Slide Show: The Elsa Newman Story

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Hey! You! Over There! Yeah…You!

This business of writing letters to people who could/should be able to help Elsa Newman and her children is getting monotonous. I receive the same answer every time: nothing…nada…zip…zero…zilch.

I wrote an open letter to Dr. Jill Scharff, who has records from a time when she was the treating psychiatrist for the boys. I suggested that if she would allow those records to be opened, she might be able to spare Elsa’s two sons a lot of pain and abuse. No response.

I wrote an open letter to Stephen Friedman, Elsa’s former attorney, who testified against her, despite attorney-client privilege. No response.

I wrote a letter to Doug Gansler, Attorney General of the state of Maryland. I suggested that, in the interest of justice, it might be worth his while to revisit the Elsa Newman case. Finding and correcting an error in the justice system that he supervises could only make him look good, would it not?  No response.

The same letter I wrote to Gansler, I copied to Katherine Winfree. No response.

I have twice written to one Anders Arestad, a man whom I believe to be quite familiar with Arlen Slobodow. I suspect that Mr. Arestad, if he chose to do so, could have quite a bit to say about Slobodow’s sexual and other abuse of his sons.  There are some who go so far as to suspect that Arestad participated in sexual abuse of the boys. I, on the other hand, have heard that he protested the abuse…that even Arestad thought Slobodow had gone too far. No response.

Why in the world won’t any of these people answer me? What does it take for a little, old lady to draw attention to an injustice in the state of Maryland and find someone who will remedy that injustice?

Yoo-hoo! You out there! Is anybody listening? Isn’t anybody willing to do anything at all?

WHAT IS A KID TO DO?

 

HOW DO YOU ESCAPE AN ABUSER?

or:  Sometimes Nobody Will Help You Unless You Make a Drastic Move

 

Sandy’s* father was a man who kept his children in line with his belt or his fists. These were used, however, not in what I would have called a “spanking” in my little-kid days. Spankings were common when I was a kid, most everybody got one at least once in a while.

But Sandy’s father took the issue far beyond mere spanking and into the realm of beating. It seemed to be common knowledge among the teachers at the middle school Sandy attended. I know. I was one of those teachers. Did we report? Of course we did. Teachers are required by law to report suspected abuse.

And Children’s Services descended sweetly and politely on the household to inquire whether perhaps the children were being treated just a teensy bit roughly. Their investigation, of course, took place in the presence of the abuser. The children were asked if their father was given to beating them. Sweetly and politely, not even having to look at their father for cues, knowing already what would happen to them at his hands should they answer wrongly, each of the four children answered, “No. Why, no…he wouldn’t do anything like that.”

And the next day Sandy came to school with a mouse under one eye and God-only-knows what other signs of her father’s attention hidden under her jeans and her long-sleeved blouse.

Obviously that didn’t work.

Sandy had an older brother who had been in my room one year. I called him “Tom,” although that wasn’t his name. I said he reminded me of Tom Sawyer—who would pretty much go ahead and do whatever he wanted and thought was appropriate and desirable for him, and then take the consequences, which often included a “thrashing” in Twain’s wording.

I guess you could say that worked, in a sense. “Tom” made his own adaptation to the abuse and lived with his decision.

Despite the fact that Sandy herself eventually reported abuse, her report received roughly the same treatment as had reports from the teachers. It was weeks before she stopped looking frightened.

Obviously that didn’t work.

One of the children fled the home and went to live with grandparents.

Another thing that sort of worked. Provided a kid has grandparents he can trust and they are close enough to flee to.

A different time. A different state. A different school. And I was again a teacher. One family of little kids attended the school—which ran from kindergarten through 8^th grade.  The children from this family arrived each day in clothes that were dirty, poorly sized and unmended. The children themselves were usually dirty and unkempt.They came without lunches.  We teachers called CPS about parental neglect of these children. And we called. And called. Nothing, to the best of my knowledge, was ever done.

So that obviously didn’t work.

Only recently in Northern Idaho, a three-year-old named Kyra Wine was taken to the hospital. Neighbors, medical people and friends had asked several times that CPS check on Kyra and her older sister. When a home visit was finally made, authorities found a child who had been terribly injured by her mother’s boy friend—including such things as having her hair pulled so hard that much of it came out and her scalp pulled away from her skull in places. Various parts of her body—including feet and hands had dead and decaying flesh. More than a month later, she is still in the hospital, and doctors are using methadone to keep her pain under control.

The input of nurses, friends and neighbors didn’t do much for this little girl, did it? Authorities arrived in time to save her life—but the rest of what happened to her is unbelievable.

In the state of Maryland, a father drowned his three children in a bathtub during an unsupervised visit at his hotel. This occurred after the children’s mother, Amy Castillo had begged a judge not to allow unsupervised visits because she knew the father was a serious threat to their safety and their lives. The judge ignored the mother’s pleading and allowed the unsupervised visits.

Obviously a mother’s pleading with the court didn’t accomplish much!

What is a kid supposed to do then, when he or she is being abused? It doesn’t matter if the abuse is sexual or physical, mental or emotional. Is there an answer? CPS obviously does not always come up with anything worthwhile, often arriving only after a child has died or been so severely injured that death threatens.

Well, I do know one story about a teenage girl who got herself out of an abusive situation after it had gone on for years. I’ll call her Angela. Angie had suffered abuse of almost every imaginable kind: sexual, physical, emotional and verbal. She had tried to tell her mother, and her mother just told her she had to put up with it, because “that’s just the way men are.”

Obviously disclosing to a mother who didn’t give a damn didn’t accomplish much, either.

I know another mother—her name is Elsa Newman—who did care. She cared so much that she fought to find help for her two sons and ended up in prison. She was convicted of a crime that didn’t even exist—conspiracy to commit murder—when there was neither a murder attempt nor any intention to murder, nor was there any conspiracy.

So, it obviously looks like having a mother who cares immeasurably doesn’t do much good either.

