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Another daycare child abuse conviction overturned — 11 Comments

  1. “Child abuse exists everywhere.”
    Mostly in the homes of the children. Getting worse in the era of single baby mommies and boyfriends who come and go. Part of our societal descent into the netherworld. What is that over yonder? Cerberus.
    The McMartin prosecution was a travesty to anyone with eyes, ears, and half a brain. The Child Abuse Saga was conducted with the eager cooperation of “therapists” (a word that covers many sins) and PhD. clinical psychologists. Needless to say, the Left had a vested interest in the outcome of this Saga, because greater regulation would and did result.

  2. Reports say that the Kellers, who spent almost 21 years in jail, and who finally were officially declared guiltless this year, four years after their release from prison, would be able to apply to the State that wrongly prosecuted them and threw them in jail for a total of a measly $3.2 million as restitution.

    That hardly seems adequate to repay them for their humiliation, and for all those irreplaceable prime decades of life lost.

    How about $10 million each, or thereabouts?

    Another vitally necessary part of this restitution should be the prosecution of each and every official, police officer, social worker, judge, district attorney, psychologist, person, or “expert” who falsely testified or who, in any way, participated in railroading the Kellers.

    In addition, I’d pauperize any and all of the guilty, and put all of their confiscated assets–bank accounts, retirement accounts, houses, cars, boats, jewelry, and any other valuable possessions–everything towards paying some of the $20 million that should be given to the Kellers, tax free.

    Such a draconian approach would, I believe, discourage people from false prosecutions and perjury.

  3. “We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!”
    The Crucible – Arthur Miller

  4. Ray:
    Wasn’t Janet Reno a big believer in these child abuse stories?

    Yes.
    Liberal female Democrat politicians have their fingers on a lot of those cases:
    1)Martha Coakley, who was defeated by Scott Brown in the race for Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat, was not involved in the initial Fells Acres case, but was involved when it became clear that Fells Acres was an example of justice miscarried. Coakley was not on the side of the angels.

    In December 1997, Coakley resigned her position, in order to campaign for District Attorney in Middlesex County.

    In 2001, Coakley successfully lobbied Acting Gov. Jane Swift to deny clemency to Gerald Amirault, a defendant in the Fells Acres Day Care Center preschool trial, whom many regarded as a victim of day care sex abuse hysteria. Prior to this, clemency for Amirault had been recommended unanimously by the Massachusetts Parole Board,.[7] Amirault’s co-accused mother and sister had already been released from custody.

    From the link on the Austin case:

    After the 2013 hearing, DA Rosemary Lehmberg – who had been head of the office’s child abuse unit at the time of the Kellers’ prosecution – ultimately agreed that the couple had not received a fair trial, and they were released shortly before Christmas that year. While there was no doubt the couple would not be retried, over the intervening years, Lehmberg declined to take the final step and exonerate them, claiming to my former editor that she could not “find a pathway to innocence” for the Kellers. She was essentially trying to prove a negative – seeking evidence that would prove a crime never happened.

    Rosemary Lehmberg, as then-head of the child abuse unit, bears some responsibility for the Kellers’s unjust imprisonment.
    Rosemary Lehmberg and Governor Perry made some headlines. From Wiki on Rosemary Lehmberg:

    In 2013, she was arrested for and pleaded guilty to drunk driving. She was sentenced to forty-five days in jail.[5] According to Lehmberg’s lawyer, David Sheppard, Lehmberg’s sentence was “without doubt the harshest sentence anyone has ever received for first time DWI” in Travis County.[6] Video of her detainment and extremely inebriated and aggressive behavior was released to the public. Governor Rick Perry demanded Lehmberg’s resignation, and stated that if she did not step down, he would use his line-item veto power to cut all funding to the Public Accountability Office which is under Lehmberg’s authority. Lehmberg refused, and Governor Perry vetoed the office’s funding. Perry was indicted for this action but was later cleared of all charges.

    Fortunately, Rosemary Lehmberg is now retired.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary_Lehmberg

  5. The awfulness of the police and prosecutors in this case reminds me of the Documentary Now! episode “The Eye Doesn’t Lie”. Horrible. Also, I was studying educational psychology when this string of “satanic day care centers” trials was going on. It’s amazing what you can get a child to say. They aren’t as firmly affixed to reality as adults, having less experience and less theory of how the world is supposed to work. OTOH, recent political opinions of some adults are sort of unmoored from reality, also.

  6. The great Dorothy Rabinowitz of the Wall Street Journal wrote several editorials on the Amirault case(s) in the 1990’s. Her excellent writing made abundantly clear what a travesty it was. I remember being astounded that such medieval witch hunts were occurring in the US in the 1990’s. I’ve learned a lot since then and am no longer shocked at anything, more’s the pity.

  7. Given the frequency of prosecutors suborning perjury and withholding exculpatory evidence, I think it’s best for a jury to vote to acquit despite evidence presented. It’s said that it’s better to let ten guilty men go than to imprison one innocent man.
    Choose your own ratio.
    Until cops and prosecutors clean up their acts, don’t risk imprisoning the innocent.

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