Rascals case in brief

In the beginning, in 1989, more than 90 children at the Little Rascals Day Care Center in Edenton, North Carolina, accused a total of 20 adults with 429 instances of sexual abuse over a three-year period. It may have all begun with one parent’s complaint about punishment given her child.

Among the alleged perpetrators: the sheriff and mayor. But prosecutors would charge only Robin Byrum, Darlene Harris, Elizabeth “Betsy” Kelly, Robert “Bob” Kelly, Willard Scott Privott, Shelley Stone and Dawn Wilson โ€“ the Edenton 7.

Along with sodomy and beatings, allegations included a baby killed with a handgun, a child being hung upside down from a tree and being set on fire and countless other fantastic incidents involving spaceships, hot air balloons, pirate ships and trained sharks.

By the time prosecutors dropped the last charges in 1997, Little Rascals had become North Carolina’s longest and most costly criminal trial. Prosecutors kept defendants jailed in hopes at least one would turn against their supposed co-conspirators. Remarkably, none did. Another shameful record: Five defendants had to wait longer to face their accusers in court than anyone else in North Carolina history.

Between 1991 and 1997, Ofra Bikel produced three extraordinary episodes on the Little Rascals case for the PBS series “Frontline.” Although “Innocence Lost” did not deter prosecutors, it exposed their tactics and fostered nationwide skepticism and dismay.

With each passing year, the absurdity of the Little Rascals charges has become more obvious. But no admission of error has ever come from prosecutors, police, interviewers or parents. This site is devoted to the issues raised by this case.

 

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March 25, 2023
Encouraging news, after ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ” ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ฌ of unspeakable injustice:
On Aug. 28-30, Junior Chandler's lawyers with Duke's Wrongful Convictions Clinic will present evidence of his innocence at a hearing in Boone before Superior Court Judge Gary Gavenus.
Earlier, Judge Gavenus denied, without an evidentiary hearing, five of Juniorโ€™s seven claims supporting his innocence, but he ordered the August hearing on the last two:
1) that, during Juniorโ€™s trial in 1987 [background in first comment], prosecutors violated Brady v. Maryland, a federal constitutional requirement that they turn over evidence favorable to the defendant and withheld significant evidence demonstrating that Junior did not commit the crimes he was charged with โ€“ and that, in fact, no crimes ever occurred; and
2) that prosecutors allowed their most important witnesses to testify falsely, which Junior's lawyers could not prove without the Brady evidence being withheld.
These are powerful and well documented claims, deeply rooted in this country's promise of fair treatment for all defendants -- a promise that for Junior Chandler has remained broken since 1987.
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3 months ago

Junior Chandler's affect in a Boone courtroom over three days in late August gave few clues that the rest of his life was at stake.
Wearing an orange jumpsuit and wrist shackles, Junior sat composed and attentive a few feet in front of Superior Court Judge Gary Gavenus as half a dozen lawyers debated the 1987 trial that resulted in consecutive life sentences plus 21 years for the "satanic ritual abuse" of his Madison County day-care bus riders.
Occasionally he would wince at seeing video of a pediatrician or social worker struggling to defend their profoundly flawed testimony of 36 years ago.
I asked Junior what he would've told Judge Gavenus had he himself been called to testify. Here's what he wrote me from Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institution:
"My name is Andrew Edward Chandler Jr. I am 66 years old, and I have been been in prison since April 17, 1987, for crimes I am 100% innocent of!
"I have lost many of my family in that time. My son Andy is now 44 years old, son Nathan will be 40 this month. My Mom is 87 years old. My brother Robert, who took care of Mom, passed away on June 12th, the day before her birthday.
"How much time is enough when there was only hearsay evidence that convicted me! I can only Hope and Pray that Justice will finally come my way and I will have the chance to get to know my sons and grandkids and great grandsons one day!"
It's been almost four months since Junior's hearing in Boone -- and 2.5 years since Judge Gavenus received his Motion for Appropriate Relief. Is it too much to expect that Junior be granted that relief before beginning yet another year behind bars?
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3 months ago

