Gov. Baker Finally
Approves Amirault Pardons
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Excerpts
(Full news reports follow Commentary)
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Before he
leaves office, Gov. Charlie Baker wants the
Governor's Council to revisit one of the nation's
most highly charged and disputed abuse cases of the
1980s with recommended pardons for Gerald "Tooky"
Amirault and Cheryl Amirault Lefave, who were
convicted of sexually abusing young children at
their Malden day care.
The
Amiraults were tried and convicted of child
molestation in the Fells Acres abuse case of the
mid-1980s, but Baker said Friday that the
proceedings "took place without the benefit of
scientific studies that have in the intervening
years led to widespread adoption of investigative
protocols designed to protect objectivity and
reliability in the investigation of child sex abuse
cases."
The
Amiraults have maintained their innocence.
"Given the
absence of these protections in these cases, and
like many others who have reviewed the record of
these convictions over the years, including legal
experts, social scientists and even several judges
charged with reviewing the cases, I am left with
grave doubt regarding the evidentiary strength of
these convictions," the governor said. "As measured
by the standard we require of our system of justice,
Gerald Amirault and Cheryl Amirault Lefave ought to
be pardoned."
Baker's
office included in its announcement of the pardons a
statement of approval from former Attorney General
Tom Reilly, who fought as Middlesex district
attorney in the 1990s to keep the Amiraults and
their mother in prison.
"While I
stand behind the decisions made at the time by the
prosecutors, judge and jury, I believe the
Governor's decision is a fitting end to a very
troubled case," Reilly said.
Among
those who questioned whether justice was truly
served in the Amirault case was the late Barbara
Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation, who wrote
in
her final newspaper column that Baker had
"promised my friend Gerald Amirault and his family
that getting Gerald off parole and his ankle
bracelet would be a first order of business." She
said that Baker keeping his promise was her "dying
wish."
State
House News Service
Friday, November 18, 2022
Gov. Baker seeks
pardons in 1980s Malden day care abuse case
Gerald Amirault (center) gave
his daughter Gerrilyn Amirault (left) a kiss,
with his wife Patti Amirault by his side during a
press conference on April 30, 2004.
DAVID KAMERMAN/GLOBE STAFF/FILE
Governor
Charlie Baker on Friday approved a commutation
request of a man serving a life sentence for murder
and announced pardons for six people, including
Gerald Amirault and his sister, who were convicted
nearly 40 years ago in the Fells Acres child sexual
abuse case that was long dogged by doubts about
investigators’ tactics.
Baker said Friday that he is recommending pardons
for Amirault and his sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave,
because he had “grave doubt regarding the
evidentiary strength” of their convictions in the
mid-1980s.
Baker also recommended that the first-degree murder
sentence of Ramadan Shabazz be commuted to
second-degree murder, making him eligible for
parole. Shabazz, 72, has served more than 50 years
in prison for the murders of Harry Jeffreys and
Calvin Thorn, and has been what Baker called a
“remarkable example of self-development for other
incarcerated individuals.”
It’s the third clemency petition Baker has approved
this year for a person serving a life sentence for
murder....
Baker’s recommendations now go to the Governor’s
Council, an elected body that vets judicial
nominations, for approval.
A member of the council, Robert Jubinville, a Milton
Democrat, said he supports the pardons and believes
“most of [the council] feels the same way I do.”
The Boston Globe
Friday, November 18, 2022
Baker recommends pardons for siblings convicted in
Fells Acres day-care abuse case
It was
Labor Day 1984 when the allegations at the Fells
Acres Day Care Center in Malden began to unfold. It
started with one 5-year-old boy saying that his
"pants were pulled down." But within months the case
would spiral into a story of perversion and cruelty
that seemed too horrible to believe.
