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FRONTLINE 1707 "The Child Terror"
Airdate: October 27, 1998
The Child Terror
Produced by Michael Kirk, Rick Young
Peter J. Boyer, Correspondent
Written by Peter J. Boyer and Michael Kirk
Directed by Michael Kirk
[Tonight's program contains graphic references to child sexual abuse. Viewer discretion is advised.]
NARRATOR: There was a time - in this generation - when this was about the scariest place there was, a place visited by madness. By the early 1980s, day care centers had become essential to the new realities of raising a family. Working parents left their kids in the care of others and hoped for the best. They hoped, and they worried, too.
PARENT: -jumped out of the bed to see what was wrong with him.
NARRATOR: The new realities caused a lot of anxiety.
PARENT: She had a nervousness.
PARENT: Babies don't do things like that.
NARRATOR: And when word spread that some day care centers might be preying grounds for child molesters, panic spread, too.
PARENT: I didn't know what was happening!
PARENT: -that we had to go home. "Let's go home."
PARENT: -tried to spread her legs apart and put his mouth on her vagina.
PARENT: -repeatedly raped by the man-
PARENT: I was stunned.
NARRATOR: The result was a series of sensational trials that had the elements of a crusade-
ATTORNEY: All 27 children were-
ATTORNEY: What did he touch you with?
NARRATOR: -whose righteous goal was justice for the children.
PARENT: -tries to stick toys up her rectum.
TELEVISION REPORTER: -children allegedly molested by one boy while their parents-
NARRATOR: Prosecutions were brought.
TELEVISION REPORTER: He was found guilty on all counts.
TELEVISION REPORTER: That was one of the things that was really on trial here-
NARRATOR: convictions were won.
PARENT: The system worked.
NARRATOR: But more than a decade later, the question lingers.
PARENT: -our own minds, that they're not lying.
PARENT: We believe our children.
PARENT: We know what the truth is.
NARRATOR: Was justice served?
ACCUSED: Just to be accused, you become some sort of a monster and-
ACCUSED: You are sentencing an innocent man.
PARENT: This guy comes out, you know, I'm going to kill him.
JUDGE: Thank you. Please be seated.
PROSECUTOR: Yes, sir.
JUDGE: All right. Is the state ready to proceed?
PROSECUTOR: Yes, we are, Your Honor. The state calls-
NARRATOR: The boy with the stuffed animal is 4 years old. He is a star witness in a criminal trial. He represents something new: an effort to bend the criminal justice system to accommodate a class of citizen who never before had a full say before the bar. In some cases justice could not be served until we decided at last to believe the children. Lord knows, we all thought it sounded like a good idea.
Beginning in the 1980s, crusading prosecutors, therapists and parents gave these children a voice. And on their word, the men and women these children accused were sent to prison, sometimes for life.
In the mid-1980s, there was no place in America more eager to believe the children than here in Miami, a city confronting its worst fear, an outbreak of day care sex abuse cases. It was a prosecutor's nightmare: an overheated press, a fevered community and no easy cure. Making it worse, one of the cases involved a police officer.
TELEVISION REPORTER: Officer Harold Snowden surrendered less than a day-
NARRATOR: Grant Snowden was South Miami's "Officer of the Year."
TELEVISION REPORTER: -issued arrest warrants on three charges of capital rape-
NARRATOR: That he would be arrested and prosecuted only heightened the fear in a community awakening to the threat of child sexual abuse.
TELEVISION REPORTER: -jailed without bond for a psychiatric test, but he won't share a room with other prisoners.
NARRATOR: The Snowden story unfolded one hour south of Miami, in Homestead, where he and his wife lived for 11 years. To help make ends meet, Janice took in the neighbors' children. Grant worked the night shift and was around the house during the day.
Then an ugly accusation: child sexual abuse.
DAVID MARKUS, Former Prosecutor: Grant Snowden was a police officer who abused his trust. Parents trusted him because he was a police officer, and I think people trusted Mrs. Snowden as a baby-sitter, in part, because of who her husband was.
NARRATOR: Snowden's trouble began when another police officer said that his 4-year-old son had been abused at the Snowdens' home. Snowden furiously denied it and claimed it was the result of a personal feud with a fellow cop. But the papers got ahold of the accusation and ran with it.
The excitement caused parents to question their kids about whether anything had ever happened to them over at the Snowdens'. One 11-year-old girl said she remembered something from seven years before.
There was a trial, one accuser testifying she had been molested in Grant Snowden's home.
ATTORNEY: [in court] What did he say to you?
CHILD: He said, "Does it feel good?" And I said "No." And he said, "Yes, it does."
NARRATOR: It was a typical abuse case: no physical evidence, no eyewitnesses, the child abuse equivalent of "He said, she said," easy pickings for a defense attorney.
DEFENSE ATTORNEY: [in court] It's absurd. It's not worthy of belief, Your Honor.
NARRATOR: It took the jury only four hours to reach a verdict.
COURT OFFICER: [in court] -as charged in count one of the information?
JURY FOREMAN: Not guilty.
NARRATOR: Grant Snowden walked, a free if embittered man.
REPORTERS: Harold, what's your reaction? What's your reaction?
NARRATOR: To a disbelieving Miami, a lesson in beating the rap.
JUROR: [news broadcast] The jury had the intelligence to realize that there just wasn't enough here. You can't convict somebody based upon one person saying "He did that to me."
NARRATOR: But Miami's prosecutors thought they learned something, too. Put together enough of the right elements, and maybe they could start winning cases like this.
SNOWDEN FAMILY MEMBER: [to reporters] Leave us alone! You've tortured us for nine months, so leave us alone!
NARRATOR: And the lead prosecutor would show them the way.
JANET RENO: I'm experienced in the operations of the legislature and knowledgeable about-
NARRATOR: Since 1977, Janet Reno had been the chief prosecutor in Miami. She had been an avowed advocate for children. No one was more frustrated when an accused abuser walked free.
JANET RENO: -for the children and for their family has been a nightmare.
DAVID MARKUS: Janet Reno saw this problem and she did something about it. She changed how these cases were prosecuted.
NARRATOR: And the citizens of Miami were eager for Reno's crusade.
JANET RENO: -where you have eight school-age children, it's simply not fair for them-
NARRATOR: Reno literally brought the crusade into the prosecutor's office. She built a children's center alongside the sexual battery unit, staffed with her best and brightest, including David Markus.
DAVID MARKUS: This unit was certainly one of the first where the state attorney's office would minimize the numbers of times that children were being interviewed, because it's very traumatic for a young child to be interviewed about a sexual battery.
NARRATOR: It was "kid-friendly" law enforcement: no gruff cops, no stiff prosecutors. In their place, specialists with a rare gift for communicating with kids, Joe and Laurie Braga.
DAVID MARKUS: Joseph and Laurie Braga, they were very opinionated. They have an unconventional appearance. They are very passionate in their belief. I think they sincerely believed that what they were doing they were doing, they were doing because it's the right thing to do.
NARRATOR: With the Bragas, revealing dark and disturbing secrets almost seemed like play.
CHILD: [therapy session videotape] Then I would bite on it, and he peed in my mouth. That's what Frank did.
JOSEPH BRAGA: Okay.
NARRATOR: The Bragas could turn kid talk into testimony. They became the Pied Pipers of child abuse in Miami.
CHILD: [therapy session videotape] I know. My Dad did something what he's not supposed to do.
DAVID MARKUS: She would sit down and tell the child that she was a "yucky secrets doctor"-
LAURIE BRAGA: [therapy session videotape] Well, I'm a yucky secrets doctor.
DAVID MARKUS: -that you could tell her things, and that they were safe to do so in that room.
CHILD: [therapy session videotape] He touched me in the buns.
LAURIE BRAGA: Huh?
CHILD: He touched me in the buns.
NARRATOR: Now prosecutors had a winning weapon, multiple witnesses, and it was all on videotape.
CHILD: [therapy session videotape] He licked it.
CHILD: He licked it with his mouth.
LAURIE BRAGA: He licked it with his mouth?
DAVID MARKUS: At their insistence, these interviews were videotaped because they wanted, and we wanted, there to be a record of the interviews with the children so that that could be presented to the jury.
CHILD: [therapy session videotape] Ileana takes her clothes off.
LAURIE BRAGA: She takes her clothes off?
CHILD: And she stands with her clothes off.
LAURIE BRAGA: And then what-
NARRATOR: As it happened, fate provided the perfect test case. The Miami Herald spoke for the community and called Frank Fuster a monster. He was the perfect villain: a Cuban immigrant ex-con with a record of manslaughter and child molestation. Prosecutors applied the Miami method: expert testimony-
LAURIE BRAGA: [in court] -that they did something wrong, and if their parents-
NARRATOR: -physical evidence-
FRANK FUSTER: [in court] Do I really look like that kind of person to you?
NARRATOR: -and the crucial new component, multiple witnesses provided by the Bragas.
PROSECUTOR: [in court] Did Frank ever touch you on your body?
CHILD: On my vagina.
PROSECUTOR: On your vagina? Could you show the judge where that is?
NARRATOR: By the time this trial finished, there was no doubt what was going to happen to Frank Fuster. He was sentenced to 165 years in prison, a resounding triumph for Janet Reno, who was finding an emerging political identity in child advocacy. Her success was noticed by prosecutors around the country.,
DAVID MARKUS: I know that a lot of other state attorney's offices called for our opinion on how to handle these types of cases, and that this methodology is now copied by most prosecutor's offices across the country. [www.pbs.org: More on the "Miami method"]
NARRATOR: In Miami, Reno's prosecutors revisited the one that got away. They headed south to the neighborhood of Officer Grant Snowden. They had scoured the area and found children willing to come forward. They sent them to the Bragas at the sexual battery unit.
LAURIE BRAGA: [therapy session videotape] Can you show me what he did?
CHILD: He put it in his mouth.
