Gerald Amirault
Template:Short description Template:Infobox criminal Gerald A. "Tooky" Amirault (born March 1, 1954) is an American convicted in 1986 of child sexual abuse of eight children at the Fells Acres Day School in Malden, Massachusetts, run by his family. He and his family deny the charges, which supporters regard as a conspicuous example of day-care sex-abuse hysteria. Amirault was released from prison on parole on April 30, 2004.
Accusations and trialEdit
Amirault was arrested in September 1984 on charges of sexually abusing a child at his family's day care facility, which promptly had its license to operate suspended by the state of Massachusetts.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His mother and sister, Violet Amirault and Cheryl Amirault LeFave, respectively, were also later arrested.
At Amirault's 1986 trial, the prosecution relied heavily on testimony from young children extracted through long sessions with therapists. Amirault was convicted of assaulting and raping nine children and sentenced to 30 to 40 years in prison.<ref name="CBS" /> In 1987, in a separate trial, his mother and sister were convicted of similar crimes against four children and sentenced to jail for eight to 20 years.<ref name=darknessII>Template:Cite news</ref> Template:More
CriticismEdit
The Amiraults insist they were victims of the day-care sex-abuse hysteria that swept the US in the 1980s.<ref name="CBS">Template:Cite news</ref>
Dorothy Rabinowitz, a member of the Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal, asserts that Amirault was railroaded. She wrote that "Other than such testimony, the prosecutors had no shred of physical or other proof that could remotely pass as evidence of abuse".<ref name="WSJ20100114" /> Among the accusations were, as summarized by Rabinowitz from court records, Amirault <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
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Rabinowitz was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2001,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> partly for her coverage of the case.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The case was also the major topic of her book about miscarriages of justice, No Crueler Tyrannies.
Post-trialEdit
In 1995, Judge Robert Barton ordered a new trial for Violet, then 72, and Cheryl, who both had been imprisoned eight years. He ordered the women released at once and expressed his contempt for the prosecutors.<ref name="WSJ20100114"/> Barton found that their convictions were wrongful because they were not able to directly confront their accusers.<ref name=face>Template:Cite news</ref> A similar appeal on behalf of Gerald was denied later that year.<ref name=parole>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1997, Superior Court Judge Isaac Borenstein presided over a widely publicized hearing into the case resulting in findings that all the children's testimony was tainted. He said that "Every trick in the book had been used to get the children to say what the investigators wanted."<ref name="WSJ20100114"/> Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly published a scathing editorial in September 1999 directed at the prosecutors "who seemed unwilling to admit they might have sent innocent people to jail for crimes that had never occurred."<ref name="WSJ20100114"/><ref>Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Editorial: Travesty of Justice, Sept. 13, 1999.</ref> Violet died in 1997.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Cheryl's conviction was ultimately upheld, but she avoided returning to prison by reaching a deal with prosecutors in October 1999.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2000, the Massachusetts Governor's Board of Pardons and Paroles met to consider a commutation of Gerald Amirault's sentence. After nine months of investigation, the board voted 5–0, with one abstention, to commute his sentence, although no exculpatory evidence was presented. Also newsworthy was an added statement, signed by a majority of the board, which pointed to the lack of evidence against the Amiraults, and the "extraordinary if not bizarre allegations" on which they had been convicted.<ref name="WSJ20100114"/>
In 2002, then–Acting Governor of Massachusetts Jane Swift refused to commute Amirault's sentence, despite a unanimous vote in favor of his release by the state's parole board. Amirault's case had previously been upheld by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Martha Coakley, then Middlesex County district attorney and subsequently Massachusetts Attorney General, lobbied Swift to keep him in prison.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Swift denied Amirault's clemency.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Amirault was ultimately released on parole from the Bay State Correctional Center on April 30, 2004, 18 years after his conviction.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Accusers criticized his early release.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker recommended Gerald Amirault and his sister Cheryl Amirault LeFave for pardon on November 18, 2022, subject to approval by the Massachusetts Governor's Council.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The pardon recommendation was withdrawn by Baker on December 14, 2022, as "there didn’t appear to be enough support" within the council.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>