Ultimately, Violet Amirault, the 61-year-old woman
who ran the center, as well as her son, Gerald, and
daughter, Cheryl LeFave, both of whom worked there,
were accused of sexually abusing some 40 children
between the ages of 3 and 6. After questioning by
social workers and police, the children described
how they had been fondled and violated; photographed
at "nude swimming parties," and taken to a "magic
room" by a "bad clown." In the end, the Amiraults
were convicted in two separate trials. Gerald is now
serving up to 40 years and Cheryl and Violet up to
20. All three still proclaim their innocence.
Now, more
than a decade later, amid a concerted attack
nationwide by some child abuse experts and civil
libertarians on the suggestive questioning of
children and the "pseudo science" which prosecutors
used in building these charges, the Fells Acres case
is being reexamined. A crusading attorney has taken
on the Amiraults' cause and is moving for a new
trial on grounds that the defendants were deprived
of their right to confront their accusers. In
addition, two mental health counselors appointed by
the state to work with the Amirault women have taken
the unusual step of publicly proclaiming their
innocence.
For the
Amiraults' supporters, Fells Acres represents the
bitter legacy of a brief period in modern American
history akin to the 17th-century Salem witch
trials....
The
Boston Globe (Archives)
March 19, 1995
Questions prompt reexamination
of Fells Acres sexual abuse case
By Charles M. Sennott, Globe Staff
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State House News
Service
Friday, November 18, 2022
Gov. Baker seeks pardons in 1980s Malden day care abuse case
By Colin Young
Before he leaves office, Gov. Charlie Baker wants the
Governor's Council to revisit one of the nation's most
highly charged and disputed abuse cases of the 1980s with
recommended pardons for Gerald "Tooky" Amirault and Cheryl
Amirault Lefave, who were convicted of sexually abusing
young children at their Malden day care.
The Amiraults were tried and convicted of child molestation
in the Fells Acres abuse case of the mid-1980s, but Baker
said Friday that the proceedings "took place without the
benefit of scientific studies that have in the intervening
years led to widespread adoption of investigative protocols
designed to protect objectivity and reliability in the
investigation of child sex abuse cases."
The Amiraults have maintained their innocence.
"Given the absence of these protections in these cases, and
like many others who have reviewed the record of these
convictions over the years, including legal experts, social
scientists and even several judges charged with reviewing
the cases, I am left with grave doubt regarding the
evidentiary strength of these convictions," the governor
said. "As measured by the standard we require of our system
of justice, Gerald Amirault and Cheryl Amirault Lefave ought
to be pardoned."
Baker's office included in its announcement of the pardons a
statement of approval from former Attorney General Tom
Reilly, who fought as Middlesex district attorney in the
1990s to keep the Amiraults and their mother in prison.
"While I stand behind the decisions made at the time by the
prosecutors, judge and jury, I believe the Governor's
decision is a fitting end to a very troubled case," Reilly
said.
Among those who questioned whether justice was truly served
in the Amirault case was the late Barbara Anderson of
Citizens for Limited Taxation, who wrote in
her final newspaper column that Baker had "promised my
friend Gerald Amirault and his family that getting Gerald
off parole and his ankle bracelet would be a first order of
business." She said that Baker keeping his promise was her
"dying wish."
The governor on Friday also announced pardons for Brian
Morin, Camille Joseph Chaisson, Michael Biagini and Robert
Busa. He also commuted the first-degree murder sentence of
Ramadan Shabazz to second-degree murder, which his office
said makes the 72-year-old once sentenced to death
immediately eligible for parole.
Baker said he hopes the Governor's Council will "consider
each of these cases carefully."
The Boston
Globe
Friday, November 18, 2022
Baker recommends pardons for siblings convicted in Fells
Acres day-care abuse case
He also approved commutation for man convicted of murder and
pardons for four others
By Matt Stout
Gerald Amirault (center) gave his
daughter Gerrilyn Amirault (left) a kiss,
with his wife Patti Amirault by his side during a press
conference on April 30, 2004.
