Everyone who had direct contact with the child, other than the step-grandfather, was tested for gonorrhea and did not have it, according to the mother. [William F. Neely] said he was unsure why officials did not test the step-grandfather. The suit probably will go to trial within a year, [Sylvia Clute] said.

Not everyone agrees that sexual abuse prosecutions are too difficult to launch. Paul M. Robinson Jr., of Fathers United for Equal Rights, a group that supports fathers on child custody issues, says he sees many false charges of sexual abuse brought to trial, particularly in bitter divorce cases.

When [Kathleen Toolan] began vigorous prosecution of sexual abuse cases in 1986 as head of a newly created child abuse unit in Montgomery County, she said, "all the defense attorneys were testing me. I was in trial constantly, and I was winning." Now, Toolan said, her unit prosecutes more than 100 cases of child sex abuse annually, and gets pleas in about 80 percent of them because defense attorneys know the cases will be pursued.