Long Island Foster Father
​Found Not Guilty of Abusing Boys

By Catherine Davis | 
Commentator, Editor, L&SS ​

5.5.17
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Image credit: mrgrady7787.blogspot.com

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — Cesar Gonzales-Mugaburu 60, a [former] foster father has been acquitted of endangering and sexually abusing foster children (boys) who were in his care. 

Cesar took in 95 children (all boys) with intellectual disabilities and mental illnesses over the period of several decades, reads this linked NYT news article. However, Mugaburu had been in prison for a year after eight of those children, some are now adults, brought accusations of child abuse against him. 

Somehow, at the end of the trial, the jury that tried his case sided with him (Mugaburu) stating that there wasn't enough proof that he had abused any of the claimants in the lawsuit against him; as a result, he walked out of the court one-year later a free man acquitted of all the child abuse charges wagered against him. 

The trial took five-weeks to complete and was held by the State Supreme Court. 

I really do not think it would have been fair for the jury to return a guilty verdict based on emotions or guessing whether Mugaburu was guilty or innocent of child abuse charges simply because children were the ones who brought their disturbing stories to court in the first place. Yet, something inside me feels as if those children never had a fighting chance to win this lawsuit. 

The children obviously took a risk when they told on an adult who abused them, but in the end, they were not believed; this is a child's worst fear after being sexually assaulted. I thought adults had to believe a child when they've told them that they've been sexually assaulted!

What got to me, and I felt like crying after reading it, was one of the boy's, who's now an adult, reactions to the not-guilty verdict. He is now 29-years-old. He said that he was shocked that Cesar was found not-guilty.

There is one more witness who was surprised that Cesar was set free, that witness is a police officer who lived across the street who saw things that should have helped put Cesar away, but didn't!!!

Having grown up in the foster care system, I know first hand what it's like to tell adults about abuse and have them totally deny my claims. Still, I believe that if the jurors in this case did not find this man guilty of child abuse, that fault would lie at the hands of the prosecutor(s) for not coming up with more incriminating evidence, against Cesar. that would stick.

Now, even if more evidence appears that could put him away for years, he could not be tried again because the US 'Double Jeopardy Law' forbids this.

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