As I write this, a jury deliberates in the trial of a local, well-liked handyman who was accused by a 13-year-old Park Slope girl of sexual molestation.

The man vehemently denies all the charges.

Readers of OTBKB will remember what happened a year ago when the girl’s mother posted a note about this situation on the mirror in the vestibule of my apartment building (and on many of the street’s lamp posts).

I posted about the note (excluding names) and my report drew a Daily News reporter to Third Street. Then the television news vultures came. For me, it was a real wake-up call. THE EDITORS OF ALL THE NY DAILIES READ OTBKB!! BE CAREFUL.

I am eager to learn the fate of this man. I see nothing about it in the news. Here’s a post I wrote about a year ago:

It was just a note on the mirror of my building’s vestibule. Now it seems like a whole lot more.

People’s lives.

The man. The girl. The mother. They’re all locked in
a  twisted tango. Who is telling the truth? What is the real story here?

Reputation. Judgement. Craziness. I am hearing many things. Many.
That the man is reputable. That the accusations are groundless. That he
doesn’t deserve to have his life ruined this way.

It was just a note on the mirror. But so much more. Ambiguity. A
mother’s attempt to warn and protect or a mother’s attempt to indict
and ruin a man publically? What could be her motive? What could be his? And who is telling the truth?

And then there’s my small role in all of this. Did I fan the flames
by putting it on OTBKB. I just saw the
note and wanted to share what I was feeling about that note: the fear,
the uncertaintly, the sense that these things are complicated.
Wondering if it  true, or is it slander.

I may know Third Street but I didn’t know this man at all. Now I am
hearing about him from neighbors and friends who care about him, trust
him, and strongly believe that these accusations are simply not true.

There were moments this weekend when I wondered whether I was the
reason that note was left there. That the mother knew, somehow, that I
would blog about it, that I would spread the word and be complicit in
what might be a lie.

I don’t know the truth—only three people know, including the girl’s mother. How could I possibly know?

A jury will sit through a trial – and hear the evidence –
and decide whether there is enough proof. I sat on a jury in a sexual molestation trial in June/July of 2005 and I know what that’s like. You go in with a
whole bunch of preconceptions and the trial can really turn you around.
It’s all very complicated. And finally when the jury is sequestered and
it’s time to reach a verdict, there must be proof beyond a reasonable
doubt.

For someone who purports to know Third Street, I guess I don’t know
Third Street as well as I thought. We know what we know and who we know
— beyond that we don’t know a thing. If I fanned the flames in this
incident – I take full responsibility.

There must be an object lesson in all this about journalistic
ethics and blogging. About Brooklyn blocks and what you do and don’t
know. About sexual harassment and the muddy  realm of statutory rape,
endangering the welfare of a child. About lies, about truth. There must
be an object lesson in this.

So I wait to hear what the jury decides. I’ve been following Nancie Katz’s reporting on the trial in the Daily News (last year’s reporter was named Celeste Katz, what’s the story here?).

I know too much about these kinds of cases to even know what to think. It’s all very complex. And so much defends on the quality of the legal representation. Does the handyman have a good enough lawyer? Does the girl have a tough public prosecutor? I heard that he’s facing felony charges and I wondered why. A good lawyer probably could have brought the charges down to a misdemeanor.

I await a verdict, which will determine the next few years in the life of this man.

Still, I know we will not learn the truth from this trial. What comes out of the trial will have more to do with the lawyers and the jury than anything else.

The fact that his lawyer put him on the stand says to me that his lawyer has great faith in the veracity of his story and his ability to come across well (though the man must speak through a translator). There is no necessity to put the defendant on the stand.

More than that, I cannot say.