Fried Oppenheim convicted of rape and abuse of child

A Hampshire County jury returned verdicts of guilty today on five counts of rape and abuse of a child in the case of Commonwealth vs. David Fried Oppenheim.

After deliberating for 2½ hours on Friday and an additional 5 hours today, the jury found Fried Oppenheim, of Easthampton, guilty of repeatedly raping a former acting student and intern at the Pioneer Arts Center of Easthampton while she was 14-15 years old, from 2007 until 2009.

Fried Oppenheim, 38, was the executive director of the now-closed PACE.

During the course of the trial, several other former students, interns and volunteers testified that Fried Oppenheim had either had sex with them or had acted sexually inappropriately towards them when they were between the ages of 16 and 19 years old.

Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Linda L. Pisano, assisted by Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Thomas Townsend, asked the Honorable Judge Mary Lou Rup to revoke the defendant’s bail pending his sentencing on March 8, 2012.  Judge Rup instead imposed a $5,000 cash bail upon Fried Oppenheim and released him on various conditions and restrictions, including that he report to the Probation Department three times per week.  Assistant District Attorney Pisano requested that Fried Oppenheim be equipped with a GPS monitoring device to ensure he does not flee the jurisdiction, but Judge Rup denied the request.

Fried Oppenheim faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment on each of the five convictions.

“I am proud of the victim and witnesses who courageously stepped forward to bring a child sexual predator to justice," said Northwestern District Attorney David. E. Sullivan.

“I am grateful for a dedicated prosecution team and law enforcement professionals who make the protection of children as their number one priority," Sullivan said.

Pisano said, “I am grateful to the jury for their hard work on this case and for their verdict. Sitting on a child abuse case is probably one of the most difficult types of cases for a juror. That said, a jury is also one of the most powerful tools we have to combat child abuse. I thank the jurors for their service.”

Pisano said she wanted to give special thanks to the team of people who made the prosecution possible.

“Easthampton Police Detective Sgt. Mark Popielarczyk put in so much hard work pulling together the enormous amounts of information in this case. He was willing to do anything that was needed on this case,” Pisano said.

“Easthampton Police Chief Bruce McMahon demonstrated an unwavering willingness to allow his department to do whatever necessary to get the job done. I thank him for his support,” Pisano said.

“I’m grateful to my co-counsel Thomas Townsend for sharing his amazing legal talent and to my fellow members of the Child Abuse Unit -- Jane Chevalier, Heather Hubbard and Kelley Mason -- for their outstanding work not only on this case but with the abused children of Hampshire and Franklin counties every day, 365 days a year.”

“And it goes without saying that I thank District Attorney Sullivan for his unwavering support of the mission of the Child Abuse Unit at the District Attorney’s Office,” Pisano said.

She added, “I thank the victim and her family for their incredible courage for trusting me to help them tell their story. The victim is an amazing woman. And I thank the other young people who stepped forward in this case for their trust and bravery. They are all heroes.”