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PART 3:
THE "FELLS ACRE" RITUAL ABUSE CASE
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Quotation:
 | "By now, too, the recognition that this prosecution--and other
child abuse cases like it around the country--was built on concocted
testimony has become widespread. So widespread that it is now the sort of
thing studied in colleges and universities. The 49-year-old Mr. Amirault
is about to finish his liberal arts degree in prison. Not long ago he had
the surprising experience of opening a sociology textbook, and finding
there--in a list of hysteria-driven prosecutions--the Amirault case.
Things have certainly come far since the day he was carted off to do 30-40
years, a despised cast-off from society." Editorial in the Wall Street
Journal. 1 |
Developments during 2001:
| 2001-APR-2: The purpose of the state's Advisory Board of
Pardons is to deliver a recommendation to the governor for or
against commutation of an inmate's sentence. They are required by law
to deliver their decision within six months of the filing of a
petition. In the case of Gerald Amirault, this time limit expired in
2000-OCT. As of 2001-APR, they have still have taken no action. There
is speculation that the Board's decision is on hold pending the
outcome of Senate hearings that are expected to approve Governor
Cellucci as Ambassador to Canada. The Wall Street Journal
commented: |
"That silence has, we suspect, everything to do with
Governor Cellucci's hopes for political appointment -- hopes that the
Governor doubtless considered endangered by any decision he might
take, especially a decision to commute the sentence of a convicted
child abuser, Gerald Amirault. Who knew what the reaction would be
from some hostile quarter of the press or what some Senator might say?
You never know."
"So it happened that Gerald Amirault has been left swinging in
the wind, waiting for word of what's left of life from a Board
rendered mute by Mr. Cellucci's career imperatives. It is now clear
that the Governor has decided to dump the commutation decision on his
successor, Lieutenant Governor Jane Swift. We don't, of course, expect
to see many profiles in courage among politicians yearning for
Presidential appointments. Still there's every reason to question the
credentials of a nominee as driven by political expediency as Governor
Cellucci has shown himself to be -- one who would serve an
Administration that has put a premium on the issue of character."
2
| 2001-JUL-6: In a 5 to 0 vote, the state parole board
recommended that Gerald "Tooky" Amirault's sentence be commuted.
3 They
wrote that there was "real and substantial doubt" in his guilt
because of the lack of physical evidence. Keeping him imprisoned would "constitute
gross unfairness." The board also noted that Amirault was unfairly
denied a chance to reduce his sentence because his lawyer missed a
deadline for filing an appeal. They noted that "It is clearly a
matter of public knowledge that, at the minimum, real and substantial
doubt exists concerning (Amirault's) conviction...[The case] contained
little in the way of physical evidence to corroborate in some instances
extraordinary, if not bizarre allegations. [The case record is] replete
with inconsistent and conflicting judicial opinions concerning whether
justice was done. Even the District Attorney has acknowledged that
flawed interviewing procedures were employed in interviewing the
victims...While executive clemency should never, of course, be simply a
response to public clamor . . . where, as here, the record of a case
raises real and substantial doubt the entire record of the case should
be given careful consideration" Referring to the flawed interview
techniques and the lack of physical evidence, the board commented: "These
and like flaws in the investigative procedures in similar cases
elsewhere in the nation have since led to the discrediting of some of
those convictions." The decision whether to recommend commutation of
his sentence will be made by Governor Swift. The final decision would be
made by the Governor's Council. |
| 2001-JUL-7: According to an article on Page 4 of the Boston
Herald, some of the people who believe that they were victimized by the
Amiraults want "Tookie" to remain behind bars. They are now in their
20s. One alleged victim said: "Let me tell you one thing. I did not
lie. How could we (the victims) all come up with the same stories if we
were not molested by monsters?" The mother of an alleged victim said
"They (victims) have not been able to heal because they have been
portrayed as liars in the media. They know vast numbers of people don't
believe them, and that causes a great deal of turmoil for them because
these abusers (the Amiraults) told them nobody would believe them."
Kimberly Hart, executive director of the National Child Abuse Defense
and Resource Center stated that "Gerald is one of the few remaining
incarcerated victims of the early '80s witch hunts." |
| 2001-JUL-15: Channel 56 TV in Boston took a public opinion
poll on whether "Tooky" Amirault should be released. Their question is:
"Do you agree with the parole board's recommendation to release
Gerald 'Tooky' Amirault?" With 355 people responding, Yes
outnumber No by 61.4% to 38.6%. |
| 2001-NOV-29: Governor Jane Swift met with three alleged
victims in the Fells Acres case. They urged her to not commute Gerald
Amirault's sentence. She is expected to meet with additional alleged
victims and with members of Amirault's family during the week of DEC-2.
