Fells Acres Day Care Center
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Fells Acres Day Care Center was located in Malden, Massachusetts, in the United States. Violet Amirault (1923–1997) opened the facility in 1966 after her husband left her. Accusations that often bordered on hysteria were made about sexual abuse there. This and other cases comprise the day care sexual abuse hysteria of the 1980s.
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[edit] Accusation
In 1984, a then–five-year-old boy told a family member that Gerald Amirault, the bus driver at the Fells Acres day care center, had touched his penis. The boy's mother notified the authorities and Gerald was arrested. Parents were told to ask their children about sexual abuse at the facility. The children told fantastic stories, including being abused by a clown and a robot in a secret room and animals being sacrificed. One girl claimed Gerald had penetrated her anus with a twelve-inch bladed knife.
[edit] Trial and conviction
Gerald Amirault was charged with molesting 19 children. 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.
[edit] Overturned conviction
In 1995, after serving eight years in state prison, Violet and Cheryl were freed on a successful appeal. A Lowell Superior Court judge ruled that their convictions were wrongful because they were not able to directly confront their accusers.
[edit] New trial
In 1998, a new trial for Cheryl Amirault LeFave was launched based on questions over whether the children's testimony had been tainted by coercive questioning by parents and prosecutors. In August 1999, Cheryl's conviction was reinstated by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which said the questions over the tainted testimony had been resolved in the 1986 trial. In October 1999, based on the agreement of the prosecution and defense, a judge sentenced Cheryl to the time served and she was released from prison.
[edit] Gerald Amirault
The Massachusetts parole board recommended the commutation of Gerald Amirault's sentence in July of 2001, citing procedures that have now been discredited and a complete lack of physical evidence. The then–Acting Governor, Jane Swift, rejected the decision in February 2002. He was ultimately released from the Bay State Correctional Center on April 30, 2004.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- The New York Times, August 30, 1995: Day Care Workers Get Retrial, As Accusers Did Not Face Them.
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- A judge ruled today that two women convicted of sexually abusing children at a suburban day care center in the 1980's should be granted a new trial because some of their child accusers were allowed to face away from them while testifying. The judge, Robert A. Barton of Lowell Superior Court, also set a bail hearing for Thursday for the women, Violet Amirault and her daughter, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, who have been jailed since they were convicted in 1987. The women could be released from prison while awaiting the new trial. Prosecutors said they would appeal. The ruling does not affect the third person convicted in the case, Violet Amirault's son Gerald R. Amirault. Mr. Amirault, 42, was tried separately, and his appeal is pending. Mrs. Amirault, now 71, ran the Fells Acres Day School in Malden, and her daughter and son worked for her. In his ruling, Judge Barton said the women deserved a new trial because some children testified while facing the jury, with their backs to the defendants.
- The New York Times, June 13, 1998: Youths' "Tainted" Testimony Is Barred in Day Care Retrial.
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- Handing a major victory to the defense in one of the country's longest-running day-care sexual abuse cases, a Massachusetts judge ruled today that the children in the case had been so manipulated in interviews with investigators that their testimony was "forever tainted." Declaring that "justice was not done," Judge Isaac Borenstein of Superior Court today affirmed a ruling that a new trial be granted to Cheryl Amirault LeFave, one of three family members convicted more than 10 years ago in the highly publicized Fells Acres Daycare Center case.