LAURIE BRAGA: He did?
DAVID MARKUS: When I read the file, and I was able to see the overall picture - the physical evidence, the interviews done by the Bragas, the progression of disclosure by the victims - I was convinced.
[in court] You will hear testimony in this trial from two other children-
NARRATOR: David Markus was ready to take Grant Snowden to justice.
DAVID MARKUS: Our case consisted primarily of three witnesses and two pieces of physical evidence. We had the main victim in the case and two similar fact witnesses.
[in court] When you went home, did you tell your mother what had happened?
CHILD: No.
DAVID MARKUS: Why not?
CHILD: I was scared.
NARRATOR: Markus says prosecutors found many accusations. They settled for three dramatic and emotional witnesses.
DAVID MARKUS: [in court] Did he touch you on the inside or the outside or both?
CHILD: Both.
INTERVIEWER: Why was it important to have three children?
DAVID MARKUS: Well, that's what we learned from the first case. The jurors didn't believe the one child.
INTERVIEWER: So if you have multiple witnesses-
DAVID MARKUS: It adds to the credibility.
INTERVIEWER: -essentially testifying to the same thing-
DAVID MARKUS: Yes.
NARRATOR: A key feature of the Reno method was to present juries with shocking medical evidence of abuse, an array of afflictions which added the confirmatory authority of science to the prosecution.
DAVID MARKUS: The two similar fact witnesses had symptoms of venereal disease. One had gonorrhea of the throat. One had a disease called Gardnerella vaginitis, which is a disease that is associated with sexually-transmitted diseases.
NARRATOR: The defense took the usual approach: attack the credibility of the accuser. But this time there were three of them.
INTERVIEWER: The jury goes out, and what happens?
DAVID MARKUS: Came back in an hour.
INTERVIEWER: What did that tell you?
COURT OFFICER: [in court] -as charged in count one of the information, guilty.
DAVID MARKUS: It told me they believed the kids.
GRANT SNOWDEN: [in court] I'm standing here now before Your Honor, and I'm telling you again that I am not guilty, and you're fixing to sentence an innocent man.
NARRATOR: The judge, a mother herself, threw the book at Grant Snowden: five life terms, no chance at parole until he was 83 years old.
The sensational cases heightened the child abuse fever raging in Miami, but now at least there was a demonstrated remedy. Worried parents AND therapists and prosecutors joined in an alliance that amounted to a kind of sexual abuse community watch. And they were ready when the next horror story broke.
TELEVISION REPORTER: And the child's graphic description of oral copulation-
TELEVISION REPORTER: -the rest of his life in jail-
TELEVISION REPORTER: -touched her, penetrated her and-
TELEVISION REPORTER: So far, statements have been taken from 700 people.
TELEVISION REPORTER: And I'm Gizelle Fernandez. Coming up next on Channel 6 Action News: Tonight, in part one of my investigation, was there a devil in our church?
TELEVISION REPORTER: Police arrested 14-year-old Bobby Fijnje, a volunteer in the church nursery, and-
NARRATOR: The story of 14-year-old Bobby Fijnje began in an affluent South Miami neighborhood where his father, a Dutch diplomat, had moved the family when he retired. Parents at this church came to believe that Bobby Fijnje, a church baby-sitter, had molested their children while they worshipped in the sanctuary nearby.
Their worst fears were confirmed when they heard the boy had made a full confession.
LOUIS AGUIRRE, Miami News Reporter: Bobby was arrested in his home in his Burger King uniform, and he admitted to accidentally letting his fingers slip into the vagina of one of the little girls. That's what he confessed to.
NARRATOR: Bobby Fijnje was himself just a kid, a boy with a clean record and a good reputation. But he stood accused of victimizing children, and that put him in the way of a community's righteous wrath.
Prosecutors showed him no mercy. They sidestepped juvenile court and charged him directly as an adult, two months past his 14th birthday. A guilty verdict would mean seven mandatory life terms in prison.
LOUIS AGUIRRE: They were going to lock him up and throw away the key. But you can't forget the faces of the little children you saw, also.
NARRATOR: Bobby might have been a child himself, but in the view of the community he wasn't the victim. The victims were the children on the videotapes.
CHILD: [therapy session videotape] I don't like Bobby.
THERAPIST: Did he ever do anything to you that you didn't like?
CHILD: Yes, he did.
LOUIS AGUIRRE: I mean, they never saw the faces. I saw the faces of those little girls. I mean, I took that home with me every night, and that hit me like a dagger in the heart.
TELEVISION REPORTER: The little girl had recurring nightmares of the big, bad wolf. She excessively masturbated-
LOUIS AGUIRRE: To this day, I have no doubt. I am certain that something happened to those kids.
TELEVISION REPORTER: The state attorney's office is thinking about adding three or four more children-
NARRATOR: The media's barrage was unceasing-
TELEVISION REPORTER: The investigation is expanding-
NARRATOR: -a news director's dream.
EXPERT: [television interview] They are conducting a much more widespread investigation.
TELEVISION REPORTER: The list of alleged victims has now grown to 20.
TELEVISION REPORTER: We warn you this is explicit language.
PROSECUTOR: [in court] They talk about fingers being inserted into their genital areas, both vaginas and the anuses-
NARRATOR: In court, prosecutors built their case-
PROSECUTOR: -Bobby's penis-
NARRATOR: -the lurid accusations elicited from children by sympathetic therapists.
TELEVISION REPORTER: At least four toddlers have told therapists of how the teenager played horrible sex games-
NARRATOR: And something new. Bobby Fijnje would not be able to actually face his accusers, or rather the children would not be forced to face him.
TELEVISION REPORTER: The court has ruled that Bobby's right to face his accusers is not as important as the child's right not to face any more trauma.
TELEVISION REPORTER: A psychologist told jurors-
NARRATOR: And there was that new staple of these cases: child abuse experts to bolster the children's testimony.
SUSAN KEELEY, Child Psychologist: [in court] Even though a statement may not be clearly made, especially by a young child, if you have a whole bunch of these things going on, they can be indicators. Children can show in their behavior, not necessarily with their words, that indeed something has happened to them.
NARRATOR: Bobby Fijnje had been in jail for nearly two years awaiting judgment, literally growing up before the jury's eyes. At the climax of the case, its evidence presented, the prosecution explored the prospect of a deal, and they hinted as much to their favorite T.V. news reporter, Louis Aguirre.
LOUIS AGUIRRE: [news broadcast] Well, there almost seemed to be a cloud of secrecy surrounding the Bobby Fijnje sex abuse trial today. Dade state attorney Janet Reno, along with assistant state attorney John Hogan, arrived on the scene, and convened inside the judge's chambers, where they-
INTERVIEWER: Was it significant that Janet Reno showed up, that her top guy, John Hogan, with her?
LOUIS AGUIRRE: Oh, sure it was significant. It was only during those crisis situations that you would ever see her in an actual courtroom. So I knew that there was something heavy going on.
[news broadcast] Now, we do not know what the subject of that meeting was or what it was that they discussed-
NARRATOR: The deal was simple. If Bobby pled guilty, he could go to a psychiatric hospital instead of a maximum-security prison.
LOUIS AGUIRRE: [news broadcast] -but I wouldn't like to speculate-
NARRATOR: Bobby Fijnje's parents didn't trust the deal. The talks broke down.
LOUIS AGUIRRE: [news broadcast] Now, here's where all this gets interesting-
NARRATOR: Behind closed doors, a highly-regarded child behaviorist, his credential acknowledged by both sides, was brought in to mediate.
LOUIS AGUIRRE: [news broadcast] -surprising new developments to-
Dr. STEPHEN CECI, Psychology Prof., Cornell University: I didn't accept a fee. They knew that I wasn't a hired gun. I described the state's offer. Bobby's father was pounding the table. "No son of mine is going to say he did something he didn't do. He can spend the rest of his life in jail rather than admit to that stuff." I remember saying, "Mr. Fijnje, if it were you, fine. But if Bobby were my child, I think I'd tell him to take the state's plea."
LOUIS AGUIRRE: [news broadcast] Bobby Fijnje himself also had a private moment alone with his parents inside an empty courtroom-
BOBBY FIJNJE'S MOTHER: And this is very scary, you know, because there comes a time that you are trying to think about your son, and not about yourself, you know? And at this point, actually, it doesn't matter if he's innocent or guilty. You're just thinking about his life, what's going to happen to him, you know?
STEPHEN CECI: If Bobby were convicted, he would have been on every hardened criminal's dance card within a week. I mean, he was not a very stout 15-year-old. He was a very likable, amiable young man - emphasis on young - not at all hardened by his two years in a juvenile detention facility. And if he were a child of mine, I would not have rolled the dice with his life.
NARRATOR: The Fijnjes considered Ceci's arguments and the state's offer. And in the end, Bobby said no. He would take his chances with a jury.
BOBBY FIJNJE'S FATHER: That's one of the few times I saw Bobby cry. He said, "Dad, how can I plead guilty if I did not do anything?" And that's why- that's the time I told my lawyers, "Forget about it now, and put attention to what you're doing and we go to trial."
LOUIS AGUIRRE: [news broadcast] Again, we've been unable to confirm what all this secrecy, what all this activity means here at the Dade Country courthouse-
NARRATOR: While courtroom reporters awaited the outcome, the fever away from the court raged. Stories about what had happened in that church had spun wildly to ever more bizarre reaches.
REPORTER: Mr. and Mrs. Fijnje? Mr. and Mrs. Fijnje!
NARRATOR: Mr. and Mrs. Fijnje, members of an international porno ring.
TELEVISION REPORTER: Police are investigating allegations of satanic-like rituals-
NARRATOR: Bobby leading the children in a ghastly ritual, cooking and devouring of a baby.
