MOVIE REVIEW

The horror of false child abuse in 'Jaundiced Eye'

By Jan Stevenson

Film shows Michigan gay man ruined

Stephen Matthews grew up in the small town of Monroe, Michigan, working in his father's live bait store and dreaming of being the first of his family to go to college. When he was a teenager, he got his girlfriend, Danette, pregnant, and they had a son. These perfectly ordinary circumstances lie in the the background of "The Jaundiced Eye," Nonny de la Peña's wrenching new documentary.

Matthews soon discovered that he was gay, divorced Danette, and moved to California to escape his sheltered life and explore a more open life as a gay man. Danette found a new boyfriend, but Matthews parents continued to enjoy a close relationship with their grandson, who frequently spend weekends at their house.

What happened next is horrifying, but far from extraordinary. Matthews and father became the victims of a bizarre plot to prove that they had sexually molested the young boy. Pushed by well meaning but misguided therapists and an over zealous prosecutor, Stephen Matthews and his father, Melvin, were convicted in 1989 of molesting Stephen's 5-year-old son. After four years in jail, they were freed On appeal in 1997.

Stephen's ex-wife was troubled by some aspects of her son's behavior, and soon a therapist was extracting wild stories from him. He reported that he was forced to watch his father and grandfather having sex, that he had been tied to a tree and sodomized, and that his father had penetrated him with the blade of a machete. No corroborating physical evidence was ever produced, but the boys testimony was sufficient to convict both men.

The Film lakes us through the legal maze that led, a decade after the charges were first leveled, to the granting of a new trial. The trial never took place because the district attorney's office declined to prosecute, citing insufficient evidence. A good part of the film focuses on the selfless decency of Walter Carlson, a local detective who made it his life mission to exonerate Matthewses, and whose wife carried on his his crusade after he died.

The film documents wide varieties of cruelty, heartbreak and almost comical incompetence of the Matthews attorney. Stephen Matthews remains remarkably upbeat through the whole ordeal that included a rape in prison and the loss of all contact with his son. But beneath it all the viewers can intuit deep rage and resentment, not the least of which between father and son. And though the criminal justice system provides a measure of vindication, it can't provide a happy ending. In the films devastating final scene, Stephen listens to the voice of his now teenage son, whose name is not heard on the soundtrack, and what he hears is, in its way, more shocking than any of the boys lurid courtroom testimony.

Ms. de la Peña is honorable and fair-minded in showing both sides of the story. But even her attempts to paint the men's accusers in a fair light cannot hide their deep feelings of jealousy and intolerance. "The Jaundiced Eye" is a passionate, angry piece of advocacy. it will remind Michigan viewers of a similar case in the western part of the state. Michael Batey, a gay man in Allegon County, was accused by his sister of molesting his two nephews. Batey is now serving a 40-year sentence for crimes he swears he never committed.

"This film is a terrific documentary that raises disturbing questions about a failed legal system," said Ed Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle.