Rascals case in brief
In the beginning, in 1989, more than 90 children at the Little Rascals Day Care Center in Edenton, North Carolina, accused a total of 20 adults with 429 instances of sexual abuse over a three-year period. It may have all begun with one parent’s complaint about punishment given her child.
Among the alleged perpetrators: the sheriff and mayor. But prosecutors would charge only Robin Byrum, Darlene Harris, Elizabeth “Betsy” Kelly, Robert “Bob” Kelly, Willard Scott Privott, Shelley Stone and Dawn Wilson โ the Edenton 7.
Along with sodomy and beatings, allegations included a baby killed with a handgun, a child being hung upside down from a tree and being set on fire and countless other fantastic incidents involving spaceships, hot air balloons, pirate ships and trained sharks.
By the time prosecutors dropped the last charges in 1997, Little Rascals had become North Carolina’s longest and most costly criminal trial. Prosecutors kept defendants jailed in hopes at least one would turn against their supposed co-conspirators. Remarkably, none did. Another shameful record: Five defendants had to wait longer to face their accusers in court than anyone else in North Carolina history.
Between 1991 and 1997, Ofra Bikel produced three extraordinary episodes on the Little Rascals case for the PBS series “Frontline.” Although “Innocence Lost” did not deter prosecutors, it exposed their tactics and fostered nationwide skepticism and dismay.
With each passing year, the absurdity of the Little Rascals charges has become more obvious. But no admission of error has ever come from prosecutors, police, interviewers or parents. This site is devoted to the issues raised by this case.
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Todayโs random selection from the Little Rascals Day Care archives….
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Todayโs random selection from the Little Rascals Day Care archives….
What was learned from Little Rascals debacle?
July 19, 2013
โ…There should be lessons here, lessons about the risks in cases so emotional that they take on a life of their own; lessons for prosecutors who need to use their considerable investigative resources to learn, and not to crusade; lessons about the price in credibility paid by a judicial system in which defendants who are not rich are up against tremendous odds….
โThe Little Rascals case…. has wasted many years of many lives. The greater waste will be if nothing is learned from it.โ
โ From โCase dismissedโ (News & Observer editorial, May 28, 1997)
Parents gave thumbs down to first ‘Innocence Lost’
June 5, 2013
โMore than 50 parents of alleged child victims in the Edenton day care sex abuse case issued a statement Tuesday criticizing โInnocence Lostโ (after) reviewers in the national press hailed the show as a compelling portrait of a small town that may have become overcome with mass hysteria:….
โ โ โInnocence Lostโ conveyed the false impression that parents of the children came to the conclusions of sexual abuse as a hysterical reaction to rumors of abuse.
โ โWe, as parents, came to the devastating conclusion of the sexual abuse of our children after great reluctance and only after the most convincing evidence, evidence which could not be revealed in interviews for โInnocence Lostโ and can only be revealed during the trials of the defendants.โ
โSpecifically, the parents faulted the show for:
- โFailing to make clear that parents could not discuss โthe factual reasons for the determinations of sexual abuseโ because of pending trials.
- โSuggesting to viewers that three state-sponsored, local therapists were responsible for evaluating the children when โin fact, the children were evaluated by no less than eight independent therapists, none of whom live or practice in Edenton, N.C.โ
- โGiving the impression that the families who used the day care center were a โprestigious groupโ when they represent a โbroad economic and social cross-section of the town of Edenton.โ โ
โ From โDay care parents resent implications of hysteriaโ (News & Observer, May 15, 1991)
Most disingenuous is the Little Rascals parentsโ claim that โthe most convincing evidence… could not be revealed in interviews for ‘Innocence Lost’ and can only be revealed during the trials of the defendants.โ
In fact, it was the parents themselves who had so excitedly โrevealedโ the supposed evidence and sent it coursing unchecked through the townโs consciousness, reproducing and mutating as it spread, and resulting in unimaginable tragedy.
Heโs still โhelping survivorsโ of imaginary trauma
June 16, 2016
โWe thought โsatanic ritual abuseโ was a wholly debunked artifact of the 1980s, but apparently there are still a few โtherapistsโ out there dedicated to โhelping survivorsโ….
