[ql06] CRIMINAL: "Satan" and 1980s day-care -- parole update
- From: "K.K. Campbell -- LAW'06" <2kc16@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ql06@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 22:16:24 -0400
I'd like to be very sensitive about this one...
While I have no sympathy/concern for the bubbling concoctions in the
heads of those people who see the Devil in everything... paranoids are
everywhere. Left-right.
I do know some women, in the course of research and work, who really
felt there was something wrong with their lives. Grandview Girls School
(Guelph) was a something that affected me deeply. (The Rae NDP
government stalled on giving these women some kind of compensation for
their misery in Ontario's "dumping ground" for "bad girls.") They really
may have been abused. There were at least a couple provable instances...
and that is why the govt finally gave in.
However, I've never bought the "recovered memory" notion... or the
"Satanic ritual" shit... these are localized "articulations of feelings
of abuse"... (they belong to one culture... and that is always
political... and I am going too far with this already so will let it
drop).
I certainly wondered about this guy, who has been granted parole.
Ken.
--
Psychoanalysis, under the guise of curing people of mental
ailments, has been essentially a movement that replicates
itself and whose central purpose is to replicate itself.
Or as I once put it, it produces more converts than cures.
-- Frederick Crews
--- cut here ---
Man convicted in controversial Massachusetts day care molestation case
granted parole
JENNIFER PETER
Associated Press Writer
Friday, October 17, 2003
(10-17) 22:41 PDT BOSTON (AP) --
A man convicted of raping eight youngsters in one of the nation's most
lurid -- and bitterly disputed -- child-molestation cases has been
granted parole and could go free next spring after 17 years in prison.
Gerald "Tooky" Amirault was found guilty in 1986 of abusing children at
his family's suburban day-care center and was sentenced to 30 to 40
years in prison. His mother and sister were convicted in a separate
trial.
The Amiraults argued that they were victims of sex abuse hysteria that
swept the country in the 1980s.
In a decision announced Friday, the parole board said Amirault, 49, has
already served a long prison term, has strong support from his family
and the community, and had a minimal prior criminal history.
"It's been very difficult, but his innocence is what gave us strength to
fight this through many battles," said Amirault's wife, Patti. "It's
time to put this whole thing to rest for both sides and let everyone get
on with their lives."
His earliest release date would be April 30, said Edward Principe,
spokesman for the state Public Safety Department.
"I knew it was going to come someday," said Barbara Standke, 47, whose
son was one of the victims. "The parole officer told me he would have to
stay away from children, and at this point I guess that's all we can ask
for. But it's not going to help my son any."
Under state law, Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley has six
months to file a petition seeking Amirault's civil commitment as a
sexually dangerous person. A spokeswoman said Coakley had not yet
decided whether to do so.
The Amiraults claimed they were railroaded by questionable testimony
from child witnesses.
One child told of being molested by a clown in a "magic room." Some told
tales of being hung from a tree naked in front of their classmates, or
of watching one of the women dismember animals. Their stories were never
corroborated.
Amirault's sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, and mother, Violet Amirault,
were freed in 1995 on appeal after claiming they were denied the right
to literally confront their child accusers -- who were allowed to face
the other way while testifying.
Violet Amirault died in 1997, while the case was still winding through
the courts. Her daughter's conviction was reinstated in 1999, but LeFave
was allowed to go free anyway when a judge ruled the eight years she had
served in prison were enough.
"I had a few breaks throughout my incarceration and only had to serve
eight years, but he's been in for 17," LeFave said. "This is the first
good news he's been able to get. And we're ecstatic."
In 2001, the state Board of Pardons unanimously recommended commuting
Amirault's sentence, saying there was "substantial doubt" about his
guilt. Acting Gov. Jane Swift refused.
The families of 16 children, including the eight who testified in the
child abuse cases, received $20 million in damages.
A number of mass child-abuse convictions from the 1980s have been
overturned; the Little Rascals day care center in Edenton, N.C., and the
McMartin Preschool in Los Angeles were among the most notorious such
cases.
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