In Tuesdays primary election Massachusetts Democrats chose as their Senate nominee a woman who kept a clearly innocent man in prison in order to advance her political career.
Martha Coakley isnt even fit for the late Teddy Kennedys old seat. (What is it about this particular Senate seat?)
During the daycare/child molestation hysteria of the 80s Gerald Amirault his mother Violet and sister Cheryl were accused of raping children at the familys preschool in Malden Mass. in what came to be known as the second-most notorious witch trial in Massachusetts history.
The allegations against the Amiraults were preposterous on their face. Children made claims of robots abusing them a bad clown who took the children to a magic room for sex play rape with a 2-foot butcher knife other acts of sodomy with a magic wand naked children tied to trees within view of a highway and -- standard fare in the child abuse hysteria era -- animal sacrifices.
There was not one shred of physical evidence to support the allegations -- no mutilated animals no magic rooms no butcher knives no photographs no physical signs of any abuse on the children.
Not one parent noticed so much as unusual behavior in their children -- until after the molestation hysteria began.
There were no witnesses to the alleged acts of abuse despite the continuous and unannounced presence of staff members teachers parents and other visitors at the school.
Not one student ever spontaneously claimed to have been abused. Indeed the allegations of abuse didnt arise until the child therapists arrived.
Nor was there anything in the backgrounds of the Amiraults that fit the profile of sadistic child-abusing monsters. Violet Amirault had started the Fells Acre Day School 18 years before the child molestation hysteria erupted.
Thousands of happy and well-adjusted students had passed through Fells Acres. Many returned to visit the school; some even attended Cheryls wedding a few years before the inquisition began.
Its one thing to put a person in prison for a crime he didnt commit. Its another to put an entire family in prison for a crime that didnt take place.
In the most outrageous miscarriage of justice since the Salem witch trials in July 1986 Gerald Amirault was convicted of raping and assaulting six girls and three boys and sentenced to 30 to 40 years in prison. The following year Violet and Cheryl Amirault were convicted of raping and assaulting three girls and a boy and were sentenced to 8 to 20 years.
The motto of the witch-hunters was Believe the Children! But the therapists resolutely refused to believe the children as long as they denied being abused. As the police advised the parents: In cases of child abuse no can mean yes.
To the childrens credit they held firm to their denials for heroic amounts of time in the face of relentless questioning.
But as copious research in the wake of the child abuse cases has demonstrated small children are highly suggestible. Its surprisingly easy to implant false memories into young minds by simply asking the same questions over and over again.
Indeed the interviewing techniques in the Amirault case were so successful that the children also made accusations against three other teachers two imaginary people named Mr. Gatt and Al and even against the child therapist herself -- the one claim of abuse that was provably true.
But only the Amiraults were put on trial for any alleged acts of abuse.
Coakley wasnt the prosecutor on the original trial. What she did was worse.
At least the original prosecutors craven and ambition-driven though they were could claim to have been caught up in the child abuse panic of the 80s. There had not yet been extensive psychological studies on the suggestibility of small children. A dozen similar cases from around the country had not already been discredited and the innocent freed.
Of all the men and women falsely convicted during the child molestation hysteria of the 80s by 2001 only Gerald Amirault still sat in prison. Even his sister and mother had been released after serving eight years in prison for crimes that never occurred.
In July 2001 the notoriously tough Massachusetts parole board voted unanimously to grant Gerald Amirault clemency. Although the parole board is not permitted to consider guilt or innocence its recommendation said: (I)t is clearly a matter of public knowledge that at the minimum real and substantial doubt exists concerning petitioners conviction.
Immediately after the boards recommendation The Boston Globe reported that Gov. Jane Swift was leaning toward accepting the boards recommendation and freeing Amirault.
Enter Martha Coakley Middlesex district attorney. Gerald Amirault had already spent 15 years in prison for crimes he no more committed than anyone reading this column did. But Coakley put on a full court press to keep Amirault in prison simply to further her political ambitions.
By then every sentient person knew that Amirault was innocent. But instead of saying nothing Coakley frantically lobbied Gov. Jane Swift to keep him in prison to show that she was a take-no-prisoners prosecutor who stood up for the children. As a result of Coakleys efforts -- and her contagious ambition -- Gov. Swift denied Amiraults clemency.
Thanks to Martha Coakley Gerald Amirault sat in prison for another three years.
Remember all that talk about President Bush shredding constitutional rights? Overzealous liberal prosecutors and feminist do-gooders allowed Gerald Amirault to sit in prison for 18 years for crimes that didnt exist -- except in the imaginations of small children under the influence of incompetent child therapists.
Martha Coakley allowed her ambition to trump basic human decency as she campaigned to keep a patently innocent man in prison.
Anyone with the smallest sense of justice cannot vote to put this woman in any office. If you absolutely cannot vote for a Republican on Jan. 19 2010 write in the name Gerald Amirault.
Ann Coulter is a columnist and author of Guilty: Liberal Victims and Their Assault On America.