Here is the bottom line: I know one person who was able to come up with a way to help herself. That would be Angie—the girl whose mother didn’t want to know about the abuse. Walking by a public phone one day, she stopped. She dialed. She got the police. And she said, “If you don’t come and get me right now…I’m going to kill myself.”

Police arrived, took her into custody, to protect her—not from the father who had abused her for years, but from herself.

Whatever works!

Would she actually have killed herself? Probably not. But authorities had to take her seriously, just in case.

Angie ended up in a foster home, and she was lucky. It was one of the good ones. There she was cared for and protected. End of story—or as close to the end as I care to bring you. Angie survived. I still know her today.

Obviously a nurse or a concerned friend or neighbor, a mother or a teacher or reports to CPS don’t work as we would like. Children die. Children are tortured. Children are beaten until they are bruised and bloodied. Children are sexually abused and tormented. Children are verbally and emotionally abused.

I tell you honestly that Angie’s is the only success story I know. All the other stories left children in abusive situations.

Do I advise use of her tactics? Heck, no! I’m in no position to give advice to children who suffer abuse. But Angie was desperate to escape her tormented home life, and the way she discovered is the only way I have ever known a child to save herself.

And that’s all I’ve got to say about that!

 *I’ve changed the children’s names and some minor details for the sake of the children’s privacy.

AN OPEN LETTER TO STEPHEN FRIEDMAN

An Open letter to Stephen Friedman:

Why did you lie? That’s really the primary question in the Elsa Newman case. It’s not so much whether you had the right or privilege to testify; you clearly did not. But when you testified, why in the world did you lie?

Why did you show up in court with all those notes? You never took notes when you were conferring with Elsa Newman. Documentation from her computer shows that she filed complaints about that. No notes. Exhorbitant fees. Breaks to go “get a Coke,” and then billing her for the breaks. Sleeping while she was in your office and you were recording billable time. Or else pretending to sleep—either way, she was billed and there were no notes.

And for God’s sake, why did you tell the court that Elsa Newman and Margery Landry sat in front of you and planned a homicide? Elsa Newman may have been naïve in trusting you and the rest of Maryland’s legal system. Naïve, but not stupid.

This is one intelligent woman. She was a graduate with highest honors of Goucher College and the University of Maryland School of Law. Her curriculum vitae is most impressive and includes a listing in Who’s Who in American Law.

And you proposed to the court, to Maryland, to the United States and to the world that this intelligent woman sat in your office with a family friend and was so unbelievably, incredibly, doggone stupid that she sat there in front of you and conspired to commit murder?

No-no-no. I rather suspect that you were ticked off because of her complaints about you. Got tired of them, did you? Figured out a way to get even, did you?

My God, man…you even admitted on the stand that you believe Arlen Slobodow is sexually abusing at least one of Elsa’s children! And then you lied to help put her in prison? You lied to leave those children in the hands of the man they had said is their abuser—sexually, physically, mentally and emotionally.

Just so you know I’m not the only one who would think and say this of you, I’m reproducing here an entry from the blog of the wizardofoz in Australia.

Oh, your reputation as a liar is spreading around the world. Isn’t that a good thing? If we expose the liars of the U.S., then perhaps we will help the truth to come out. And as Shakespeare and I have been saying, “The truth will out.” Yes, it will, Stephen Friedman. In the US…in Australia, thanks to the wizard…and in the UK, too, for I also have a blog there.

Here is just a portion of the wizard’s most recent blog. He actually called it “A Cacophony of Lies.” Interesting title, wot?

You lied, Stephen Friedman. Yes. You did. You said that Elsa Newman sat in your office and told you of how she wanted to kill her estranged husband. And you also said she talked of killing one of her sons, so she could save the other and so her estranged husband would “get what he deserved, because he’s a criminal.” You said she talked of this with Margery Landry. You said she talked of it to you.

But you were not quite careful enough about your lie, Stephen Friedman. You gave yourself away. You gave away the lie, Mr. Friedman. There are so many holes in that lie that I could walk through it, and I’m not a small man.

First, you gave away the lie when you said Elsa talked about killing one of her sons. You never took time to know Elsa Newman, or you would know she would never have said such a thing. According to what I have learned about Elsa Newman, everything she did, she did for her children.

Second, you gave away the lie when you said Elsa Newman spoke, in front of you and in your office, about killing Arlen Slobodow. Whatever Elsa Newman may be, loving mother, protective mother, besieged mother (and by that I mean besieged by the so-called “justice” system in the United States) she is not stupid. She is an attorney, and she knows full well that one does not speak, in the presence of any attorney or, in fact, in the presence of any credible witness of any sort, about murdering one’s spouse or murdering one’s children or any other murder.

Further, it requires an incredible amount of stupidity or gullibility or credulity or whatever you want to call it to believe that this highly intelligent mother would act in such an incredibly stupid fashion as to discuss murder in front of any person, including her own attorney.

Third, you gave away the lie when you stated that Elsa Newman spoke to you of two diametrically opposed plans. One, you said, was that she was going to murder her estranged husband. The other was that she was going to murder one of her children and place the blame on Arlen Slobodow. It takes only a small amount of common sense and intelligence to realize that the so-called “plots” were mutually exclusive. You can’t have it both ways, Mr. Friedman. It would require a complete fool to believe you.

Fourth, you gave away your lies when you supposed that Margery Landry and Elsa Newman plotted to have Landry break into Slobodow’s house when the children were visiting, and that Landry would carry a gun. Barry Helfand, Elsa’s attorney at the criminal trial, addressed this issue, saying, “[It is ridiculous] that anyone would believe that Elsa Newman…whatever her misgivings are, or were, would ever have allowed Marge Landry to go into this house and to shoot this man and then kill this man and to then have her two children wake up in the morning, either hearing gunshots, be in danger of these gunshots or even worse, even if not in danger, to walk in and find their father lying dead in a bed and having to call the police…[line missing from trial transcript].”

