The Miami Method —Multiple Accusations Prove Guilt
From 'Child Terror' (Broadcast on SBS television on 3/8/1999,
Produced by Michael Kirk & Rick Young and written by Peter J Boyer & Michael Kirk)

The impact obtained by the popular hysterical fear of paedophilia on an American state justice system that adopted multiple accusations as proof of guilt.

Grant Snowdon
Grant Snowdon was a Miami police officer who was accused by another policeman, a personal enemy, of child abuse. Official investigation revealed only a claim by an eleven year old girl who thought she remembered something that happened when she was four years old. And this proved insufficient to persuade a jury who found the defendant "Not Guilty".

Start Of A Crusade
Following this acquittal, Janet Reno, the chief prosecutor of Miami (1977) , and an avowed advocate for children began a crusade to protect the innocent children and discover a way of prosecuting child molesters that overcame the unreliability of child witnesses. Her approach :

• She built a children's centre alongside the sexual battery unit in the prosecutor's office which she staffed with her "best and brightest".
• The staff hired were not police officers but specialists in "communicating with children", and included Joe and Laurie Braga — who felt that children could be trusted to tell the truth.
• One child's testimony was to be replaced with as many children who could be discovered to make allegations against an accused.
• Every child was to be questioned by the specialists, away from the court room, in relaxed atmosphere of the children's centre.

—later to be christened The Miami Method, was based upon the presumption that the understanding of children is reliable.

The Test Case
Frank Fuster was chosen as the first accused to try out the new approach in court. He was a Cuban immigrant, ex-convict with a record of child molestation and manslaughter. And it was discovered that the multiple child witnesses produced by the child centre were sufficient to convince a jury, and a guilty verdict was recorded.

Grant Snowdon Revisited
This new approach was now applied Grant Snowdon, who the state prosecutor felt had evaded justice. The Snowdon's locality was scoured for children who would make allegations against the policeman, to be sent to the children's centre for processing by the sympathetic Bragas. And this process obtained three witnesses who alleged detailed sexual assault. And as corroborative evidence it was maintained that Gonorrhea and Vaginitis was diagnosed among the witnesses.

The Miami Method Works
Faced with multiple accusers, and the vague medical evidence, a jury convicted Snowdon after one hours deliberation on all 5 charges, which meant 5 life terms making him ineligible for parole until he was 83 years old.

Child Abuse Fever
Child abuse fever now raged in Miami, and one of the monsters discovered abusing the trust of the innocents was a 14-year-old boy. Bobby Fijnje was the son of a retired Dutch diplomat and a voluntary worker in a church nursery. Acting on information received, the police pounced on the teenager and dragged him off for questioning. The police interrogator claimed the accused made a full confession, so the prosecutor's office charged the boy as an adult, thus making a youth who was barely 14 years and 2 months liable to 7 mandatory life sentences.

Media Barrage
The media now became full of rumour and innuendo, labelling the accused as "A Devil In The Church". And suggesting that his parents were involved in an international pornography ring and Satanic Rituals which involved the cooking and eating of a baby.

Accusers Not To Face Accused
Despite the terrible penalty faced by Fijnje the court took the unusual decision to forbid cross-examination of the young witnesses, ruling that the video of the children's evidence produced by the child psychologist Susan Keeley, was adequate for the court's purpose. Bobby was not allowed to confront his accusers, which was a clear break with tradition and a denial of justice.

Deal Offered
To add more pressure on the accused the state prosecutor offered a milder sentence should he save the court's time by pleading guilty. A penalty less than the possible massive jail term which would destroy the life of the boy. Though after some soul searching and supported by his parents, the state's offer was rejected.

Doubt On Confession
As the trial proceeded doubt was immediately thrown upon the alleged confession.

• The boy was a diabetic who needed a regular supply of food and medicine to maintain his equilibrium, and this was not supplied during the long hours of interrogation.
• Martines, the officer in charge of the interrogation who had only been a detective for 6 months, denied the lack of food , medication and the length of the interrogation, constituted duress.
• Despite being required to have his parents present, the confession was elicited when both parents were absent from the room.
• When the parents returned Fijnje immediately denied the validity of the confession, saying he only said it to end the ordeal of the interrogation.
• There was no official record of interview.

Doubt On Child Testimony
The parents of the accused hired their own child therapists who pointed out that

• The video taped evidence by the children was a rehearsed performance, directed by the demands of the prosecuting therapists.
• The transcripts of the sessions where the children were questioned revealed a strong probability that the children were merely saying what their questioners wanted to hear.
• Dr Stephen Ceci, a psychology professor from Cornel University, who acted as the unpaid go-between when the state made its plea bargain offer, made it clear that children:
  • Will always try to say what they think the adult wants to hear
  • When given two optional answers , they will invariably select the second, which made it inane to ask a child if something naughty had happened in the toilet or the shower.

Verdict Delayed Until Janet Reno In Court
After 13 weeks of trial when the jury had retired and finally reached its verdict, without explanation, the judge insisted that their decision be delivered only after the arrival of the State Attorney — Janet Reno. In response to the seven times the judge asked the jury for their verdict on each charge, the jury returned "Not Guilty".

Outcome Of The Case

• The state abandoned The Miami Method of multiple victims in child sex cases.
• Janet Reno became attorney general for the Clinton administration. And in this office she authorised the fatal attack upon the Waco complex, after her advisers claimed children were being abused.
• The Grant Snowdon case was appealed by Robert Rosenthal on the basis that the Miami method was a breach of the constitution and there was no case to answer.
  • Vaginitis test used by prosecution was invalid
  • A second test for Gonorrhea in the alleged infected child proved negative, suggesting the first test was unreliable.
  • The prosecution's test results were destroyed before the trial.
  • The testimony induced from the children by Laurie Braga (who made a career out of eliciting allegations of abuse from children.) was described as problematical and meaningless by Dr. Ceci. In 66 pages of evidence gathered by Braga, the first 33 pages contained repeated denials that anything illegal had occurred, and this only changed following the suggestion of the adult questioner.

—And Snowdon walked free on February, 1998, after 12 years in gaol.