Faith Chapel Church ritual abuse case

Last updated

The San Diego Church ritual abuse case was a case of a developmentally disabled individual charged with child sexual abuse in 1991 as part of the satanic ritual abuse moral panic. After a 9-month trial, the accused was found not guilty by the jury.

Contents

Accusations and trial

Dale Akiki was born with Noonan syndrome, a rare genetic disorder which left him with a concave chest, club feet, drooping eyelids and ears. [1]

Akiki served with his wife as a volunteer babysitter at a church in San Diego County, California. In 1991, he was arrested and charged with 35 counts of child abuse and kidnapping and held without bail for 30 months before trial. [2] The government filed its first case against Akiki on May 10, 1991, in San Diego Superior Court. [3] A second case was prosecuted against him on February 20, 1992. [4] The campaign against him was initiated by Jack and Mary Goodall, the former being the CEO of Jack in the Box, who stated that they found his physical appearance, coupled with his working contact with the children of the church in his capacity as a volunteer, "disturbing."

Prosecutor Mary Avery was the founder of the San Diego Child Abuse Prevention Foundation, to which Goodall was the largest financial contributor. She was brought in to prosecute at the Goodalls' insistence after experienced child abuse prosecutors Harry Elias and Sally Penso found no grounds to charge Akiki with any crimes, citing the coercive investigation and the suggestive preparation and interrogation of children used by parents and therapists in the case.

During the investigations, few records were kept of the interviews with children, and Avery tried to ban the use of the term "ritual abuse" (a synonym for satanic ritual abuse); such measures were viewed as useful in obtaining prosecutions in an environment that was increasingly skeptical of allegations of satanic ritual abuse. [5] During the trial, "the FBI’s leading authority on child abuse, testified ... he has found no evidence that ritual abuse exists." [6]

The trial against Akiki started in the spring of 1993. The prosecution produced no physical evidence but did present allegations of satanic ritual abuse, including testimony that he had killed a giraffe and an elephant in front of the children, had drunk human blood in satanic rituals, and had abducted the children away from the church, despite his being unable to drive. [7]

His trial lasted nine months (including six weeks of jury selection and seven and a half months of evidence), making it the longest in San Diego County history. The jury took seven hours to reach its "not guilty" verdict in November 1993. [8] He was represented by Deputy Public Defenders Kate Coyne and Sue Clemens [8] who received numerous awards and accolades for their groundbreaking defense. This case represented the first trial-level acquittal of a defendant charged with ritual abuse in the "satanic panic" of the 1980s,[ citation needed ] although a number of convictions were subsequently overturned on appeal.

After the trial had ended, members of the jury complained about the "overzealous prosecutors," "child sexual abuse syndrome" and "therapists on a witch-hunt",; [9] one said “it seemed like a witch hunt to me.” [6] Despite Akiki's acquittal, some of the parents involved remained convinced that he was guilty. [7] The deputy district attorney and lead prosecutor Mary Avery disputed the claims that the nine children were systematically brainwashed by parents and therapists, stating that "the whole idea of contamination and suggestibility just does not account for the major behavior changes that occurred (in the children) while they were in Dale Akiki's (nursery school) class," referring to certain incidents like nightmares and bed-wetting. [8]

Subsequent events

The San Diego County Grand Jury reviewed the Akiki cases in 1994 and concluded in part that "There is no justification for the further pursuit of the theory of satanic ritual molestation in the investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases." [10]

On August 25, 1994, Akiki filed a suit against the County of San Diego, the church where he had volunteered, and many others which was settled for $2 million. [11]

San Diego County Public Defenders Kathleen Coyne and Susan Clemens were awarded Public Defender of the Year by the California Public Defender's Association in 1994 for their work defending Akiki.

