![\"140330Harrington\"](\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/140330Harrington.jpg\")
March 30, 2014<\/p>\nMarch 30, 2014<\/p>\n
A welcome contribution to the unraveling of the \u201csatanic ritual abuse\u201d case against\u00a0Fran and Danny Keller<\/a>\u00a0was this letter from Chicago psychology professor\u00a0Evan Harrington<\/a>\u00a0dismantling the testimony of prosecution witness Randy Noblitt, a psychologist and self-described expert in ritual abuse.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how the\u00a0Austin Chronicle<\/a>\u00a0summarized it:<\/p>\n \u201cThe letter, signed by 39 leading experts from across the country and around the world, presents the court with evidence not only that Noblitt was, and is, unqualified to serve as an expert at all, but also that \u2018ritual abuse\u2019 is a topic unsupported by any empirical research. Indeed, at trial the state called Noblitt to describe how the children\u2019s allegations against the Kellers were believable and to avow that the allegations comported with \u2018behaviors associated with so-called ritual abuse,\u2019 reads the letter.<\/p>\n \u201c \u2018In summary, the world portrayed by Dr. Noblitt is one in which thousands of cult abusers have infiltrated respectable society, and specifically daycare centers, in order to operate a clandestine subculture engaged in massive levels of felonious criminality,\u2019 reads the letter. To the contrary, Harrington writes, there is not now, nor was there in the early \u201990s, any mainstream support for, or scientific evidence to demonstrate, that ritual abuse is a real phenomenon. \u2018In conclusion, Dr. Noblitt stated in testimony at trial that there is little controversy about his descriptions of ritual abuse,\u2019 reads the letter. \u2018This statement was not factually true in 1992, and is less true today.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n I have long wondered: Why do the\u00a0Ann Wolbert Burgesses<\/a>, the\u00a0Susan J. Kelleys<\/a>, the\u00a0Mark \u201cWhere there\u2019s smoke…\u201d Eversons<\/a>\u00a0and the Randy Noblitts continue onward in their careers while their victims get not even a \u2018Gee, sorry, guess I was wrong\u2019?<\/p>\n How do professionals, however dubiously credentialed, manage to keep their licenses and their jobs after testifying so confidently, so misleadingly and so destructively against defendants such as the Kellers and Bob Kelly?\u00a0 What can be done to hold them accountable?<\/p>\n Dr. Harrington, who teaches at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, says this question sometimes comes up in his class on mental health law.<\/p>\n