DAVID KAMERMAN/GLOBE STAFF/FILE
Governor Charlie Baker on
Friday approved a commutation request of a man serving a
life sentence for murder and announced pardons for six
people, including Gerald Amirault and his sister, who were
convicted nearly 40 years ago in the Fells Acres child
sexual abuse case that was long dogged by doubts about
investigators’ tactics.
Baker said Friday that he is recommending pardons for
Amirault and his sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, because he
had “grave doubt regarding the evidentiary strength” of
their convictions in the mid-1980s.
Baker also recommended that the first-degree murder sentence
of Ramadan Shabazz be commuted to second-degree murder,
making him eligible for parole. Shabazz, 72, has served more
than 50 years in prison for the murders of Harry Jeffreys
and Calvin Thorn, and has been what Baker called a
“remarkable example of self-development for other
incarcerated individuals.”
It’s the third clemency petition Baker has approved this
year for a person serving a life sentence for murder. A
commutation reduces an inmate’s sentence, paving the way for
immediate release or parole eligibility, while a pardon
erases a conviction.
A second-term Republican, Baker did not seek reelection and
is slated to leave office in January.
Gerald Amirault, 68, who was paroled in 2004, spent 18 years
in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting nine
children at his family’s day-care center, the Fells Acres
Day School in Malden. His sister, LeFave, 65, was released
in 1999.
Their mother, Violet Amirault, was also convicted in the
case and served eight years in prison. She died of cancer in
1997 less than one year after being freed on bail while
awaiting a new trial.
Gerald Amirault has long maintained his innocence, and the
case fell under scrutiny after some of the methods
investigators used to obtain child witness testimony were
discredited and abandoned. A Globe story
about the controversy from 1995 noted that videotapes
and transcripts of interviews conducted with the children
included several instances of children denying abuse only to
have the interviewer plead and cajole, at times offering
gifts, for the “correct” answer.
James L. Sultan, the Amiraults’ attorney, said in a
statement Friday that his clients did not receive a fair
trial and served time for “crimes they did not commit.” He
said neither would comment while the pardon recommendations
are pending before the Governor’s Council.
“I want us all to be free of the stigma of this case. My
wife and children have suffered right along with me,” Gerald
Amirault wrote in a letter to Baker in February, adding that
he had told two of his oldest grandchildren about his
conviction because “many colleges and books reference my
case, and we did not want to have them find out about it
from anyone but us.”
The state Board of Pardons had recommended in 2001 that
Gerald Amirault’s 40-year prison sentence be commuted, but
then-acting governor Jane Swift rejected the recommendation.
He was later paroled.
“The investigations and prosecutions of the Amiraults in the
1980s took place without the benefit of scientific studies
that have in the intervening years led to widespread
adoption of investigative protocols designed to protect
objectivity and reliability in the investigation of child
sex-abuse cases,” Baker said in a statement Friday. Given
the “absence of these protections,” he said, the Amiraults
“ought to be pardoned.”
Former Massachusetts attorney general Thomas F. Reilly, a
Democrat who successfully fought off legal challenges to
Gerald Amirault‘s conviction when he was Middlesex County
district attorney, said in a statement released by Baker’s
office Friday that while he stood by the decisions “made at
the time,” the pardons mark “a fitting end to a very
troubled case.”
Efforts to reach those in the Fells Acres case who said they
were victims, or their relatives, were not successful
Friday.
Baker’s recommendations now go to the Governor’s Council, an
elected body that vets judicial nominations, for approval.
A member of the council, Robert Jubinville, a Milton
Democrat, said he supports the pardons and believes “most of
[the council] feels the same way I do.”
“I’m a big fan of pardons under the right circumstances and
this one is right at the top of the list,” Jubinville said.
“I couldn’t be more pleased with the governor to have the
courage to end this tragedy.”