Related Research Articles

The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse starting in the United States in the 1980s, spreading throughout many parts of the world by the late 1990s, and persisting today. The panic originated in 1980 with the publication of Michelle Remembers, a book co-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his patient, Michelle Smith, which used the discredited practice of recovered-memory therapy to make sweeping lurid claims about satanic ritual abuse involving Smith. The allegations, which afterwards arose throughout much of the United States, involved reports of physical and sexual abuse of people in the context of occult or Satanic rituals. In its most extreme form, allegations involve a conspiracy of a global Satanic cult that includes the wealthy and elite in which children are abducted or bred for human sacrifices, pornography, and prostitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McMartin preschool trial</span> Day care sexual abuse case in the 1980s that overlapped with the Satanic ritual abuse panic

The McMartin preschool trial was a day care sexual abuse case in the 1980s, prosecuted by the Los Angeles District Attorney Ira Reiner. Members of the McMartin family, who operated a preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, were charged with hundreds of acts of sexual abuse of children in their care. Accusations were made in 1983; nevertheless arrests and the pretrial investigation took place from 1984 to 1987, and trials ran from 1987 to 1990. The case lasted seven years but resulted in no convictions, and all charges were dropped in 1990. By the case's end, it had become the longest and most expensive series of criminal trials in American history. The case was part of day-care sex-abuse hysteria, a moral panic over alleged Satanic ritual abuse in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The Kern County child abuse cases started the day care sexual abuse hysteria of the 1980s in Kern County, California. The cases involved allegations of satanic ritual abuse by a sex ring against as many as 60 children who testified they had been abused. At least 36 people were convicted and most of them spent years in prison. Thirty-four convictions were overturned on appeal. The district attorney responsible for the convictions was Ed Jagels, who was sued by at least one of those whose conviction was overturned, and who remained in office until 2009. Two of the convicted individuals were unable to prove their innocence because they died in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Mesereau</span> American attorney (born 1950)

Thomas Arthur Mesereau Jr. is an American attorney known for defending Michael Jackson in his 2005 child molestation trial, as well as Mike Tyson, Bill Cosby and, in 2023, Danny Masterson, a case in which Mesereau was sanctioned by the judge

The Little Rascals Day Care Center was a day care in Edenton, North Carolina, where, from 1989 to 1995, there were arrests, charges and trials of seven people associated with the day care center, including the owner-operators, Bob and Betsy Kelly. In retrospect, the case reflected day care sex abuse hysteria, including allegations of satanic ritual abuse. The testimony of the children was coached.

Day-care sex-abuse hysteria was a moral panic that occurred primarily during the 1980s and early 1990s, and featured charges against day-care providers accused of committing several forms of child abuse, including Satanic ritual abuse. The collective cases are often considered a part of the Satanic panic. A 1982 case in Kern County, California, United States, first publicized the issue of day-care sexual abuse, and the issue figured prominently in news coverage for almost a decade. The Kern County case was followed by cases elsewhere in the United States, as well as Canada, New Zealand, Brazil, and various European countries.

The Wenatchee child abuse prosecutions in Wenatchee, Washington, US, of 1994 and 1995, were the last "large scale Multi-Victim / Multi-Offender case" during the hysteria over child molestation in the 1980s and early 1990s. Many poor and intellectually disabled suspects pled guilty, while those who hired private lawyers were acquitted. Eventually all those accused in these cases were released, and the authorities paid damages to some of those originally accused.

<i>Indictment: The McMartin Trial</i> American TV series or program

Indictment: The McMartin Trial is a film made for television that originally aired on HBO on May 20, 1995. Indictment is based on the true story of the McMartin preschool trial.

A false allegation of child sexual abuse is an accusation against one or more individuals claiming that they committed child sexual abuse when no abuse has been committed by the accused. Such accusations can be brought by the alleged victim, or by another person on the alleged victim’s behalf. Studies on the rate of recorded child abuse allegations in the 1990s suggested that the overall rate of false accusations at that time was approximately 10%.

Kathleen 'Kee' MacFarlane is an American social worker known for involvement in the high-profile McMartin preschool trial in the 1980s. She was the Director of Children's Institute International. She developed the concept of the anatomically correct doll for children to use during interviews concerning abuse and played a significant role in the McMartin trial. MacFarlane has been criticized for her methods of interrogating small children. Charges against the defendants eventually were dropped.

The sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, U.S., is a significant episode in the series of Catholic sex abuse cases in the United States, Ireland and elsewhere. The Philadelphia abuses were substantially revealed through a grand jury investigation in 2005. In early 2011, a new grand jury reported extensive new charges of abusive priests active in the archdiocese. In 2012, a guilty plea by priest Edward Avery and the related trial and conviction of William Lynn and mistrial on charges against James J. Brennan followed from the grand jury's investigations. In 2013, Charles Engelhardt and teacher Bernard Shero were tried, convicted and sentenced to prison. Lynn was the first official to be convicted in the United States of covering up abuses by other priests in his charge and other senior church officials have been extensively criticized for their management of the issue in the archdiocese.