TELEVISION REPORTER: This is what investigators found at Old Cutler's Activity Center: one animal skull and numerous costumes, including a black garment. They found multi-colored candles and a log with holes and wax to support the candles. Bobby Fijnje's attorney refused to talk with us-
NARRATOR: Bobby's lawyers believed he was now the victim of hysteria. They did their best to knock down the most outrageous claims.
PETER MILLER, Defense Attorney: When we did our investigation of what was this all about, the ropes that they seized were from the Boy Scout knot board. They were being used by the Boy Scouts during their Boy Scout training. The candles that they seized were from the Girl Scouts' initiation. And the satanic costumes that they seized were from the Christmas pageants. The skull, by the way, we did have examined. It turned out to be a small animal that was probably hit by a car.
TELEVISION REPORTER: This was a day that defense attorneys had tried to avoid-
NARRATOR: In court, the defense addressed the matter of Bobby's confession.
TELEVISION REPORTER: And Metro-Dade Detective Mark Martinez took the stand.
NARRATOR: It had been a powerful part of the state's case.
Det. MARK MARTINEZ: [in court] He told me that he used to take her to the bathroom. He would pull her panties down and, quote, "My finger slipped in," end quote.
TELEVISION REPORTER: The Metro-Dade sexual battery detective's testimony would be damaging-
NARRATOR: But the story of Bobby's arrest and confession that first day turned out to be more complicated than prosecutors would have had the jury believe.
BOBBY FIJNJE'S FATHER: Bobby was getting ready to go to his job at Burger King. And I went to the door, and I see there are three fellows. And one flashes his badge and says, "We're from the police." I said, "Oh? What do you want?" "We want to talk to Bobby."
BOBBY FIJNJE: I was in the bathroom, brushing my teeth. My mom comes into the room, and she says, "Yeah, there's some people that want to talk to you." I walked into the living room, and there were two or three police officers sitting on the couch.
NARRATOR: Police Detective Martinez took Bobby to a squad car. Bobby says he believes the cop made up his mind right then and there.
BOBBY FIJNJE: He said, "Before I knew you, I knew that you were guilty. But now that I see you, I definitely know you're guilty."
NARRATOR: Martinez and his partner took Bobby down to police headquarters. Bobby's parents were not only stunned, they were genuinely worried about his physical well-being. Bobby had diabetes. He required a strict regimen of meals and medication to maintain his physical and mental equilibrium.
Down at headquarters, Detective Martinez interrogated Bobby for hours without his medicine or a meal.
BOBBY FIJNJE: My emotions were all mixed up. Martinez was a scary figure to me at that time, and I just didn't want to be around him. I didn't want to talk to him. I wanted to be out. I just wanted to leave.
INTERVIEWER: Did you ever say to him, "Yes. I did. I did it. I did everything. I did everything you said I did"?
BOBBY FIJNJE: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: Why'd you say that?
BOBBY FIJNJE: Because I wanted to leave the room.
BOBBY FIJNJE'S FATHER: Then he comes and says, "Yup, Bobby just confessed." I said, "What? How is this? When I was there, nothing. He did not say a word. There was nothing said about this thing. And now that we left the room, that you come and tell us now that he said that?"
He said, "Well, if you people want, you can go back to the interrogation room and talk to him." The moment we got in, he said, "Mom and dad"-
BOBBY FIJNJE'S MOTHER: He took me- you know, the moment I walk in, he-
BOBBY FIJNJE'S FATHER: He embraced my wife.
BOBBY FIJNJE'S MOTHER: He embraced me, and he start crying. He said, "Mom! Mom! I didn't do it! I didn't do it! I just told him that because he said I could go home."
NARRATOR: But Bobby wasn't going home.
TELEVISION REPORTER: The defense attorney, Mel Black, attached Martinez's testimony-
NARRATOR: Under defense questioning, Martinez denied he had coerced the confession.
MEL BLACK, Defense Attorney: [in court] Was he under any kind of duress at the time that he signed the class list and affixed his initials there?
Det. MARK MARTINEZ: Not as far as I know.
MEL BLACK: Did Bobby cry that day?
Det. MARK MARTINEZ: No.
NARRATOR: Martinez had only been a detective for six months, still a rookie at sexual abuse cases. He admitted he hadn't kept a record of exactly what happened during that long interrogation- no recordings, no signed statements.
And what about all that testimony from the children?
CHILD: [therapy session videotape] He tied me up in the back of his sister's truck.
NARRATOR: The testimony against Bobby was elicited by private therapists hired by parents. One of those therapists was psychologist Susan Keeley.
MEL BLACK: [in court] -this point right here, "He scared you, right?" Are you somehow suggesting to the child the answer, rather than eliciting a spontaneous answer?
SUSAN KEELEY: The child had already spontaneously stated that to me on other occasion or occasions.
PETER MILLER, Defense Attorney: We do have a tape that was made prior to the little girl going down to the state attorney's office for the purpose of an interview. And during that session, Keeley and the little girl practiced what she was going to tell the state attorney.
SUSAN KEELEY: [in court] Practiced in what regard? I might have tried to share-
MEL BLACK: Practiced what she was going to say.
SUSAN KEELEY: I might have shared with them the vocabulary that she has to- I don't remember talking with them. If I did, it's in my notes.
NARRATOR: As it happens, the notes and transcripts of Dr. Keeley's sessions provided a key to Bobby's defense.
NOTES: Remember, you said he touched you? Where did he touch you? Child: "Nowhere." Dr. Keeley: "And remember where you told me he put the penis?
NARRATOR: Dr. Stephen Ceci, the child expert recognized by both sides in the case, was called to the stand to judge the process.
STEPHEN CECI: I saw a constellation of ingredients that worried me. For instance, the interviewer says, "Don't worry. Bobby's in jail," or "Did your mom and dad tell you he can't hurt children anymore because he's in jail?"
INTERVIEWER: What they were doing was planting the idea that Bobby was a bad kid, which would what, color their testimony?
STEPHEN CECI: Yeah. Kids are cooperative conversational partners. They believe that you're asking them about something because it probably happened. They want to please you. They want to give you the answer that they think will make you happiest. And especially if the first couple times they resist this and say no and you keep bringing it up, they start to get the message that, "Well, maybe I've been giving the wrong answer, and I should switch."
TELEVISION REPORTER: Joan, there was standing room only for this, on the final day of the Bobby Fijnje trial. And listen now as both sides wrap up their arguments to the jury.
NARRATOR: In their closing arguments, Bobby's lawyers followed Ceci's logic. They told the jury that this time they should not believe the children.
MEL BLACK: [in court] Is that real or make-believe? And how many times do we hear the child say it was make-believe? How can you rely upon that to convict this young man? I submit you can't do that.
NARRATOR: The prosecution tried its best to make a monster of the teenage defendant.
PROSECUTOR: All six foot five, or however tall he wants to say he is, is the center of attention in this courtroom, that person over there is the one who hurt each and every one of these children!
NARRATOR: Finally, after 13 weeks, the jury got the case. They delivered a verdict the next morning.
BOBBY FIJNJE: Mr. Black came in, and he looked at me, and he's, like, "The time has come. The verdict's in."
LOUIS AGUIRRE: The verdict came in on a Saturday. It was a packed house. I remember all of the parents of the kids in this case were in the courtroom. They were all huddled together in prayer, as was the family and friends of Bobby Fijnje.
I mean, you could just feel the tension in the air. I know that sounds very cliched, but you could really feel the tension in the air and the anticipation that everyone was feeling at that moment. The anxiety was just so intense.
BOBBY FIJNJE: I was nervous, and I just wanted for them to read the verdict.
PETER MILLER: He was looking at life in prison in a maximum-security prison, never eligible for parole. The best news that we had was that the statistics are that he'd probably be dead in five to seven years from AIDS anyway. I mean, that's what this boy was facing.
BOBBY FIJNJE'S FATHER: We were waiting there. Fifteen minutes pass, a half an hour passes, an hour passes. So finally, one of our lawyers go and ask, "What are we waiting for?"
BOBBY FIJNJE: He comes back 10, 15 minutes later, and he tells me, he's, "Oh, we have to wait. We have to wait till Janet Reno comes."
BOBBY FIJNJE'S FATHER: So apparently, there was a telephone conversation between Janet Reno and the judge to wait for Janet Reno to come to court to be there when the verdict was read.
INTERVIEWER: How long did you wait?
BOBBY FIJNJE: Two and a half hours. I was young. I didn't know who Janet Reno was. I didn't really care who she was. This was my life. I wanted to know what's going on. I want to know what my life is going to be.
NARRATOR: Finally Janet Reno and her top deputy arrived. One of the most expensive prosecutions in Miami's history was about to come to a conclusion.
BOBBY FIJNJE: My heart was trying to jump out of my chest. I really didn't know what the verdict was going to be. All my muscles in my body were pretty much tense. I mean, in the- I saw on the video of the verdict- you see my cheekbones just completely tense up when the first verdict was read.
JURY FOREMAN: Count one, the defendant is not guilty. Count two, the defendant is not guilty. Count three-
NARRATOR: A guilty finding on any of the seven counts carries a mandatory life sentence.
JURY FOREMAN: Count five, the defendant is not guilty. Count six, the defendant is not guilty. Count seven, the defendant is not guilty.
COURT OFFICER: Order in the courtroom, please!
LOUIS AGUIRRE: And then it just hits you in the stomach, like a punch in the stomach, when they actually read it. And he was found not guilty on all counts. There was a collective gasp in the room. I think everybody really expected him to be found guilty on at least, you know, some of the counts.
JUDGE: At this time, I will discharge Mr. Fijnje from any further custody, and we will stand adjourned.
NARRATOR: After the verdict, the child advocate prosecutor met privately with the accusing parents. Janet Reno still believed the children.
PARENT: That sickens me as a Christian, and it should sicken every Christian that breathes on this planet.
PARENT: Oh, yeah.
PARENT: I don't know what to tell my daughter today. What can I tell her?
