BOSTON (AP) – Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has withdrawn his request seeking pardons for two individuals at the center of one the nation´s most notorious sexual abuse trials of the 1980s.
Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said Wednesday that there didn’t appear to be enough support on the eight member Governor’s Council to approve the pardons following a public hearing Tuesday.
Gerald “Tooky” Amirault, his sister Cheryl Amirault LeFave and their late mother, Violet, were convicted in 1986 and 1987 of abusing young children at their Fells Acres Day Care in Malden. The Republican governor had sought pardons for Gerald and Cheryl Amirault.
The Commonwealth has shown great bias towards the Amiraults, too many political careers are tied up in the supposed guilt of the family.
Much of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts‘ case depended on the information obtained in the interviews of the children who were allegedly sexually abused by the Amiraults. The interviews claimed that the children were raped with knives, sticks, forks, and magic wands; were assaulted by a clown (allegedly Gerald) in a “secret room” and a “magic room”; were forced to drink urine; were tied naked to a tree; and subjected to many other acts.[9]
The main criticism of this case centered on the reliability of the information obtained from the children. The bulk of the evidence was developed through videotaped interviews conducted by Susan J. Kelley, a pediatric nurse.[5] The children repeatedly told interviewers, including Kelley, that nothing happened to them, that there were no secret rooms, and there was no clown. However, the questioning continued and eventually the children claimed all these things happened. One police officer, John Rivers, said at a seminar that interviewing the children was “like getting blood from a stone”. At one point, an interviewer told a child that the child’s friend had already testified that the clown had them take their clothes off. The girl being interviewed denied this happened, at which point the interviewer said that she believed what the child’s friend told her. Kelley also rejected alternative explanations for events and ignored the children’s denials of the abuse scenarios.[10] The chief prosecutor of both of the Amirault cases maintained that “the children testified to being photographed and molested by acts that included penetration by objects … the implication … that the children’s allegations of abuse were tainted by improper interviewing is groundless and not true.”[11]
In November 2022, outgoing Governor Charlie Baker recommended pardons for Gerald Amirault and Cheryl Amirault LeFave due to “grave doubt regarding the evidentiary strength” of their convictions.[19] Baker’s pardon recommendations must be approved by the Massachusetts Governor’s Council.[19]
This case has been in and out of the news for thirty-five years in Massachusetts.
- Even though the ‘recovered memories’ of the children included many violent physical assaults’, no physical medical exam ever found any physical evidence.
- The ‘secret rooms’ and other induced memories from the children did not match up with actual locations involved.
- The vast majority of sex offenders will readily confess to their crimes if offered freedom in exchange for doing so, and that because of this the steadfast refusal of the Amiraults to do the same was further indication of their innocence.
Gov. Charlie Baker was apparently convinced of the Amiraults innocence and recommended their pardon. But RINO and wishy-washy coward that he is even in his lame duck last weeks he declined to fight for what was right.
Good-Bye Charlie.
On the North River 