Richard Knupp - False Allegation

Knupp, Richard; child sex abuse; NRE: perjury/false allegation, no crime, inadequate legal defense

[579:801]; 4th Dept. 1/31/92; reversed, due to evidentiary error

"[Knupp] was convicted of...several counts [relating to the] sexual abuse of three of his daughters. The girls ranged in age from four to 10 years. We find the evidence sufficient to sustain [Knupp's] convictions; nevertheless, we conclude that [he] was deprived of a fair trial by the admission of opinion testimony regarding intrafamilial child sexual abuse syndrome."

Suggestibility issues

NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"In November 1988, a school nurse spotted a bruise on the leg of a 10-year-old girl in Phelps, New York. The girl said her father had struck her there with a belt when she refused to take medicine for a sore throat. After the nurse filed a child abuse report, the Ontario County Depatment of Social Services -- without interviewing the girl or her parents -- took the girl and her three sisters, ages 4, 6 and 8, from their home and put them in foster care.

"During extensive interviews with Becky Wendt, an unlicensed counselor for a local rural domestic violence progrm, the girls alternately denied being abused either physically or sexually and claimed that they had been sodomized and raped repeatedly by their father, 40-year-old Richard Knupp.

"In December 1988, a pediatrician examined the girls and the two younger ones denied they had been touched, kissed or in any way hurt in their breasts, vaginas or rectums. The two older girls, who were interviewed together,* said Knupp had kissed their breasts, but denied any other sexual abuse. A physical exam suggested possible sex abuse of the 10-year-old girl while an examination of the 8-year-old girl showed no evidence of sexual abuse."

[* Suspected child victims should never be interviewed together, as the possibility for suggestiveness increases exponentially.]

"In February 1989, an Ontario County grand jury indicted Knupp on 2,134 counts [!], including 531 counts of first-degree sodomy, 531 counts of first-degree sexual abuse, 531 counts of incest and 539 counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Knupp's wife, Deborah, was indicted as well on 480 counts of first-degree sexual abuse and child endangerment based on the same evidence.

"Knupp went on trial in Ontario County...Court in the summer of 1989. The trial judge dismissed the charges against his wife for insufficient evidence.

"The prosecution's first witness was Becky Wendt, who testified that her role was to determine the credibility of victims of child sexual abuse and to counsel them if they were credible. She told the jury the children were 'certainly very symptomatic of the child sexual abuse syndrome' and displayed 'symptoms common to the intrafamilial child sexual abuse syndrome.' Wendt said that two of the girls, after telling her they were sexually abused, developed self-destructive eating habits and that the 4-year-old showed 'sexualized behavior.'"

"The oldest girl testified that Knupp 'would bite us all over the place.' Her father also touched her, she said, 'mainly the parts of the legs, parts of the arm or anything like -- it's like spots that didn't feel too good.' Asked to be more specific, the girl said, 'Well, maybe around the private part, but not on it. . .The back, but not the butt.' She later said, 'It's not anywhere near the privates.'

"The girl said she watched 'dirty' movies with her parents, which she described as movies 'like with sexual contact and stuff like monsters and everything.' She said her parents sometmes punished her by striking her with a belt or broom.

"The 4-year-old testified that Knupp had licked her on her 'personals' or 'privates.'

"Knupp's defense attorney called no witnesses. Prior to jury delberations, the trial judge dismissed 2,123 of the counts for lack of evidence, leaving 11 counts for the jury to decide. In June 1989, the jury convicted Knupp of three counts of first-degree sodomy, one count of first-degree sexual assault and seven counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Knupp was sentenced to 13 to 39 years in prison.

"Two months later, in August 1989, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle newspaper published an investigatve report on the Knupps that revealed new details. The newspaper reported that Deborah Knupp's mother -- the girls' grandmother -- had been trying to obtain custody of the girls for several years, starting when the oldest was just a baby. "Twice before, the grandmother had made allegations of child sexual abuse against the Knupps. In 1984, when the family was living in nearby Seneca County, the grandmother accused Richard Knupp of having oral sex with his oldest daughter, but offered to drop the complaint if the Knupps gave her custody of the girl. The Knupps refused and no charges were ever brought. Later, when the Knupps moved to North Carolina, the grandmother followed them there and raised similar allegations. County authorities investigated and decided the charges were unfounded.

"The newspaper found close relatives who did not like Knupp, but nonetheless said they would have testified on his behalf that the charges against him were the result of the grandmother's plot to obtain custody of the girls. The newspaper also pointed out that Knupp had been convicted of child endangerment for showing pornographic movies, but an examination of his video rental records showed no X-rated or pornographic movies.

"The newspaper quoted forensic psychiatrists who were critical of Becky Wendt for serving as the children's therapist and as an expert witness for the prosecution. According to the forensic psychiatrists, Wendt, in her dual role, may well have encouraged the girls to say things they thought Wendt, as their therapist, wanted them to say.

"The newspaper hired a polygraph expert, Warren Holmes, who had given polygraph tests for the FBI and CIA. Holmes administered a polygraph to Knupp and concluded that he was truthful when he denied sexually abusing his daughters."

"On April 22, 1992 [following re-trial], the jury acquitted Knupp.

"Following the acquittal, Knupp's wife, who had supported him during both trials, divorced Knupp and obtained a restraining order that barred him from seeing his children. He died of cancer in 1997.

"The same year that Knupp was acquitted, John Michael Harvey was convicted of sexually abusing his daughter in Texas based on the testimony of Becky Wendt, who had examined the girl when she was staying in New York with her grandmother. In 2003, 11 years after the conviction, the girl recanted her claim that Harvey had molested her. Harvey was exonerated and released in 2004."