A jury in Oakland County Michigan awarded $3 million to Thal (Tali) and Julian Wendrow of West Bloomfield in a lawsuit against the Oakland County Prosecutor’s office for defamation and violation of civil rights. In 2007 the parents were falsely accused of sexually abusing their autistic and non-verbal daughter, Aislinn. The lawsuit was filed by the Wendrow family against three former prosecutors in response to the false accusations and statements they made while employed by the Oakland County Prosecutor’s office.

What a nightmare the past seven years must have been for the Wendrow family.

The verdict included $1 million for defamatory comments made by former prosecutor David Gorcyca and $2 million against Deborah Carley, a former chief assistant prosecutor, for illegal “seizure.” The latter charge resulted from the removal of thirteen-year-old Ian Wendrow from his classroom and questioning him without the presence of a guardian or attorney. Ian still suffers emotionally as a result of the experience.

For three months the Wendrow family was forcibly separated. Julian Wendrow was locked in a jail cell for eighty days. His wife Tali was placed on a tether. Their two children were taken away from them and placed in foster care facilities.

The Daily Tribune reports what lead to Julian and Tali Wendrow being charged for sexually abusing their autistic and non-verbal daughter.

The supposed accusations were made by Aislinn at school using a controversial and widely discredited technique known as facilitated communication (FC), which requires an aide to guide the arm of the user. Major professional associations, such as the American Psychological Association, have discredited the method, saying the output is unreliable and often fictitious. This premise was proven during a courtroom demonstration where Aislinn was unable to answer simple questions, such as whether she is a boy or a girl, when the facilitator was out of earshot. The defendants, which included former assistant prosecutor Andrea Dean in addition to Gorcyca and Carley, testified they believed the allegations were true and refused to acknowledge that FC was a fallacious means of communication.

I sure hope the aide was fired from her job. How much money is enough to compensate this family for the embarrassment and emotional anguish caused by the incompetence of government employees?

This is not the first lawsuit the Wendrows have won. Previously filed lawsuits against the West Bloomfield Police Department, the Walled Lake Consolidated School District, and the Michigan Department of Human Services (DHS), resulted in wins for the Wendrow family. All of these lawsuits were settled out of court and resulted in settlements of $1.8 million, $1.1 million, and $850,000, respectively. In total the Wendrow’s have been compensated 6.75 million.

That sounds like a fair amount to heal the the wounds inflicted by coercive government entities.

While it’s nice to see the Wendrow family vindicated, the enormous sum of money awarded in the settlements and the lawsuit will all be funded by the taxpayers. What have the taxpayers done to deserve to be on the hook for $6.75 million dollars?

The taxpayers have done nothing wrong. All of the errors were made by individuals that collected government paychecks. You could argue constituents made a mistake allowing such incompetent fools to ascend to power, but that would be a stretch. It will be the taxpayers that will suffer directly and indirectly from the transfer of their tax dollars to the Wendrow family. The government agencies will not feel financial pain, because they’ll either look for new sources of tax revenue or reduce services.

Errors made by government employees are at the root of this case. From the outside looking in it is impossible to determine who should be assigned blame. Should the aide that guided the arm of a mentally disabled child to accuse her father of rape be held chiefly responsible? Or should the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office be assigned equal blame for believing the massively flawed evidence?

Fortunately, the truth was too evident to be ignored and the Wendrow’s have been vindicated. This story could have ended much worse if innocent people had been convicted of a crime they did not commit.

We live in a world that prefers to conduct trials in the media and then follow-up in the court of law as a formality. Due process is viewed as being too cumbersome for the instant gratification society we live in today. The Wendrow family was lucky. They survived and even were compensated for their pain and suffering that was caused by the flawed judicial system.

Check out our past editions of Felony Friday!



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