Prosecution of Innocent Man Seals Martha Coakley's Defeat

Ifeminists.net ^ | January 20, 2010 | Carey Roberts

[FreeManDC]

Following a breath-taking electoral surge, Scott Brown took the seat formerly held by liberal patron saint Ted Kennedy, handily defeating Democrat Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts senate election.

Although the national press spun the contest as a referendum on Obamacare, another powder-keg issue lurked behind the headlines: Martha Coakley's prominent role in prosecuting a child abuse case and her contended culpability of the "primary male offender."

It was back in 1984 when Violet Amirault, son Gerald, and daughter Cheryl, operators of the Fells Acre Day School in Malden, found themselves accused of child molestation. The charges were lurid as they were absurd: plunging a butcher knife into a 4-year-old boy's rectum (which miraculously left no mark of injury) and tying a naked child to a tree in front of the school to be anally impaled with a "magic wand" (an incident to which there were no witnesses).

The children also accused two make-believe persons, "Mr. Gatt" and "Al," as well as the child therapist investigating the case, of molesting them as well. Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, and Mr. Greenjeans reportedly escaped legal scrutiny.

Following a sham trial, Violet and her daughter were handed an 8-20 year sentence, while Gerald was sent to the slammer for a 30-40 year stint.

Based on accumulating evidence of perjury and fraud, the case was reopened eight years later.

Following widely-publicized hearings, Superior Court Judge Isaac Borenstein sadly concluded, "Every trick in the book had been used to get the children to say what the investigators wanted." The Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly similarly editorialized the prosecutors "seemed unwilling to admit they might have sent innocent people to jail for crimes that never occurred."

Enter Martha Coakley, who took over as the local district attorney in 1999. By that time, public opinion was running sharply in favor of the defendants. (Violet had recently died of cancer, left penniless and broken by the accusations.)

Coakley was willing to allow Cheryl to go free. But as far as Gerald, that was a different matter. After all, he was a man, the "primary male offender," as Coakley put it. (She never explained how it is possible to have a "primary offender" for a crime that never took place.)

So when the Massachusetts Governor's Board of Pardons voted 5-0 to release Gerald Amirault in 2000, prosecutor Martha Coakley channeled her inner community organizer and media maven. She unearthed sympathetic parents to lobby the Massachusetts governor to overturn the Board's recommendation. Then she organized media events where persons spoke movingly of their fear of Gerald's planned release.

These maneuvers kept Gerald behind bars for two more years. Even afterwards, he was forced to wear an electronic tracking device, to report every time he left his house, to obey a curfew, and to avoid certain parts of town. This precluded him from finding regular employment.

This legal travesty did not attract national attention until last Fall. At that point, Coakley held a nearly insurmountable 30-point lead over her Republican challenger.

Then Ann Coulter devoted her December 9 column to the case, calling it the "second-most notorious witch trial in Massachusetts history" and charging Coakley had "kept a clearly innocent man in prison in order to advance her political career."

A month later, Dorothy Rabinowitz delivered the coup de grace. Recounting in the Wall Street Journal how prosecutors cast Gerald as the chief predator, "his gender qualifying him, in their view, as the best choice for the role," Rabinowitz adjudged the superfluous prosecution was "powerful testimony to the mind and capacities of this aspirant to a Senate seat."

The Rabinowitz editorial was published on January 14. The same day a Suffolk University poll spotted Brown a 4-point lead over Martha Coakley.

And when the ballots were tallied nearly a week later, Scott Brown had defeated Coakley by a resounding five-point margin.

Four years ago prosecutor Michael Nifong's political aspirations came to an abrupt halt for prosecuting the three Duke lacrosse players. And now Martha Coakley has lost her bid for the United States Senate.

Prosecuting innocent men for crimes they didn't commit is no longer the sure-fire formula to electoral success it once appeared to be.

[DoughtyOne]

The claim that this is why Coakley lost, sounded like a crock. I hadn’t even heard of it.

Your comments reveal it for what it was, delusional.

[SamAdams76]

I remember this case very vividly as the Fells Acre Day School was only a couple miles from where I was living at the time. The entire case stunk badly of "witch hunt" and I felt bad for the three defendants (brother, sister, mother) who just didn't have a chance with those kind of charges leveled against them during that particular point of time. For those that remember the mid-1980s, it was a period of hysteria not all that different than what occurred in New England during the 1690s.

[SAJ]

You from Mass., D.O.? I'd guess not.

This was a super-hot button issue for several years in that state. When Coulter and Rabinowitz (who wrote about this travesty for years in the WSJ) resurrected the Amirault case to the public view in Dec/Jan, the writing was on the wall for Croakly.