Notes from this week's evidentiary hearing in Boone on Junior Chandler's Motion for Appropriate Relief (background in first comment):
"๐’๐ก๐จ๐ฐ ๐Œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐‰๐ฎ๐ง๐ข๐จ๐ซ ๐๐ข๐."
-- Bus rider being prompted in interview with social worker Linda King (reported in the original transcript, but omitted from the prosecution's trial summary)
"๐“๐ก๐ž๐ฒ ๐ค๐ง๐ž๐ฐ ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฐ๐š๐ฌ ๐š ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐š๐ฎ๐ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ฒ ๐๐ข๐๐ง'๐ญ ๐œ๐จ๐ซ๐ซ๐ž๐œ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ซ๐ž๐œ๐จ๐ซ๐."
-- Jim Coleman, noting prosecutors' violation of the Brady Rule against withholding evidence
"๐€๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ก๐š๐ฌ ๐›๐ž๐ž๐ง ๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐ ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐š๐ฅ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐๐ฒ."
-- John Honeycutt, assistant DA for Madison County, dismissing the defense's claims as irrelevant
"๐˜๐จ๐ฎ'๐ฏ๐ž ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐š๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐š๐›๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐š๐ฌ๐ž."
-- Superior Court Judge Gary Gavenus, scolding the defense for straying beyond the limits of subject matter he had authorized
"๐“๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ž ๐š๐ซ๐ž ๐๐š๐ฒ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง ๐…๐ž๐›๐ซ๐ฎ๐š๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐š๐ซ๐ž ๐ฐ๐š๐ซ๐ฆ."
-- Social worker King, insisting that one of Junior's bus riders actually could've fallen into the French Broad River, as claimed, without her parents noticing anything amiss when she arrived home.
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3 months ago

Hi Mr. Powell:
"Well, it's rained here all day, so no yard time! We had a good meal for Christmas, roast beef, mashed potatoes, salad, bean salad, chocolate cake for dessert. I watched NFL games on TV. No mail until Thursday....
"We go back to work on Thursday in Maintenance! We're supposed to get a little snow on Friday -- hope we get a good one! [Junior Chandler's favorite job is driving the snow plow.]
"Tell all your family to have a Happy New Year 2024. I believe this is my time to go home. My granddaughter is expecting a boy this week! Wish I could be there, but maybe soon!"
Andrew Edward Chandler Jr.
0072555
NC DAC Avery-Mitchell Correctional
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3 months ago
 

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Todayโ€™s random selection from the Little Rascals Day Care archives….


 

Tortured by timidity in Texas

Dan, left, and Fran Keller

austinchronicle.com

Dan, left, and Fran Keller

March 13, 2016

โ€œFran and Dan Keller have been released from a Texas prison after 21 years, yet still have little freedom of movement or circumstance, or even quality of life. Their 1992 conviction on multiple counts of โ€˜sexual assault of a minorโ€™ โ€“ in the now notorious Fran’s Day Care case โ€“ has effectively been overturned by a 2015 Court of Criminal Appeals ruling โ€˜granting reliefโ€™ to the Kellers on a single question of retracted medical testimony. But the ruling was not accompanied by actual exoneration from the allegedly heinous crimes.

โ€œOnly a single appeals court judge โ€“ Cheryl Johnson โ€“ was willing to admit no crime had in fact occurred. โ€˜This was a witch hunt from the beginning,โ€™ wrote Johnson, in her opinion concurring with the opaque ruling of the full court. Johnson would have granted relief on all the Kellers’ claims, and would have acknowledged that the entire prosecution had been an egregious folly.

