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So I took the pendulum from kind of in the middle and swung it as far possible to the extreme that everybody is a suspect and you need to prove that you are not molesting a child. I don’t know how else clearer to put it. The Sandusky case here in Pennsylvania was huge. It changed how child protective services investigates child abuse and it has changed how police departments investigate child abuse. Good, better, indifferent, it doesn’t matter but what we’re starting to see is more innocent people being investigated. I’m not going to say it’s getting as close to the Salem Witch Trials where they started accusing people randomly of being a witch but it’s as close as the modern society can get to that.
Whereas a child stands up and says x, y, and z happened. It’s believed lock, stock, and barrel until it’s disproved. And so, I tell people if you’re being investigated for one of those crimes, yes, we understand that here in the United States as it should be, you’re innocent until proven guilty but in cases of child abuse and child molestation, that’s not true. We can’t just sit there silently and let the prosecution put on its case. We have to find proof that this didn’t happen.
Philadelphia, PA criminal defense lawyer Joseph Lesniak talks about the massive impact the Sandusky case has had on the prosecution of sex cases in Pennsylvania.