Fells Acres Day Care Center

Fells Acres Day Care Center was located in Malden, Massachusetts, in the United States and was part of the day care sex abuse hysteria of the 1980s. cite news |first=Dorothy |last=Rabinowitz |authorlink=Dorothy Rabinowitz |coauthors= |title=A Darkness in Massachusetts--II |url=http://opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=95000780 |quote=A few months after Violet and Cheryl Amirault were imprisoned for committing, the State alleged, barbarous sexual assaults on small children, the prosecutors sponsored a seminar titled "The Fells Acres Day School Case--A Model Multidisciplinary Response." |publisher=Wall Street Journal |date=March 14, 1995 |accessdate=2007-10-31 ] [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Youths' "Tainted" Testimony Is Barred in Day Care Retrial. |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E1DC163DF930A25755C0A96E958260 |quote=Handing a major victory to the defense in one of the country's longest-running day-care sexual abuse cases, a Massachusetts judge ruled today that the children in the case had been so manipulated in interviews with investigators that their testimony was 'forever tainted.' Declaring that 'justice was not done,' Judge Isaac Borenstein of Superior Court today affirmed a ruling that a new trial be granted to Cheryl Amirault LeFave, one of three family members convicted more than 10 years ago in the highly publicized Fells Acres Daycare Center case. |publisher=New York Times |date= |accessdate=2007-10-31 ] Violet Amirault (1923–1997) opened the facility in 1966 after her husband left her. cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Day Care Workers Get Retrial, As Accusers Did Not Face Them. |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEFDA1F3AF933A0575BC0A963958260 |quote=A judge ruled today that two women convicted of sexually abusing children at a suburban day care center in the 1980's should be granted a new trial because some of their child accusers were allowed to face away from them while testifying. The judge, Robert A. Barton of Lowell Superior Court, also set a bail hearing for Thursday for the women, Violet Amirault and her daughter, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, who have been jailed since they were convicted in 1987. The women could be released from prison while awaiting the new trial. Prosecutors said they would appeal. The ruling does not affect the third person convicted in the case, Violet Amirault's son Gerald R. Amirault. Mr. Amirault, 42, was tried separately, and his appeal is pending. Mrs. Amirault, now 71, ran the Fells Acres Day School in Malden, and her daughter and son worked for her. In his ruling, Judge Barton said the women deserved a new trial because some children testified while facing the jury, with their backs to the defendants. |publisher=New York Times |date=August 30, 1995 |accessdate=2007-10-31 ]

Accusations and investigation

In 1984, a four-year old student at the Fells Acres Day School wet himself while taking a nap. Upon direction by the child’s teacher, Gerald Amirault changed the boy into spare clothing. Later that year the boy was discovered playing sexually-suggestive games with his cousin. After being questioned about this by his mother and uncle, who himself had been molested as a child, the boy said that Gerald had sexually abused him. Shortly thereafter, Gerald was arrested on charges of raping the boy.

The police called the parents of all the children to a meeting at the police station to discuss the situation. They were instructed to go home and interview their children and to look for signs of sexual abuse/molestation. The parents were told that symptoms to look for included bed wetting, changes in appetite, nightmares, and others (all behaviors not uncommon among three to five year old children). [ [http://users.rcn.com/kyp/amirault.html#Investigation Amirault ] ] One parent even recalls the police saying "God forbid, any of you should show support for the accused. Your children may never forgive you." [ [http://www.religioustolerance.org/ra_fells1.htm The "Fells Acre" Ritual Abuse Case ] ] The children were also interrogated by the police, social workers, therapists, and others.

Arrests and trial

Eventually, Gerald Amirault was charged with molesting more children, and charges were brought against his mother, Violet Amirault, and sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave.

