THE INNOCENCE CASE OF FRANK FUSTER
FRONTLINE PRESSRELEASE
Thursday, April
25, at 9pm, 60 minutes
In 1984, Frank Fuster was living the American dream with a nice house in the Miami
suburbs and a new wife who was helping him raise his five-year-old son. Then, Fuster's
world fell apart, as he and his wife found themselves charged with sexually abusing more
than twenty children who attended their unlicensed home day-care center.
Fuster--who it was soon learned had prior convictions for manslaughter and child
molestation--seemed to be the classic perpetrator. Branded a "monster" by
parents and the local media, he was convicted and sentenced to 165 years in prison. His
case would establish a successful method for prosecuting similar day-care abuse cases
nationwide, while also boosting the political fortunes of a state attorney named Janet
Reno, whose office would go on to prosecute additional cases of multiple sexual abuse at
day-care centers in the Miami area.
But was Frank Fuster really guilty of the sexual abuse charges for which he was
convicted? Or was he the victim of a tainted investigation that led to damning testimony
from the state's star witnesses: some twenty children and Fuster's own wife? Eighteen
years later, a FRONTLINE investigation reveals new evidence that calls into question the
seemingly ironclad case against Frank Fuster in "Did Daddy Do It?" airing
Thursday, April 25, at 9 P.M. on PBS (check local listings). The report also includes new
allegations by Fuster's former wife that Janet Reno personally participated in a campaign
to break her down psychologically in order to force her to testify falsely against her
husband.
"Did Daddy Do It?" recalls the media frenzy and public hysteria surrounding
several high-profile day-care abuse cases unfolding across the nation at that time.
Nowhere was that public panic more pronounced than in Miami, where Janet Reno and other
prosecutors had begun vigilantly pursuing day-care sexual abuse cases.
FRONTLINE recounts how Reno developed a special children's unit within the state
attorney's office, where "child experts" Joe and Laurie Braga conducted
videotaped interviews of children suspected of being abused.
In Fuster's case, more than twenty children ultimately reported being raped and
molested by Fuster and his teenaged wife, Ileana. Masks, snakes, drills, and other objects
figured in the children's reports of horrific sexual abuse. Most damning, however, was the
evidence provided by Fuster's son, Noel--whom prosecutors announced had tested positive
for gonorrhea of the throat--and the only adult witness, Ileana, who pleaded guilty and
testified against her husband in exchange for a ten-year sentence.
Following Fuster's conviction, Reno's office would begin to use the so-called
"Miami Method"-- videotaped interviews with children and expert testimony
assuring jurors that the children should be believed--to go after other suspected child
abusers.
David Marcus, a prosecutor in Reno's office, defends the techniques used to interview
the children, saying Reno's unit was one of the first to limit the number of child
interviews in order to minimize the trauma of asking a child to discuss such painful
topics. Dr. Stephen Ceci, a nationally recognized expert on children's memory and
interviewing techniques, disagrees. In particular, Ceci believes the Braga sessions were
rife with leading questions that prompted children to say what they thought the
interviewer wanted to hear.
"Kids are cooperative conversational partners...they want to give you the answer
they think will make you happiest," he says. " And especially if the first
couple of times they resist and just say 'No' and you keep bringing it up, they start to
get the message. They think, 'Well, maybe I've been giving the wrong answer and I should
switch.'"
Perhaps most egregious, Fuster appeal attorney Robert Rosenthal says, was the interview
conducted in the Fuster case with Fuster's young son, Noel. In "Did Daddy Do
It?," viewers witness scenes from this taped interview in which the
Bragas--apparently stymied by Noel's insistence that no one abused him--ask the child if
it's possible that he was abused but simply doesn't remember it because he was hypnotized
or asleep at the time.
"These people did a number on me," Noel Fuster, now 24, tells FRONTLINE.
"They were playing games with a six-year-old's head. They were good at it--I was
confused. But now I know the truth."
That truth, Noel Fuster now says, is that he was never abused by his father. What's
more, defense attorney Rosenthal questions the accuracy of the state's gonorrhea test,
saying that particular kind of test had been shown to be inaccurate, and that the state
had quickly treated Noel so that no further testing was possible.
Now, Ileana Flores, Fuster's former wife has come forward to tell FRONTLINE that her
testimony against her husband was the result of a concerted effort by the state attorney's
office to break her down psychologically and force her to testify against her husband.
"What I testified at trial was not the truth," says Ileana Flores, adding
that Fuster "didn't do any of those things."
Flores recounts a harrowing tale of being kept naked in her Dade County jail cell, held
forcibly under cold showers, and being subjected to repeated psychological badgering aimed
at convincing her that she had repressed memories of Fuster's abuse. She even recalls
late-night visits from Janet Reno.
"I would tell [Reno] 'I am innocent,' and she would say, 'I'm sorry, but you are
not and you're gonna have to help us,'" Flores tells FRONTLINE. "I never forget
her face, like, 'If you don't [testify], something will happen to you....' I was so
scared. Even today, I am afraid of her."
In "Did Daddy Do It?" Janet Reno--now a candidate for governor of
Florida--declines to address Flores's charges, saying only that Flores has changed her
story before. When asked to recall specific details about the case, Reno replies, "I
haven't looked at the file in fifteen years. I would need you to bring me the all the
files and I don't foresee having the time to go through the files."
When FRONTLINE offered to provide Reno with the files, she declined to discuss the case
further.
Meanwhile, Frank Fuster continues to serve his 165-year sentence. He says he turned
down a deal from the state in which he was offered a sentence of fifteen years if he would
plead guilty. "If I had taken [it]," Fuster tells FRONTLINE, "I would have
been home ten years ago." He refused the deal, he says, "Because I am
innocent."
Following the broadcast, visit FRONTLINE's Web site, at www.pbs.org/frontline, for
extended coverage of this story, including:
- Details on the stories of Frank Fuster and Ileana Flores;
- A look at the controversy over the techniques of interviewing children about sexual
abuse;
- A summary of the final outcomes of the 1980s high profile day-care abuse cases;
- FRONTLINE's extended interviews and much more.
"Did Daddy Do It?" is a FRONTLINE co-production with the Kirk Documentary
Group. The producer and director is Michael Kirk. The co-producers are Jim Gilmore and
Rick Young. Peter J. Boyer is the correspondent. The writers are Michael Kirk and Peter J.
Boyer.
FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS.
Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers. National
sponsorship for FRONTLINE is provided by EarthLink® and NPR®.
FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers.
The executive producer for FRONTLINE is David Fanning.
Press contacts:
Erin Martin Kane [erin_martin_kane@wgbh.org]
Chris Kelly [chris_kelly@wgbh.org]
(617) 300-3500
FRONTLINE XX/April 2002
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