In the murder case, Shabazz was sentenced to death in 1972,
but his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment after the
Supreme Judicial Court ruled the death penalty
unconstitutional in 1976. He and a codefendant shot Jeffreys
and Thorn, who were working at the Freedom Foods grocery
store in Dorchester, and stole upward of $19,000 from
Thorn’s car, according to Baker’s office.
While his crime was “horrific,” Baker said, Shabazz has “not
only taken full responsibility for his actions but has also
dedicated his life in prison to bettering himself and
serving as a mentor to others in prison.” He worked as a GED
tutor and a drug counselor, and obtained bachelor’s and
master’s degrees through Boston University’s prison
education program, Baker’s office said.
Friday’s announcement marked the third batch of pardons
Baker has approved this year. In January, he also moved to
commute life sentences for two men convicted of murder in
1987 and 1994, respectively, in what attorneys called a
“groundbreaking” act of mercy.
On Friday, he recommended pardons for four others who had
been convicted of larceny or assault charges decades ago,
and were seeking pardons in order to seek, or reapply for, a
gun permit.
They include:
Brian Morin, who was convicted of larceny from a person and
assault and battery in 1980, stemming from incidents when he
was a teenager.
Camille Joseph Chaisson, who was convicted of charges
including larceny and attempted larceny in 1966 and two
counts of larceny and one count of breaking and entering at
night with the intent to commit a felony later that year.
The earlier charges involved stealing tools, a battery, and
candy from an auto club.
Michael Biagini, who was convicted of three counts of
assault and battery and one count of being a minor in
possession of alcohol in the 1960s and 1970s. Biagini, who
has served as a local board of health member and water
commissioner, told officials the assault charge stemmed from
a “tussle over a young lady.
Robert Busa, who as a minor was found delinquent of breaking
and entering and larceny in 1970 and delinquent of a
property violation later that year, the latter of which
involved him throwing rocks at the windows of an abandoned
school after the Bruins won the Stanley Cup.
— Samantha J. Gross of the
Globe staff contributed to this report.
The Boston
Globe (Archives)
March 19, 1995
Questions prompt reexamination of Fells Acres sexual abuse
case
By Charles M. Sennott, Globe Staff
It was Labor Day 1984 when the allegations at the Fells
Acres Day Care Center in Malden began to unfold. It started
with one 5-year-old boy saying that his "pants were pulled
down." But within months the case would spiral into a story
of perversion and cruelty that seemed too horrible to
believe.
Ultimately, Violet Amirault, the 61-year-old woman who ran
the center, as well as her son, Gerald, and daughter, Cheryl
LeFave, both of whom worked there, were accused of sexually
abusing some 40 children between the ages of 3 and 6. After
questioning by social workers and police, the children
described how they had been fondled and violated;
photographed at "nude swimming parties," and taken to a
"magic room" by a "bad clown." In the end, the Amiraults
were convicted in two separate trials. Gerald is now serving
up to 40 years and Cheryl and Violet up to 20. All three
still proclaim their innocence.
Now, more than a decade later, amid a concerted attack
nationwide by some child abuse experts and civil
libertarians on the suggestive questioning of children and
the "pseudo science" which prosecutors used in building
these charges, the Fells Acres case is being reexamined. A
crusading attorney has taken on the Amiraults' cause and is
moving for a new trial on grounds that the defendants were
deprived of their right to confront their accusers. In
addition, two mental health counselors appointed by the
state to work with the Amirault women have taken the unusual
step of publicly proclaiming their innocence.
For the Amiraults' supporters, Fells Acres represents the
bitter legacy of a brief period in modern American history
akin to the 17th-century Salem witch trials. But for
prosecutors in the case, parents of the children involved,
and many advocates of children generally, the attacks on the
Amirault case flout the judicial process that convicted the
defendants, and represent a disturbing return to a time when
children's accusations against adults were not believed.