4 |
Developments during 2002:
| 2002-FEB-20: Governor Swift decided
to let 'Tooky' Amirault rot in jail. When asked: "Was the parole
board wrong." she responded: "We performed a more careful
evaluation." She violated her promise to give the Amirault family
advanced notice of her decision so that they could emotionally prepare
themselves; the family learned about her decision from the media. The
governor and her legal team interviewed about 100 cases of child abuse
before making the decision to keep Amirault behind bars. There is no
indication that among these cases were studies of the
dozens of ritual abuse cases which later have
been shown to be entirely made up of false accusations. The team appears
to have assumed that Amirault was guilty. Thus their main concerns were
whether: "Amirault would be a danger, the effects on victims and
their families if he were released, the length of his sentence and his
rehabilitative activities while behind bars." 5 One of Tooky's lawyers, Jamie Sultan, addressed a press conference, saying
that: "Today, [Governor] Jane Swift, a person with absolutely no
experience or expertise in the field of criminal justice, rejected the
unanimous recommendation of the Parole Board following a secret process
which she declined to detail or illuminate. As a result, Gerald Amirault
is condemned to remain in prison, and those ludicrous allegations of
mass, ritualistic sex abuse which led to the destruction of an entire
family of innocent people live on. Was her decision based purely on
political self-interest of how it might affect her chances to be elected
Governor? Should a man's freedom depend upon political polling, rather
than upon what is right and just? Has Gerald Amirault become, in a very
real sense, a political prisoner? The answers to these questions are
self-evident." |
| 2002-FEB-21: The Boston Globe conducted a public opinion poll
on their web site. They asked: "Do you think Acting Gov. Jane Swift
is correct to refuse to commute Gerald Amirault's prison term for child
abuse?" By FEB-21 at 10:00 hrs, 2.297 people had voted:
 | 72.8% voted "No." "Swift let political pressure and
recent revelations of priest sex abuse sway her against Amirault."
|
| 27.4% voted "Yes." "It appears Swift did Extensive
research and carefully weighed all factors before reaching her
decision." 5 |
|
| 2002-MAR-14: Gerald Amirault will be eligible for parole in
2004-MAR, when he will have served 17 years, 6 months of his 30 to 40
year sentence. He has applied for early parole. His application is a
long shot; it would have to be approved by many levels of public safety
officials before it will even be heard by the parole board. 6 |
| 2002-APR: The classification board refused to allow his
petition for early parole to go forward. The reason given was that he
shows no remorse for the crimes that he was convicted of. He has refused
to participate in treatment programs for sex offenders and is considered
to be in denial. Since it is obvious that Gerald Amirault is innocent of
those crimes, and that those crimes never even happened, it is difficult
for him to show remorse. He is caught in a catch-22. Unfortunately,
there is no provision in the system for a prisoner who has been
wrongfully convicted. There is a slim possibility that he can
successfully appeal to higher authorities such as the Commissioner of
Corrections. |
| 2002-SEP: The Boston Globe asked seven candidates for
Governor of Massachusetts whether they felt that Gerald Amirault
should be released from prison. Carla Howell (Libertarian Party) said
that he should be freed. Shannon O'Brien (D) is leaning towards his
release, based on the unanimous vote of the Parole Board. Tom Birmingham
(D) would prefer that he rot in jail. The others, Robert Reich (D), Mitt
Romney (R), Jill Stein (Green) and Warren Tolman (D) were non-committal;
they said that, as candidates, they did not have access to all of the
information. 7 |
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Developments during 2003:
| 2003-FEB-27: Gerald Amirault asked Governor Mitt Romney to
commute his sentence. He has served 17 years of his 30 to 40 year
sentence. One of his three children, Katie Amirault, 22, said: "I'm
just hopeful that this time Governor Romney will take a good look at
this and do the right thing and send my dad home. We really do need him
home." 8 |
| 2003-MAR-15: The Massachusetts Parole Board turned
down Amirault's request. They ruled that there was no time for them to
consider his case before his next parole hearing, which is expected
about 60 days before his next possible parole date in 2003-DEC.
Amirault's attorney, James Sultan, said he wasn't surprised by the
decision. However, he was disappointed because he feels that Amirault
remains wrongly imprisoned. "To (the board), six months isn't much.
To him and his family, it's another six months of misery."
9 |
| 2003-APR-4: A forum on Fells Acres was held at the Harvard
Law School. The panel was moderated by Professor Charles Ogletree.
Speakers included Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dorothy Rabinowitz;
former Massachusetts Attorney General James Shannon; former
Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Robert A. Barton; Patricia Amirault;
Cheryl Amirault LeFave; and attorney James Sultan. Attorney Harvey
Silverglate later joined the panel. A summary of the forum is online.