PARENT: Because anyone that has a child, especially my child's age, knows that they're the most honest little people in the world! And until people believe what they have to say, there's going to continue to be rampant child abuse! And it just makes me sick!
NARRATOR: With Bobby's acquittal, the proven Miami method of prosecuting ritual sexual abuse had been stopped cold by a jury.
JANET RENO: The jury has spoken, and we accept its verdict.
REPORTER: What do you think, Bobby? Were you surprised?
BOBBY FIJNJE: I- I'll talk to you guys a little later.
NARRATOR: It was a moment for sober reflection.
PETER MILLER: It is extremely frightening, the power that rests with our prosecuting officials. How many of us, if faced with what they were trying to do to Bobby, would be able to fight that kind of a battle either financially or emotionally?
BOBBY FIJNJE: [to reporters] I'll talk to you guys tomorrow.
REPORTER: Worst thing ever to happen to you in your life?
BOBBY FIJNJE: Yes, it is.
NARRATOR: With the acquittal of Bobby Fijnje, the sex abuse fever broke in Miami. [www.pbs.org: A closer look at the Fijnje case]
Janet Reno would move to Washington as attorney general. Her child abuse record had helped bring her to the attention of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
JANET RENO: I, Janet Reno, will well and faithfully perform the duties of the office on which I am now about to enter.
NARRATOR: There would not be another multiple-victim day-care case brought by the Miami prosecutors.
JURY FOREMAN: We, the jury in the above entitled action, find the defendants not guilty-
NARRATOR: And around the country, there didn't seem to be quite the appetite for these cases anymore, as juries also began to acquit defendants.
ACCUSED CHILD MOLESTER: -say all these terrible things that I did to children, when I never, never, never did! I never did! I never did!
FAMILY MEMBER [?]: You should be angry at the prosecutor's office in the state of New Jersey to bring a fraudulent case with fraudulent-
NARRATOR: But what about those men and women already convicted who are sitting in prison? Appeals courts began chipping away at their convictions. In Florida, that cop, Grant Snowden, had been in prison for 12 years claiming he was a victim of the moment, ensnared by false science and prosecutorial zeal.
Then a young New York civil rights lawyer agreed to take Snowden's appeal. He found, deep inside documents and court transcripts, what he believed were cracks in the prosecutor's case against Grant Snowden.
ROBERT ROSENTHAL, Snowden Attorney: I look at the record, and that's what I look at. When I see the state doing what they do in these cases, that's where my rage builds. The arrogance that they go through this, how they'll take the Constitution and toss it out the window so that we can get this guy.
NARRATOR: The case against Snowden had seemed airtight. The jury had needed only a little more than an hour to send Snowden to prison for five life terms. Prosecutors had the expert testimony of Dr. Laurie Braga and others, who told the jury to believe the children. They had physical evidence, gonorrhea and Gardnerella vaginitis. And they had the children.
For Rosenthal, the physical evidence, the gonorrhea and Gardnerella vaginitis, were almost easy to dismiss.
ROBERT ROSENTHAL: The diagnosis was made through methods that aren't a diagnosis. The doctor found some moisture and redness. She looked at that under a microscope and pronounced that she had found Gardnerella vaginitis. That's not a test for Gardnerella, but the jury never knew that. In fact, this doctor had changed her testing right after she did this case because she didn't believe in that test that she used. She moved on to more reliable methods that she had used before this case.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, but it wasn't just Gardnerella, it was also gonorrhea.
ROSENTHAL: Well, again, he tested positive in the first test they gave him, but they didn't treat him. They tested him again, I guess using a more accurate test, and it was negative. So again, there's no evidence of gonorrhea in that trial that withstands any sort of scrutiny.
NARRATOR: And there could be no defense scrutiny of the test's findings.
ROSENTHAL: Well, they could have, if she didn't destroy them before- she threw out this microscope slide that she had the moisture on from the girl. And I believe the positive gonorrhea test in the boy was destroyed, as well- before trial, before any defense attorney could have gotten anywhere near it.
NARRATOR: And the question, "Did Grant Snowden have gonorrhea?" was never settled.
ROSENTHAL: Right. It was never established that Grant Snowden had gonorrhea. And the other thing that was never established- nobody ever checked Leslie's family to see if they had Gardnerella.
NARRATOR: Since the conviction, Reno's prosecutor, David Markus, has changed sides. He now sometimes defends accused child molesters. Nevertheless, he continues to firmly believe in the righteousness of the Snowden conviction.
INTERVIEWER: Why didn't Grant Snowden have gonorrhea?
DAVID MARKUS: Penicillin.
INTERVIEWER: Penicillin?
DAVID MARKUS: I think he was treated.
INTERVIEWER: But wouldn't there be some record of the treatment?
DAVID MARKUS: Oh, you mean, could somebody get penicillin without anybody knowing about it?
INTERVIEWER: Wouldn't the doctor- wouldn't- couldn't his doctors be-
DAVID MARKUS: I think if people can get heroin, crack and LSD, they can get penicillin.
INTERVIEWER: So you believe that Grant Snowden may have gone out and treated himself, in essence.
DAVID MARKUS: Of course. And he was a police officer who knew he was under investigation.
INTERVIEWER: What about that?
ROSENTHAL: Yeah. I don't know what to say about that. I mean, these theories of, "Well, he went out and treated himself"- you didn't prove he had it. How do you prove you never had a disease? You know? It's- it is impossible, and they play on these sort of twists.
INTERVIEWER: What about the prosecution's evidence, the little boy with the gonorrhea, the little girl with the Gardnerella? Was that enough to convict?
DAVID MARKUS: It was to me.
INTERVIEWER: By itself?
DAVID MARKUS: By itself? I don't know that I would have charged the case had that been the only evidence.
INTERVIEWER: But you also had the kids' word.
DAVID MARKUS: I had the kids' word.
INTERVIEWER: The Gardnerella, apparently, is not exclusively a sexually-transmitted venereal disease.
DAVID MARKUS: Correct.
INTERVIEWER: Why is that not a problem, then?
DAVID MARKUS: It's a problem if you don't have anything else. It's corroborative of the girl's statement. It's not conclusive.
INTERVIEWER: So it's corroborative if you also have what, witnesses?
DAVID MARKUS: Well, how about the girl saying that it happened?
NARRATOR: So the medical evidence alone wasn't enough, even for prosecutors. They also needed the multiple witnesses. They needed the jury to believe the children.
ROSENTHAL: The issue in this case, first of all, is not whether children are lying about this. It's whether- it's whether suggestion and coercion supplanted their memories, implanted memories of abuse in them and- and so when they were testifying, they were testifying to the truth as they knew it to be, but it was not the historical- historically accurate truth.
INTERVIEWER: Wait a minute. Prosecutors in the Snowden case had not just one, but several children, children who in some circumstances didn't even know each other. Why would they make that up?
ROSENTHAL: All three of the children who testified in the Snowden case had been interviewed by Laurie Braga. Laurie Braga suggested to the child all sorts of sexual activity that might have happened to her.
In the course of this interview, which the transcript runs some 66 pages or so, they get up to page 33, and the child has not bit into any of Laurie's suggestions. She won't take it. Nothing happened to her. The worst thing about Mr. Snowden is that he turned off the television and not let her watch.
After page 33, Braga starts turning on the pressure. She starts suggesting, "Did Grant put his penis in your mouth? Did something come out of it?" You know, just keeps working little bits, in increments. By the end of this, the child was agreeing with Braga.
NARRATOR: Once again, Dr. Ceci, the child behavior expert, was called upon to judge the methods that produced the children's testimony.
STEPHEN CECI: They were quite problematic interviews, every single one of the tapes that I saw. I sit and look at it as a researcher, and I cringe. I say, "God, I wish they didn't do that! And look, they're doing it again!"
NARRATOR: According to Dr. Ceci and Rosenthal, the children were not lying. They just weren't telling the truth.
STEPHEN CECI: As a product of going through repeated suggestive interviews, a child has come to believe something that's not true. That child's very convincing. I mean, they believe it themselves. So their face has none of the leakage it has when they're lying.
INTERVIEWER: Might as well be the truth.
STEPHEN CECI: It is to the child. It has come to be to the child.
INTERVIEWER: Was it personally persuasive that there was more than one child?
DAVID MARKUS: Of course.
INTERVIEWER: And it was therefore important to you to let the jury hear that there was more than one child.
INTERVIEWER: Why was it important that they were all telling the same story?
DAVID MARKUS: Well, generally, if people tell the same story, and it's not shown that they got together and made up a story, then what they're saying is probably true.
INTERVIEWER: But couldn't it also be that they were all being fed the same information from the same source, namely the Bragas?
DAVID MARKUS: That's the defense perspective, and that's why it was so important that the videotapes be made. And that's why they were made, because that was anticipated that that would be a defense.
NARRATOR: But Dr. Stephen Ceci has a verdict on those tapes.
LAURIE BRAGA: [therapy session videotape] And did this happen in the living room or the bedroom?
CHILD: In the living room.
LAURIE BRAGA: In the living room? What about in the shower? Did it ever happen in the shower, in the bathtub?
CHILD: It happened in the shower.
LAURIE BRAGA: In the shower?
CHILD: Too.
LAURIE BRAGA: In the shower, too. So it happened more than one time.
STEPHEN CECI: What you see throughout the whole interview is a rather endless repetition of very directed questions. "Was it living room or kitchen?" "Was it shower or bathtub?" Now, kids have response sets or biases. They're much more likely to take the second thing that you say. They assume that one of those two is always the answer, so the question is which, and they tend to like the second one, the last one that you say.
LAURIE BRAGA: [therapy session videotape] Yeah, but let's suppose, if a grown-up tried to touch you, do you know what you should say?
CHILD: What?
LAURIE BRAGA: "No." But let's suppose a grown-up tried to do that. It wouldn't be your fault.