The Fells Acres story broke at a time when the national
media seemed transfixed by the dark secrets of child abuse,
prompted in large part by the shocking allegations just
months earlier at the McMartin Preschool in California. In
the McMartin case, Virginia McMartin, a 76-year-old owner of
the school, her daughter, her grandson and her granddaughter
were charged in early 1984 with some 200 counts of
molestation. Many of the counts seemed to bear a striking
resemblance to the bizarre charges made at Fells Acres.
Throughout the mid- to late-1980s, there would be about 20
such cases of alleged child abuse at day care centers across
the country. Many of the cases, including McMartin, have
resulted in acquittals or been overturned on appeal.
AMIRAULTS' ATTORNEY LOOKS TO NEW MASS. RULING
'The case is bogus and we will prove that," says Daniel
Williams, a New York defense attorney who won an appeal for
Kelly Michaels, the New Jersey day care teacher who was
convicted in 1988 on 115 counts of abusing 19 children.
Michaels served five years of her sentence before the case
was overturned by the New Jersey court of appeals last year.
The judges who overturned it issued a scathing ruling
against the prosecutors for even bringing her case to trial.
Williams, who intends to seek a new trial for the Amiraults,
sees strong similarities between Michaels' case and the
Amiraults'.
Although the Amiraults have lost on all appellate issues
before, a new ruling in Massachusetts law mandates that
children who testify at trial must confront the defendant in
the conventional "face to face" manner. Williams believes
the new case law applies to the Amiraults. At the two trials
in the Fells Acres case, eight of the nine children who
testified were placed at a small table in front of the jury
and shielded from the defendants by the childrens' parents
and court officers, Williams said. The other child's
testimony was shown to the jury on closed-circuit
television.
There are other voices of support, such as Miriam Holmes, a
certified therapist for the state Department of Corrections
for the past 13 years who was assigned to counsel Violet
Amirault and Cheryl LeFave. In a highly unusual development,
Holmes wrote a letter March 9 to Gov. Weld's secretary of
public safety, Kathleen O'Toole, whose office oversees the
prison system, expressing ''deep concerns about a possible
miscarriage of justice" in the Fells Acres case.
Holmes wrote that in her years of experience poring through
hundreds of ''official versions" of child abuse cases, she
found most are stark recountings of abuse in the home and
"devoid of elaborate tales of flights of imagination."
"This was not so with the Fells Acres case," she wrote.
"Here the stories elicited from the children are remarkably
similar to those in the McMartin case from Los Angeles and
the Little Rascals case from North Carolina, among others.
Tales of magic wands, magic rooms, torture and killing of
animals, secret trips, etc. I believe when the issue of
child sexual abuse emerged from secrecy some years back, and
thank goodness it did, it was like a dam bursting and some
innocent people got swept along in a flood with the guilty
ones."
Joel Skolnick, who runs a therapy program that contracts
with the state and who counseled LeFave, said he is
convinced of Violet's and Cheryl's innocence because both
would most likely have been released by now if they had
confessed to the crimes. Both have refused to do so, vowing
to serve the maximum 20 years, if necessary.
"There are an awful lot of sex offenders who deny the
offense, but when they are faced with parole and possible
freedom, virtually all of the ones I have worked with have
confessed to get out. I've never seen a situation like this
-- it is extremely rare," said Skolnick.
State Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, who was elected to
his current job in part for his pioneering work in the area
of child abuse as the head of the Middlesex District
Attorney's office, which prosecuted the Amiraults, dismisses
the revisionist theories on the case.
"I am fully confident that the Amiraults are right where
serious child abusers ought to be," he said. "The folks who
think this is a conspiracy running amok around the country,
that this is just like McMartin and Kelly Michaels, are not
seeing major differences in these cases. Certainly not the
least of which is that in the Amirault case, not one, but
two juries convicted these people. And the best judges in
this state upheld the court's decision on all appeals,"
added Harshbarger.
For families of the children, many of whom are still
struggling with the aftermath of Fells Acres, the recent
stirrings in the Amirault case have rekindled horrible
memories.