[ArrogantBustard]

She should have been disbarred.

She should have been imprisoned. Life without parole.

At a minimum.

[ConservativeMind]

Is that true or a joke?

[DoughtyOne]

No, I don’t live in the state. What you say may very well be true. My reasoning goes like this.

Poll number for C(r)oakley didn’t collapse until the last couple of weeks. When they did collapse, was this the issue that was the most prominent, or was health care and the other leftist agenda?

C(r)oakley was a poor politician. She ran a lousy campaign. She didn’t lose by all that much.

This issue didn’t find it’s way here to F.R. to my knowledge. It may have, but that hasn’t been the core issues tanking her numbers IMO. The fact that she is still in office out there today doesn’t help your argument.

I think this is related to health care. It’s related to the idea that with 41 votes, Obama and his fellow travelers can’t govern against the values of most U.S. Citizens.

I appreciate your point of view, but I’m not able to climb on board.

[PA-RIVER]

That's nothing in MA.

I know a MA Senator that left a girl under water, in his car, while he then slept in an Edgartown Inn. Woke up, had breakfast, read the paper, then called police. He was then reelected 5 times.

An Innocent man kept in jail? Really, its not a big deal in MA.

[freedomrings69]

The kid had his skull cracked. The wrist injuries were certainly revealed at the trial, I remember that. Woodward told the police she might have been a little rough with the kid. He also had shaken baby syndrome. The parents were at fault for letting a kid like her take care of their baby but that hardly excuses her.

[massgopguy]

I referred that to the City Clerk and Registrar of voters when I got an e-mail from the past President of the MA Republican Assembly. They were most displeased with the person asking the question. All Polling Places were put on notice to cease such voter intimidation. They don’t need that in The Malden Observer.

[massgopguy]

So am I.

[AbolishCSEU]

Perhaps some of you good chaps can convince some of the more liberal leaning Men’s Rights Activists (on glennsacks.com) who are battling:

1. False domestic violence claims

2. Restraining orders issued on no evidence other than the soon to be ex-wife’s say so

3. Outrageous amounts of government sponsored child support and alimony, saddling men for decades as indentured servants

4. Paternity fraud on the part of the biomom

5. Non custodial biomoms not having to pay child support

6. Parental alienation committed by custodial biomoms (turning children against their fathers) with a breathtaking impertinence and no office of “Child Visitation Enforcement” to go to by the hapless non custodial biofather

7. False rape claims/accusations

I find it VERY hard to believe that any man who has gone through the above would even CONSIDER voting in another demoncrat lib who is generally FOR all the above mentioned. Yet if you go to the site mentioned above you will find SEVERAL MRAs who feel that their best bet is more liberal demoncrat feminazis in positions of absolute power to put their boot on men’s necks and give free passes to the biomoms!! Where is my coocoo .wav when I need it??!!

[plenipotentiary]

You say, “The wrist injuries were certainly revealed at the trial”. But not by the prosecution, and as Dr Barnes said, not to him, and he says he has now CHANGED HIS MIND.

[SAJ]

It's all of a piece. EVERY issue that broke or was reintroduced into this campaign worked against Croakly to one extent or another. And, most certainly, Croakly's political skills are, as you note, within epsilon of zero. Only thing she had going for her (thank goodness!) was the 'Rat machine in Mass.

The Amirault issue had perhaps 1-2 threads (not long ones, either) here on FR. Problem is, for FReepers, that unless we/they had already been familiar with this obscenity X years ago when it occurred, we/they for the most part had no way to evaluate just how hot-button this case was and still is for the Mass. electorate.

Was Amirault THE issue that sank her? Not all by itself, but there's not a doubt in the universe that having it reintroduced to the Mass. voters just prior to the election moved 1-2% of the I-dont-care-about-politics-but-I-do-care-about-gross-miscarriage-of-justice-and-extreme-prosecutorial-abuse voters either away from Croakly or to Brown, or both.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the comments. I agree with them. I’d even go so far as to say that while this issue from the past may not have sunk her on it’s own, it probably did soften people’s opposition to believing other negatives about her.

Then as bad things came out, her support dropped like a rock.

Take care.

[fight_truth_decay]

FYI

Gerald Amirault nicknamed Tooky still wears an ankle bracelet, has to keep a log, curfew, polygraphed still, GPS, permission to go on Howie's show ( all near the end of audio) and says he is more supervised now then when he was in prison. He played basketball with the guards. Treated well by inmates as well as was told he had nothing to fear from them. His mother died in prison at age 74 in prison for 8 years.

This was the recent interview Howie Carr had with Tooky Amirault about his prosecution.: [ Audio "4 dots in to start"]. The curling iron child abuse case mentioned with "union connections" of abuser.

