A Replay of the Salem Witch Trials Before Our Eyes

From Sea to Shining Sea ^ | 2/14/07 | Purple Mountains

[PurpleMountains]

We have three, politically-motivated, criminal prosecutions going on right now that remind us of the Fells Acre Day Care Case in Massachusetts where an innocent man, Gerald Amirault was charged with molesting 19 children, and his mother, Violet Amirault, who owned the center, was also charged. Gerald's sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, was charged with 10 counts of abuse. In the 1986 trial, Gerald was convicted and sentenced to 30 to 40 years in state prison. In the two subsequent trials, Violet and Cheryl were each convicted and sentenced to 8 to 20 years in a Massachusetts state prison. At both trials the children testified in open court sitting directly in front of the jury with their backs to the defendants and their faces to the jurors. These convictions were eventually overturned, but the people involved were totally ruined. Until now, this was one of the most egregious case of prosecutorial misconduct since the Salem Witch trials.

[FormerACLUmember]

Crooked prosecutors and lying, manipulative social workers destroyed the lives of the completely innocent Amirault family.

A horrific miscarraige of justice.

[af_vet_rr]

A horrific miscarraige of justice.

The thing that is so scary about this - many people are in a similar position - they are just a crooked social worker or prosecutor away from having their lives ruined.

[FormerACLUmember]

I am in a position to know many people persecuted, oops I meant investigated by so-called child protective services. You would not believe the gestapo tactics, stupidity and injustice that goes on.

[Alia]

The three prosecutions I find similar are the Duke rape case, the Border Agents case and the Scooter Libby trial. Each situation reeks of politics. In the Duke case, D.A. Nifong was elected by the largely black electorate who rewarded him for charging the white students.

[faq]

Good article.