The mother of one boy who testified of abuse at both trials,
said, "We went through these stages already. You are furious
at first, you want to kill the bastards. Then you wonder if
it really happened. Then you look at everything the kids
say, and you have to face it, and it makes you sick. But we
have been through it all, so why 10 years later should we
have to put up with someone else going through these stages?
These people the Amiraults are scum of the earth; they
ruined children's lives, they ruined our families."
Those who believe that justice was done in this case hold to
a simple, but profound belief that, as the prosecution
insisted, "We must believe the children."
If that proclamation of faith is taken seriously, critics
argue, it raises some troubling questions in the Fells Acres
case. Does believing the claims of the children also include
believing the most fantastic allegations they made?
Here are examples from the court file:
- A "robot like R2D2" from "Star Wars" would bite the
children "on the arm" if they did not comply with sex.
- The "bad clown" named in this case would "throw fire
around the room" when he was abusing the children.
- That a squirrel was captured by Cheryl LeFave and that she
pulled its legs off. That she also "threw a bird into a tree
until its leg broke."
- That a 4-year-old girl had a 12-inch butcher knife
inserted in her, although there was no sign of a wound or
blood at the time, and no visible signs of scarring in the
aftermath, according to medical records introduced at trial.
There was a "pseudo science" surrounding these cases,
criticis claim, in which only the allegations of abuse were
to be believed. In the rules of this practice by child
psychologists and social workers, a child's fantasy about
such things as robots or fire-throwing clowns, is not a sign
of a child lying, but an "escape" from the trauma. When the
children deny the allegations, as did many of the Fells
Acres children, the notes of social workers on the case say
they are simply "not ready to disclose," or the result of "unsuccesful
questioning." This kind of investigation carries a
presumption of guilt, critics say, against adults accused by
children and can lead to false accusations.
In this methodology, if children exhibit behavior such as
bed wetting, trouble sleeping, sexually suggestive play, and
fear of adults, these are considered symptoms of child
abuse. Ignored is the possibility that the symptoms can also
be caused by other factors, such as tension in the home or,
in the case of sexualized play, a mimicking of images seen
on television.
"It is the new McCarthyism," said Wall Street Journal
columnist Dorothy Rabinowitz, who has written searing pieces
against this process and who has taken on the Amiraults'
cause.
"It's junk science," says Jonathan Harris, an assistant
professor of chemical engineering at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology who has studied the Amirault case and created
an electronic bulletin board on the Internet entitled "Witchhunt"
to communicate with researchers on the subject.
At the core of the prosecution's technique in Fells Acres
and other similar cases from that era was the use of
videotaped interviews with children, and a reliance upon
anatomically correct dolls to determine if the children had
been sexually abused. The leading nature of the interviews
and the suggestive nature of the dolls, complete with
genitalia, are what ultimately led to the unravelling of the
McMartin, Michaels, and other similar multiple-victim abuse
cases at day care centers. Williams, Rabinowitz, Harris and
other critics claim the same overly suggestive questioning
contaminated the Fells Acres case.
In a review of videotapes and transcripts of interviews
conducted with the children, the Globe found many instances
of the children denying abuse only to have the interviewer
plead and cajole, at times offering gifts, such as toy
police badges and other toys, for the "correct" answer.
Dr. Maggie Bruck, a McGill University psychologist who wrote
a key brief on behalf of Kelly Michaels in her successful
appeal, has done extensive research on how persistent
questioning can lead young children to fabricate stories.
"It is beyond me to tell you whether these children in the
Amirault case were telling the truth or not. But I can tell
you the questioning was a highly suggestive interrogation
process and in that context, our research shows, children
fabricate stories," said Bruck, who has reviewed some of the
Fells Acres documents in her research. "The process becomes
so tainted that we will never really know the truth."
A 1993 study co-authored by Bruck of nearly 800 children
ages 4 to 6 showed that repeated questioning over time
increases the likelihood of false reports. In the study, it
was common for children to elaborate on things that had
never happened to them. A more compelling finding was that
children were convincing about false memories, fooling 1,000
child-abuse professionals more than 60 percent of the time.
