Judge Declines to Nix Etan Patz Case

A man charged with murder decades after one of the nation’s most infamous child disappearances can be brought to trial, a judge ruled Wednesday, turning down the man’s claim that the case was too thin to proceed.

In a case that hinges on a disputed confession, the judge said there was enough evidence to sustain the charges against Pedro Hernandez of Maple Shade, N.J. He is accused of killing six-year-old Etan Patz, last seen walking to his Manhattan school bus stop on May 25, 1979.

The ruling propels the case toward a trial that would likely revolve around whether Hernandez’ confession amounts to a mentally ill man’s imaginings, as his defense says.

“We’re prepared to move forward to trial and be able to show the people of the city of New York that Pedro Hernandez had nothing to do with whatever happened to Etan Patz back in 1979,” defense lawyer Harvey Fishbein said after court.

Etan’s disappearance, which helped impel a movement to publicize the cases of missing children, vexed investigators through decades of fizzled leads and inconclusive findings.

Authorities say they have finally found the culprit in Hernandez, who confessed after his arrest last year and had made incriminating remarks to acquaintances years before. But his lawyer has said that Hernandez is schizophrenic and bipolar, and that his admission was false, peppered with questionable claims and made after almost seven hours of police questioning.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has said there’s enough proof to sustain the case, Hernandez willingly talked with investigators, and prosecutors don’t believe his confession was the product of psychiatric problems. Before his arrest, Hernandez was never hospitalized or treated for any major psychiatric condition, Assistant District Attorney Penelope Brady wrote in court papers this winter.

Under New York law, a person can be convicted based only on a confession, if there’s additional evidence that a crime was committed.

Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley said in a written ruling that the evidence against Hernandez was “legally sufficient to support the charges.”

The judge ordered a hearing on whether Hernandez’ statements can be used at trial. Such hearings are fairly common.

Hernandez is due back in court July 31.

This article appeared in print on page D15 of the May 22nd, 2013 edition of Hamodia.