Kern County child abuse cases

The Kern County child abuse cases started the day care sexual abuse hysteria of the 1980s in Kern County, California. cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Who Was Abused? |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/19/magazine/19KIDSL.html?pagewanted=print&position= |quote=There are several ways to view the small white house on Center Street in Bakersfield, California. From one perspective it's just another low-slung home in a working-class neighborhood, with a front yard, brown carpeting, a TV in the living room. |publisher=New York Times |date=September 19, 2004 |accessdate=2007-08-21 ] The cases involved claims of sadistic ritual abuse that were performed by pedophile sex rings with as many as 60 children testifying they had been abused. At least eight people were convicted and most of them spent years imprisoned. All of the convictions were overturned on appeal.

History

In 1982, Alvin and Debbie McCuan's two daughters, coached by their step-grandmother Mary Ann Barbour, who had custody of them, alleged they had been abused by their parents, and accused them of being part of a sex ring that included Scott Kniffen and Brenda Kniffen. The Kniffens' two sons also claimed to have been abused. No physical evidence was ever found. The McCuans and Kniffens were convicted in 1984 and each sentenced to hundreds of years in prison. cite web |url=http://www.religioustolerance.org/ra_baker.htm |title=Kern County ritual abuse cases |accessdate=2007-08-26 |quote=The triggering incident occurred in 1980 when Becky McCuan disclosed that her grandfather, Rod Phelps, had touched her inappropriately. The family doctor confirmed the abuse. |publisher=Religious Tolerance ]

The convictions of the McCuans and Kniffens were overturned in 1996 and the two couples were released. In 2001, a TV movie about the Kniffens was released under the name Just Ask My Children [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280474/ Just Ask My Children (2001) (TV) ] ] .

Six similar cases occurred throughout Kern County. For instance, the testimony of five young boys was the prosecution's key evidence in a trial in which four defendants were convicted, with John Stoll, a 41-year-old carpenter, receiving the longest sentence of the group: 40 years for 17 counts of lewd and lascivious conduct. "It never happened," Ed Sampley, one of the accusers, told a New York Times reporter in 2004. He lied about Stoll. Sampley and three other former accusers returned in 2004 to the courthouse where they had testified against Stoll, this time to say that Stoll never molested them. In their late 20's, each of them said he always knew the truth -- that Stoll had never touched them. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/19/magazine/19KIDSL.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&position=&oref=slogin The New York Times > Magazine > Who Was Abused? ] ] However, Stoll's son has "continued to say that he had been molested." cite news | last =Logan | first =Jessica | title =Prosecutor's fire makes her either loved or loathed | publisher =The Bakersfield Californian | date =2005-05-31 | url =http://www.bakersfield.com/862/story/100201.html | accessdate =2008-07-11] In the case, the only defendant with a previous conviction of molestation was Grant Self, who rented Stoll's pool house briefly. Self had a long record of sex crimes against children. cite news | last =Branco | first =Shellie | title =Ruling puts man back in hospital | publisher =The Bakersfield Californian | date =2008-04-18 | url =http://www.bakersfield.com/619/story/122888.html | accessdate =2008-07-11] John Stoll had to wait until 2004 for the reversal of his convictions, but was released on the new testimony. Self remains in a mental hospital for sexual offenders because he had prior convictions for child molestation, had violated his parole by associating with children, and had violated hospital rules by possessing photos of young children.

ee also

* Day care sexual abuse hysteria
* McMartin preschool case
* Wee Care Nursery School
* Fells Acres Day Care Center
* Pedophilia and child sexual abuse in films

References

Books

*
*