=====> With no intent to support or refute Louis in the issue
he has just broached, I offer the following investigation,
accessible in full - with a careful outline and many linked
sub-files - at www.tiac.net/users/hcunn/witch/fellpress1.html
valis
Fells Acres day-care Ritual Abuse case and the Boston press
Copyright © 1997 by Hugo S. Cunningham
Individual, non-commercial reproduction allowed, provided this notice
is retained.
18 Nov 1997
modified 30 Nov 97
only minor modifications have been made since
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Fells Acres day-care Ritual Abuse case:
Witch-bound Massachusetts needs a helping hand-- again!
The Louise Woodward au-pair trial focused international attention on
the Massachusetts criminal justice system. (She was convicted of
second-degree murder on 30 Oct 97, reduced on appeal to "manslaughter"
10 Nov 97.) Was justice done, or did prosecutorial zealots create a
crime where none had existed? (Having missed two weeks of the trial, I
plead neutrality.) Why did so many, some quite knowledgeable, assume
the worst about justice in Middlesex County MA? After all, there was
physical evidence in the Woodward case, even if its significance was
hotly disputed.
Much of this distrust stems from the Fells Acres ritual abuse case,
where three totally innocent people drew horrendous (20- and 40-year)
prison terms on nothing more than the testimony of toddlers who were
repeatedly and coercively interviewed until they "disclosed" mythical
abuse -- a 1980s version of the "spectral evidence" used in the 1692
Salem witch trials. The prosecutor responsible has enjoyed political
cover from a faction in one of our largest local newspapers, with a
"tonton macoute" journalistic ethic.
A 150-word summary of the case follows. For more detail, check the
web-site references in Section 1 of the Appendix.
Starting in 1984, the office of Middlesex County DA Scott Harshbarger
announced that Violet Amirault, her daughter Cheryl Amirault LeFave,
and her son Gerald Amirault, owners of the successful 20-year-old
Fells Acres day-care center in Malden MA, had suddenly converted it
into a factory of child pornography and the most horrifying ritual
abuse of helpless toddlers. Juries were persuaded to convict the
Amiraults in 1986 (Gerald) and 1987 (Violet and Cheryl), due
exclusively to the coached testimony of 3- and 4-year old children. No
physical evidence or adult witness for any of the charges was ever
found, despite the fact that the day-care center had always been open
to a steady stream of unannounced parents and tradesmen. Starting in
1991, psychologists demonstrated how the leading questions used in
cases like Fells Acres can brainwash child witnesses, but the
Massachusetts legal establishment has, at least until very recently,
proven extremely reluctant to correct a scandal.
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