my reputation ive never been afraid of any deviation an i dont really care if ya think im strange i aint gonna change an im never gonna care bout my Bad Reputation oh no no no no no not me me me me me oh no no no no no not me me me me me pedal boys an i dont give a damn bout tonight on nightline, recapturing the freedmans, this is 19yearold Jesse Freedman on his way to prison, we investigate, stunning new evidence that might clear his name. Crime and punishment, tonight we go back to what prosecutors say is the scene of the crime. 25 years in the making, and one phone call that could change everything. Nightline is there. Is Jesse Friedman guilty or wrongly convicted . It could happen to you, everybody has dreamed about winning the lottery and it happens to them. We have a new millionaire on feed frenzy. Keep it right here, america, nightline is back in just 60 good evening, thank you for joining us, tonight, we explore a powerful case of crime and punishment, still being hotly debated 25 years after the fact. Arnold friedman and his son, jesse, both pled guilty to a series of horrible sexual crimes. The victims . Young boys. Millions of americans debated the case and in the years since, new evidence has come to light including evidence from an appellate court, wondering if justice was really done. With witnesses recanting, we recapture the friedmans. What is todays date . Today is the date before i went to jail. Reporter this is Jesse Friedman in a home video, 25 years ago, he is 19 and about to go to prison for a series of terrible crimes. Hundreds of counts of molesting young boys in great neck, long island. A teacher in long island is charged with sodomizing young boys who were his students. Did you ever do it . No. Reporter he may be denying it on his way to prison, but he pled guilty, along with his son. He went to prison for 13 years. And this is Jesse Friedman today, weve taken him back to his childhood home. When was the last time you were on this street . 25 and a half years ago. Reporter the prosecutors call it the scene of the crime. But he is determined to prove them wrong. Armed with a stunning u. S. Court of appeals rulings, saying there was a reasonable likelihood that Jesse Friedman was wrongly convicted. And shocking new evidence, child witnesses now all grown up who say it never happened. I just consciously decided to lie. I can tell you as god is my witness, and on my two childrens lives, i was never raped or sodomized. They said it just in order to get them off your back. Reporter how could you possibly plead guilty to these crimes if you didnt do it . If you have never been in the position that i was in, then you dont fully understand. Reporter few have ever been in the position that Jesse Friedman found himself in 1987, his father, Arnold Friedman taught an afterschool Computer Class at his home. Jesse was his assistant. Authorities discovered that arnold was purchasing child pornography through the mail. This is a list of magazines found behind the piano. Young boys and sodomy, incest case histories. Something called chicken pickens magazine. And in addition to that, we found evidence of Computer Classes being taught there by mr. Friedman. And i remember walking in there and saying, god, we could have a problem here. Reporter police launched an investigation. Questioning the boys in the classes. One by one, dozens of boys said arnold and sometimes jesse gave them porn video games. One game was described by a former student. Yeah, we talked. I remember about that. It is kind of like twister, where we would have to sit down our [ bleep ] would be in the air, arnold and jesse would leap from one person to another. Sticking their [ bleep ] each in their [ bleep ]. As we conducted more interviews of the children, jesses name popped up. Later we were able to understand that jesses role was not one of helping his dad conduct the Computer Class, but basically abusing the children himself. Reporter five months into the investigation, Arnold Friedman pled guilty. One count, in full satisfaction of this indictment . Yes. Reporter not only that, he confided to his wife he had abused boys in the past. We were sitting in the therapy office, and he said oh, i just molested two boys. I said two . I thought you said only one. Reporter all of which made Jesse Friedmans case more complicated. How could he be innocent if the cases took place right in front of him . The community was up in arms, captured in front of the courthouse. And ultimately, a year after the investigation began, jesse, too, pled guilty. So we were determined to question, why would he have pled guilty if he didnt do it . I was 18 years old. And i was the only person standing up and saying these things never happened. My lawyers position was, basically, it doesnt really matter if youre innocent or guilty. There is no way you can win this trial. And he was right. The game was rigged. The fix was in. Reporter if the story seems familiar it may be because it was told in an oscarnominated documentary back in 2003, capturing the friedmans. Theyre going to put me in the movies. Reporter the film director said he couldnt get the friedman story out of his head. For the past ten years as he dug deeper he began to have more and more doubts as to whether justice had been served. People who were part of those Computer Classes came forward and said nothing ever happened in these classes. Pt classes were mass raping sessions, it is impossible that it took place in front of dozens of dozens of witnesses. Reporter you were convinced he was not guilty, completely railroaded into this conviction. I am persuaded of this. Reporter he says this was a time when other sensation allegations of child abuse like the infamous mcmartin daycare case would turn out to be unfounded. This case occurred at a time when the country was consumed with a real mass reporter they believe they were swept up in the wave, pushing thing to say things that were not true. He went back to some of the boys, now adults. Hear what five of them had to say. I knew nothing had happened. I wanted to be done with it. I was so tired of rehashing it. If i said it. It was not because it happened, it was because someone put those words in my mouth. They were asking me questions, i just wanted to give them something. They asked did he ever come into full contact with you . I think i probably told them that i did. I told myself that it was not true. It was a nightmare, it never ended. I still wake up in cold sweats from it. Reporter three years ago, with the urging of the appellate court, the District Attorneys Office began a review of the case, on the edge of completion. This is jail time behind him. You may have wondered why jesse cares so much about clearing his name. He says it is partly because of this woman. His wife, elizabeth. It is hard for us to make new friends because there is always a sort of third date moment, where you have to say this is my deal, this is who we are, this is what we are dealing with. Reporter they have been