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New Trial Sought In Online Child Sex Sting Conviction

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 9, 2009

  Charles Friedlander

TAMPA - A 78-year-old mental health therapist who faces up to life in prison is asking for a new trial on a federal charge that he drove to the Tampa area to sexually and physically abuse two boys he thought would be made available by their father.

Charles Friedlander of Fort Myers is scheduled to be sentenced in March. He was convicted in December in a case involving an undercover online sting by law enforcement.

The prosecution said Friedlander began an online conversation with an undercover detective he thought shared his interest in sexual gratification through the sexual abuse and beating of young children. The detective posed as a father willing to allow Friedlander to abuse his sons, ages 10 and 11.

The defense maintained that Friedlander is "a 78-year-old lonely man whose only social life is on the Internet" and not a pedophile who attempted to sexually and physically abuse two boys.

Friedlander's attorney, George Tragos, filed the motion seeking a new trial on the grounds that the trial judge, James D. Whittemore, erred when he allowed prosecutors to introduce evidence of Friedlander's past chats with another undercover law enforcement officer about having sex with that officer's fictitious mentally disabled daughter.

Those chats did not involve beating the child or implements discussed with the other officer, such as razor straps and riding crops, Tragos wrote. They therefore were not similar enough to the chats involved in the charge Friedlander was tried for and should not have been allowed, the attorney wrote.

Tragos also cited a mistake by the prosecutor, who erroneously accused a defense expert witness of using an out-of-date reference book. That mistake dealt a "devastating blow" to the defense by discrediting an expert who said Friedlander was not a pedophile, Tragos maintained.

Tragos told jurors in closing arguments that the defendant was merely fantasizing in his Internet conversations and had no intention of abusing any children.

"The Internet is the Wild West of the world," Tragos said. "You can be anybody you want to be because it's protected."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Kaiser said Friedlander was not just fantasizing.

"The evidence in this case is simply overwhelming," she said. She showed jurors items found in Friedlander's car when he was arrested, including a razor strap and a riding crop.

"It's not a fantasy when you talk about beating children and you drive all the way, hours, with the implements," Kaiser said. "He said he was going to bring them, and he did."

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