Slain boy’s family sues organization for promoting pedophilia

The North American Man-Boy Love Association provided training and advice that allowed Charles Jaynes to rape and murder 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley, said Curley family lawyers at a press conference yesterday at their East Cambridge office.

“If Jaynes didn’t have a valid place to go and be supported … maybe this whole thing wouldn’t have happened,” said Robert Curley, the slain boy’s father.

Barbara and Robert Curley, the boy’s parents, are suing NAMBLA for $200 million. Charles Jaynes and Salvatore Sicari, the two men convicted of the murder, have already been ordered to pay the Curleys $328 million in punitive damages. However, the two men are nearly penniless, leading Curley family attorney Lawrence Frisoli to characterize the award as, primarily, a “moral victory.”

“The intent of this lawsuit has always been to bring to justice, civilly, organizations which prey on children. … It’s not about the money,” Frisoli said.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents NAMBLA in the suit, was not available for comment yesterday, but maintains the Curleys’ suit accuses the organization of creating an atmosphere conducive to pedophilia, rather than committing specific criminal acts. Unless it can be proven NAMBLA literature has led to specific acts of pedophilia, the organization is protected under the First Amendment.

However, the Curleys’ attorneys say they have evidence of such acts.

Perhaps the most damning testimony against NAMBLA was offered in an affidavit by Thomas Polhemus, a detective with the Fairfax County, Va., Police Department. Polhemus said he posed as a NAMBLA member during the organization’s 1994 general membership meeting in New York City, where he was elected to NAMBLA’s Steering Commission.

Polhemus’ testimony painted a dark picture of secret meetings at which NAMBLA members traded child pornography, tips on avoiding police investigation and seducing young boys. Occasionally, Polhemus said, NAMBLA members would meet to trade the boys themselves.

“I believe that the organization is primarily intended to allow members to get to know each other so they can exchange child pornography, discuss sex with boys and the best methods to employ to gain access to boys for the purpose of sex, share information about how to avoid detection, prosecution and conviction for sex with boys, share information about boys who are susceptible to sex abuse, and to make arrangements to swap boys for sex. I believe this is why the organization exists, this is why people join the organization and this is why people retain their membership,” Polhemus said.

“These affidavits clearly show that NAMBLA was involved in training pedophiles,” Frisoli said.

Patrick Gillen, an attorney with the Thomas More Center for Law ‘ Justice and co-counsel for the plaintiffs, also raised the prospect of suing NAMBLA under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, known as the RICO statute.

Normally a tool used in criminal prosecutions of organized crime, Gillen said the Curleys have a chance at winning a civil RICO suit, if it can be proven NAMBLA engaged in illicit business practices. According to court briefs filed by the Curleys’ attorneys, NAMBLA disseminated information on how to “sexually assault and exploit minor males” through its newsletter and now-defunct website. This, said Gillen, would qualify NAMBLA as a corrupt organization.

“We have reason to believe the defendants used NAMBLA, the organization, as a front for criminal activity and that Jeffrey Curley was injured as a part of that pattern of using NAMBLA to facilitate, to train individuals and members to share information and know-how concerning the sexual exploitation of children,” Gillen said.

“Before this happened, sexual abuse was not something even on our radar screen. You’d hear about it in the news as just something you’d hear about somewhere else, just an isolated thing, far away from East Cambridge. I think that’s most people’s perception of the way it goes,” Robert Curley said.