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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Todayโs random selection from the Little Rascals Day Care archives….
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Todayโs random selection from the Little Rascals Day Care archives….
‘Question mark in so many minds’ about McMartin’
Sept. 4, 2013
In her appreciative review of โThe Hunt,โ the new Danish movie about a kindergarten teacher wrongfully accused of child sexual abuse, Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times writes:
โIf you were in Los Angeles in the 1980s, it is impossible not to be reminded of the McMartin preschool case that dominated headlines for nearly a decade and still remains a question mark in so many minds.โ
Linking โThe Huntโ to the day-care ritual abuse panic is certainly apt โ but in whose minds does McMartin โremain…. a question markโ?
In the mind of law professorย John E.B. Myers, perhaps. But what credible social scientist today will argue that cases such as McMartin and Little Rascals were grounded in anything but therapist-created fiction?
Brent Adams & Associates, clean up your act
Oct. 31, 2011
โA highly publicized case occurred in coastal North Carolina almost 30 years ago. Making national headlines, the Little Rascals Day Care Center was run by a husband-and-wife team, Bob and Betsy Kelly…. The Little Rascals abuse case involved 90 children who all required extensive therapy sessions.โ
Shouldnโt a prominent North Carolina firm of trial lawyers know better than to solicit clients withย such a misleading characterization?
Do Brent Adams & Associates really believe all those children โ or any of them โ โrequired extensive therapy sessionsโ?
I have asked that this paragraph be removed from the firmโs website โ no response yet.
News media newly skeptical about sex allegations?
Dec. 3, 2014
โI was in graduate school in Southern California 30 years ago when the McMartin Preschool scandal erupted, featuring tales of Satanic rituals, underground tunnels, group sex with animals and children, and various acrobatic acts that would challenge Cirque du Soleil, all believed credulously by the media and California prosecutors….
โThere was something so literally incredible about (such) โSatanic ritual abuseโ cults that serious doubts and questions should have been raised right at the outset.
โSome hard questions are starting to be asked about the latest sequel to the Salem witch trials โ the college campus โrape cultureโ hysteria…. Theย Rolling Stone storyย about an especially brutal gang rape at the University of Virginia is provokingย considerable backlashโ with a few critics suggesting the entire story might be a hoax ….
โIt took years for the โSatanic child abuse crisisโ to collapse, and several months for the Duke lacrosse scandal to turn around. What is interesting about the UVa story is how quickly it is facing credible challenge….โ
โ From โThe Spirit of Salem Lives Onโ by Steven Haywardย at powerlineblog.com (Dec. 2)
Prosecutor reneged on promise to Betsy Kelly
July 8, 2013
โAs the parents made their case to the (North Carolina Parole Commission), prosecutors and defense attorneys continued sparring over whether the state had reneged on the plea bargain by trying to block (Betsy) Kelly’s parole.
โKelly’s attorney, Joe Cheshire V, says prosecutor William Hart promised not to contest her parole if she agreed to the no-contest plea. Hart says the state never made such a pledge.
โHart and assistant prosecutor Nancy Lamb attended the hearing to support the parents. They say it would be inappropriate for Kelly to be released, because she continues to publicly proclaim her innocence.
โ โThe parents know she is guilty,โ Lamb told reporters before the hearing. โThey know what their children have gone through.โ
โCheshire, continuing to maintain his client’s innocence, said Hart should have tried Kelly in court if he wanted to show she was guilty.
โ โHe was afraid to do that,โ Cheshire said. โAnd now he’s running around saying that since she won’t admit her guilt, she should not get paroled. I think that’s pretty pathetic.โ โ
โ From โParents oppose parole for Little Rascals operatorโย in the News & Observer (April 12, 1994)
Pandering, bullying, grandstanding, double-crossing โ inย thwarting Betsy Kellyโs parole, the Little Rascals prosecutors scored a grand slam of misfeasance.
Hereโs what Joe Cheshire recalls about that brutal day:
โSimply taking that plea was distasteful to me, but when the awesome power of government meshes with the awesome power of the judiciary and neither want to find the truth, but instead to consummate a decided outcome, the individual gets ground up in the process.
โBetsy was desperate to come home and did not trust anyone, nor should she have.ย I am not a fool; I would not have agreed to such a plea if it did not insure her freedom.ย The only (apparent) risk was the Parole Board.ย The prosecutor had agreed to not oppose her parole, but then he reneged.ย He knew that our only alternative was to move that the plea be set aside and that we would not be in a position to do that.
โYes, in retrospect I should not have trusted him….ย But he was not willing to put it in writing, and (insisting on that) would have ended the negotiations….โ
Little Rascals prosecutors seemed perversely unable to let any defendant go home without administering a final cheap shot. When Scott Privott was released under a no-contest plea deal in 1994, they added a last-minute stipulation that he undergo psychiatric evaluation as part of his five-year probation.
โI saw them weekly for about two months,โ Privott recalls, โand then they reported that I was normal. My probation officer told me (Bill) Hart was pissed… and that was that.โ
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