Nor are you the only one, Stephen Friedman, to brand Stephen Friedman a liar. Margery Landry testified that you lied. Landry said to the judge in a pre-sentence letter that she had been given chances to turn on Elsa Newman and testify against her. Landry didn’t do it. She didn’t do it, because she alone was responsible for breaking into the house and for the accidental shooting of Arlen Slobodow during a scuffle over the gun. Elsa had nothing to do with that misguided plot (and I must remind you that the supposed plot never even existed; there was no conspiracy) which you tried to lay at the door of both women together.

Finally, Elsa Newman herself stated that your words fell far short of truth. She stated, in fact, that you “were either asleep or pretending to sleep” during many of her sessions in your office. She stated that when she asked you to remain awake and listen to her, you were highly offended. She stated that you never took notes when in conference with her, preparing for trial. Again, this was a situation to which she strenuously objected, and about which you became quite incensed, as though a mere woman and a mother agonizing over the continuing sexual assault of her children had no right to challenge you. 

And yet, when you arrived in court to testify against her, you had many pages of “notes,” supposedly taken during these same conferences. I believe you referred to those notes frequently, as if reminding yourself of something that happened or was said, or of precisely how it happened or was said. How long did it take you to walk back through your memory and write down those notes, Stephen Friedman? How did you do it? Perhaps your secretary had an appointment book so you could get the dates right, at least.

Beyond that, you lied, Stephen Friedman. Yes, Stephen Friedman, you certainly did!

In fact, even Maryland’s highest court deemed your testimony improper. You had no right or reason to testify against Elsa Newman, who had been your client. You had no right or reason, and yet you insisted on propagating a story that you carefully fabricated from the whole cloth of feral untruth.

 Thus ends the blog entry of the wizardofoz–from Australia, of course.

LET THERE BE JUSTICE FOR ALL?

 

 

 

THREE VERSIONS: EVIDENCE OF THE SEXUAL ABUSE OF ELSA NEWMAN’S CHILDREN…

 

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SUPPOSED “RECANTATION” –AS SAID “RECANTATION” WAS ORCHESTRATED BY QUE EDWINA WALLACE—

 

As a matter of fact, one of the reasons I believe Elsa Newman is because of this horrendous interrogation of her two children by detectives. Let me say here, quite plainly, that as an attorney who believed the American system of justice was sure to help her and her two sons, Elsa was far more than a little naïve. She was a lot naïve.

 

So when Que Edwina Wallace and a partner strongly suggested that Elsa Newman bring her two sons in for questioning, Elsa obliged, sure that cooperation with authorities would work to the advantage of herself and her sons. The disclosures of the boys were to be heard at last. As I understand the series of events, Que Edwina Wallace took the two little boys aside into some sort of interrogation room. Elsa was informed that she would wait for them elsewhere.

 

While Elsa waited for her sons in this place apart from the interrogation room, the boys were grilled—by Que Edwina Wallace, as I understand it—literally for hours, about their disclosures of sexual abuse. They had imparted the details of this sexual abuse to their mother. They had stated clearly that their father was the abuser. They were held in that room for so long that Elsa’s younger son—too frightened to ask permission to use a bathroom—emptied his bowels into his underwear. Shortly after that, he was apparently escorted to a different room to wait for his mother. Probably smelled bad enough that the interrogating detective didn’t want to put up with the odor.

 

After many hours—I believe it was over six hours—the interrogating detective, this same Que Edwina Wallace, emerged, triumphant and absolutely beaming, from the interrogation room, followed by Elsa’s older son, who appeared so weary that a simple thing like walking was almost beyond him. This was [name omitted.] [Name omitted] had gone completely white in the face. “[This young man],” announced Que Edwina Wallace, “has made a disclosure.”  Elsa stared at her, puzzled, unable to understand why this officer of the law that Elsa so trusted… wondered why she was so happy if the boy had, indeed, made a disclosure of abuse. “Tell her,” said Que Edwina Wallace  to [the boy.]

 

White-faced, obviously anguished, the boy blurted, “I made it all up, Mom,” and hung his head.

 

Elsa was left to claim her younger son, clean him up as best she could in a restroom, take the two boys home and try to restore some degree of their faith in themselves and what they knew to be true.

 

And Que Edwina Wallace? Whoever had instructed her to see to it that the boys sucked back their disclosures and began denying…whoever that was must have been very pleased with Que Edwina Wallace. Very pleased indeed.

 

SO ENDS THIS ACCOUNT OF A POLICE DETECTIVE WHO CONDUCTED BRUTAL INTERROGATION OF TWO VERY NICE LITTLE BOYS WHO TRIED THEIR BEST TO MAINTAIN THE HONESTY AND INTEGRITY OF THEIR DISCLOSURES—AND WHO FAILED BECAUSE ONE QUE EDWINA WALLACE APPARENTLY REFUSED TO ALLOW THEM TO LEAVE THE ROOM UNTIL THEY HAD RECANTED.

 

QUE EDWINA WALLACE WOULD HAVE DONE THE INQUISITION PROUD!

 

 

THE TRUTH AS TOLD BY [name withheld]—JUST A TINY PORTION OF THE DISCLOSURES OF CHILD ABUSE AGAINST ARLEN SLOBODOW—TAKEN FROM A TRANSCRIPT OF COURT RECORDS [video shown during hearing], ELSA NEWMAN MOTIONS HEARING AND SENTENCING, SECOND TRIAL:

{Name withheld] Slobodow: My dad stuck a (unintelligible) into my brother’s butt and he, he touched my crotch and butt and he touched it under my (unintelligible).

Unidentified Person: Okay.

[Name withheld] Slobodow: And this is the truth. This is another thing about the truth. And my mom told me to tell the truth.

Unidentified Person: Uh-huh.

[Name withheld] Slobodow: And [my brother] told, I mean dad, I think dad told [my brother] to cut it down and he came out of the room with his pants down crying and I pulled him up and then he stopped crying and we hugged each other.

For more information of what [these children] have said their dad did to them, please see other entries in this blog site.]

THE KATHERINE WINFREE VERSION—TAKEN FROM A TRANSCRIPT OF COURT RECORDS, ELSA NEWMAN MOTIONS HEARING AND SENTENCING, SECOND TRIAL:

“…they examined the toy that this child apparently said his father abused him with and how physically it could not have happened.

