A federal jury awards Wendrows $3M in wrongful prosecution case

Whilst doing some background reading regarding this case, the Wendrows where mentioned quite a few times as being in recent litigation action. Curious, this is what I found as to their experience with "facilitated communication" and the fallout that ensued.

A federal jury today awarded $3 million in damages to a West Bloomfield couple, who were wrongly accused of sexually assaulting their severely autistic and mute daughter.

The verdict brings to a total of $6.75 million awarded to Julian and Thal Wendrow, who were arrested in late 2007 after their then 14-year-old daughter reportedly typed on a key board – with the help of a teacher's aide in Walled Lake District Schools – that her father had raped her over the weekend while her mother looked the other way.

The typing, a controversial method known as "facilitated communication," had been widely debunked in the last two decades. Research always found it was the aide guiding the disabled person's hand, either consciously or unconsciously.

Nevertheless, then Oakland County prosecutor David Gorcyca, his chief assistant, Deborah Carley, and assistant prosecutor Andrea Dean pressed on with the prosecution, even as news reports showed the method was unreliable.

A federal jury awards Wendrows $3M in wrongful prosecution case

See also:

Family awarded damages in facilitated communication farce - Sharon Hill's breakdown of the pertinent points in the Wendrow case,,,