Editorial:

Relapse in Fells Acres Case

The supreme judicial court of Massachusetts
last week could have ended perhaps the commonwealth's worst miscarriage
of justice since the Sacco and Vanzetti trial of the 1920s. Sadly, it did
not. The high court (SJC) overturned a trial judge's ruling that Cheryl
Amirault LeFave, one of the defendants in the infamous Fells Acres
child-abuse case, should get a new trial. It was the second time in two
years the court refused to correct what is now widely understood by
experts as a prosecution that should never have been brought. The case
was one of several in the 1980s hysteria surrounding allegations of child
sexual abuse at day-care centers. The most famous, the McMartin Preschool
case in California, lasted for years before the defendants were
acquitted. In each of these cases, as in the Fells Acres case, many of
the prosecutors, social workers, and psychiatrists bribed and badgered
children until they said they had been abused. Each case was marked by
fantastic testimony from children about animal torture, secret rooms,
magic potions, evil clowns, elephants, and robots. One child in the
McMartin case claimed to have been molested in a hot-air balloon. This is
not the stuff of a typical sexual-abuse case. The similarity of the
absurdities resulted from interrogators working from the same list of
expected "symptoms." The results of investigations took on the flavor of
the Salem witchcraft trials. Many who have studied these cases now
recognize them as prime examples of the misuse of "junk" science and
pseudo-therapy. Two different trial judges who reviewed the case
understood that. In 1995, one judge freed Mrs. LeFave and her mother,
Violet Amirault, on grounds their right to face their accusers was
violated by courtroom procedure. The SJC overruled him and ordered them
sent back to prison, where they had already served eight years. Then a
second judge ordered a new trial on the grounds the evidence was tainted
by investigators' suggestive and manipulative interrogations of the
children. The usually wise SJC erred by overturning that ruling last
week. All the other high-profile cases of the 1980s ended in victory for
the defendants. Mrs. LeFave must now return to prison to serve the rest
of an eight-to-20-year sentence. (Her mother is deceased.) Her brother,
Gerald Amirault, has remained in prison all along, serving a
30-to-40-year sentence on the basis of the same bad evidence. Two avenues
are now open before the Amirault family: They can seek clemency from Gov.
A. Paul Cellucci (R), who should have the courage to do the right thing
and grant it. Or they can seek redress in a federal court. Perhaps there
they will find due process and a fair trial.

If any of you have chat room/bulletin Board groups etc or are
interested in same for strategizing for on this situation
contact me,

Earl Rogers
earlroger-@juno.com
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