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….
‘Parent-experts’ found meaning where there was none
April 6, 2012
โParent-experts made a specific kind of sense of their childrenโs behaviors and emotions by retrospectively interpreting them as sequelae of day care ritual abuse rather than as reactions to familial stress, the vicissitudes of growing up or, for that matter, the stress of the investigation and the interrogations. ….
โParent-experts testified that they never had reason to worry about their childrenโs behavior until they disclosed ritual abuse. Then, to the parent-experts, the tantrums, fears and sleep disturbances that once had looked like nothing more than normal growing pains were retrospectively interpreted….โ
โ From โThe Day Care Ritual Abuse Moral Panicโย byย Mary De Youngย (2004)
Judge Marsh McLellandโs allowing parents to testify as experts about their childrenโs behavior was one of the key defects pointed out by the N.C. Court of Appeals in overturning the convictions of Bob Kelly and Dawn Wilson.
Will Mass. governor show McCrory (or Cooper) the way?
Oct. 22, 2015
North Carolina isnโt the only state that hasย failed to mitigateย โ however little and late โ the injustices it inflicted during the โsatanic ritual abuseโ era.
In Massachusetts, theย Fells Acres Day Care caseย of 1984 resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of Violet, Gerald and Cheryl Amirault. Even more than in other such cases, the prosecution was gratuitously and unceasingly hateful. In 2002, at the urging of District Attorney Martha Coakley, Acting Gov. Jane Swift refused to sign the parole boardโs unanimous recommendation of commutation. (At least voters managed not to rewardCoakley, with either a Senate seat or the governorship.)
In 2004, Gerald became the last of the three Amiraults to be released, but his parole carried numerous restrictions.
Barbara Anderson, aย longtime advocate, provides this update:
โGeraldโs parole conditions became more burdensome over the years as real sex crimes were committed in the commonwealth: polygraph exams; exclusionary zones (towns he isnโt allowed to enter); a ban on leaving the state without a permit that must be voted on each time by the parole board (and then for no more than two weeks). For years his monthly GPS surveillance fee was $380; this has been dropped to $80 for parole supervision.
โThe harshest provision seems to be the ankle bracelet, which keeps him from wearing shorts in the summer or ski boots in the winter, from swimming at the beach with his grandchildren. He has to keep a log of everywhere he goes outside his house.โ
During last yearโs gubernatorial campaign, Republican candidate Charlie Baker told Anderson that if elected he would address Amiraultโs plight. Baker narrowly defeated Coakley, but so far he hasnโt followed through.
Anderson again calls on Baker โto remove the bracelet from Geraldโs ankle, to drop his curfew, to allow him to get a job and to start helping his wife earn money to pay the mortgage acquired during his defense.
โJust call the Sex Offender Board and ask to have him re-classified from Level 3 to Level 1 to ease his restrictions. Or ask them to vote to take him off parole…. Otherwise heโll be suffering unfair indignities until 2024.
โClearly there is no way for Massachusetts to make up for 30 years of injustice. โPardonโ is the wrong word, since the Amiraults did nothing wrong, but it may be the only remedy since governments donโt usually do โapology.โ โ
If Gov. Baker should belatedly rouse himself to unshackle Gerald Amirault, might his fellow Republican governor in North Carolina โ or that governorโsย would-be successorย โ take notice? The Edenton Seven may not suffer the continued punishment still visited on Amirault, but their lives too were forever and indelibly damaged by the state.
Texas ex-DA pays price, however little and late
Nov. 20, 2013
โGEORGETOWN, Texas โ A former Texas prosecutor who won a conviction that sent an innocent man to prison for nearly 25 years agreed Friday to serve 10 days in jail and complete 500 hours of community service.
โKen Anderson also will be disbarred and fined $500…. Anderson faced up to 10 years in prison if convicted of tampering with evidence in the 1987 murder trial of Michael Morton, (who) was released in 2011 after DNA evidence showed he didn’t beat his wife to death.
โMorton watched from the front row of the gallery Friday as the man who helped convict him now sat at the defense table, just as he once did. Morton smiled and was hugged by family members after the judge adjourned….
โDuring a weeklong Court of Inquiry earlier this year, special prosecutor Rusty Hardin presented witness testimony and other evidence to show Anderson kept evidence from Morton’s attorneys at his trial….
โAnderson said he couldn’t remember if he had evidence at the time of the trial that could have cleared Morton, but if he had had such material, he would have turned it over to the defense team.โ
โ From โFormer Texas Prosecutor Gets Jail for Conviction that Sentย Innocent Man to Prisonโ by the Associated Press (Nov. 8)
Even the righteous Jack McCoyย withheld exculpatory evidenceย at least once, but of course the โLaw & Orderโ DA was a fictional character โ unlike Ken Anderson and theย Little Rascals prosecutorsย and their unfortunate victims.
Portrait of a town haunted by hindsight
June 29, 2014
โ(The Little Rascals Day Care center) is red brick, with plate glass windows on the front. The two-story structure is located on East Eden Street, amid mostly modest one-family homes, oaks, azaleas and crape myrtles, just a few blocks from the beautiful bay and downtown.
โThe neighborhood is quiet now, but as the case unfolded during the last two years, journalists from time to time set upon the area, seeking eyewitnesses to the alleged incidents. Several residents recently told a visitor they had seen none of the alleged acts.
โFor some, hindsight is powerful in the wake of the allegations. Lenora Smith, who lives next door to the center, voiced โsurpriseโ at the charges but does remember that โa few things I saw were kind of unusual.โ
โWhat?
โWell, Robert Kelly owned a plumbing business, but โat times he stayed over there (at the day-care center) a lot,โ she said….
โSome people here admit to being a bit jumpy since the allegations surfaced.
โDebbie Jones said, โI get paranoid.โ Extending her hand, palm down, she made it tremble, saying: โI’m like this if I’m with my kids in a public place.โ
โIn a building on the town’s main thoroughfare, South Broad Street, a young boy who looked about 5 years old, bolstered her point. As he walked out of an office into a hall, apparently heading for the bathroom, he looked over his shoulder and said stoically to a woman: โIf I don’t come back, call the police.โโ
โ From โChild Abuse Charges at Day-Care Center Divide Formerly Close-Knit Communityโย by Lee May in the Los Angeles Times (June 8, 1991)
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