{"id":1091,"date":"2013-10-07T10:54:39","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T10:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=1091"},"modified":"2016-07-04T00:57:32","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T00:57:32","slug":"and-believes-to-this-day-she-was-molested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=1091","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;And believes to this day she was molested&#8230;.&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"style187\" style=\"text-align: right;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1092\" src=\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/131007Kelley.jpg\" alt=\"131007Kelley\" width=\"120\" height=\"193\" \/>Oct. 7, 2013<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">\u201cToday (in 2001), few contend that the interview techniques used at the outset of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.religioustolerance.org\/ra_fells.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Fells Acres<\/a>\u00a0child abuse investigation, in 1984, were proper and reliable. Middlesex County (Mass.) prosecutors admitted to appellate judges in the 1990s that those techniques \u2013 characterized by repeated suggestive questioning about molestation despite initial avowals by the children that nothing of that kind occurred \u2013 would not be employed today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">\u201cIn 1998, Superior Court Judge Isaac Borenstein ruled that under current Massachusetts law, the manner in which the Fells Acres children were first interrogated would have constituted grounds to have the case dismissed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">\u201cThat questioning included hundreds of taped episodes such as this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"style184\">Pediatric interviewer (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=723\">Susan J. Kelley<\/a>): \u201cDid the clown touch you?\u201d<\/li>\n<li class=\"style184\">Child witness: \u201cNo. &#8230;\u201d<\/li>\n<li class=\"style184\">Interviewer: \u201cYou said the clown took your clothes off. &#8230;\u201d<\/li>\n<li class=\"style184\">Child: \u201cYeah. &#8230;\u201d<\/li>\n<li class=\"style184\">Interviewer: \u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/li>\n<li class=\"style184\">Child: \u201cWell, nothing really.\u201d<\/li>\n<li class=\"style184\">Interviewer: \u201cDid the clown touch &#8230; Will you show me if the clown touched any part of you?\u201d<\/li>\n<li class=\"style184\">Child: \u201cNo, he didn&#8217;t touch me.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"style184\">\u201cThe child interviewed in the above example testified against Gerald Amirault at his 1986 trial, and believes to this day that she was molested by an \u2018evil clown.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"style173\" style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>\u2013 From \u201c<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cltg.org\/cltg\/amirault\/01-07-08.htm#Herald\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Memories questioned<\/em><\/a><em>, but victim still certain of \u2018evil\u2019&#8230;. Studies say kids can be easily led\u201d by Tom Mashberg in the Boston Herald (July 8, 2001)<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">So what happens to the professional prospects of a \u201cpediatric interviewer\u201d whose ludicrously biased questioning led to the conviction of not only Gerald Amirault, but also his mother and sister?\u00a0 In the short term, Susan J. Kelley had to endure even her prosecutorial allies disavowing her \u201csuggestive techniques.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">Soon, however, Kelley\u2019s career was back on track,\u00a0 unimpeded by the tragedy wrought by her blindered incompetence. She has never apologized&#8230;. although her\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/snhp.gsu.edu\/profile\/susan-j-kelley-rn-phd-faan\/\" target=\"_blank\">lengthy current resume<\/a>\u00a0does omit mention of her role in the day-care ritual-abuse hoax, either as a prosecutorial interviewer or as an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=723\">academic apologist<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oct. 7, 2013 \u201cToday (in 2001), few contend that the interview techniques used at the outset of the\u00a0Fells Acres\u00a0child abuse investigation, in 1984, were proper and reliable. Middlesex County (Mass.) prosecutors admitted to appellate judges in the 1990s that those techniques \u2013 characterized by repeated suggestive questioning about molestation despite initial avowals by the children [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1091"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2412,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions\/2412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}