10 |
| 2003-OCT-17: The Massachusetts Parole Board has voted to
parole Gerald Amirault. Their decision was unanimous. He is expected to be released sometime
early 2004, after having served more than 17 years for crimes that clearly
never happened. Under the terms of the parole decision, the District
Attorney may still file a petition for a dangerousness offender hearing at any
time up to 2004-APR-30.
Some children who attended Fells Acres and their parents reportedly
still believe that abuse actually happened in the early 1980s:
| Paul Bennett, whose daughter, Jennifer, attended the school said:
"I would say he's a threat because, once again, he's not admitting
guilt. You're putting a dangerous man back out on the streets." He
also said: "As far as we're concerned, he should not be getting
out. He's never admitted his guilt. The jury's verdict was a proper
one." |
| Jennifer said she was "horrified and disgusted" by the parole
board's decision. |
| Barbara Standke, whose son, Brian Martinello, was a Fells
Acres student, said she "knew he would be freed one day. What can I
say? My son is still suffering to this day." She also said: "The
parole officer told me he would have to stay away from children, and
at this point I guess that's all we can ask for. But it's not going to
help my son any." |
| Former attorney general Scott Harshbarger, who was the Middlesex
district attorney at the time of Amirault's trial, called the decision
to release Amirault ''unfortunate." He said: "I think we
often forget there are a lot of victims out there, people whose lives
have been dramatically changed." 11,12,13 |
|
| An editorial in the Wall Street Journal stated, in part: "By now,
too, the recognition that this prosecution--and other child abuse cases
like it around the country--was built on concocted testimony has become
widespread. So widespread that it is now the sort of thing studied in
colleges and universities. The 49-year-old Mr. Amirault is about to
finish his liberal arts degree in prison. Not long ago he had the
surprising experience of opening a sociology textbook, and finding
there--in a list of hysteria-driven prosecutions--the Amirault case.
Things have certainly come far since the day he was carted off to do
30-40 years, a despised cast-off from society." 1 |
Developments during 2004:
| 2004-APR-21: Martha Coakley, The
Middlesex District Attorney, had six months to decide to file a petition
seeking Amirault's civil commitment as a sexually dangerous person. She
waited until almost the last day before releasing a statement saying, in
part: "The commonwealth does not believe that it could garner
evidence to meet its burden of proof required under the statute that Mr.
Amirault would likely re-offend." Contained in this statement is the
assumption that Amirault actually did offend in the 1980s -- i.e. that
the molestation actually happened, and that Amirault was guilty. |
| 2004-APR-30: "Tookie" Amirault was
released to the community on 2004-APR-30 after having spent 18 years in
jail. He will be registered as a sex offender, be on parole until the
year 2023, and will not be allowed to be in contact with anyone under
the age of 18. He maintains his innocence, believing that the crimes of
which he was committed never happened. He said: "I'm going to fight
this case until the day I die to clear my family's name. I'm going to
get my name back." Jennifer Bennett, 25, is one of the individuals
that believes themselves as having been abusedby Amirault. She has been
in counseling since she was 3 years old. Jennifer Bennett's father, Paul
said that it has: "Been hell for all of us. Can't describe it any
better; can't describe it any worse. Hell is hell....We'd like to bury
this thing and obviously with what Mr. Amirault said today, it is not
going to be buried. Lets put this thing to an end. Now all he wants to
do clear his name -- there is no name to clear. He is guilty, he did
what he did and that's it." Jennifer Bennett said that, when she was
a young child, Amirault told her "If (she) ever said anything he
would come and kill (her)." Paul Bennett said: "Absolutely right.
This is one of the threats he threw, plus she has given more information
that he'd light the house on fire, he'd light her bed on fire, kill her
entire family." 16
TheBostonChannel.com has conducted a public opinion poll asking:
"Do you think that Gerald 'Tooky' Amirault should have been
released?" As of 2004-MAY-1, results were: 69% in favor; 22%
opposed; 10% unsure. N = 1,861. 16
|
Developments during 2005:
| 2005-MAR-25: Amirault given most dangerous sex offender level:
Gerald Amirault has been classified as a level three sex offender.
This indicates that the Sex Offender Registry Board believes him
to be at the highest risk to reoffend. He has appealed the decision but
was unsuccessful. He shares this rating with about 1,300 of the 8,000
registered offenders in the state. 17 |
Amirault defense fund:
Contributions to the Amirault defense fund can be sent, with an explanatory
note, to The Funding Exchange, Attn: Judy Hatcher, 666 Broadway, New
York, NY, 10012. 14
How to get at the truth, even now:
There are many loose ends in this case. The public holds divided
opinions: Were the Amiraults guilty of horrendous abuse? Did the children
make up the abuse stories and lie in court? Even at this date, it is
possible to lay these questions to rest forever, through the use of
polygraph testing.
