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 – 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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Little Rascals Day Care Case
This Facebook page is an offshoot of littlerascalsdaycarecase.org, which addresses the wrongful prosecution of the Edenton Seven and other such victims.
Meanwhile in Edenton....
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Allies for our cause!
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The courts have a long history of capriciously pulling the rug out from under Junior's appeals, but maybe this time....
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Today’s random selection from the Little Rascals Day Care archives….
Lamb exit leaves district at risk of satanic ritual abuse
Nov. 22, 2013
“Gov. Pat McCrory has appointed the Albemarle’s chief public defender – and a member of the governor’s political party – to complete the term of the late Frank Parrish as district attorney in the 1st Prosecutorial District.
“Interim District Attorney Nancy Lamb said she was informed Monday that McCrory had chosen Andrew Womble to complete Parrish’s term…
“Lamb, who had sought the permanent appointment, said she knew she faced an uphill climb.
“ ‘I accept this decision for what it is, the partisan prerogative of a Republican governor,’ Lamb said. ‘I knew that as a registered Democrat that an appointment by this governor would be a long shot.’
“Lamb said she plans to complete a 30-year career as a prosecutor in the 1st Prosecutorial District on Feb. 28.
“ ‘I am proud of the job I have done representing the citizens of this district, especially victims of crime,’ she said.”
– From “McCrory appoints Womble DA” in the Elizabeth City Daily Advance (Nov. 18)
Thus are dashed my hopes that Lamb would be facing the voters next year and perhaps having to answer for her prosecution of the Edenton Seven.
Instead, she will be clearing off her desk and then presumably joining her husband, the wonderfully named Zee B. Lamb, who has just taken a new job in Nash County.
Gun lobby knows that public outrage will subside
Dec. 18, 2012
The hands-off-my-guns community is hunkering down, as it did after Columbine, after Tucson, after Aurora, confidently waiting for the storm of outrage to pass.
Just curious: If 20 dead children aren’t enough to start the change process, how many would it take? 100? 500?
But those questions assume that SOME number, however outrageous, would at last open a tiny crack in the massive resistance of the gun lobby.
In reality, no such number exists.
– Lew Powell
Chandler’s imprisonment: cruel and unusual
April 28, 2014
Average number of months served by inmates in state prisons…
■ for sexual assault: 35
■ for homicide: 71
■ for rape: 65
Number of months served by Andrew Junior Chandler for an imaginary crime: 324.
Can Edenton squeeze in one more historical marker?
Nov. 27, 2014
“Of the dozen or so historical markers clustered in the town of Edenton, only one – recognizing novelist Inglis Fletcher – postdates the 1800s.
“The North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Committee now has the opportunity, 25 years after the first arrest in the Little Rascals case, to add to that number a 20th Century event inarguably significant in the legal and social history of not just North Carolina but also the nation.”
– From my application proposing “history on a stick” recognition for the Little Rascals Day Care case
The marker committee, composed of historians from four-year colleges across the state, will meet in December to decide which pending applications meet its criteria.