About all the other recantations that these children made about how [name withheld], when he, after he recanted in front of a police detective in D.C. and his mother found out, she hollered at him and he defecated in his pants.”

[Wow! Is this a variation from the children’s account  or what? I suppose Que Edwina Wallace dared not admit what really happened.]

 

ANOTHER DARN OPEN LETTER? or The Kids Disclosed WHAT?

AN OPEN  LETTER TO ALL PEOPLE WHO “PROTECT” CHILDREN: INCLUDING THE PROSECUTOR IN THE STATE OF MARYLAND, WHO WORE STILLETO HEELS AND COMPLAINED–EVERY TIME SHE HAD TO APPROACH THE BENCH—ABOUT HER ACHING FEET; INCLUDING EVERY CHILDCARE WORKER OR SOCIAL SERVICES WORKER IN THE STATE OF MARYLAND, USA…IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA, USA…AND ANYWHERE ELSE THIS  MIGHT APPLY.

IF THE SHOE FITS? WEAR IT! And quite complaining that your feet hurt; the children you are supposed to care so much about have far more pain than you have yet imagined.

 

Child sexual abuse—especially when the abuse takes place at the hands of a family member—is extremely difficult to prove, especially when it takes place in the context of a bitterly contested divorce and a bitter disagreement over child custody. This is the situation faced by Elsa Newman. Her children made disclosure after disclosure after appalling disclosure to her, regarding what their father, Arlen Slobodow was doing to them. They begged her to find a way to put an end to visits with their father. They offered her horrifying facts. And when Elsa Newman began the fight to save her children from that sexual abuse, it was said of her, “She is so crazy!” [per Katherine Winfree in an email to Susan Mercer.] Nor was Winfree the only one who made the accusation. The father himself, Slobodow, testified to a dark and twisted relationship between his estranged wife and family friend Margery Landry. It was a “crazy” relationship that had Landry, according to Slobodow, running hither and thither, taking on the bidding of Elsa Newman. A psychologist who testified at her first trial—having set aside his tests and basing his evaluation solely on interviews—said that Elsa was—you guessed it!—crazy, a borderline personality. (Testing had shown her well within the normal range.)

Same psychologist—different subject—testified that Arlen Slobodow fell well within the range of “normal,” despite the fact that he had also thrown out Slobodow’s tests and based his opinion on interview. (And guess what the tests showed about Slobodow? Hah! Not good. The psychologist had to throw out said tests, if he was to have anything positive to say about the father of Elsa’s children.)

God only knows who else used that term about Newman—“crazy”. Perhaps it was certain members of the jury, who declared that they knew before the trial ever started that Elsa was guilty.

Do you remember the story of Elizabeth Morgan? The doctor who sent her child into hiding and spent two years in jail for refusing to tell where the child was…because Elizabeth Morgan believed the child’s father was sexually abusing her? Elizabeth Morgan was also labeled “crazy.”

I read on the internet of other women who have similarly tried to help their children gain freedom from a sexually abusive father. And what is it that I read? Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!

However, my best guess after taking a long, hard look at what the internet has to offer…as well as taking a long, hard look books like the one co-authored by Michelle Etlin and Leora Rosen, The Hostage Child, is that it is not at all the protective, loving mothers who are “crazy.”

Nope.

It is the prosectors and the courts, the American “justice” system and the judges who practice court-ordered child abuse. Now that is what’s crazy.

Perhaps you will indulge me. Take time to read the material I have transcribed below—material in which Elsa Newman recorded, without personal comment, the horrors her children disclosed to her. As you read, please remember that these are only a portion of the facts on which Elsa Newman based her certainty that Arlen Slobodow was sexually abusing and misusing her children. There are many more. There is not time to include all of them.

I’m indulging in a rant, I know. Sorry. But please read on, anyhow, knowing that you are only reading a portion of the disclosures that these children made.

If I understand correctly, the Chief Deputy Attorney General of the State of Maryland, Katherine Winfree, in the days before she became Chief Deputy Attorney General, wrote to Florida authorities, explaining very sweetly that thorough investigations had been done in the state of Maryland…and there was no evidence that Arlen Slobodow was sexually abusing his sons.

Let us ignore for a moment the fact that this was not just a highly unusual communication for someone in a position of authority to make, it was also highly unethical. In addition, I wonder about the legality of it—but that is, admittedly, just a random thought of mine that popped into my head.

So…there was no evidence in Maryland of sexual abuse, huh? Let me set out here a few disclosures by Elsa Newman’s children, and you can decide for yourself.

First—please refer to the recent post I recently made in several blogs, as welling as sending the letter out by email: “An Open Letter to Dr. Jill Scharff,” in which I noted that I believe Dr. Scharff has considerable evidence of the abuse of the boys by their father, Arlen—and that she has declined to offer it to authorities, citing physician-client privilege, after she had already reported sexual abuse of the two boys, by Slobodow.

Second—let’s take a look at some of the disclosures made during visits with Mom, Elsa Newman, at District of Columbia Family Services. These visits were made with an observer/supervisor in the room, and the disclosures themselves are dated:

March 1, 2001—[Name withheld] called dad evil. Said he hated Dr. Fox and dad.

March 8, 2001—Elsa asked one of the boys why his voice was raspy. The boy’s answered, “I was yelling at dad that I hate him and Dr. Fox. I don’t want to see Dr. Fox anymore.”

March 15, 2001—Per [name withheld] “Dad cut up the toy that mom had given.” He repeated this to Mrs. Wilma Daniels, the supervisor at the time, who wrote it down. Maternal grandmother, now in Florida, saw this.

March 20, 2001—[Name withheld] says, “Dad does not break our toys anymore, just hurts us.” [Name withheld] instructed, “Don’t tell her, she tells dad. Dad beat me for telling about the toy.” (Social worker instructed Elsa not to give toys any more.)