“All nine children testified in a broadly consistent way...The children testified to numerous instances of sexual abuse. Some of the children testified that they were photographed during this abuse, describing a big camera with wires, a red button, and pictures which came out of the camera. The children testified that the defendant threatened them and told them that their families would be harmed if they told anyone about the abuse....The Commonwealth also presented a pediatric gynecologist and pediatrician who examined five of the girls who testified...She made findings consistent with abuse in four of the girls.” [ cite news| title = Commonweath v. Amirault, Middlesex|work = 424 Mass. 618
url = http://abusearticles.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/common-vs-amirault-424-mass-618-page-624.jpg| format=scanned reprint|accessdate = 2007-12-09 ] [cite news| title =Commonweath v. Amirault, Middlesex|work = 424 Mass. 618
url = http://abusearticles.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/common-vs-amirault-424-mass-618-page-625.jpg| format=scanned reprint|accessdate = 2007-12-09 ]

Gerald would end up being convicted of assaulting and raping nine children and was sentenced to thirty to forty years in prison, while his mother and sister were convicted in a separate trial of similar crimes against four children and sentenced to jail for eight to twenty years. At both trials the children testified in open court sitting directly in front of the jury with their backs to the defendants and their faces to the jurors.

“The motion judge who heard Violet and Cheryl's motion, declared that " [a] t best, the defendants could only see the right ear and a part of the right cheek of the testifying witness." The Commonwealth contends that the defendants could see almost a full profile view including the child's lips and that the child witness could make eye contact by turning toward the defendants. “ [cite news| title =Commonweath v. Amirault, Middlesex|work = 424 Mass. 618 |url = http://abusearticles.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/common-vs-amirault-424-mass-618-page-622.jpg| format=scanned reprint|accessdate = 2007-12-09] [cite news| title =Commonweath v. Amirault|work = 424 Mass. 618 |url = http://abusearticles.wordpress.com/category/commonwealth-vs-amirault/ | format=scanned reprints|accessdate = 2007-12-09]

Interviews of children as evidence

Much of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ case depended on the information obtained in the interviews of the children who were allegedly sexually abused by the Amiraults. The interviews revealed that the children were raped with knives, sticks, forks, and “magic wands”; were assaulted by a clown (supposedly Gerald) in a “secret room” and a “magic room”; were forced to drink urine; were tied naked to a tree; and many other acts. [Commonwealth v. Amirault, 535 N.E.2d 193, 196 (Mass. 1989).] One child even testified that her wrists were slashed. [Commonwealth v. Amirault, 535 N.E.2d 193, 196 (Mass. 1989).]

The main criticism of this case had to do with the reliability of the information obtained from the children. The bulk of the evidence was developed through videotaped interviews conducted by Susan Kelley, a pediatric nurse. cite news |first=Dorothy |last=Rabinowitz |authorlink=Dorothy Rabinowitz |coauthors= |title=A Darkness in Massachusetts |url=http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=95000779 |quote=On Labor Day 1984, 60-year-old Violet Amirault, proprietor of the thriving Fells Acres Day School in Malden, Massachusetts, received a call about a child abuse accusation against her son. Two days later the police arrested 31-year-old Gerald (who worked at Fells Acres) on charges of raping a five-year-old boy, a new pupil. |publisher=Wall Street Journal |date=January 30, 1995 |accessdate=2007-10-31 ] The children repeatedly told interviewers, including Kelley, that nothing happened to them, that there were no secret rooms, and there was no clown. However, the questioning continued and eventually the children claimed all these things happened.One police officer, John Rivers, said at a seminar that interviewing the children was “like getting blood from a stone.” At one point, an interviewer told a child that the child’s friend had already testified that the clown had them take their clothes off. The girl being interviewed denied this happened, at which point the interviewer said that she believed what the child’s friend told her. Kelley used puppets of characters from "Sesame Street" to ask the children to disclose to the interviewers what happened. [ [http://www.geocities.com/jgharris7/fells.html Junk Science. Junk Justice ] ] She asked children questions such as "Do you think that you could help me the same way that [another female child] did by telling me the story about what happened with the clown in the magic room [?] " [http://www.geocities.com/jgharris7/fells.html. Follow this URL for excerpts from Susan Kelley’s interview transcripts: http://www.geocities.com/jgharris7/witchhunt/fellsacre/susan_kelly2.txt] Kelley also rejected alternative explanations for events and ignored the children’s denials of the abuse scenarios. [Ed Hayward, "Prof: Therapist Swayed Kids against Amiraults", Boston Herald, Feb. 18, 1998, at 10.] The chief prosecutor of both of the Amirault cases maintained that “the children testified to being photographed and molested by acts that included penetration by objects ... the implication ... that the children's allegations of abuse were tainted by improper interviewing is groundless and not true." [cite news | last = Hardoon | first = Larry | publisher=Wall Street Journal| title = Letters to the Editor: The Real Darkness Is Child Abuse | url = http://web.archive.org/web/20010719201703/http://www.vocal-nasvo.org/hardoon.htm |format = archived reprint| quote = As the chief prosecutor of both of the Amirault cases I am writing to prevent the public from being misled into believing that an injustice occurred as Dorothy Rabinowitz alleges in her Jan. 30 editorial-page piece 'A Darkness in Massachusetts.'| language = English | date= 02/24/95]

