In the docudrama "Unspeakable Acts," the prosecutor wants a young girl to testify against her father, accused of sexually abusing dozens of children in his wife's day-care center.
Child psychologists Joseph and Laurie Braga tell him he "can't use her to put him away. It will destroy her. He's the only father she's got and she loves him."Joseph Braga, a University of Miami child psychologist who, with his wife, interviewed the children, resolves the issue with one flat statement: "If it's the case or the child, the child wins."
The Bragas, adjunct professors in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Miami School of Medicine, were in Salt Lake City to address a two-day seminar, "Child Sexual Abuse/A Multidisciplinary Approach." On Wednesday, they screened the docudrama that showed how they helped put together the first successful conviction in a mass-victim sexual abuse case.
The trials that resulted in a not-guilty verdict in the McMartin Preschool case in California and a guilty verdict in the Country Walk Day Care Center case in Florida differed not only in outcome but in the meticulous documentation of every aspect of the Florida case and the extraordinary cooperation between social workers, investigators, prosecutors, child psychologists and others. At the end of the Florida case, Francisco Fuster was sentenced to six life sentences plus 165 years.
In the 15 months from arrest to conviction, no one involved in prosecution lost sight of the main goal: to protect the child at all times, according to Laurie Braga.
In the past, "cases weren't going very well because people weren't working together," Joseph Braga said. "In the McMartin case, they didn't work together."
"Most of us feel children should be inviolate," Utah Attorney General Paul Van Dam told the 260 seminar participants. "But here we are in professions that have to view children in the most unspeakable situations. Most people just don't know. We see how ineffective the system can be . . . how it can work to the detriment of the children we're supposed to help."
If a case is not handled well, the child is retraumatized, he said. Comprehensive plans are necessary.
In "Unspeakable Acts," which Laurie Braga called an accurate portrayal, she explains to the prosecutor that children tell their story a little at a time, in stages, until they're sure they're safe.
"Teach me about children," the prosecutor replies. "I'll teach you about that law."
That's the type of cooperation the Bragas hope to see more of.