[Name withheld] says, “My bottom hurts.” Why? [Child] turns to supervisor and says, “because Dad keeps stuffing toys in my bottom.” [Name withheld]  interrupts, “Don’t tell her, she tells dad, and dad beat me for telling about the toy.”

April 2, 2001 Both boys say Dad is mean to [name withheld], Dad is too old (possible reference to sexual relationship with [Name withheld]. [Name withheld] is younger and therefore more attractive to a pedophile.)

Herbie states that he is punished by not being able to go to Sunday School.

April 3, 2001 Lars states, “My bottom hurts.” Supervisor, at this time a woman named Magwood, asked, “What did he say?” She called [name withheld] over and asked about the statement. “Dad puts toys in my bottom.”

April 9, 2001, [Child] has a long bruise mark on his arm from dad. Stated that he had burned his arm because his dad would not let him get his Pokemon cards. Ms. Firestein was sitting in.

May 29, 2001, Photo of bruise on [child's] nose during supervised visit. Bruises on face. Janice Magwood is again the supervisor. Germain Walker also present. [Child] would not say what had happened.

May 22, 2001—[Name withheld} said he hates Dad. Dad puts toys out and turns TV on when Ms. Magwood is coming. Said, “Dad made me eat ants.” He showed Elsa how dad had squished the ants in his mouth. Supervisor Janice Magwood heard this. Did nothing about it. This occurred at the Child and Family Services building.

June 11, 2001, [Name withheld] says, “Mom, you said what we said was lies, but they weren’t. We told the truth of what dad does. [Name withheld] goes to Magwood and says, “Dad takes us into a dark room and puts toys into our bottom.” [Child], when asked, says he tells the therapist. Elsa asked what Dr. Fox does “Nothing,” Magwood says, “That is the first time he talked to me like that.”

June 13, 2001—Magwood says “kids said so much already, why must they say more?”  Elsa notes that she perceives this as an excuse not to report. Asks that readers remember that this is the DC case dismissed against her, when she was accused of abuse and neglect.

June 22, 2001—Magwood returns [child] to Arlen’s House. They are all in the same car. [Child] waves. Arlen pulls [child] off the railing, wrenches his arms of the railing and drags him into the house. Magwood saw this.

July 16, 2001—Photos of rash. Dr. Dugan says this rash can be sexually transmitted. [I believe this is in reference to a time when [name withheld] had a rash from his anus, spreading out to his buttocks and up to his shoulders. If this is the time and the physician I am thinking of, Dr. Dugan muttered “or a wet bathing suit” and did not report.

Third–Let’s move on to a list of disclosures the boys made to their mother:

March, 2000—[Children], “Dad wrestles with us and tickles us and he won’t stop.

March 12, 2000—[Child] insists that Dad is not his father, that he is an alien.

March 25, 2000—[Child] asks me why I make him have visits with Dad.

April 1, 2000—[Child] said he had an accident at Dad’s and Dad kept calling him “peeboy” until [child]threw himself at Dad.

April 13, 2000—At bedtime, [Name withheld] begged me not to send him to Dad’s. He wouldn’t stop crying because I could not agree not to send him.

April 16, 2000—Dad kicked [name withheld], threw grass on him (which he is allergic to) and touched his private parts.

April 27, 2000—[Child] came home crying from Dad’s, saying he could not see.

May 4, 2000—[Name withheld] said Dad calls him fat & that Dad rewards [name withheld] when he says Mom hit him & [name withheld] says that’s not true.

May 6,2000—Arlen kicked [the children]; keeps telling [name withheld] he doesn’t love him & that [name withheld] would go to heaven & [name withheld] to hell.

May 12, 2000—[Child] tells me all evening he doesn’t want to go to Dad’s tomorrow.

June 3, 2000—[Child] said Dad kicked him in the crotch until he [child] kicked [brother] in the crotch. Dad kicked and punched both of them and laughed.

June 10, 2000—Dad bit [Name withheld]’s arm leaving 2 red dots. Dad said [name withheld] & I [Elsa] were going to die in a fire.

June 18, 2000—Dad smooshed [name withheld's] shoe in dog doo & made [child] clean it. Dad takes [other child] to a private room.

June 27, 2000—Dad pushed [name withheld] down the stars. [Child] said Dad put his mouth on [child's] wee wee. [Name withheld]  saw [his brother] with Dad in his room with his pants pulled down. On the way back home, Dad said, “We’re going to terrible Mom’s.”

 

[NOTE: I’m interrupting here to insert records from a July 11, 2000 visit to a medical doctor. These are marked NOT privileged—medical records. I therefore assume that I am free to use them.

Notation on the records states that three persons were present for the examination of [name withheld]: mother, brother and patient.  The record continues:

Name withheld:

Subjective: 7 yr. old Caucasian boy here for medical evaluation. Father reportedly has bitten his crotch/put finger in anus. Denies dysurea (?), rectal pain or rectal itching. Mother has seen occasional scratching. [Name withheld] bathes himself, but his mother helped bathe last 2 nights. Has not visted father for last 2 weeks. Seen by pediatrician on this am referral to CAP. Mother concerned missed visitation for examination.

Disclosure by Child: My father has tickled/bitten my crotch and put his finger in my butt. (Giggling with brother)…mother did ask both boys if father ever touched their butts (bottom).

Objective:  Age & size appropriate 7 yr old. Neatly dressed. Circumsized penis no lesions or marks penus or scrotal sac testes descended. Anus—red (?) skin folds and tone, hyperpigmental ring extremity 3 cm from anus—symmetric acute excoriation between anal folds. Shallow. Multiple. [also notes insect bits and plantars warts]

Assessment/diagnosis: symmetric hyperpigmentation (?) digital penetration of rectum. No loss of skin folds or tone. No evidence bit marks on genitals Normal examination does not exclude digital petetration.

 

Name withheld:-mother, brother and patient

Subjective: 4 ½-year old Caucasian boy here for examination. Seen also this a.m. in pediatrician’s office referral to CAP. Denied dysuria or pan or defecation per mother. Usually bathes and toilets self.