In Tuesdays primary election Massachusetts Democrats chose as their Senate nominee a woman who kept a clearly innocent man in prison in order to advance her political career.
Martha Coakley isnt even fit for the late Teddy Kennedys old seat. (What is it about this particular Senate seat?)
During the daycare/child molestation hysteria of the 80s Gerald Amirault his mother Violet and sister Cheryl were accused of raping children at the familys preschool in Malden Mass. in what came to be known as the second-most notorious witch trial in Massachusetts history.
The allegations against the Amiraults were preposterous on their face. Children made claims of robots abusing them a bad clown who took the children to a magic room for sex play rape with a 2-foot butcher knife other acts of sodomy with a magic wand naked children tied to trees within view of a highway and -- standard fare in the child abuse hysteria era -- animal sacrifices.
There was not one shred of physical evidence to support the allegations -- no mutilated animals no magic rooms no butcher knives no photographs no physical signs of any abuse on the children.
Not one parent noticed so much as unusual behavior in their children -- until after the molestation hysteria began.
There were no witnesses to the alleged acts of abuse despite the continuous and unannounced presence of staff members teachers parents and other visitors at the school.
Not one student ever spontaneously claimed to have been abused. Indeed the allegations of abuse didnt arise until the child therapists arrived.
Nor was there anything in the backgrounds of the Amiraults that fit the profile of sadistic child-abusing monsters. Violet Amirault had started the Fells Acre Day School 18 years before the child molestation hysteria erupted.
Thousands of happy and well-adjusted students had passed through Fells Acres. Many returned to visit the school; some even attended Cheryls wedding a few years before the inquisition began.
Its one thing to put a person in prison for a crime he didnt commit. Its another to put an entire family in prison for a crime that didnt take place.
In the most outrageous miscarriage of justice since the Salem witch trials in July 1986 Gerald Amirault was convicted of raping and assaulting six girls and three boys and sentenced to 30 to 40 years in prison. The following year Violet and Cheryl Amirault were convicted of raping and assaulting three girls and a boy and were sentenced to 8 to 20 years.
The motto of the witch-hunters was Believe the Children! But the therapists resolutely refused to believe the children as long as they denied being abused. As the police advised the parents: In cases of child abuse no can mean yes.
To the childrens credit they held firm to their denials for heroic amounts of time in the face of relentless questioning.
But as copious research in the wake of the child abuse cases has demonstrated small children are highly suggestible. Its surprisingly easy to implant false memories into young minds by simply asking the same questions over and over again.
Indeed the interviewing techniques in the Amirault case were so successful that the children also made accusations against three other teachers two imaginary people named Mr. Gatt and Al and even against the child therapist herself -- the one claim of abuse that was provably true.
But only the Amiraults were put on trial for any alleged acts of abuse.
Coakley wasnt the prosecutor on the original trial. What she did was worse.
At least the original prosecutors craven and ambition-driven though they were could claim to have been caught up in the child abuse panic of the 80s. There had not yet been extensive psychological studies on the suggestibility of small children. A dozen similar cases from around the country had not already been discredited and the innocent freed.
Of all the men and women falsely convicted during the child molestation hysteria of the 80s by 2001 only Gerald Amirault still sat in prison. Even his sister and mother had been released after serving eight years in prison for crimes that never occurred.
In July 2001 the notoriously tough Massachusetts parole board voted unanimously to grant Gerald Amirault clemency. Although the parole board is not permitted to consider guilt or innocence its recommendation said: (I)t is clearly a matter of public knowledge that at the minimum real and substantial doubt exists concerning petitioners conviction.
Immediately after the boards recommendation The Boston Globe reported that Gov. Jane Swift was leaning toward accepting the boards recommendation and freeing Amirault.
Enter Martha Coakley Middlesex district attorney. Gerald Amirault had already spent 15 years in prison for crimes he no more committed than anyone reading this column did. But Coakley put on a full court press to keep Amirault in prison simply to further her political ambitions.
By then every sentient person knew that Amirault was innocent. But instead of saying nothing Coakley frantically lobbied Gov. Jane Swift to keep him in prison to show that she was a take-no-prisoners prosecutor who stood up for the children. As a result of Coakleys efforts -- and her contagious ambition -- Gov. Swift denied Amiraults clemency.
Thanks to Martha Coakley Gerald Amirault sat in prison for another three years.
Remember all that talk about President Bush shredding constitutional rights? Overzealous liberal prosecutors and feminist do-gooders allowed Gerald Amirault to sit in prison for 18 years for crimes that didnt exist -- except in the imaginations of small children under the influence of incompetent child therapists.
Martha Coakley allowed her ambition to trump basic human decency as she campaigned to keep a patently innocent man in prison.
Anyone with the smallest sense of justice cannot vote to put this woman in any office. If you absolutely cannot vote for a Republican on Jan. 19 2010 write in the name Gerald Amirault.
Ann Coulter is a columnist and author of Guilty: Liberal Victims and Their Assault On America.