Post trial

Superior Court Judge John Paul Sullivan reduced Violet and Cheryl’s sentences downward, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reversed that ruling in 1993. [Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Editorial, Sept. 13, 1999.] In 1995, after serving eight years in state prison, Violet and Cheryl were freed on a successful appeal. A Lowell Superior Court judge ruled that their convictions were wrongful because they were not able to directly confront their accusers. However, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reinstated the conviction, citing the need for “finality.” [Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Editorial, Sept. 13, 1999.] While awaiting this verdict, Violet Amirault passed away. After this, another judge, the Honorable Isaac Borenstein, granted two separate motions for new trials. However, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court once again ruled to send the women back to prison. [Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Editorial, Sept. 13, 1999.]

In October 1999, the new Middlesex County District Attorney Martha Coakley and Cheryl Amirault LeFave reached an agreement whereby Cheryl would be sentenced to the time served and she was released from prison. In exchange, Cheryl agreed to ten years probation, and also could not give any television interviews, could not contact the families of the victims, could have no unsupervised contact with children, and could not profit as a result of her ordeal.

The Massachusetts parole board recommended the commutation of Gerald Amirault's sentence in July 2001. The then–Acting Governor, Jane Swift, rejected the decision in February 2002. He was ultimately released from the Bay State Correctional Center on April 30, 2004.

In 2001 the victims went public and revealed "their pain." [cite news | last = Gelzinis | first = Peter | title = Amirault's accusers reveal their faces, and their pain | format = archive | publisher = Boston Herald | url = http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/bostonherald/access/77139259.html?dids=77139259:77139259&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Aug+7%2C+2001&author=Peter+Gelzinis&pub=Boston+Herald&edition=&startpage=002&desc=Amirault%27s+accusers+reveal+their+faces%2C+and+their+pain | date = August 7, 2001] A victim stated "So many times....hovered over me, touched me and hurt me and committed many disgusting acts of abuse." [cite news | last = Miller | first = Leslie | title = Mass. Victims Fight Commutation Plea | url = http://web.archive.org/web/20010807011330/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010802/us/preschool_abuse_3.html | format = archived reprint | publisher = Associated Press | date = August 2, 2001]

ee also

*Little Rascals Day Care Center
*Day care sexual abuse hysteria

References

Further reading

* [http://www.opinionjournal.com/search/exec/htsearch.cgi?words=amirault&db=db&where=oj "Wall Street Journal" articles on Amirault case]

* [http://www.cyberussr.com/hcunn/witch/bd-cont.html Trial Judge Isaac Borenstein's decision of 12 Jun 1998, dissecting the flawed investigative methods.]