Disclosure by child: My father bites my crotch and puts toys in my bottom.

Objective: No penile lesion circumcised testes descended. No scrotal lesions. Anal tone normal, does have intermittent dilation…normal finding in knee chest position…small ring post inflammatory hyperpigmentation 1 cm from anal verge.

Assessment: Normal examination does not exclude digital penetration. No evidence of genital trauma.

Treatment: sitz baths.

 

Follow-up visit: Name withheld

Date 7/16/01

Progress notes: 8-yr-old boy with rash in perianal anus

…atopy and ecxema

Perianal rash with circles of scale

No intact pistules

On both cheeks of buttocks

erythematos

 

Note here that proving child sexual abuse can be difficult in the extreme, especially when the abuser is someone close to the child, like a father. Physician seems unwilling to make a statement—but will not exclude such abuse either.]

 

 

July 16, 2000—[Name withheld] tells me his bottom hurt & I saw symmetrical red marks inside his anus. [Child] said Dad put the feet of a transformer toy in his bottom. [Child] said Dad took [brother]  into the private room & closed the door. [Name withheld] said Dad made noises like this, “uh…uh” when he did it.

September 10, 2000—[Name withheld] said [brother] got in his bed in the middle of the night and tickled [Name withheld's] crotch ([child] slept in Dad’s bed.) [Child] wet the bed.

September 11, 2000—[Child]wet the bed again.

September 24, 2000—[Name withheld] said no one likes him at Dad’s. Dad twisted his arm behind his back and bent his wrist backwards. Dad gave him one French fry for dinner. [Brother] said Dad tickled his crotch.

September 26, 2000—Dad told [Name withheld] to hit [name withheld]  & rewarded him [name withheld] with candy.

October 3, 2000—In the middle of the night, [Child] came in my room and said he was scared of Dad tickling his peepee because he always does that.

October 4, 2000—While we were walking the dog at school waiting for ]Name withheld.] [Name withheld] told me he is scared of Dad because Dad is mean to [Name withheld].

October 9, 2000—[Name withheld] again tells me he follows Dad & [brother] to the basement in the middle of the night because he’s afraid Dad will touch [brother's] crotch. Herbie said Dad threw his clothes on the fan and he had to get them with no clothes on. Then Dad threw his clothes downstairs and [Name withheld] had to run downstairs. Then Dad threw the clothes outside & [name withheld] went outside w/o clothes to get them.

October 10, 2000—A.m. Both say, separately, they don’t want to visit Dad. At bedtime, [Name withheld] says he stayed home alone at Dad’s, he cannot play w/any toys. Dad tells Christina Mom puts toys in [name withheld]’s bottom & the kids don’t tell the truth (& C said I’m a bad Mom) that [name withheld]tickled [name withheld's] crotch & pulled his pants down, that Dad said he hates [name withheld] & called him stupid. Lars wets his bed several times tonight.

October 17, 2000—Both kids demonstrate the tiny piece of tomato [name withheld] was given to eat at Dad’s.

October 18, 2000—[Name withheld] was afraid to go to the bathroom alone, afraid to go upstairs to get a toy.

October 23, 2000—Both kids said Dad tickled their crotches & put his hand inside [child's] pants w/his other hand over [child's] mouth. When [brother] tried to stop him, Dad punched him. [Name withheld] said Dad played with his wiener & said he was playing the piano. Dad made him do thousands, hundreds, nineties, eighties multiplication & hit his hand hard when [child]made a mistake. Dad told [child]he would beat him up if he told him off again. Dad told [name withheld] not to tell Mom or he would beat him up double.

October 26, 2000—[Name withheld] said he does all the laundry at Dad’s & when he hits the wrong buttons, Dad punches him hard.

November 7, 2000—[Name withheld] said his bottom hurts because Dad puts his nails in [name withheld's] bottom & stuck his nose in [name withheld's] bottom & a toy. [Name withheld] said Dad made him smell his poop.

November 8—[Name withheld] told me he told Dr. Copeland that Dad put his hand in [name withheld's] bottom & got poop on it and was mad at [name withheld]. Both said that Dad said he would get them at night if they told on him. That Dad would put [Name withheld's] foot through the window glass & leave [Name withheld] alone w/o bandaid. At dark, [child] followed me all around and held onto my sweater. He needs reassurinance all the time: what are we doing? do we eat now? Cries if he doesn’t have right cup. Upset if his hair is sticking up a bit. Worries about changing his clothes during the day, Questions me all the time. Anxious.

November 13, 2000—[Name withheld] had a terrible nightmare, screaming that a wolf (transformer) was eating him.

November 14, 2000—Dad motioned [child] to come outside, made him take his clothes off & tickled him repeatedly. [Child] asked him to stop but he didn’t. Inside he ticked more & gave him a glass of ice water to drink. [Child] said in Florida, Dad put tissue paper over his eyes, tying it and put something in his bottom.

November 19, 2000—[Child] said at Dad’s [brother] went in [brother's] bed again & ticked his crotch. [Child] told me his bottom hurt & it looked blistered w/red marks inside. [Child] said he tells Dad to stop but he doesn’t. [Name withheld] wet Dad’s bed & was hit.

November 27, 2000—[Child] said that at night while [brother] was asleep, Dad broke off the chain of [brother's] mezuzah & took it. [Child] said he doesn’t want to visit Dad anymore because he puts toys in his bottom. {Brother] said Dad does that to him, too. 20 times, he counted. Dad uses a wolf transformer. [Name withheld] stays alone at Dad’s & Dad unplugs the phones.

November 29, 2000—Lars said Anders put his head under Dad’s tummy (he gestured where) and dad said no, no and “did what Dad does to us.” Anders showed Dad it was bad.

December 10, 2000—[Child] told me he wanted a bath when he got home because Dad put a toy in his bottom. He said in the middle of the night, Dad took him to the bathroom, tickled his crotch & put a toy in his bottom. [Child] said Dad tickled his crotch when he played the violin. [Name withheld] described how Dad takes his arm, starts laughing, whispers funny & takes him to his room & says, “this toy wants to sleep in there” when he puts a toy in.