CHILD: No fault.
LAURIE BRAGA: No, because a lot of children come, and they talk to me, and they feel very sad because they think that they did something bad, but they didn't.
STEPHEN CECI: See again, she's invoking peer pressure. She's creating a context of accusation. The atmospherics are all accusatory. "Other kids come and tell me about bad things." That's- the implied message is "That's what we're here to do today, as well. I'm a nice person. You want to please me. There are naughty things that adults do when they do this or that." So it's really crossed over the line. This is no longer a forensic interview, if it ever was. [www.pbs.org: More on the children's interviews]
DAVID MARKUS: This is not The Manchurian Candidate, the movie. This is sexual abuse, the reality. And in reality, it's very difficult to persuade a child to lie about something so visceral repeatedly and convincingly. I wish someone could tell me how to brainwash children, because then I'd be able to brainwash my 8-year-old son to clean up his room.
ROBERT ROSENTHAL: This is not brainwashing kids to clean their room. This is convincing someone that something happened. You- there are kids up to a certain age that believe there is a Santa Claus. To them, the truth is- if you ask them, "What is the truth?," Santa Claus exists. It's not historically accurate. It's not literally- in the world it's not accurate. But to them, in their world, that is an accurate statement. [www.pbs.org: Read a discussion with five experts]
INTERVIEWER: But you're telling me a story, Mr. Rosenthal, about a series of adults, parents and children and law enforcement officers, prosecutors, therapists inventing from whole cloth narratives about the most wretched sorts of abuse, horrific stories, and planting them in the heads of these innocent children 4 and 5 years old. Why in the world would they do that?
ROBERT ROSENTHAL: I think there are probably as many reasons as there are people in these cases. Laurie Braga and her husband, Joseph Braga, were making a career out of being able to ferret out accusations of abuse from children who had been abused but wouldn't say anything about it.
NARRATOR: But Janet Reno and her prosecutors were not malicious people. On the contrary, they were in the business of doing good. But perhaps their good intentions had unintended consequences for the children they meant to rescue.
STEPHEN CECI: If they were not violated originally by the defendant, they've been violated by the system because their autobiographies have been usurped. And that's a pretty horrible thing. It undermines your sense of reality and your ability to test reality when what you had assumed was true, you no longer assume is true.
LAURIE BRAGA: [therapy session videotape] Did he put his penis here, or did he put his penis here? Did he put his penis in your mouth? Where else? In your mouth, too? And then what happened? When he put his penis in your mouth, what happened then?
CHILD: It tastes yucky.
LAURIE BRAGA: It tasted yucky. Did something come out of his penis? Well, when you said it tasted yucky, what tasted yucky, his penis or was it wet?
CHILD: It was wet.
LAURIE BRAGA: It was wet. Did you think maybe, like, he peed in your mouth or something?
CHILD: I think he did.
LAURIE BRAGA: He did. He peed in your mouth.
DAVID MARKUS: Now, if you were to ask me, if I wouldn't have had any other evidence in this case other than the interview by Laurie Braga of this child, would I have prosecuted the case? The answer would be no.
NARRATOR: Markus acknowledged that any single element of the Miami method would not have been enough for him to go to trial. The Gardnerella diagnosis alone- not enough. The gonorrhea test alone- not enough. The disclosures of the children to Laurie Braga-
LAURIE BRAGA: [therapy session videotape] Did he rub his penis outside or put it inside?
CHILD: Inside.
LAURIE BRAGA: Inside.
NARRATOR: Alone- not enough. It was when prosecutors put them all together that they finally believed they had enough evidence to send Grant Snowden to prison for life.
ROBERT ROSENTHAL: I think that's a disgraceful way for a prosecutor to look at a case. The prosecutor doesn't have the luxury of saying, "I have no faith in this, I have no faith in this, I have no faith in this. But if I put them together, I can create a big enough mirage, there's enough smoke here, that I can convince the jury that something happened." That's- the prosecutor's function is to find justice, is to seek justice in this.
NARRATOR: Rosenthal's brief was filed in federal appeals court in Atlanta. Grant Snowden's legal options were about played out.
ROSENTHAL: What I saw was evidence of a false conviction, of manufactured evidence and a wrongful conviction.
NARRATOR: In February, 1998, the appeals court rendered its verdict. That day in prison, Grant Snowden got the call he was waiting for.
GRANT SNOWDEN: I felt like, "Wow! Finally! Finally, they see it. They finally see that they were wrong. After all these years, finally they see that they were wrong. And I'm going to go free!"
NARRATOR: Snowden was free, but his troubles are by no means over.
DAVID MARKUS: I never thought I'd be sitting here discussing Mr. Snowden's case getting overturned. And I was shocked an amazed that they let this man out of jail.
NARRATOR: The prosecutors say they are not prepared to let Snowden get away.
INTERVIEWER: Do you believe he'll be tried again?
DAVID MARKUS: Yes, I do.
INTERVIEWER: Should he be?
DAVID MARKUS: I believe so. I don't think it should be dismissed, at this point, and have Mr. Snowden become a martyr and an innocent man, and have him go write a book on how he was wronged.
NARRATOR: The prosecutor's office has taken it all the way to the United States Supreme Court, where it is now under review. For now, Snowden is free on bail, poring over the transcripts of his trials, looking for any evidence to ensure his freedom. He lives with his mother- unemployed, divorced from his wife, his children grown.
INTERVIEWER: At the moment of your liberation, had you been able to come face to face with Janet Reno and her prosecutors, what would you have said to them?
GRANT SNOWDEN: I don't have anything to say to them. I want to know what they have to say to me. I want to know what they have to say to me for taking my entire life away from me, 12 years in prison. I lost my children's childhood. I lost my wife, my home, everything that I ever owned. What do they have to say to me? They know they did wrong. They know they maliciously prosecuted me, and they sent me away for something I didn't do. And I'm- I'm not happy about it at all.
INTERVIEWER: If Janet Reno were to come into this room right now, what would you have to say to her? What would you ask her?
BOBBY FIJNJE: "Why?" That would be my one question. "Why? Why did you spend so much money trying to convict a 14-year-old kid? Why- why- why even try to place a kid that's 14 in a maximum-security prison? Why would you even think of doing something like that if you're a crusader for children?"
NARRATOR: In Washington, Janet Reno brought her children's crusade orientation to the Justice Department. One month into her tenure as attorney general, she faced her first big decision. The FBI was pressuring her to use force in a stand-off. Reno resisted. The FBI prompted the reluctant attorney general by telling her that children were being abused. She approved their plan to rescue the children with Bradley tanks and tear gas in a place called Rancho Apocalypse not too far from Waco, Texas.
ANNOUNCER: For more of this story, visit FRONTLINE on-line. Take a closer look at Miami's formula for winning child abuse cases. Read a debate on what gave rise to mass child abuse cases in the '80s and early '90s, and where are we now. And evaluate for yourself the taped children's interviews, and read an expert's analysis and much more at www.pbs.organization.
ANNOUNCER: Next time on FRONTLINE, Fat. We love it; we hate it.
EXPERT: We live in a food-toxic environment.
ANNOUNCER: Now the same industry that's making us fatter is cashing in, trying to make us slim.
EXPERT: People are bombarded with messages, "Eat this." "Eat this." "Eat this." And then on the other hand, they're told, "Don't eat."
ANNOUNCER: Why is it so hard to get rid of fat, and should we?
NON-DIETER: I like being a big woman. And who the hell is out there to tell me that anything is wrong with it?
ANNOUNCER: Watch Fat next time on FRONTLINE.
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Southern India The delightful south; almost untouched by invasions throughout its history, the Indian heritage is more intact here than in other regions of the country Eastern India Eastern Zone of India is rich in Cultural Heritage. You can have a taste of beaches, temples, monastries, buddhist circuit with a rural touch. Western India West India include the states like Goa and Gujarat in addition to Maharashtra. Western Part is popular because of Bombay, Goa , Rann of Katch , Temples of Ajanta & Ellora & Wildlife Santuaries in Gujarat. Areas of Conflict Several Indian regions are prone to occasional conflict; Jammu and Kashmir (as distinct from Ladakh) are subject to political violence and travellers should seek consular advice before entering any area bordering Pakistan in Rajasthan, Punjab and Gujarat. Similar advice should also be sought before travel to Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur in northeast India. There are militant groups operating sporadically in some rural areas of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Orissa. Major Hotels in IndiaTaj Mahal Hotel | Oberoi Towers | The Leela Kempinski | Holiday Inn | Quality Inn | Executive Apts | Le Meridien | M K Hotel | Aditya Park Inn | Welcomgroup Grand Sheraton Hotel & Towers | Best Western Castle | Golkonda | Viceroy | Taj Residency | The Trident | Marari Resort | Malabar Hotel | Brunton Boat Yard | Hilltop Resorts | Casino | Alpine Inn | Clarks | Chandela Hotel | The Jass | Greenwood Hotel | Hyatt Regency Guest Room | Hotel Inter-Continental | Grand Hyatt | Nikko | Krishna Continental | Residency | Radisson Standard | Center Point | Siddharth | Janpath Hotel | Centaur | Hotel Diplomat | Crowne PlazaTips & Suggestions Make reservations early. Some hotels in Mumbai cut off online reservations 1 to 3 days before check-in time. When you make a hotel reservation, you will receive a confirmation email. Print a copy of this message to take with you ... and don't delete the original email until you have completed your stay and know you have been billed correctly. Some of our partners offer discount rates for corporate and government employees, AAA and AARP members, seniors, and other special groups. But they do not base the cost codes on these discounts. Off season room prices in ; may be much lower than our cost codes indicate. This is especially true for coastal hotels during the winter. The earlier in the day you check into a Mumbai hotel, the more likely you will get a room or suite that matches your preferences. |
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WIMBLEDON, England -- Back on one of tennis' top stages, Venus Williams cut a familiar figure Monday at Wimbledon, from her latest original, somewhat-see-through outfit to her trademark booming serves and aggressive groundstrokes.
