1/9/175 080366 Probers Say Children Acted in 'Snuff' Film 5 Defendants in Molestation Case

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080366
    Probers  Say Children Acted in 'Snuff' Film 5 Defendants in Molestation
Case Remain Under $500,000 Bail.
   The Washington Post, January 19, 1985,
   BY: From News Services
   SECTION: A, p. 05
   LINE COUNT: 58    WORD COUNT: 638
 
   SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan. 18--Three children chopped up the bodies of two
girls  and  a  boy who were beaten with metal pipes during the filming of a
"snuff" movie, a prosecutor says.
 
   The  children are the victims of a child molestation ring, investigators
say.
 
   "We  do  not  have  sufficient  evidence  at this point to file homicide
charges,"   Deputy  District  Attorney  Rick  Lewkowitz  said  Thursday  in
Municipal Court.
 
   Investigators  say  five  suspects,  four of them employes of a suburban
restaurant, forced children to participate in macabre sex rituals involving
Satanism, "Witchcraft" and mock weddings.

   Lewkowitz said three girls told investigators they were present when the
three  children  were  fatally  bludgeoned  in the basement of a Sacramento
house in 1982 during filming of a "snuff" movie--one that depicts a murder.
 
   "Three  children  are  individually  telling  us  they  were  taken to a
basement  of  a  house  where three other children were present," Lewkowitz
said.  "The  three children were given drugs. A metal pipe was taken to the
heads  of  each of these three children. The blows were of sufficient force
to have probably killed the children."
 
   He  said  that  the three girls told of being given "cutting instruments
while  cameras  were going" and that they described what "they had to do to
these children, to the dead bodies . . . the cutting up of the bodies."
 
   Investigative  reports  quote  a grandmother of some of the witnesses as
saying  the  children described the victims as two girls about 7 or 8 years
old and a boy of about 6.
 
   The  disclosure  came  during a hearing in Municipal Court on whether to
reduce  the  $500,000 bail for the five defendants, who are charged with 77
counts  of child molestation. Judge John Stroud continued the bail, despite
arguments from court-appointed defense lawyers.

   In  Los  Angeles,  Municipal  Court  Judge Aviva Bobb ruled today that a
hearing  for  seven  defendants in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case
will remain open to the public when children testify next week.
 
   Seven  former  teachers  at  the  school  are charged with 209 counts of
molesting 42 of their pupils over a five-year period beginning in 1979.
 
   Bobb  has  ordered that the children testify from the witness stand in a
closed  courtroom, with the public and reporters viewing the proceedings on
television monitors in an adjacent room.
 
      Child  Molester  Who  Recanted  Is  Sentenced  to  40 Years in Prison
Associated Press
 
   SHAKOPEE,  Minn.,  Jan.  18--A confessed child molester who recanted his
stories  of  widespread  sex  abuse in the town of Jordan after implicating
several other people was sentenced today to 40 years in prison.
 
   James  Rud,  27,  a  trash collector, was the first of 24 adults and one
juvenile  arrested on Rud's allegations that they sexually abused more than
40 children.

   Rud  later  said  much  of  his  information  was  false. One couple was
acquitted  of  charges  stemming  from  an investigation of the alleged sex
rings, and charges were dropped against the remaining defendants.
 
   In  a  plea-bargain agreement in August, Rud pleaded guilty to 10 counts
of sexually abusing children and agreed to testify against others in return
for having 98 charges dropped.
 
   Scott  County  District  Judge  Martin  Mansur followed state sentencing
guidelines  in  imposing  terms that totaled just over 100 years. But under
state  law,  the  longest  term  that  may  be  imposed  under  consecutive
sentences is 40 years.
 
   Mansur also chastised Rud for discussing his case with reporters, saying
he had warned Rud not to talk to the media.
 
   In  a  telephone  interview  Thursday, Rud told the Minneapolis Star and
Tribune  he  is "extra scared" about being in prison with inmates who don't
like child molesters. "They are not going to accept you as they would, say,
a murderer or a bank robber or something," he said.