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….
The truth about justice โ as seen on TV!
Jan. 29, 2016
โThe release last month of โMaking a Murdererโ capped a year in which popular cultureโs portrayal of the criminal justice system seems to have shifted. Out with the old tropesย about truth-seeking investigators and tidy resolutions; in with the disquieting, dysfunctional reality of many courtrooms and police stations….
โYes, post-conviction DNA testing and the work of Innocence Projects around the country have exoneratedย more than 1,700 defendants. Those cases heighten awareness of potential errors and demonstrate that wrongful convictionsย happen. But Americans shouldnโt expect certainty about innocence. Sometimes the focus on finding new evidence to exonerateย distracts from the question of whether the old evidence proved guilt….
โFewer than 70,000 federal felonies are prosecuted each year, while roughly 2.5 million felonies proceedย through the state courts. Many state cases involve near-simultaneous investigation and prosecution. One rarely finds out โwhat really happened.โ
โThe prosecutor in Averyโs trial argued in his closing statement that โreasonable doubts are for innocent people.โ They are not. And procedural protections like access to defense counsel and freedom from coerced interrogations extend to both the innocent and the guilty. The real contribution of these documentaries is not to ask โwhodunitโ but to reveal what was done to defendants….
โThe United States criminal justice system needs fewer guilt-assuming interrogation tactics, more disclosure of potentially exculpatory information to the defense, expanded oversight units within prosecutorsโ offices to investigate potential miscarriages of justice and fuller appellate scrutiny of convictions.
โThe moment is ripe for reform, culturally and politically….โ
โ From by โ โMaking a Murdererโ Is About Justice, Not Truthโย by Lisa Kern Griffin,ย Duke Law professor and former federal prosecutor, in the New York Times (Jan. 12)
Will this heightened skepticism about the nationโs justice system ever trickle down to exonerate the Edenton Seven and free Junior Chandler?
‘Started as a rumor โ not about molestation, not at first….’
June 24, 2013
โ(I) followed the Little Rascals case closely in the Norfolk and other papers…. Moved by (its) strangeness and patent senselessness, as well as by reports nationwide at the time of what came to be tagged โfalse memory syndrome,โ I wrote and later published a short story inspired by the spectacular miscarriage of justice…. The thrust of my story was popular hysteria and jaundiced, ambitious therapists together with a grievous breakdown of the judicial system….
โI believe that behind the recovered memory and child abuse therapeutic notions of that time, so destructive of the lives of the Edenton Seven and many others, lies Freud’s almost immeasurable popular impact on our now so heavily sexualized cultureย โย though the easy lure of the witch hunt seems to have been all too contagious in Edenton’s fearful, credulous and manipulable parents as well.โ
โ Historian and writer John L. Romjue of Yorktown, Va., responding to โRemembering the shame of the Little Rascals Day Care caseโ at North Carolina Miscellany (Oct. 24, 2011)
Although โWitches of Devon,โ the title story in Mr. Romjueโs 2002 collection, veers dramatically from the course of the Little Rascals case, it does indeed capture the essence: โIt had started as a rumor โ and not about molestation, not at first. There had been an โassaultโ incident at Happy Children (day care). Joanne Jamison had spanked a little girlโs bottom and not suitably apologized to the mother….โ
Santa, I know this is an unusual request, but….
Dec. 14, 2012
โLamb, Nancy and Bill Hart. โPointers on multi-victim, multi-perpetrator cases.โ American Prosecutors Research Institute 1992. Attorneys who prosecuted Little Rascals case offer advice regarding mass molestation cases.โ
ย โ Description of an 18-page how-to booklet that surely should be filedย under โfantasyโ or โhorrorโ โ if copies existed at all.
Unfortunately, all seem to have vanishedย from librariesย as well asย from booksellers. When I requested a copy from the National District Attorneys Association, parent of the research institute, I was told, โWe only serve prosecutors, not (even) other lawyers. But… we haven’t been able to find it. So at this point, we could not even provide it to a prosecutor.โ
Bill Hart played by his own (poker) rules
June 8, 2012
โThe duty of the prosecutor is to seek justice, not merely to convict.โ
โ American Bar Association
โThe primary responsibility of prosecution is to see that justice is accomplished.โ
โ National District Attorneys Association
โIf you were playing poker, would you be playing with your full hand
showing?โ
โ Bill Hart, special deputy attorney general, defending his unwillingness
to share evidence with the Little Rascals defense
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