(Malden, MA 1984): (Noone from the press has debunked this atrocity yet. The following is based on trial transcripts, appellate decision, and Boston Globe articles).
A notable feature of this case is that the prosecution maintains that the children were molested in a room referred to as the "secret room", "hidden room", "special room", or "magic room." No such room has ever been found; but that did not stop one jury from convicting owner Violet Amirault (60 years old at the time) and her daughter Cheryl LeFave. Nor did it stop another jury from convicting her son Gerald (Tooky) Amirault.
Vi, Cheryl, and Gerald remain in Massachusetts prisons, having lost all appeals to date. Vi and Cheryl keep getting denied parole because they won't confess. Their sentence was 8-20 years, but the judge promised to reduce it to five years if they were denied parole when they first came up. He kept his promise, but in an unusual move, the prosecutor appealed the revised sentence and won at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Gerald's sentence is much harsher-- 30 to 40 years.
The case started when a mother was having difficulties dealing with her five year old son. In March of 1984 she moved to Medford and enrolled her son in Fells Acres. Soon afterwards, her husband lost his job as a custodian at Wellesley and moved out of the house. Her son, Michael, attended Fells Acres two days a week from late March or early April until June. His behavior worsened during the summer and it appears she may have suspected sexual abuse (she like most parents denies Questioning her son about sexual matters). She had her brother, who claims to have been molested at camp once, talk to her son, Michael. The son said something to the effect that someone had pulled his pants down. The mother at Gerald's trial testified that she was anxious about this, but denied suspecting sexual abuse, even though soon after this initial 'disclosure' she called a child abuse hotline. Sometime at the end of August Michael told her some story about being repeatedly abused in a secret room by Gerald and of being forced to urinate in a cup and drink the urine while his teachers where in the room. He claimed he was then taken to an upstairs magic room. The secret room was alleged to have a bed and a shelf with gold trophies. At the trial, the mother and son maintained that the rooms were in a white house and a brown house away from the school, even though earlier they gave no indication that the rooms were outside of Fells Acres.
The police and social workers started further interviews with children, including Gerald's own daughters. They then closed the school and held a parents meeting where parents were asked to ask their children about a magic room, a secret room, and a clown. In some of the early stories children claimed they were molested by "a bad clown." Eventually 20 substantiated cases surfaced. Nine children testified against Gerald, and four against Cheryl and Vi.
Ritual abuse theory promoters cite this as a documented case because all appeals have been lost and there are claims to physical evidence. The physical evidence is completely faulty. With the possible exception of one child, the "physical signs" are commonly found in unabused children. The one exception is a girl with a small scar on the hymen. I have not investigated this one claim, but there are many possible explanations--misinterpretation of the exam, the girl had inserted something into her own vagina, or the girl was molested at one time by someone else. This girl had testified only to be anally raped with a knife. Dr. Emans, the prosecutions witness tried to claim that the knife may have missed and left a small mark on the hymen. The judge struck this testimony as too speculative.
Any of Dr. Emans' testimony should be regarded with strong skepticism, given her twisted testimony in Cheryl and Vi's trial. Dr. Emans testified that the presence of vulvitis in all three girls testifying was unusual and significant in identifying sexual abuse; in spite of the fact that the total population really included 60 girls, and a monograph she coauthored in 1982 states explicitly that vulvovaginitis is common and often due to poor hygiene. Furthermore, one of the girls had not been at the school for 18 months by the time Dr. Emans carried out the examination. Vulvitis caused by the rubbing of sexual abuse generally heals within three weeks. The other two girls were examined at least four weeks after the school closed.
Many of the children were eventually interviewed by a pediatric nurse, Susan Kelley, who is a strong proponent of the existence of ritual abuse. Her interviews where highly leading and suggestive, not settling for "no" Answers. Children frequently told her very bizarre stories in attempts to figure out what she wanted to hear. After repeatedly being asked about a magic room, one girl began to describe a scene in which the bad clown passed out sticks on fire. Susan Kelley proceded to ask about whether she had seen the clown's peepee or bumbum, and continued to ask such suggestive Questions even after getting no for an Answer.