Williams smacked seven aces at up to 118 mph, totaled 23 winners to only five unforced errors, and overwhelmed 97th-ranked Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan 6-3, 6-1 in the first round at the All England Club.
The seven-time major champion recently was off the tour for about five months with a bum hip, including missing the French Open, and this is only her fourth tournament in nearly a year.
"It's a good place to start. And this is kind of like a home for her. She loves it," said Williams' hitting partner, David Witt. "She feels confident out here, and in women's tennis, 'confident' goes a long way."
There sure was nothing shy about a playsuit Williams called "trendy": white and sleeveless, with a deep "V" neckline, a triangle cut out in the back, a gold belt and gold zipper.
"Jumpers are very 'now,"' she explained, "as is lace."
Not as sensational as the corset-like black lace number with skin-toned undergarments that drew so much attention at the 2010 French Open, but Monday's romper looked something akin to a toga and surely would have won the approval of her Roman goddess namesake.
"She always has something interesting," said the 6-foot-3 Amanmuradova, a rare opponent taller than the 6-foot-1 Williams. "It's good to have something different on the tour. I wear shorts, and everybody is criticizing that I look like a guy. ... If she feels comfortable, perfect. Personally, I wouldn't wear this, because it's not going to look good on me. But if it's white, you can play. That's the rule. If everybody wears the same, it's boring."
Williams' outfit -- and, of course, superb play, which betrayed no lingering effects from her injury -- generated the most buzz on Day 1 in the 125th edition of the grass-court Grand Slam tournament.
"I do realize I don't have as many matches," said Williams, only 5-2 this season and only 9-3 since last July. "So, yeah, for sure, I know I need to kind of come out firing. Been pretty good at that in the past -- and today."
Others reaching the second round included 10-time major champion Rafael Nadal, whose parents sat in the Royal Box during his 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 victory over 90th-ranked Michael Russell of Houston; No. 4 Andy Murray, and No. 10 Mardy Fish.
It was Nadal's first chance to play the tournament's opening match on Centre Court, an honor given to the defending men's champion, and something he called a "big emotion." Bad knees forced Nadal to withdraw in 2009, a year after he won Wimbledon for the first time.
He was more blase about his parents' special seats, saying: "It doesn't make any difference to me whether I see them in my (guest) box or in the Royal Box. But I think it was a beautiful experience for them."
Nadal now faces another American, 69th-ranked Ryan Sweeting of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., who dropped the first two sets against Pablo Andujar of Spain before coming all the way back to win 3-6, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (1), 6-1.
It'll be Sweeting's third match against Nadal this year. Nadal won the others in straight sets, including at the Australian Open.
"They keep putting me up in the top half of the draw. I don't know what the deal is," Sweeting said. "What can I say? He's obviously one of the toughest opponents to play on any surface."
The second question at Nadal's news conference concerned whether he believes Murray, Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic is likeliest to thwart his title hopes.
"My biggest opponent is Sweeting now. I am focused on my part of the draw. I'm focused on myself. To play against Andy or Djokovic or Federer only can be in the final; against Andy in the semifinals," the Spaniard replied. "So let's talk about today. Let's talk about tomorrow. ... Let's (not) talk about ... 10 days or 12 days (from now), because I don't know if I am here or I am fishing in Mallorca."
Four seeded players exited Monday, including No. 28 Ekaterina Makarova of Russia, who was beaten 2-6, 6-1, 8-6 by 19-year-old Christina McHale of Englewood Cliffs, N.J. McHale entered the day 1-6 in Grand Slam matches. No. 17 Kaia Kanepi lost to Sara Errani 6-1, 6-4, No. 22 Shahar Peer was eliminated 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 by Ksenia Pervak, and No. 30 Thomaz Bellucci was sent home in straight sets by 35-year-old Rainer Schuettler, the oldest man in the field.
Otherwise, the most significant development probably was the rain that began falling at about 5 p.m., resulting in the suspension of 14 matches in progress and the postponement of 17 others.
And Tuesday's forecast calls for more rain.
Two matches were played under the retractable roof, which was added to Centre Court before the 2009 tournament. That included two-time Wimbledon semifinalist Murray's 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 victory over 59th-ranked Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain. Murray is trying to give Britain its first male champion at any Grand Slam tournament since 1936, and he overcame a slow start against Gimeno-Traver, a first-round loser for the eighth time in 12 major tournaments.
Earlier, in a match tied 1-1 in the third set when rain began falling, Francesca Schiavone -- the 2010 champion and 2011 runner-up at the French Open -- beat Jelena Dokic 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
"For me, personally, Wimbledon is with no roof," said Schiavone, who said she got a chance to get advice from her coach during the 50-minute delay in action while the court was covered. "But it's great for English people to have the roof."
Williams stopped one game into her third-round match at the Australian Open in January after aggravating her hurt hip. She returned to action last week at a grass-court tuneup tournament in Eastbourne, going 2-1 there, and Monday looked nothing like someone who was rusty.
Because she hasn't played much at all over the last 12 months, Williams thought she "had a little pressure on me to come out and swing as usual."
She made zero unforced errors in the second set, taking the last six games and the last 12 points. She claimed 15 of the final 17 points she served.
"On her serve, it was almost impossible," Amanmuradova said, opening her eyes wide. "I actually never played anyone on the tour serving as hard and as fast as she does."
Williams, once ranked No. 1, dropped to 33rd this month. She's at No. 30 this week, but was seeded 23rd as a nod to her five Wimbledon titles and a career record at the All England Club that's now 69-9.
"I'm smarter, if anything, than five years ago," said Williams, who turned 31 Friday. "More and more players are starting to realize that it's an advantage to be able to play longer, because then you actually understand the game."
If that's so, her second-round opponent understands things even better than Williams does. That's because Kimiko Date-Krumm is 40; her 6-0, 7-5 defeat over British wild-card entry Katie O'Brien was her first victory at Wimbledon since reaching the 1996 semifinals.
Date-Krumm retired that year, then returned to the tour in 2008.
"It was amazing when she came back. ... I always root for her, actually," Williams said. "But this time ... I will be rooting for me."
Follow Howard Fendrich at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich


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Christie Golden, author of the Warcraft novels Rise of the Horde and Lord of the Clans, sat down to answer questions with The Shadow Council Strider. For several weeks readers submitted questions via email, and Christie was kind enough to respond to them in an article published today. We learn that Christie will be writing more novels in the Warcraft universe, having just signed a contract for a trilogy.
The discussion I found most fascinating in this first part of the article series had to do with Christie's access to The Burning Crusade. Basically the reader wanted to know if she had influence over the game design of Outland, or if her stories were wrapped around the content that was already put into the game. As it turns out, while most of the world was already in place when Christie was hired on, she did get to flush out some concepts in Outland, particularly having to do with Oshu-gun and that Ata'amal crystals. Because she had already finished her first draft, several of the creatures she created in the novel were put into the game, for instance the majestic Talbuk.
The last two questions had to do with Christie's life as a writer. Christie talked about her "Trunk novel," that first book she wasn't able to sell, and the subsequent novels she did publish that were set in the same universe. Because of her non-fiction writing and editing experience with USA Today she wasn't new to dealing with selling the written word. It's interesting to note that Christie never wrote fan fiction for WoW, which is certain surprising considering how well she writes about the world of Azeroth. When asked about suggestions for those new to writing, her advice to new writers was to write as often as you can, and also spend some time outlining to better plan out your work.
The next section of the Q & A is due out soon, and I'm definitely eager to find what else she has to say. If you had a question for Christie Golden, what would it be?


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Quick Details
- Tooth Material: Plastic
- Handle Material: Plastic
- Use: Salon
- Type: Ionic
- Place of Origin: Guangdong, China (Mainland)
- Brand Name: tangleteezer
- ceramic: grey
- tourmaline: d
Packaging & Delivery
Packaging Details: | 1pc into polibag , 12pc/inner box , 120pc/master cartoon |
Delivery Detail: | 25days working |
Ionic propertiesErgonomically designed for comfort
Heat resistant up to 575 F. (300 C.)
Can be used with straightening iro
The SG-540 is the ideal comb for clipper and scissor-over-comb cutting. The wide flush platform and evenly spaced teeth assure a clean, uniform cut. The longer teeth provide maximum control, while the comb's flexibility allows you to conform to the shape of the head.
The most sophisticated computerized molds have been designed to eliminate all parting lines on the teeth and guarantee perfect symmetry between each tooth. The result is no snagging or dragging for the smoothest glide and maximum control demanded by top hairdressers. Materials:
Only VIA offers revolutionary composition of silicone graphite resins for the sleekest
most perfect combs ever invented ... a combination so unique, a patent is pending.
Transaction History of the Supplier
Below is the information about the supplier's transactions conducted via Alibaba.com. If you require further details regarding the transaction data, please contact the supplier directly.
Transaction Overview
Export Markets
Transaction Details
This supplier has completedtransactions with buyers from .
Shipping Destination
Transaction Value
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Email to this supplier


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you should grab this
the guy is a genius , and this is one hell of a recording
It's in my running cart. Don't worry. :D
yes time to buy some records!
Hi All,
This sale is ending at the end of this month. There are still a lot of great title available and I am putting the extra 5% off back in place so you will receive 30% off. Last chance. For sure. Done 3/1/13
HI All,
This sale is over at midnight on Thursday 2/28. Last chance at huge savings on some great vinyl. On March 1st the prices revert back to their original pricing.
Lame. Can't get any money together by then. Glad I picked up so much already then.
Today is the day this sale comes to an end. Last chance for 30% off of all the vinyl I have left in stock.The sale ends at the stroke of midnight 2/28. Hurry!
