Copyright 1994 Newsday, Inc.
Newsday
November 4, 1994, Friday, NASSAU AND SUFFOLK EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A24
LENGTH: 349 words
HEADLINE: Sex-Abuse Suspect Acquitted
BYLINE: By Maureen Fan. STAFF WRITER
BODY:
A 73-year-old Hicksville man charged with sodomizing and sexually
abusing three young boys was acquitted yesterday by a Nassau County
jury that deliberated for seven hours.
“I can’t stop crying for some reason,” an emotional Edward Gorlitz said
on the courthouse steps.
“Thank God there’s justice after all,” said his daughter Carole Gorlitz.
Edward Gorlitz Jr., who was also there for the verdict, said: “It was
hysteria, and justice prevailed,” he said.
The elder Gorlitz had maintained throughout the trial, which began
about two weeks ago before County Court Judge Abbey Boklan, that
he was innocent. He had testified in his own defense.
Gorlitz was accused of luring into his home three boys who lived in the
area and were 6 and 7 years old. Gorlitz passed out candy, invited the
boys to see his pet birds and then allegedly abused them.
The boys, now 10 and 11, testified during the trial. Their accounts of
the alleged abuse differed.
Gorlitz’ attorney, Stephen Scaring, described the neighborhood as a
community where parental hysteria had influenced the children’s
memories.
“The children’s testimony was just not true, made no sense and was
inconsistent with logic,” Scaring said after the verdict. “If this were
true, somebody else had to have seen it. There had to have been
witnesses seeing kids going in the house, bloody clothing . . . The
problem we have today is you have sex abuse hysteria and it feeds on
itself.
Gorlitz was not the only person left in tears after the verdict. Also
crying was the mother of one of the boys.
“These children have been victimized twice: once by this molester and
secondly by the system, she said.
The mother expressed incredulity that jurors expected 10-year-olds to
remember exact times, places and dates of unpleasant experiences from
three or four years ago.
“All I can do now is love and support my son and let him know we did
the right thing,” she said.
During the trial, Gorlitz’ mother, wife and daughter all testified in his
defense.
“For the last two years, their lives have been in turmoil,” Scaring said.