married six years. Do you like it . Well, that is what is important. Reporter what they do want is children. But as a convicted sex offender, jesse cannot be within 2500 feet of a child. I dont know if im going to get to have babies. I dont know what is going to happen. Reporter would you like to have babies . I would like to have a family. I would like to have things be normal. But i have accepted that this may go on so long that i may not be able to have my own children. Reporter as we ended this interview today, Jesse Friedman has been told that the District Attorneys report may have been released any moment. Here i am again, finally at plead place where i am really certain that i am going to be declared innocent. Yaah reporter but what is the truth . Jes Jesse Friedman, is he guilty or the victim of a terrible injustice, suffering for his fathers sins. When we come back, finally the moment that jesse has waited for so long. The prosecutors report comes out. En get through the day. So i was honest with my doctor. I told her id been feeling stuck for a long time. She said that for some people, an antidepressant alone only helps so much and suggested we add Abilify Aripiprazole . She said that by taking both, some people had symptom improvement as early as 1 to 2 weeks. I wish id talked to my doctor sooner. [ female announcer ] abilify is not for everyone. 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[ female announcer ] ask your doctor about a free trial of abilify could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Yep, Everybody Knows that. Well, did you know some owls arent that wise . Dont forget im having brunch with meghan tomorrow. Who . Meghan, my coworker. Who . Seriously . Youve met her like three times. Who . sighs geico. Fifteen minutes could save you. Well, you know. Three years after the u. S. Court of appeals urged the Nassau County District Attorney to reexamine the conviction, it looks as if the District Attorney is about to reveal the findings. Friedman believes he will finally be exonerated. And on the day he gets his call, we go back to his family home, the place where Police Believe was the scene of the crime. When was the last time you were on this street . Twentyfive and a half years ago, the morning i left the house to go to court and plead guilty. My life is as good as over. Reporter Jesse Friedman spent 14 years in prison for sexually abusing young boys. Although he pled guilty at the time, he says it was not true. We have asked him back to what prosecutors say is the scene of the crime. The house he grew up in. It looks smaller than i remember it. Reporter it does . Yeah, it feels really small. Reporter is this the room . This is the room. Reporter we were eager to see if the room seemed large enough for the kind of sex games police and prosecutors say took place here. They would have been three table tables. Reporter you were packed in here. Here, the chairs would have been backtoback. Reporter although there is a bathroom and a small bedroom, just where the classroom used to be, where many of the students say much of the abuse occurred. Although jesse said nothing inappropriate happened here. How does it feel, jesse . I mean, this room has defined your life in so many ways. This room has been implanted with an idea that never existed. This is new. Reporter she has never been to her husbands childhood home or seen this room. This is where a perfectly happy family was destroyed. For no reason. Reporter but that is certainly not how the nassau d. A. Sees things, the day we visit the house, the longanticipated report commissioned by the d. A. Is released, but instead of the freedom that he sought, the report is a deadly report of his conviction, including a body blow that the director of the film brought forward. Jesse and his wife get the news from his lawyer over the phone. The court does not exonerate jesse. Reporter their hope shattered. A few hours later, jesse and his team get a copy of the 155 page report, which throws out the recantations that were sent to the district coattorney, they we found to be either overstated. Reliable, or unable to be substantiated. Not only that, the report claims new evidence of jesses guilt. The review team discovered signed and sworn statements of three additional boys who gave detailed accounts of sodomy and detailed abuse committed against them by Jesse Friedman. The report also raised questions about Jesse Friedmans state of mind, citing a doctor hired 25 years ago by his own defense lawyer to evaluate him, who noted his personality, narcissism, and inability to distinguish right from wrong. Even more troubling, a statement by his brother who told prosecutors that he knew jesse guilty. He said he is guilty, because arnold told me. None of which shakes the confidence of jesse or his team. A case in point, they say, this recent letter from former accuser kenny doe. He stated that none of the thing s attributed to him, none of the complaints or allegations made by him ever happened. You cant say that this was not a recantation. This is the clearest possible recantation. And what of his brother who said that jesse confessed to him. He is recounting something that allegedly Arnold Friedman, who by all accounts, was crazy, allegedly said to him. That is not inadmissible evidence in any courtroom on this planet. The entire case hinged on the testimony or the supposed statements of mainly 8yearold kids. There was no physical evidence or medical evidence. Reporter he is a best selling author and expert in the area of Child Exploitation and security. He, too, wrote a report on the case. He says he believes the case was fatally tainted by the way the police interviewed the children. When you see the nature of how the interviews were done you begin to understand that you could get an 8yearold kid to admit he killed kennedy. Some of them were visited 15 times by the police. One of them had a sevenhour interview, in adult terms that would be called abuse or torture. Reporter they say the District Attorneys report acknowledges that the police used unprofessional, unfair and cruel tactics in interviewing the child witnesses, including telling the boys they would become homosexual if they didnt say they were abused. Techniques which would not be permitted today. But prosecutors are convinced they sent a guilty man to prison. While Jesse Friedman passionately denies that. It is really difficult when the District Attorney lies. Reporter he says he really wants the day in court he never had. The chance to go to trial and let a jury decide what is justice. I have more fight in me than i ever, ever had before. So game on. Jesse friedmans law filed new material with the new york court yesterday. The Nassau County District Attorney declined our repeated requests for an interview. Well be right back with tonights feed frenzy. And stain it. And stain it. So every day, use crest 3d White Toothpaste to remove up to 90 of surface stains in just 5 days. 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