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 – 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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Little Rascals Day Care Case
This Facebook page is an offshoot of littlerascalsdaycarecase.org, which addresses the wrongful prosecution of the Edenton Seven and other such victims.
Meanwhile in Edenton....
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Allies for our cause!
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The courts have a long history of capriciously pulling the rug out from under Junior's appeals, but maybe this time....
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Today’s random selection from the Little Rascals Day Care archives….
Nancy Lamb, DA? It’s up to Gov. McCrory
Oct. 18, 2013
Because the Elizabeth City Daily Advance rejected my letter to the editor questioning its support of Nancy Lamb for district attorney, I’ve been posting comments in the online Advance, these two most recently:
Oct. 2: “It was no ‘technicality’ that led the North Carolina Court of Appeals to overturn the conviction of Bob Kelly (and of Dawn Wilson). The court focused on three glaring reversible errors in Kelly’s trial and implied it could have cited many more had that been needed. You can read the decision here.
“Little Rascals was only one of a wave of ‘ritual abuse’ day-care prosecutions during the ’80s and ’90s – virtually all of them based on hysteria rather than facts. You can read more here.
“Thank God, ‘Frontline’ put a national spotlight on the shameful abuse H.P. Williams, Bill Hart and Nancy Lamb – and their team of ill-trained therapists – were inflicting on the Edenton Seven, but the miscarriage of justice was clear even without it.”
Oct. 12: “Unfortunately, the most salient example of Nancy Lamb’s ‘ability to think for herself’ was her irrational, hysterical, unprofessional prosecution of the Little Rascals Day Care case. It would be easier to forgive her role in perpetuating the myth of ‘satanic ritual abuse’ in day cares were she finally able to admit her mistake and to apologize for crushing the lives of seven innocent defendants.”
After the death of District Attorney Frank Parrish, Gov. McCrory gave Lamb a 60-day appointment as interim DA. He is now deciding who should complete Parrish’s term. Next election for DA will be in November 2014.
Nancy Lamb has an explanation for everything
June 29, 2012
“One month after drawing national attention when she dismissed final charges involving the children at the day-care center, (Nancy Lamb) clings to her belief that Robert Kelly is a child molester….
“Still, she admits it’s not easy to explain why none of the defendants have turned against each other, even though they were offered deals by her office.
“ ‘You did have kind of a group dynamic going on where they did hang around together and support each other and encourage each other to hang tough,’ Lamb said.”
– From the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, July 2, 1997
Perhaps N.Y. Times needs some new experts
Aug. 6, 2016
It’s appalling to see the New York Times, in its Aug. 5 obituary on Chris Costner Sizemore, “the real patient behind ‘The Three Faces of Eve’, quote as experts Dr. Colin A. Ross and Dr. Richard Kluft, psychiatrists who validated and promoted the “satanic ritual abuse” moral panic of the 1980s and early ’90s.
For decades Dr. Ross has spun out cockamamie ideas from supernatural “eye beams” to CIA conspiracies. And as recently as a 2009 interview on CBS “Sunday Morning,” Dr. Kluft confidently posited a nationwide epidemic of undiagnosed cases of “multiple personality disorder”:
Tracy Smith: So do you think that there are, what, thousands of people walking around out there with MPD who don`t even know it?
Kluft: Oh, easily.
Smith: Tens of thousands?
Kluft: Easily.
Smith: Hundreds of thousands?
Kluft: Easily.
Smith: Millions?
Kluft: We might be at that level.
Do Ross and Kluft really provide the kind of authority the Times needed for this story?
The full obituary on Chris Costner Sizemore is here, cached here.
Working ‘seven days a week’ in wrong direction
Sept. 14, 2012
“Judith Steltzner Abbott of Camden has become a moving force for the well-being of sexually abused children and their families across the state. Her presentations on child sexual abuse have become a part of nursing programs and hospital emergency room staff training and have been presented to law enforcement agencies, social services systems and members of the judiciary.
“When litigation developed from allegations of child sexual abuse at a day care center in a nearby area, Abbott worked seven days a week to provide counseling, guidance and support for children and parents….”
– From Judy Abbott’s citation as winner of the 1992 Distinguished Women of North Carolina Award, Public Service category, sponsored by the North Carolina Council for Women
Not only did the prosecution’s lead therapist avoid penalty for misdiagnosing 17 Little Rascals children, but also she became “a moving force…. across the state” in spreading her toxic mythology – and was honored for it!
Does the North Carolina Council for Women have a process for withdrawing its awards?