The use of anatomically correct dolls has also been
questioned by recent studies, Bruck said. Controlled studies
have shown a margin of error as high as 70 percent,
rendering the dolls useless, she said.
CALL TO A HOTLINE SETS PROCESS IN MOTION
Amid the frenzy of news reports on child abuse in the summer
of 1984, the Fells Acres story began with a mother of a
child concerned that her son's bad behavior might have been
caused by sexual abuse. The woman asked her brother --
himself the victim of child abuse -- to talk to her
5-year-old son. In that context, the boy told his uncle that
"Tooky," Gerald Amirault's nickname, ''pulled my pants
down."
The mother called a child abuse hotline. Suddenly and
inextricably, the bureaucratic machinery that drives the
social service system was started. The state Department of
Social Services and the Malden police were soon questioning
the boy. The child was not able to say where the abuse took
place, or anything more than that his pants were taken down
and that Amirault had allegedly touched his genitals.
Based on that information, Amirault was arrested on Sept. 6.
Amirault -- who worked as an administrator, driver and cook
at the school -- said in an interview that he did in fact
pull the child's pants down, but that the explanation is
innocent. He said the child had wet his pants during a nap
period. Amirault said he changed the boy into an extra set
of clothes and sent the child home with his wet clothes in a
plastic bag, a task he performed routinely at school. But
Amirault said he was never questioned by police, never given
an opportunity to provide that explanation until trial.
"These were routine steps that were never taken," said Frank
Mondano, the defense attorney who represented Amirault.
"Nobody even tried to talk to these people, to see if there
were rational explanations for these crazy claims. There was
just a presumption of guilt from the start that snowballed
as things went on."
In the first week of the investigation, several children
were interviewed by police. According to court files, it
appears that most said nothing happened. The father of one
boy remembered when police came to his door and told him
that his son's name had been mentioned by another boy as a
possible abuse victim. The father, a psychiatrist with a
private practice in Malden, had two sons attending the
school. He said both he and the police questioned the boys.
Both said nothing happened and showed no behavioral signs
that would suggest abuse.
"I never saw anything there at Fells Acres myself that made
me suspicious, and I was there quite frequently. . . .
Children are very smart, they know when something troubling
is going on. I believe this was an hysteria that convicted
these people," said the father, who asked not to be
identified.
As the first reports appeared in the media, panic spread. On
Sept. 12, a meeting for parents was held at the police
station. The air was charged and parents were extremely
emotional, according to those who attended.
Critics say police and social workers present made
irreversible errors that contaminated the case at this
meeting when they suggested that parents ask their children
about a "clown" and a "magic room," and whether they "had
been touched in certain places." Michael Spencer, a parent
who was there, said police told parents to look for "signs
of abuse," such as bed wetting or irrational fear on the
part of the children. Spencer also said police and social
workers warned parents that, "God forbid, any of you should
show support for the accused. Your children may never
forgive you."
"Naturally people came out of the meeting and there was
complete hysteria. It was like a frenzy, and I think that
had a lot to do with how this all got out of control," said
Spencer, who has joined scores of people from Malden who
hold monthly meetings in support of the Amiraults' fight to
prove their innocence. The group raises money for legal
costs, and offers other support for the Amiraults and their
families.
Even some members of the prosecution team concede that today
it would not hold a meeting like the one held on Sept. 12 in
the same fashion. They said they were trying to contain
mounting parental hysteria, not promote it, and help
children come forward if they'd been abused. Yet, similar
gatherings and suggestive correspondences with parents have
been at the center of other cases which were overturned,
such as Michaels.