A competent "lie detector" operator is correct about 85% of the time.
Suppose that a polygraph test were performed one of the
accused: Cheryl LeFave. If she
were shown to be innocent, then the test results would not be particularly
meaningful, because there would be a 15% chance that she was guilty and
able to beat the instrument. But if she and Gerald Amirault were
tested independently and both shown to be innocent, then the chances that they were
guilty and able to fool the instrument would be quite small: about 2%. We
could conclude with reasonable certainty that no abuse happened. If
Virginia Amirault had been tested before her death and all three were
shown to be innocent then the probability of them being guilty would have
been reduced to an insignificant level, about 0.3%.
Similarly, if three of the
accusers were given polygraph tests, and if -- as we expect -- all three
were shown to be truthful in their assertion that they were abused, then
we could be over 99% certain that they honestly believe that they were the
victims of horrendous abuse at Fells Acres.
If the three plaintiffs and
the three accusers were all shown to be telling the truth, then we could
conclude that no abuse actually took place, but that memories of
non-existent abuse were implanted in the minds of the children.
Author's opinion:
No ritual abuse occurred. All three defendants are innocent of any
crime. The Fells Acre case is similar to dozens of other multi-victim,
multi-offender ritual abuse hoaxes which have been shown to be
groundless. The main difference is that most of the other accused were released from prison
many years ago. The medical evidence given at trial is meaningless. The
children's testimony was extracted under conditions that are almost
guaranteed to produce false accusations. The Supreme Court of Massachusetts has
basically admitted that at least some of the crimes that the Amiraults were convicted of
never happened; they have admitted that the Amiraults were denied their constitutional
rights during the trial. But they felt that the community's desire to have closure on this
case is more important that the likelihood that the convicted are actually innocent. While other
courts in other states have reviewing similar cases and released the innocent
parties,
the Massachusetts courts carried on their own private Witch hunt in the
tradition of Salem, MA. Meanwhile, past improper interview techniques have
left the children (now teenagers) with memories of horrible abuse. Their
false memories will disable them all, to some degree, for the rest of
their lives.
References used:
- "Gerald Amirault's Day: He will finally go free -- 17 years too late,"
The Wall Street Journal, Editorial page, 2003-OCT-20.
- "Mr. Cellucci's Ambassadorship to Canada," The Wall
Street Journal, 2001-APR-2, Page A22.
- "Mass. Parole Board majority opinion on Amirault Case," 2001-JUL-6,
at:
http://www.ultranet.com/~kyp/parole.html
- Frank Phillips, "Victims fight Amirault commutation: Swift urged to
deny freedom," Boston Globe, 2001-NOV-30, at:
http://boston.com/dailyglobe2/334/metro/
- Steve LeBlanc, "Swift defends decision to reject commutation for convicted
child abuser," Associated Press, 2002-FEB-21, at:
http://www.boston.com/news/daily/20/amirault.htm
- "Amirault applies for early parole," Associated Press, 2002-MAR-13.
- "Does Gerald Amirault belong in prison?," Boston Globe, 2002-SEP-5,
at:
http://www.boston.com/politics/specials/jacoby/question10.htm
- John Ellement, "Romney gets Amirault appeal," The Boston Globe,
2003-FEB-28.
- Jay Lindsay, "Parole board recommends against Amirault request for
commutation," Associated Press, 2003-MAR-14.
- "The Harvard Law School Forum on Fells Acres," 2003-APR-4, at:
http://users.rcn.com/kyp/hl030404.html
- Margaret Wente, "A darkness lifted at last," The Globe and Mail,
Toronto, ON, 2003-OCT-18.
- Kathleen Burge, "Board grants parole to Amirault," Boston Globe,
2003-OCT-18, Page A1.
- Jennifer Peter, "Gerald 'Tooky' Amirault, at center of abuse scandal,
gets parole," Associated Press, 2003-OCT-17.
- FMS Foundation Newsletter, 2001-JAN/FEB, Vol 10, #1.
- " 'Tooky' Amirault step closer to release," Associated Press,
2004-APR-21, at:
http://www.boston.com/
- "Convicted Day-Care Rapist Released. Victims React To Amirault
Release," Internet Broadcasting Systems, 2004-APR-30, at:
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/
- Allison Morgan, "Amirault gets top sex offender level," Malden
(MA) Observer, 2005-MAR-25.
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Latest update: 2005-MAR-26
Author: B.A. Robinson
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