CONNECTICUT: A VICTIM OF UNRELIABLE TESTIMONY FROM A LITTLE CHILD

What an absurdity to rely on the testimony of a 4-year-old!

For more than five years Alfredo Vargas sat in a prison cell, professing his innocence to accusations he molested a 4-year-old girl. On Thursday, a Superior Court jury in Vargas' second trial believed the 65-year-old synagogue caretaker and found him not guilty of first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor. They deliberated less than two hours. The state's case in the second trial began to fall apart when the girl, now 9, was asked to identify the man in the courtroom who molested her. She pointed to two of the male jurors. She also admitted she had no recollection of what she had testified to at the first trial.

Vargas, of Lincoln Avenue, was accused of molesting the girl on several occasions on the property of Congregation Adat Yisrael on Brooklawn Avenue during the summer and fall of 2000, while her parents were attending services at the synagogue. Witnesses testified at the first trial that Vargas would often watch the girl while her parents prayed in the synagogue. The girl took the witness stand and, pointing to a chart of a man and a woman, showed the jury where she said Vargas touched her. Although Vargas finally won the case, it won't mean freedom for the former caretaker.

His arrest for the crime set in motion an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which will probably result in Vargas being deported to his native Nicaragua, said his lawyer, Robert Berke.

Berke, who called Thursday's verdict "bittersweet," applauded the jury's efforts in the case. "I think it was obvious there was no evidence to prove my client committed a crime beyond a reasonable doubt," he said. The case produced a groundswell of support for Vargas from some synagogue members, who mounted a campaign to raise money for his defense. "It's obvious he was unjustly incarcerated," said Stuart Rosenberg, a former member of the synagogue and one of the leaders of the campaign. "I'm elated justice was finally done; this case was just a terrible miscarriage of justice."

In April 2002 Vargas was convicted of the charges and sentenced to 12 years in prison. The state Appellate Court later overturned the conviction, citing an erroneous instruction given to the jury by the trial judge, and ordered a new trial.

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