Hyde Amendment (1997) - Aisenberg Case Example

Aisenberg Case Example

Sabrina, the five month old daughter of Marlene and Steve Aisenberg, vanished from their home in Valrico, Florida, on November 24, 1997. On Larry King Live, the Aisenbergs described how they cooperated with the police, prosecutors and investigators in every way once the baby was found missing. However, since statistics show that usually a parent is responsible for a missing child, the police relied on this assumption in holding the Aisenbergs as the primary suspects. Barry Cohen, also a guest on Larry King, said he was retained by the Aisenbergs a few days later. He acknowledged that the police were fully within their rights to suspect the missing child's parents, but said that they became obsessed with this hypothesis, even when they could find no evidence to support it, and ceased looking for other leads. When the police failed to find evidence to support that conclusion, Cohen said, they lied to a state judge for permission to tape conversations in the Aisenberg household without their permission. Since the tapes produced no incriminating evidence, evidence was fabricated according to Cohen. The federal judge called the evidence false.

A Federal judge in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida dismissed the case in February 2001, after a hearing reviewing the evidence, primarily in the form of audio tapes obtained by the police. The Aisenbergs were unaware that, for a period of 79 days, investigators recorded over 2,600 separate conversations on 55 different audio tapes. The tapes, a key part of the prosecution's case, were ruled poor and inaudible. Cohen, when asked why law enforcement fabricated the case, said that he did not blame the police in particular but that the whole system was pressured to successfully prosecute after the Susan Smith and JonBenét Ramsey cases. When asked why he was still involved in the case, Cohen answered:

We are going to look to hold everybody accountable for this terrible tragedy that has been imposed upon the Aisenbergs. ... This case is indicative of a problem in this country that we need to realize exists. When we have police officers making a case and fabricating evidence, as the judge found in this case; when we have prosecutors telling a judge untruths about existence of facts on tapes, we have a serious problem. What do people do this country who can't afford lawyers like us to pursue this the way we did? They're framed and they go to jail daily.