The Martensville satanic sex scandal, also known as the Martensville Nightmare occurred in Martensville, Saskatchewan, Canada. There were two similar events around the same time where an allegation of child sex abuse escalated into claims of satanic ritual abuse. The more widely known of the two is the Martensville Daycare Scandal, and the second but earlier story is of the Foster Parent Scandal in nearby Saskatoon.

Druanne Dykes White is an American trial lawyer based in South Carolina. She was a prosecutor for the state for more than 11 years, and was then elected to a four-year term as solicitor for the Tenth Judicial Circuit, serving from 2000 to 2004. She has since returned to private practice.

The Oak Hill satanic ritual abuse trial occurred in Oak Hill, Austin, Texas, in 1991 when Fran Keller and her husband Dan, proprietors of a small day care, were accused of repeatedly and sadistically abusing several children.

The Country Walk case is a Florida 1985 "Multi-Victim, Multi-Offender" child sex abuse case that occurred during the day-care sex-abuse hysteria. Frank Fuster remains imprisoned. His wife Ileana Flores Fuster initially denied any wrongdoing, but following months of interrogations, she testified against Frank and confessed to the alleged crimes, later recanting her confession, then recanting her recantation, and finally recanting that. This case became known because it seemed to have better evidence than other ritual abuse cases, but scientific findings since Fuster's conviction have challenged the evidence. The case, prosecuted by Janet Reno, was profiled in the 2002 Frontline episode "Did Daddy Do It?"

The response of the Haredi Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York City, to allegations of sexual abuse against its spiritual leaders has drawn scrutiny. When teachers, rabbis, and other leaders have been accused of sexual abuse, authorities in the Haredi community have often failed to report offenses to Brooklyn police, intimidated witnesses, and encouraged shunning against victims and those members of the community who speak out against cases of abuse.

Diana Louisa Napolis, also known by her online pseudonym Karen Curio Jones or more often simply Curio, is an American former social worker. Between the late 1990s and 2000, Napolis posted a series of pseudonymous accusations alleging that individuals skeptical of the satanic ritual abuse moral panic were involved in a conspiracy to cover up the sexual abuse and murder of children. The pseudonymous poster's real life identity was confirmed as Napolis in 2000.

Barbara W. Snow is a practicing therapist based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. She was a central figure in the Satanic ritual abuse moral panic in Utah in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Ross E. Cheit is a Professor of Political Science and Professor of International and Public Affairs at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

References

  1. ↑ Stoesz, David; Costin, Lela B.; Karger, Howard Jacob (1996). The Politics of Child Abuse in America (Child Welfare). Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. p. 15. ISBN   0-19-511668-2 . Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  2. ↑ Mydans, S (1994-06-03). "Prosecutors Rebuked in Molestation Case". The New York Times . Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  3. ↑ "SDSC Case CR122381".
  4. ↑ "SDSC Case CR129395".
  5. ↑ Snedeker, Michael R.; Nathan, Debbie (1995). Satan's silence: ritual abuse and the making of a modern American witch hunt. New York: Basic Books. pp. 79–80. ISBN   0-465-07181-3.
  6. 1 2 "Case Illustrates Flaws in Child Abuse Trials : Courts: Dale Akiki's acquittal was a stinging rebuke to the system that arrested and tried him. Some question the prominence of social workers and therapists in obtaining testimony". Los Angeles Times. November 29, 1993.
  7. 1 2 "Frontline: innocence lost: Other Well-Known Cases". Frontline. 1998. Retrieved 2010-02-28.
  8. 1 2 3 Granberry, Michael (1993-11-20). "Ex-School Volunteer Acquitted of Child Abuse Charges : Verdict: After deliberating for just seven hours, jury finds Dale Akiki not guilty on all 35 counts. Trial was longest in San Diego's history". Archived from the original on 2003-02-20.
  9. ↑ Kincaid, James R. (December 1998). Erotic Innocence: The Culture of Child Molesting. Duke University Press. p. 263. ISBN   0-8223-2193-9.
  10. ↑ Ceci, Stephen J. (July 1999). Jeopardy in the Courtroom: A Scientific Analysis of Children's Testimony. American Psychological Association. p. 28. ISBN   1-55798-632-0.
  11. ↑ "Court Index". Archived from the original on 2012-08-05. Retrieved 2020-07-03.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.