Tooky Amirault
Published: Fri, 15 Jan 2010

[fight_truth_decay]

She didn’t lose by all that much.

Coakley was 30 pts a head at one time. Brown had one reporter show up when he came on board. Not many knew who he was 6 weeks ago. Therefore he not only won by 6 but captured the hearts of the Independent voters, which make up almost 50% of voters, Republicans were outnumbered 3:1 by the Democrats to start. Democrats voted for Brown, union guys voted for Brown. People who had never voted Republican in their lifetime voted for Brown. The Deaf Leftists took it for granted they were a shoe in. Health care by Obama, looking down on constituents with comments attending Boston sports area, the Catholic don't work in operating rooms, aids can't spell the state in ads..it was ongoing insults to injury. Obama came to town and Brown had almost as many supporters (who wanted to be there not paid to be there), Kerry had about 150 people show up!!!

This was a huge victory. Bean Town and the state has had the same corruption of politicians seeing jail term as Chicago. People were tired of the corruption and being treated as "invistible" to their politicians.

I am from the NE and a Brown contributor, as well. Also, those 'across the pond' have been rooting for Brown calling for "long live the revolution" in America. See story I did especially comment "I got 20 quid on Scott Brown" The Telegraph.co.uk is the first news media I read each day, well besides FR...you can get a free download to an iPod from the online site the London Telegraph.

{....watch AI last night??}

[calex59]

This issue didn’t find it’s way here to F.R. to my knowledge. It may have, but that hasn’t been the core issues tanking her numbers IMO. The fact that she is still in office out there today doesn’t help your argument.

Then you just weren't paying attention, it was all over FR, not only that case but the case of the child rapist who was a relative of one of her cronies, a man she let skate for a long time, even releasing him without bail at one time. He raped a 24 month old girl, his niece BTW, with a hot curling iron and Coakly did everything in her power to get him off, leaving him free for quite some time. He was eventually convicted and is serving two life sentences, not thanks to Coakly.

These issues of her criminal activities as an AG weren't the only reason she lost but they were a large part of it. The reason she didn't lose by more votes are these: There was undoubtedly some voter fraud and 2.)MA is a liberal state.

The fact remains that Scott Brown overcame a 30% defecit and won by 5%. That means he gained 35% over the course of the last month and a half. If the Media would have reported the news fairly he would have won by an even larger margin.

Her arrogance, which is the arrogance of all lib politicians, was also her undoing. In short it was a number of factors, one of which was her handling of criminal cases, another, and most likely the most telling, was the fact the people are tired of Bozo's communist agenda.

[DoughtyOne]

I agree with your comments, especially the part about this being big.

Yes, I watched. I refuse to continue to, if Ellen does join the show though.

[fight_truth_decay]

Those cases on her record have been widely reported and happened well in Tooky's case over 17 years ago with no investigation. There were major outcries to "Free Tooky! If you read above on background via HowieCarr WRKO radio host, it's all there and were major stories along with the infamous Whitey Bulger for over a decade plus.

I credit the Tea Party with the change we are seeing all over the country. Brown came into view like Palin and once they got the exposure from the MSM they gathered no moss. The MSM had to acknowledge them..he may not belong to the Tea Party but he was their candidate. The cadillac tax, backroom deals played major roles in the anger people felt toward Washington. One man said when the Kennedy family showed up he turned to Brown immediately, he was tired of the Kennedy family considering themselves royalty and telling him whom to vote for..history of scandals over the years.

Am going on here but that is what I do. You could see over the past few years with our taxes aka fees on everything that could be levied upon. People going over the borders to NH to buy big ticket items. Being threatened if they did and got caught coming back into the state with items would be consequences..the writers of these tax bills caught COT by cell phones of their license plates over the border buying liquor. The threat by lawmakers in the state of MA telling NH store owners they would have to rat on these MA citizens. The threat to set up police along the border, the toll ways going up in cost..it has been brewing for some time and yes Health care had something to do with it but Romney brought RomneyCare health care into MA.

People are tired of being taxed so the Tea Party movement helped Brown in a major way, as did the Internet, talk shows.. Brown and Palin had more experience than Obama (150 days gov Illinois) so are early whispers of Palin / Brown on a ticket or vise versa. Both regular people, her with her gun taking on BIG corruption, him with his blue truck taking on a big Machine. Both with big family support-and self made.

Mr. and Mrs Smith go to Washington scenario?...am not afraid to say it out loud. Time will tell..actions speak louder than words.

[ari-freedom]

I don’t think this was a reason for her loss. Brown was all about national issues that affect the bottom line.