December 12, 2000—[Child] said Dad made him take all his clothes off & go up to the private room. He sad Dad put a toy in his anus and tickled his peepee. [Child] asked me to stay w/him when he was on the toilet. Then he asked me to wipe him. I saw a red ring around the anus. I called John & he saw it too. When [Child] sat down in his bath, I saw a cloud of red puff up in the water & when he got out, the ring was gone.

December 29, 2000—[Child] said Dad put his hand in his bottom & that his bottom hurt and his peepee hurt when he pees. [Child] said he punched Dad’s face when Dad put a toy in his bottom and a lens came out of Dad’s glasses and Dad’s nose was bleeding.

December 30, 2000—[Child] said Dad is meaner to me than [brother] because dad puts his mouth on my peepee every time he puts a toy in my bottom. There are 3 drawers with toys. The ones we hate the most are the ones Dad calls good toys & he puts them in our bottoms, a small brontosaurus [name withheld] & a small worlf transformer [name withheld] [Name withheld] doesn’t like the transformer because it speaks mean like Dad “hit.” “destroy the world. When you squeeze it, it sticks its tongue out. Also a brachiosaurus goes in [brother's] bottom. In the “bad” drawer are the toys we like to play with that Dad tries to break. Dad takes [child] & uses him as a punching bag.  [Name withheld] gets up and punches in front of him.) [Name withheld] said it hurts. Every night Dad takes [child] to the bathroom. Dad showed a video with a magician who makes kids appear naked and with towels around them. Dad took pictures of us with no clothes on and in a pirate costume.

December 31, 2000—At bedtime, [name withheld] says it’s taking too long to stop the visits.

January 1, 2001—At bedtime, [child] says its taking super long to stop the visits. When [Name withheld] goes to bed, [name withheld] must go to the basement & draw nice pictures of Dad (with hair) & of Miss Ward & bad pictures of Aunti Margie & Uncle John. Then he is to put [name withheld] to sleep. He waves a toy back & forth. Said he doesn’t know how. Dad always hits me because I can’t. [Brother] dances with my weiner.

January 10, 2001—[Name withheld] said Dad but a scissors in his bottom. [Brother]  showed how Dad drums on his penis with his fingers. Dad took more pictures of them w/o clothes. Dad took his clothes off. Dad pointed a gun at Herbie.

January 13, 2001—[Name withheld] told me Dad smokes cigarettes.

January 14, 2001—[Name withheld] told me the worst thing is when Dad puts his hands in his bottom because his nails are sharp & they hurt. Dad throws shoes at them at nite. [Name withheld] is…

January 16, 2001—[Child] told me Dad put a toy in his bottom and touched his peepee.

January 17, 2000—At Dad’s in the middle of the night, Dad took [name withheld] to the basement with a torch and took [name witheld's] bottoms off & put each leg in one leg of a pair of underpants, then put pajama bottoms back on & took pictures of him. [Brother] watched. Dad put a tiny toy, like a lego, in both their bottoms and squeezed their penises. [Name withheld] did not get dinner.

January 19, 2001—[Name withheld] said Dad said if he doesn’t get more money, he’s going to hurt them & kill them.

January 21, 2001—Message that if I called back right away I could have input whether a plastic surgeon should sew up [child's] face which needed stitches.

January 22, 2001—On phone when I called I asked [child]  if [brother] hurt his head by falling. [Child] said no, Mom.

January 25, 2001—[Name withheld] is afraid Dad will kill his toy dog. Dad made [name withheld] eat oranges which he doesn’t like & [brother] eat burned apple. [Name withheld] showed me how Dad pushed [brother] with both his hands on [brother's] shoulder & [brother] hit his head on the radio & fell to the ground & was bleeding. [Child] helped him up & Dad got mad at him.

January 30, 2001—[Name withheld] told me Dad hurt [brother's] bottom more than his. [Brother] says when he told Dad to stop, he did it more. [Brother's] teacher told me Herbie was eating dirt on the playground.

February 1, 2001—[Name withheld] told me Dad put underwear on his head and took pictures of him.

February 11, 2001—[Name withheld] showed me where Arlen bites his peepee & I saw tiny dark dots.

February 15, 2001—[Neighbor chlid's] mother told me [name withheld] did not have lunch some days.

July 7, 2001—On way to school [name withheld] was playing a game w/a male figure toy, put his nose to the toy’s rear and said, “I smell your butt & it smells good.” He told me Dad likes to smell theirs. [Name withheld] said Dad puts his mouth on [name withheld's] peepee every morning.

July 13, 2001—[Name withheld] told me dad sucks his peepee.

July 16, 2001—[Name withheld] saw Dr. Dugan at 8:30 a.m. & we left @ 9:30. She diagnosed candida. The children said that when I dropped the off Monday, A[rlen] watched me drive away through the window, then took [name withheld] to his room and “tickled his penis w/his chin.” Then he sent [name withheld] out, took [brother] in his room and closed the door and punched his bottom while he put his mouth on his pee-pee.

[Name withheld] complained that Dr. Fox asks him what bad things Mom does. When [name withheld] says it’s not Mom who does bad things, she’s good. It’s Dad who does the bad things. Fox tells him that’s not true.

[Name withheld] said Anders tries to push dad away when dad puts his mouth on Lars’s peepee, but Dad still doesn’t stop.

[Name withheld] told me that Dad holds his legs so he can’t get away. [Name withheld] said dad pushes him down on the bed or chases him until he catches him and holds his legs down while he’s lying on the bed & tickles his weiner with his chin. It stings.

August 3, 2001—When A[rlen] called, [child] asked “why do you touch my private parts when I’m in the bath?”

August 8, 2001—I noticed [child's] right eyelid was red and puffy and he has been complaining about his eye since he came back. Today he told me that dad hit him in the eye with a shoe.

[Name withheld] showed how Dad punches his stomach. [Name withheld] said Dad punches him there because it doesn’t show bruises there (he said he’s looked at his stomach and seen that it doesn’t show bruises.)) The children both said tha A[rlen] abuses them twice a day.

