![\"130628Myers\"](\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/130628Myers.jpg\")
June 28, 2013<\/p>\nJune 28, 2013<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren can lie, but research shows that they do not fabricate detailed descriptions of adult sexual acts unless they have experienced or witnessed them. Studies also show that children have good memories and that even preschoolers can remember key events like sexual abuse. One problem is that repeatedly molested children have great difficulty distinguishing one act of abuse from another and linking abuse to specific dates….<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the McMartin case, we learned… to minimize the use of leading questions during interviews…. While the verdict comes as a disappointment to the children in the case, their courage and willingness to testify for weeks on end has been a catalyst for change that will protect countless other children.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 From Believe the Children adviser\u00a0<\/em>Civia Tamarkin’s<\/em><\/a>\u00a0interview with\u00a0<\/em>John E. B. Myers<\/em><\/a>, professor at McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific, in\u00a0\u201c<\/em>The McMartin Nightmare<\/em><\/a>\u201d (People magazine, Feb. 5, 1990)<\/em><\/p>\n As his faculty bio notes, Professor Myers has long been \u201cone of the country\u2019s foremost authorities on child abuse,\u201d especially in tracing its historical context, but he seems to have been excruciatingly slow to recognize the fraudulence of\u00a0 \u201csatanic ritual abuse\u201d claims. Although he stopped short of declaring the McMartins guilty, Myers clearly stationed himself in the \u201cchild saver\u201d camp, more sympathetic toward serial interviewer Kee MacFarlane than toward the defendants whose lives she devastated.<\/p>\n In a\u00a0journal article<\/a>\u00a0five years later, Myers would acknowledge \u201cgrowing skepticism regarding children\u2019s credibility,\u201d at the same time warning of a \u201creal danger that the pendulum will swing too far in the direction of disbelief.\u201d<\/p>\n More recently, Myers addressed McMartin in \u201cChild Protection in America<\/a>: Past, Present, and Future\u201d (2006), crediting it with raising the standard for interviewing, but concluding that \u201cIn the final analysis, we will never know what happened at the McMartin Preschool. From the outset, the case divided people into \u2018true believers\u2019 and skeptics….\u201d<\/p>\n