Thank you to everyone who bought records from me. You have helped keep TTVJ going in spite of the fraud that nearly put us out of business. I hope you enjoy your new vinyl for years to come. We look forward to serving you all in the future.


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Because I had happy memories of camping when young, I didn't object when Joel suggested we intersperse motel stays with camping during our road trips.
But, trying to recapture the fun of trekking through the dark of night to an outdoor toilet is like trying to wear the swimming suit I wore at 16 — doomed.
Our recent camping ventures have included views of breath-taking beauty and wildlife sightings we'll never forget, but some of our tenting experiences make a colonoscopy seem festive.
I remember a night in the Snowy Range of the Medicine Bow, when I lay awake and worried that our bodies wouldn't be found until the August thaw.
The temperature in town hovered at 95 as we loaded our camping gear, so I anticipated a sweltering experience. When I pack for a trip, I find it difficult to imagine any weather other than what I am experiencing at the moment.
That night, we pitched our tent on frozen ground among snowdrifts.
We crawled into our sleeping bags fully clothed, and piled towels and extra clothing on top. We slept fitfully, disturbed by the chattering of two sets of teeth and the need to massage life back into our numb noses.
The next morning, we comforted ourselves by splitting a pound of bacon.
A year later, having forgotten our frostbite, we packed for an extended trip to Glacier National Park and Canada. My cautious nature prefers reservations, while Joel thrives on spontaneity.
After our first night on the ground, I crawled out of our tent in full self-righteous-martyr mode.
Every campsite at Glacier bulged with children hitting each other with sticks, aromatic clouds floating from smoking grills, and adults in flip-flops waving from their reserved spots as we drove by.
We abandoned our notions of camping and decided to get a room at the park lodge.
Fortunately, before handing over a credit card, we asked to see the last room available — a closet in the basement with a door that didn't quite close, a questionable bed and a leaking toilet.
We then thought we'd take our chances outside the park. We should've paid for the swayback bed behind the boiler room.
The only campground available in Babb, Mont., consisted of a pasture full of thigh-high weeds bordered by posts designating 10 tent sites. Each site had an individual Sani-hut, long overdue for dumping.
And nothing else.
It's hard to snooze on clods and tromped-down weeds with heavy Sani-hut odors clogging your head. The next morning, I didn't need bacon to comfort me; I had my virtuous thoughts: "I told you so, Mr. Spur-of-the-Moment; but would you listen? No-o-o-o-o!"
The next summer we toured South Dakota and planned two nights at Custer State Park — in a reserved site.
The park boasted scenic vistas, a buffalo herd and a refreshing contrast to the Badlands we had toured earlier: amenities difficult to enjoy on a day of record-breaking heat and humidity.
It's hard to pitch a tent when sweat streams into your eyes, drips from your chin and slicks your hands.
After dinner at an air-conditioned lodge festooned with portraits of Teddy Roosevelt and animal heads, we sat in our camp chairs, stared vacantly at a discouraged stream lined by motionless trees and dripped.
When we decided to sedate ourselves with sleep, we lay on top of our bags with our arms extended and our fingers and toes spread to minimize the increased heat of skin contact.
I appreciated the brilliance of my husband anew when he commented, "Hey, Janet, you'll sweat less if you don't blink."
At dawn, we sought comfort in our air-conditioned truck and headed toward home.
Who knows what camping fun we'll have this summer.


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Qatar Economy
Qatar has experienced rapid economic growth over the last several years on the back of high oil prices, and in 2008 posted its eighth consecutive budget surplus. Economic policy is focused on developing Qatar's no associated natural gas reserves and increasing private and foreign investment in non-energy sectors, but oil and gas still account for more than 50% of GDP, roughly 85% of export earnings, and 70% of government revenues. Oil and gas have made Qatar the second highest per-capita income country – following Liechtenstein – and one of the world's fastest growing. Proved oil reserves of 15 billion barrels should enable continued output at current levels for 37 years. Qatar's proved reserves of natural gas are nearly 26 trillion cubic meters, about 14% of the world total and third largest in the world. The drop in oil prices in late 2008 and the global financial crisis will reduce Qatar's budget surplus and may slow the pace of investment and development projects in 2009.
Before the discovery of oil, the economy of the Qatari region focused on fishing and pearl hunting. After the introduction of the Japanese cultured pearl onto the world market in the 1920s and 1930s, Qatar's pearling industry faltered. However, the discovery of oil, beginning in the 1940s, completely transformed the state's economy. Now the country has a high standard of living, with many social services offered to its citizens and all the amenities of any modern state.
Qatar's national income primarily derives from oil and natural gas exports. The country has oil reserves of 15 billion barrels (2.4 km³), while gas reserves in the giant North Field (South Pars for Iran) which straddles the border with Iran and are almost as large as the peninsula itself are estimated to be between 800 trillion cubic feet (23,000 km3) to 80 trillion cubic feet (2,300 km3) (1 trillion cubic feet is equivalent to about 80 million barrels (13,000,000 m3) of oil). Qatar is sometimes referred to as the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. Qataris' wealth and standard of living compare well with those of Western European states; Qatar has the highest GDP per capita in the Arab World according to the International Monetary Fund (2006)[12] and the second highest GDP per capita in the world according to the CIA World Factbook.[6] With no income tax, Qatar, along with Bahrain, is one of the countries with the lowest tax rates in the world.
While oil and gas will probably remain the backbone of Qatar's economy for some time to come, the country seeks to stimulate the private sector and develop a "knowledge economy". In 2004, it established the Qatar Science & Technology Park to attract and serve technology-based companies and entrepreneurs, from overseas and within Qatar. Qatar also established Education City, which consists of international colleges. For the 15thAsian Games in Doha, it established Doha Sports City, consisting of Khalifa stadium, the Aspire Sports Academy, aquatic centres, exhibition centres and many other sports related buildings and centres. Following the success of the Asian Games, Doha kicked off an official bid to host the2016 Summer Olympics in October 2007. Qatar also plans to build an "entertainment city" in the future.
Qatar aims to become a role model for economic and social transformation in the region. Large scale investment in all social and economic sectors will also lead to the development of a strong financial market.
The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) provides financial institutions with world class services in investment, margin and no-interest loans, and capital support. These platforms are situated in an economy founded on the development of its hydrocarbons resources, specifically its exportation of petroleum. It has been created with a long term perspective to support the development of Qatar and the wider region, develop local and regional markets, and strengthen the links.


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This charming red and white shirtwaist frock with its pleated skirt and pearl buttons was made by Zoe. Zoe made this dress with cotton from Britex Fabric's second floor, and she used vintage Simplicity pattern 2444, circa 1958. She altered the sleeves and hem, by raising them slightly. She has accessorized her outfit with a narrow white belt and pearl necklace. Zoe is a history student at San Francisco State University, and has been sewing for (only) six months!
Tag Archives: Simplicity pattern 2444
The Britex Blog
Red and White Shirtwaist Dress by Zoe
February 13, 2010 by Britex Fabrics
1 Item(s)


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Anyone doing the big walkabout Dec '13?
26 Jan 2013 Louise asked
Hey :) gonna be travelling alone on this tour and was wondering who else is booked on (also anyone whos booked on this with the whitsundays sailing upgrade?) and if its best to start at Darwin or from Sydney? :)
Would love to make new friends on my tour! X
- 1 person likes this
- Answer this question 22 answers so far
8 Feb 2013 Cameron said
Although I'm not actually doing the big walkabout, I have booked Beaches and Reefs w/ Sailing departing Sydney Nov 24th (The Big Walkabout does depart the same day from Sydney) so if thats one you'll be booking then we'll be on the same part of the tour for 14 days! (Assuming that there will be more than one tour on the same bus) - 0 people like this
14 Feb 2013 LizzieW92 said
Hi, I'm booked on the Bigwalkabout starting in Sydney 29th September. Not sure if this helps, but if you do go in December I can let you know how it is :) I'm also travelling solo x
- 0 people like this
12 Mar 2013 Explorer1176543 said
hey im booked on the reefs and rainforests tour for the 2nd of jan when does your tour start as i think its a part of my tour, when are you flying out to oz? i wouldnt worry about travelling solo theres so many other out there its great time meet new people, although nice to know a couple before you go too :) x
- 0 people like this
30 Mar 2013 Sandra said
Hey Louise, I'm Sandra from Germany! I'm booked on the Big Walkabout starting in Darwin 25th December this year. Gonna be travelling alone on this tour, too! :)
- 0 people like this
12 Apr 2013 Chiovitti said
Hello Everyone!
Louise, depending on where you're flying in and out from pretty much determines where to start your tour. Personally for me it's rather difficult to fly in and out from Darwin so I was going to start the Big Walkabout (Without Sailing) in Sydney on December 22nd, 2013. I found flights from Darwin to Sydney for $150-200 AUS which isn't too bad.
Hope this helps!
- 0 people like this
3 May 2013 Larissa said
I'm booked for this tour! Starting on Dec. 25 in Darwin with the sailing, and I'm travelling solo as well :)
- 0 people like this
3 May 2013 Nadine said
Hi I also booked the Tour ( without Sailing) from Sydney 22. december. I must Travel alone too.
- 0 people like this
16 May 2013 Ninavara said
Hi! I'm also a solo traveller and feeling abit worried as its my first time! I'm planning on doing the big walkabout on the 27th October!
- 0 people like this
8 Aug 2013 Bianca De Santiago said
I'll be doing the Sydney New Year Tour but plan on extending my trip since I'll be coming from Los Angeles, CA. I will be traveling alone so I'm looking for some potential travel buddies!
- 0 people like this
27 Aug 2013 Larissa said
Bianca I am going to be extending my stay and looking for travel buddies too!