August 19, 2001—[Name withheld] said to Arlen on phone “my pee-pee itches. Why do you put your mouth on my pee-pee?” A[rlen] got off the phone shortly after that.

August 22, 2001—Watching credits of video w/lively music, Lars jumps off my lap and, in front of the TV starts dancing. Then he takes his shirt of & twirls it before throwing it. He puts his thumbs in the waistband of his pants before I stop hem. He tells me he dances like this in dim light in the basement of the new house for Dad & Anders to soft music. Dad puts his peepee in [name withheld's] mouth & white stuff came out & I cleaned it off the floor. It wasn’t pee because that is green.

August 4, 2001—On supervised visit, [name withheld] hugged little stuffed animal I gave him and said, “I’ll protect you from dad.”

August 5, 2001—On phone, [child] kept laughing inappropriately and I asked him why. He said Dad was showing him a picture of a girl with a weiner sticking out.

Here ends my copy of Elsa’s record about the abuse of her children.

 

AN OPEN LETTER TO DR. JILL SCHARFF

AN OPEN LETTER TO DR. JILL SCHARFF:

 

Please allow me to introduce myself as a rather obnoxious-style little, old lady in tennis shoes–bearing in mind, of course that being such has nothing to do with being little (I am more than plump) or old (although I am nearing seventy) or a lady (decidedly not–I prefer chopping wood to drinking tea or whatever it is that ladies do to earn that title) or wearing tennis shoes. It is a state of mind. And my state of mind at present is occupied with the anguish of Elsa Newman and her children.

 

My extreme dismay at this moment is based on my having just discovered that there  is, in fact, available evidence establishing disclosures made by Elsa’s sons that their father was sexually abusing them. This evidence lies in the records of Dr. Jill Scharff of Chevy Chase, Maryland, the treating psychiatrist who spent literally hours and hours with the two boys.

 

First, as I understand it, Dr. Scharff did, at one point, report this abuse, as is required by law. What happened to that report, I do not know. I do believe that in filing the report, Dr. Scharff has already waived any right to confidentiality of material about her treatment of the boys.

 

Second, I understand as well , that Dr. Scharff’s records were, for a time, sealed by the guardian ad litum in the child custody case between Elsa Newman and her estranged husband, Arlen Slobodow, now of Tampa, Florida, and now holding physical custody of the children.

 

Third, I understand that that fact is no longer of any concern—that the records are no longer sealed.  So Elsa Newman is in prison and her sons are in the hands of a man who Dr. Scharff apparently knows is abusing them sexually and physically, mentally and emotionally. They have been separated from their mother, to their inestimable detriment.

 

Soooo…there is a doctor in the field of psychiatry who could establish this  mother’s contention that her children’s father  is a sexual predator whose prey is his own sons. That doctor is Dr. Jill Scharff, who has declined to open her records,  bring this information to light and reveal Arlen Slobodow for what he is.

 

Why?

 

I, personally, have no way of proving this sexual abuse. The only thing I can do is write. And write. And write. And tell this story of unjust imprisonment of a mother—and the unspeakable abuses her sons have revealed about their father. And tell it again. And then again.

 

Dr. Scharff, on the other hand, apparently has the solution to the problem in her records—and thus in her own hands. Me? I’m nothing but a little, old lady and a retired schoolteacher. But I do not understand allowing these children to suffer sexual molestation literally for years at the hands of a father who has convinced the world that he is Mr. Nice Guy.

 

Dr. Scharff, on the other hand is not in the helpless position in which I find myself. She has the ability to reveal and demonstrate that the Slobodow children’s mother is not and never has been lying about the nature of her ex-husband and his unnatural acts of repeated and continued child sexual abuse. Perhaps Dr. Scharff even has learned from the children about film Arlen Slobodow has taken, showing his sons, running naked about the house, looking for the clothes he hid from them. Perhaps she has information about photographs the boys say Slobodow took of his younger son, standing with one leg in his pajama bottoms and one leg out—and his dirty underwear on his head. Only G-d knows what Dr. Jill Scharff has learned.

 

So, what is this psychiatrist afraid of? What keeps her eyes closed to the abuse of these children–and her records unopened? What has allowed her to ignore what she knows?

 

This story so badly needs to be told. Arlen Slobodow needs to be held accountable for the unspeakable acts of sexual and other abuse these children have disclosed. I have no evidence. Dr. Scharff does. I pray–and I would beg, if I thought it would serve any purpose–that she will let the world know what this man is and how he has savaged his sons, sexually, as well as in other ways.

 

The two boys who pleaded with their mother, “Stop Dad!  Make him stop! Stop Dad!”—did those two little boys ask Dr. Scharff the same?

 

Please, Dr. Scharff: Are you willing–are you able??–to bring that evidence out into the open in order to spare these children further suffering?

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Aine O’Brocken

Writing on behalf of Elsa Newman , Herbert Slobodow and Lars Slobodow

 

Following is a list of websites which I use to write about this mother and her children:

 

http://360.yahoo.com/grammapug  possibly the best, since it has the highest readership—over 80,000 hits since I started it as a pug blog; I wrote a lot about Elsa on this, also

http://rachelweepingforherchildren.weebly.com/ This one is actually Elsa’s website. Since she is in prison, I am setting it up and running it for her.

http://www.myspace.com/elsanewmanisinnocent

http://elsanewmanisinnocent.blogspot.com/

pugs4justice4elsa.weebly.com

http://pugbubbe.multiply.com/   A new blog, just starting, as of June 21, 2008

http://pugbubbe.wordpress.com/ new blog as of June 26, 2008

prisonreform@livejournal.com just starting this one

And then there is the site of the Wizard of Oz—who has joined me in writing about this case:

http://www.blognow.com.au/wizardofoz/ This man has information available—he says he uses a crystal ball!—that even I haven’t yet come up with, although I think we each read the other’s blogs and in this fashion share material. I know I read his and find him delightful.