In the wake of that meeting, the case mushroomed as more and
more children began telling -- first their parents, then
Department of Social Service investigators and finally
police -- disjointed tales of clowns, secret rooms and
touching of genitalia. The children were not just naming the
Amiraults, they were also saying that several other teachers
were involved in this process. Soon, police were
aggressively questioning the teachers at the school,
implying that they too could be indicted if they were not
careful. But none of the teachers were ever charged, and
none testified to witnessing any abuse at the day care
center.
"They scared the hell out of me," said one former teacher
who was questioned. "The whole thing was geared toward
convicting them, no one was asking, 'Do you think this
really happened?' No one wanted to hear anything that was
common sense."
Searching for motive, police believed that Gerald Amirault,
who admits to heavy drug use before undergoing
rehabilitation nearly one year before he was arrested, was
operating a pornography ring to pay drug debts. This theory
was leaked to the media at the time, and one newspaper even
reported that ''pictures were seized from the home."
But the prosecution was never able to turn up any pictures,
or any evidence of child pornography, despite a worldwide
search. The only photos found were an Amirault relative's
family snapshots of their children at Violet's pool. Despite
this, the prosecution called a postal inspector at trial to
offer graphic descriptions of child pornography.
Laurence Hardoon, the former lead prosecutor of the Amirault
case, is now in private practice specializing in civil suits
by sexual abuse victims. He concedes many of the
investigative techniques used against the Amiraults were in
their infancy, and that prosecutors have become, as he put
it, "a bit more sophisticated today."
"Not everyone is willing to accept the things children say
at face value as much as they did 10 years ago," he said.
"But the things we might have done differently in no way
impact my belief that the Amiraults were guilty."
Hardoon today maintains that the "consistency of the case as
a whole" is what confirms his belief that justice was
served. He also notes that the case began with some 40
children who made allegations, and that a dual process of
''sifting" through their claims -- as well as having to
determine whether the child and the parents could "handle
the pressure" of testifying -- prompted him to narrow the
case down to only nine children.
When asked about many of the apparent inconsistencies --
such as the children's inability to ever agree on where the
"magic room" or "secret room" actually was, the allegations
about robots and being forced to drink urine, and the fact
that many teachers were also named by the children but never
charged -- Hardoon said:
''All of these issues were open to the defense at appeal,
and no judge was convinced by them."
Hardoon also pointed to the physical evidence in the case.
He said, as best he could remember, "the majority" of the
children in the case showed physical findings of abuse. In
fact, only four of the nine children who testified at trial
had findings of physical abuse, and those findings were
questionable. Two of them had vaginitis, a skin irritation
which even prosecution experts conceded could have been
caused by a lack of cleanliness. The two others had
microscopic irregularities of the vaginal tissue, which
experts say could have been scarring from abuse or simply
slight imperfections of the tissue present since birth.
The Globe interviewed six jurors from the Fells Acres
trials, and all stood by their guilty verdicts. The panel in
the first trial deliberated for 64 1/2 hours, breaking the
record for the longest deliberation in state Superior Court
by more than 20 hours. All of the jurors interviewed said
that weighing the evidence, listening to the emotional
testimony of the children and then issuing a verdict in the
case was one of the hardest things they had ever done in
their lives.
"You had to believe the children. If you didn't, there
really was no case," said one juror, a secretary who has
become a grandmother in the 10 years since the trial. "It
was very traumatic to be responsible for someone's life. And
it was very painful to hear the children's testimony. But
once you make that hard of a decision, you don't look back."
Hardoon, who established Middlesex County's child abuse
prosecution unit and oversaw 1,400 cases, has gone further
than those who don't wish to second guess a verdict. In a
1992 interview with the Globe, he suggested that even a
wrongful prosecution might be the price paid to ensure that
children are protected from sexual abuse.
"The laws in Massachusetts are designed to aggressively
protect children," Hardoon said then. "In the course of that
aggressive prosecution, people are sometimes subject to a
prosecution that is traumatic to them. The question for
society is: Are you willing to trade off a couple of
situations that are really unfair, in exchange for being
sure that hundreds of children are protected?"
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