โAccording to the Satanic Temple (who arenโt really โSatanistsโ so much as anti-theocracy advocates), the โtherapistsโ seem to be the ones who are desperately in need of help. And perhaps having their licensure revoked….
โThe Satanic Templeโs โGrey Factionโ โ โdedicated to combating pseudoscience and witch-hunting conspiracism with rational inquiryโ โ has posted a petition at Change.orgย asking the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation to investigate counselor Neil Brick….
โBrick, head of something called โSurvivorship,โย runs conferences where some seriously weird advice is given. For instance, you shouldnโt trust your spouse, since they may actually be an agent of the mind-control conspiracy. The petition asks Massachusetts authorities to investigate a number of โpotentially dangerousโ and โradically paranoid, unsubstantiated, delusional beliefsโย pushed by Brick:
Neil Brick claims to believe that he was brainwashed to be an assassin for the Illuminati/Freemasons.
Neil Brick claims that, as part of his brainwashing by the Illuminati/Masonic conspiracy, he was programmed to rape and kill โwithout feeling.โ
Neil Brick claims that he once murdered a man in an unreported incident in Europe.
Neil Brick holds regular conferences wherein his delusional beliefs are propagated to mental health consumers by him and his co-conspiracists.
At a very recent conference (May 2016), Neil Brick expressed concern that attendees could โtriggerโ mind-control programming by touching their faces. Neil Brick imposed a prohibition against face-touching and asked that people sit on their hands. (Keep in mind, this is a man who claims that his own mind-control programming impels him to rape and kill. The implication is clear.)
Neil Brick continues to propagate debunked and disregarded narratives of concealed occult crimes from the height of the โSatanic Panic.โ
Neil Brick demonstrates a complete lack of understanding regarding cognitive/behavioral development, claiming to believe that Masons and/or Satanic cults torture fetuses so as to begin mind-controlling them at the earliest possible stage.
โ From โMental Health Professional Thinks Someone Programmed Him To Murder. Could It Be โฆ Satan?โย at Wonkette (June 14)
It took several requests,ย but in 2012 the Charleston-based nonprofit Darkness to Light withdrew its approvalย of Brickโs Survivorship site.
Death noted: Little Rascals judge Marsh McLelland
April 13, 2015
D. Marsh McLelland, judge in the trials of Little Rascals defendants Bob Kelly and Dawn Wilson, died last month in Burlington. He was 94.
Thisย laudatory obituaryย in the Greensboro News & Record barely mentions the most consequential case in McLellandโs career โ โHe was brought out of retirement by the stateโs chief justice to hear the Little Rascals Day Care child sex abuse case….โ โ andย this oneย in the Burlington Times-News mentions it not at all.
Had McLelland stayed retired, the prosecution of the Edenton Seven might well have been derailed early on.
The judge originally assigned to the case, L. Bradford Tillery, stepped down under pressure from Deputy Attorney General Bill Hart. Mark Montgomery, Bob Kellyโs appellate attorney, explains why:
โHart did not like the way Tillery was handling the case.ย The final straw was when Tillery ordered Hart to turn over the Stateโs interviews of those kids who were not the subject of indictments.ย He did not order them given to the defense, as he should have done, but Tillery was going to look through them himself.ย If he had, he would have seen that most of the kids at the day care, including Hartโs adoptive daughter, had said nothing happened and the jury would have heard about that.
โTo prevent that, Hart filed motions accusing Tillery of being biased against the State. Rather than punishing Hart, Tillery took himself out of the case to avoid any appearance of partiality.ย Enter McLelland.
โBecause Tillery had already ordered the interviews turned over to the court, that was a done deal.ย But McLelland never looked at them.ย I stumbled across them in the exhibit room of the courthouse and informed the Court of Appeals in my brief.ย The failure of the State to turn over to the defense the interviews of kids who said nothing happened was one of the grounds for aย new trial for Bob.โ
Tillery clearly was stung by Hartโs ploy: โI have served as a judge of Superior Court for over 20 years, and I never found it necessary to take such a step…. Neither have I ever been made to feel before that one side or the other considered me to be not only an adversary but also fair game …. for reckless assertions.โ
If only Tillery had responded not by resigning but by sanctioning Hart for withholding evidence.
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I was living in Virginia when all of this happened . I was in sick to hear that the most promenade people in my small town were in such a scandal.