- 0 people like this
27 Aug 2013 traceydodd85 said
I'm doing the beaches and reefs starting in sydney nov 24th, then heading back to sydney for new years
- 0 people like this
6 Sep 2013 soph92 said
I'm also doing the Big walkabout tour solo on the 22nd December from Sydney with sailing
- 0 people like this
4 Oct 2013 Cindz84 said
I'm still contemplating doing the New Years trip but would really like to do a surfing trip too while I'm in Oz. I'm from South Africa.
- 0 people like this
7 Oct 2013 Alice & Taran said
Hey I'm Alice from London- I've just booked the Walkabout Tour, 22nd Dec from Sydney, travelling with my boyfriend, Taran. We look forward to meeting some of you then ! :)
- 0 people like this
8 Oct 2013 soph92 said
Hi Alice are you doing the big walkabout tour with sailing?
- 0 people like this
8 Oct 2013 Alice & Taran said
Hey, not with sailing but it seems like the exact same tour, just without that activity included I guess!
- 0 people like this
10 Oct 2013 soph92 said
Yea it is :) i'm so excited have you guys got any plans before or after the tour?
- 0 people like this
13 Oct 2013 Nadine said
Hi girls, me and my boyfriend we doing the big walkabout too. (without sailing). I'm so excited and would like to get in touch with some poeple before :-)
- 0 people like this
30 Nov 2013 BrionyR said
I'll be joining the tour which leaves from Sydney on Nov 24, i join in Surfers on the 5th Dec :) all of the smaller tours are part of the longest tour, with people joining and leaving, makes it hard to find people!
- 0 people like this
5 Dec 2013 nix said
Hey, I'm booked onto Beaches and Reefs starting in Cairns on 4th Jan 2014, and so I think if anyone is doing the Big Walkabout tour starting in Darwin on 25th Dec then I think the tours will meet up in Cairns!
- 0 people like this
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I am from kingfisher, OK and I've been a Club Horse member for 3 years, 6 months and 19 days
Nicknames: Cloi's little Belle
Age: 3 years old
Gender: Mare
Breed: Quarter Horse
Height: 13.5
Color: Sorrel
Type of Riding: English and Western
My Horse's Achievements: Yes, she doesn't rear anymore whenever u get to closewhen she's scared
My Horse's Favorite Treat: Alfalfa cubes
My Horse's Favorite Things To Do: Give and receive hugs and kisses
Pet Peeves: My dogs Molly andbear and my two cats Barney and cupcakes
My Horse's motto: If the dust ain't flying then you ain'ttrying
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Her mom and we boughther and her mom from my friend Denis Cope.
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Some good news from ENN
With a small and declining population due to forest clearing and overhunting in New Guinea, the western long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii) is listed as "Critically Endangered" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.
In Australia, the species has been thought to be extinct as fossil remains from the Pleistocene epoch demonstrate that the species lived here tens of thousands of years ago and no modern record of the species has been known. That is until scientists discovered one particular specimen in the overlooked cabinets of the Natural History Museum in London.
The western long-beaked echidna is one of the world's five egg-laying species of mammal. Long-beaked echidnas are spiny monotremes – a small and primitive order of mammals that lay eggs rather than give birth to live young. The platypus, the short-beaked echidna, and the three species of long-beaked echidna are the only monotremes that still exist and are consequently only found in Australia and New Guinea. Little is known about the life of this long-beaked species because it is rarely seen and thus the reason why many have believed it to be extinct.
The newfound skin and skull specimen reveals that the species was reproducing in Australia at least until the early 20th century. The long-beaked echidna specimen was brought to the Natural History Museum in London in 1939. Seventy years later, Kristofer Helgen of the Smithsonian Institution, the lead author of the new findings, visited the museum and came across the specimen.
Coming across such a specimen not only highlights the importance of maintaining museum collections, but also provides us with more insight into species of the past and present.
Learning whether the western long-beaked echidna still exists in Australia today will be a challenge, but is a goal for Helgen and his colleagues. Scientists will need to explore the Australian bush and will start looking in the region of Kimbereley in Western Australia where the specimen was collected by John Tunney back in 1901. Researchers will also interview native Aboriginal communities who might have other undocumented information that can lead researchers to the mammal.
Finding out the causes of the echidnas near extinction will help scientists predict and prevent other species from heading down the same path.
The findings can be found in the Dec. 28, 2012 issue of the journal ZooKeys.
Long-beaked Echidna image via EurekAlert. Photo credit by Tim Laman.
Related articles
- Scientists discover that for Australia the long-beaked echidna may not be a thing of the past (esciencenews.com)
- 'Extinct' Australian echidna still living? (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
- Australia's Extinct Long-Beaked Echidna May Still Exist: Study (natureworldnews.com)
- Does the echidna still roam around Australia? (wildlifenews.co.uk)
- Extinct Long-Beaked Echidna Still Present in Australia: Study (naturenplanet.com)
- Scientists discover that for Australia the long-beaked echidna may not be a thing of the past (eurekalert.org)
- The Echidna that survived for thousands of years (earthtimes.org)
- Scientists discover that for Australia the long-beaked echidna may not be a thing of the past (phys.org)
- Odd mammal may not be extinct after all (msnbc.msn.com)
- Long-beaked echidna may not be a thing of the past (terradaily.com)


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OSHA fines foundry following fatal accident investigation
The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited United States Pipe and Foundry Co. and proposed penalties totaling $71,000 following inspections at the company's Bessemer, Ala., plant in response to a fatal accident last fall.
On Oct. 27 dislodged crane cables struck and killed a foundry employee. Although the company is a molten metal industry health partner with OSHA, the agency began a fatality investigation Oct. 28 and initiated plantwide safety and health inspections Nov. 4.
The company received two serious citations directly related to the fatality, with proposed penalties of $9,500, for failing to have a safety latch on a gantry crane hook and failing to ensure that employees used personal protective equipment, such as hard hats.
OSHA also issued 20 additional serious citations, with proposed penalties of $61,500, alleging other deficiencies in gantry and overhead cranes; inadequate personal protective equipment and eyewash stations for employees working with corrosive materials; improper labeling and storage of hazardous chemicals; failing to provide employees with safety and health training; lack of fall protection; failing to protect workers from electrical hazards; exposing employees to injuries from unguarded machinery; and improperly locking and tagging machinery to prevent start-up during maintenance or repair.


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To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog:
Can trade secret owners secretly petition a court to seize property from a competitor that they suspect of stealing trade secrets? In the United States, the answer is: "Not yet." This is one of the issues that Congress is considering as it debates a myriad of proposed trade secret reform bills. But in France, ex parte seizure orders have been available for some time and can be a powerful tool for trade secret owners to preserve the status quo and prove a case of trade secret misappropriation.
In France, companies that suspect a competitor has stolen its trade secrets can bring an action for unfair competition before the "Tribunal de Commerce," or Commercial Court. In these types of cases, trade secret owners can allege that their competitors are unfairly benefitting from the plaintiff's research and development efforts. Although discovery in France is limited, Article 145 of the French Code of Civil Procedure can help plaintiffs obtain the necessary evidence through a pretrial investigative measure known as a "référé in futurum."
This law provides:
"If there is a legitimate reason to preserve or to establish, before any trial, the evidence of the facts upon which the resolution of the dispute depends, legally permissible preparatory inquiries may be ordered at the request of any interested party, by way of a petition [ex parte proceedings] or by way of a summary procedure."
This is the same law that French courts cited a few months ago when they ordered Twitter to provide data that could help identify the authors of anti-Semitic tweets.
A trade secret owner can seek a seizure order from the President of the Commercial Court through summary proceedings or, better yet, through ex parte proceedings. In ex parte proceedings, the unfair competitor is not aware of the order authorizing the investigation. This can be highly effective as it gives the trade secret owner an element of surprise.
The alleged victim must establish that the investigation (i) has legitimate grounds and (ii) is strictly required to protect its rights. The President of the Court will then appoint a Bailiff and empower him to seize from the unfair competitor's premises any relevant electronic or hardcopy information and documents that could be used as evidence in a future unfair competition action ("perquisition privée"). The Bailiff generally keeps the seized documents or electronic files until a judicial and adversarial proceeding between the parties has taken place to decide what documents should be turned over to the plaintiff.
Competitors often oppose such seizure orders by asserting their own trade secret rights in the information seized. French courts will typically strike a balance between the necessity for the plaintiff to gather such information to sustain its action and preserve its rights, and the asserted rights of the competitor. Although there's no guarantee that a court will grant a pretrial investigative seizure order, this can be an important mechanism for a victim of trade secret misappropriation in France to obtain the evidence needed to prove its case.
See more »
DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.
© Orrick - Trade Secrets Group | Attorney Advertising
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The Last-Second Dayton Shot That Ruined Almost Everyone's Chances Of Winning A Billion Dollars
Published 2:42 pm, Thursday, March 20, 2014
Dayton upset Ohio State 60-59 in thrilling fashion in the first game of the NCAA Tournament.
Down 59-58, Dayton's Vee Sanford blew by Aaron Craft and his a mid-range jumper with 3.8 seconds left. Craft couldn't convert on the other end, and Dayton won 60-59.
According to ESPN, 80% of people picked Ohio State in their March Madness brackets. For the majority of Americans, the dream of winning Warren Buffett's $1 billion with a perfect bracket is dead.
The shot (full video below):
It's better with sound:
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PKMN Trainer Red!A former trainer champion... |
Last Activity: April 25th, 2014 9:17 PM
About Me
- About PKMN Trainer Red!
- Biography
- I live in Guam and I'm 15 years old...
I like to skate, play pokemon, chat on myspace, and stuff..
well i don't talk alot for intros so
i'll be ending here!!!
lol! - Interests
- I like to play pokemon!!!
well i do enjoy playing other games as well
like tekken 6, monster hunter freedom unite and such! - Location
- Guam
- Gender
- Male ♂
- Nature
- Adamant
- Favorite Pokémon
- Garchomp, Charizard, Salamence, pikachu, and mew