โ€œThe limited ruling, while welcome in itself, left the Kellers in a legal limbo โ€“ permanently accused but not cleared…. required to somehow further demonstrate their innocence โ€“ of crimes that never happened….โ€

โ€“ From โ€œLearning From Our Mistakesโ€ย by Michael King in the Austin Chronicle (March 11) (cached)

So who thwarts the hapless Kellers? Yes, yet another prosecutor who sets the bar for exoneration stratospherically high. Although District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg (hereโ€™s why her name rings a bell) supported their release,ย she now finds herself unable to โ€œfind a path to innocenceโ€ without the deal-sealing exculpation of DNA evidence. Those darn imaginary criminals sure do clean up after themselves….

LRDCC20

50 students now know the facts

131028Caldwell-HarrisOct. 28, 2013

โ€œWhat was surprising was that in a class of 50 students, none had heard of the day care allegations of the 1980s.โ€

โ€“ From a note from Catherine Caldwell-Harris,ย associate professor of psychology, Boston University

Well, thatโ€™s a bracing dose of reality, isnโ€™t it? But thanks to Dr. Caldwell-Harris, those students in her developmental psychology class now have an understanding of the moral panic. Hereโ€™s herย lesson plan, which she doesnโ€™t mind being borrowed, along with her comments on how students responded.

Maybe theย  current generation of academics sees clearly what many of their predecessors so horribly misjudged?

Why SRA authors might’ve passed on responding

March 8, 2014

Last of three posts

As Iย recounted earlier, Dr. Jon Conte expressed a willingness to consider my expanded letter seeking a retraction of the Journal of Interpersonal Violenceโ€™s past support of the โ€œsatanic ritual abuseโ€ moral panic.ย So what might have happened after I submitted thatย October 25 letterย that resulted in Conteโ€™s cutting off contact by email or phone?

I suspect the crucial clue lies in his specifying that โ€œWe are probably going to invite the authors to respond, and if they choose to do so I will share their responses before we publish your letter or their responses.โ€ย Those authors would include Susan J. Kelley (โ€œStress Responses of Children to Sexual Abuse and Ritualistic Abuse in Day Care Centers,โ€ December 1989) and Barbara Snow (โ€œRitualistic Child Abuse in a Neighborhood Setting,โ€ December 1990).

Kelley has been oft-recognized at littlerascalsdaycarecase.org, not only for her enthusiastically wrongheaded academic work, but also for herย prosecutorial interviewing techniquesย in the Fells Acres case.

Unlike Kelley, Snow eventually suffered consequences, however small. From the Salt Lake Tribune (February 22, 2008):

โ€œA therapist accused of unprofessional conduct โ€“ including imposing false memories on her relatives โ€“ entered into an agreement Tuesday with (Utahโ€™s) Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing.

โ€œBarbara Snow is voluntarily being placed on probation, according to a statement from her attorney….

โ€œThe disciplinary notice alleged Snow convinced a male relative he was sexually abused by his father. It also contended Snow convinced a female relative she was the victim of satanic abuse and military testing. When state investigators questioned Snow, she allegedly provided made-up notes about those sessions.

โ€œIn the agreement, Snow admitted destroying a relative’s computer equipment (with a baseball bat!) and adding two incorrect dates to her psychotherapy notes….

โ€œSnow was involved in the prosecutions of a string of child sex abuse cases in the 1980s. One man she testified against was granted a new hearing after the Utah Supreme Court questioned her credibility….โ€

Should it surprise anyone that Kelley and Snow โ€“ orย Dr. Richard Kluftย โ€“ would be less than eager to look back at the toxic misconceptions they spread?

‘We’ve learned a lot….’ (Too bad it took so long)

March 30, 2012

Kee MacFarlaneย is the notorious therapist who led the ritual abuse scare of the late 1980sย (and pioneered the misuse of anatomically correct dolls in interviewing children). In just four months MacFarlane diagnosed more than 360 children at the McMartin Pre-School as abused.

In 2005 she declined to be interviewed by CNN but sent a statement:

โ€œWeโ€™ve learned a lot in 20 years about how to interview children for forensic purposes and how to manage complex cases such as this one. It would be a sad commentary if we didnโ€™t learn from such painful experience.โ€

Not much of a mea culpa โ€“ but still more than anyone connected with the Little Rascals prosecution has managed.