During the trials, many children admitted to practicing their testimony. The testimony of Brian M., below, is classic example of this:
Cross by Julianne Balliro (comm vs. Amirault, May 26, 1986):
page 31-98
Q: Okay. Well, do yo practice things about Fells Acres, too, the same
way you practice your ABCs?
A: Yes.
Q: Okay. You've been saying them over and over and over again?
A: Yes.
Q: And you say them with lots of different people?
A: Yes.
Q: And if you forget, sometimes people help you remember?
A: Yes.
Q: Okay, and sometimes there's things--there are some things
that they don't help you remember, right?
A: Right.
Q: Things like who Steve is, right?
A: Right.
[Steve is a mysterious bad man who Brian mentioned on an interview]
.....
Many others testified that if they did not practice, they would forget what happened at Fells Acres. Almost all children testified that they were threatened, even though experts state that threatening children frequently causes them to tell about the abuse right away, when the abuser is not a family member. Even the state's expert, Dr. Renee Brant, could not estimate the probability that a threat would be successful at keeping a child quite. In ritual abuse cases such as this one, threats have to successful virtually 100% of the time for the case to be credible, as no children disclosed any abuse until repeatedly Questioned. In fact, when the case broke out most of the children testifying stated that they liked school and wanted to go back.
This case included bizarre testimony as to a good clown and a bad clown who molested children. Some children claimed the bad clown was Gerald, even though they often initially named it with some other name. There was also a good puppet show and a bad puppet show. The bad puppet show is describe in this testimony of Brian M. (age 6 1/2 at Gerald Amirualt's trial):
[Redirect by Prosecuter Larry Hardoon. (Comm. vs. Amirault May 26, 1986)
page 31-100 to 31-101]
Q Brian, Juliane asked you about a puppet show; do you remember?
A Yes.
Q Okay. And did you go to one puppet show or more than one puppet show?
A Just only two.
Q Okay, there's two. And can you tell me what the two of them were?
A I forget.
Q All right. Well, were they both good puppet shows?
A No, one was bad and one was good.
Q Okay, and what happened at the one puppet show that was bad, Brian?
A They took everyone's clothes off.
Q Allright. And did they do anything after they took everyone's
clothes off?
Ms. Balliro: Objection.
The Court: Overruled.
A I forget that one.
Q Okay. So you don't remember what they did after they took everyone's
clothes off?
Ms. Balliro: Objection. Motion to strike.
court: Overruled.
A. No.
......
page 31-103: Bench conference:
Ms. Balliro: Your Honor, I would just move to strike the business about "they" took everyone's clothes off. We don't know who "they" is or whether "they" includes Tooky or Tooky was at the puppet show. The only reason I went into the puppet show was because he connected it to the house.
One boy testified to being tied to a tree in front of all of the students and teachers. He also said that Cheryl killed a dog a buried its blood in the sandbox. He even claimed a baby was killed there during one interview, although he forgot this at trial time. Another claimed that Vi killed a frog and fed it to him. During the original interview he said it quacked like a duck and was a monster. A girl claimed her wrist was slashed and it bled. Another girl talked about a game where she licked icecream off of the trunk of an elephant and the trunk was Gerald's penis. Another girl claimed that the clown had chased her naked into the school yard, and everyone yelled "Ha Ha you are outside naked."
The location of the magic or secret room moved around during the investigation. Some initially placed it in the basement, but at the trials the prosecution claimed to have identified it as an upstairs bathroom or an ajoining classroom, even though neither was ever inaccessible and both where regularly used by the children and teachers at the school. No teacher ever heard any mention of a magic or secret room nor saw Gerald dressed as a clown until this witchhunt started. The descriptions appear to be very inconsistent. Some mention wires on the floor. Others a lamp and a green light and a green or orange rug. Some mention a camera on a tripod. No testimony that I have seen mentions a sink or toilet or any object normally found in a bathroom or classroom (I have read the complete trial testimony of six children and part of the direct examination of a seventh). Many of the children claimed that they told their teachers that they were going to the magic room.