MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — A man who pleaded guilty in a notorious 1980s sex abuse case alleges Long Island prosecutors defamed him to make him look like a “bad guy.”
Jesse Friedman (FREED’-muhn) filed a lawsuit Thursday against Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice and two members of her staff.
Friedman and his father pleaded guilty in 1988 to abusing 13 children at their Great Neck home.
A federal court found a “reasonable probability” Friedman was wrongfully convicted. Rice’s three-year review concluded the case was handled properly.
Friedman’s lawsuit says prosecutors created new allegations against him “seemingly out of whole cloth” during the review.
Rice, who’s now running for Congress, had no immediate comment.
Friedman was released from prison in 2001.
The story was the subject of a 2003 Oscar-nominated documentary, “Capturing the Friedmans.”
