Friday, October 08, 2010

Emmy Winning Reporter Arrested For Sexually Assaulting A Four Year Old


One of the most well known New York television reporters, Charles Leaf, was arrested this week for the sexual assault of a four year old girl. Although Leaf does have two kids of his own, this girl was the child of a friend. Leaf has won two Emmy awards for his reporting and is also a former Marine. I hope that little girl is ok and I hope his own kids and no other kids suffered the same nightmare.

29 comments:

chopchop said...

I think I'm going to throw up.

And if that 4-year-old were my child, this piece of shit would be on a slab in the morgue.

Pookie said...

omg, that innocent little 4 yr old. =O

i have no words.

RocketQueen said...

Shoot, I hope this isn't true. I have a hard time even watching Law & Order: SVU because it's so upsetting.

JS said...

I do not know about this story, but he was arrested, not convicted yet.
Scum if he did do it, but we don't know that yet.

Amartel said...

Apparently this has to be repeated every time: An arrest is NOT a conviction. Also, there is a long sad history of both true and false accusations of molestation. (McMartin pre-school trial, anyone? The Amirault case in Massacusetts? False memory syndrome?)

Patty said...

RocketQueen, If you can't watch L&) SVU, don't even venture over to Criminal Minds. They cover some truely awful stuff.

SisterMaryHotPantz said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
SisterMaryHotPantz said...

Enty, as an attorney, I know for sure now that you are NOT an attorney. As previously stated, an arrest does not equal guilt. In case you didnt know, in the United States we have something called "due process."

Rufus II said...

I'm not a lawyer or cop, but doesn't there have to be sufficient evidence in order to arrest someone? Not merely the word of a four year old?

RocketQueen said...

@Patty - yeah, they have some cringe-worthy stuff, too. I saw an older episode of SVU recently about older males "adopting" kids from south america and turning them into sex slaves and I spent the entire time bawling. Awful. I don't know how people do that job in real life.

For the record, I agree with the commenters who are pleading for presumed innocence, but I don't see anywhere where Enty has pronounced this guy guilty.

I'm experiencing a situation at work right now where one of my colleagues has been arrested and held for a week in connection with importation of cocaine. We, his friends and co-workers, are presuming him innocent, but the media published a story about his family yesterday, and a cop came into the office yesterday wanting to know information about this "scum of the earth". The cops aren't always right. Presumption of innocence is v. important.

Rufus II said...

If one of the lawyers could answer, I would appreciate it.

hunter said...

FOUR YEARS OLD?

icky

Kara said...

rtsew - there is supposed to be enough evidence to amount to probable cause before arresting and/or charging someone with a crime.

Unfortunately, it's a lot easier to get to probable cause than one would think. I frequently deal with cases where the only evidence is the word of a four or five year old. In fact, I just spent months working to get charges dropped against a teenage boy who was only charged after a so-called professional interviewer spoke to the little girl who denied that anything had ever happened to her. An hour later and the girl was saying what the interviewer told her to say.

It's upsetting. But then again, most of my clients are actually guilty even if the only evidence was the word of a child.

MadLyb said...

How in the hell...? No mercy. Sorry, you harm a child or animal, you've forfeited your space on this planet.

Cancan said...

Jesus Christ, I watch this guy EVERY DAY. For everyone's sake, I hope this is not true - but he can burn in hell if it is.

Cindy said...

@cancan -- is he on Fox5 in NYC?

PotPourri said...

He was arrested, not interrogated, people. Let's be honest, too. A 4 year old? What the hell?

Anonymous said...

Are people on here questioning the child? As a survivor of sex abuse that I endured when I was 5 years old, I can tell you now, it's not something you ever forget. I'm still coming to grips with it and I'm well into my 40s. So I have no sympathy for anyone that takes the innocence of a child in the worst way possible. I've read comments at the main source Enty posted here and it seems like this isn't the first time he's done this, it's the first time he was caught. Disgusting piece of sh*t.

Melody the First said...

RQ, I went to school with a man who was the ADA for the NYC Special Victims. He didn't do the job for long.

For the other ones stumping about "an arrest is not a conviction" ... a comment on a blog is not a conviction either. We're all allowed to state our reactions to things. Most grown ups understand the reaction is in context with the idea of the allegations being true. If the allegations aren't true, the guilt is on the party that is accusing him.

Melody the First said...

Azure, I'm a survivor, too, but children have uncertain memories and have to be dealt with gently and carefully. They remember things differently than adults do.

That said, modern DAs are more aware of that. Where there is smoke, there is quite often fire.

ruzumu said...

I'm a Social Services Attorney who deals with cases involving abused/neglected children. I hope this allegation is not true for the sake of the alleged victim. Sexual abuse at that young of an age is so very destructive to the child and how they develop emotionally. Sad if true. Unfortunately this kind of stuff happens with alarming frequency (i.e., young children being abused sexually).

[ ♥ тαммι ¢нєяιѕє ] said...

OMG that is just disgusting and upsetting D:

Monica said...

Honestly, this is why I support the death penalty. And I'll be first in line to shoot the damn bastard.

selenakyle said...

Amen, chopchop.

Very well put.

selenakyle said...

You are correct, Amartel.

So my amended comment should be "Amen...IF the arrested guy is guilty."

Einstein DeGeneres said...

@Amartel -

OJ wasn't convicted either (at first). McMartin happened but it was a botched trial with lawyers who didn't know how to talk to the kids because this was pretty much the first of its kind. Really.

Firecat said...

What do you mean by "I hope his own kids [...] suffered the same nightmare " ?

Please reword, or consider losing a reader.

Rufus II said...

I think the last sentence in the paragraph was just worded poorly. And I was not questioning the little girl, I just thought cops had more information on him than just what the girl had to tell in order to be arrested. Something like child porn on a computer or a rape kit result. Something that could not be questioned.

Rufus II said...

For what it's worth, here is an interview with his sister:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/10/10/2010-10-10_fox_perv_abused_kin_says_sister.html

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