MARTHA COAKLEY, PAUL SHANLEY AND GERALD AMIRAULT
from "The Massachusetts Result" on Harry's Place website

http://www.hurryupharry.org/2010/01/20/the-massachusetts-result/#comment-437711

Kilbarry1

Martha Coakley was involved in two of the most repulsive miscarriages of justice in American history – the Fells Acres Satanic Ritual Abuse case (in which she objected to the release of Gerald Amirault in 2001) and the successful prosecution of ex-priest Paul Shanley in 2005 on Repressed Memory evidence. By 2004/05 Satanic Ritual Abuse was dead in the USA and Repressed Memory was on the way out. Coakley was not carried away by public hysteria – she deliberately revived discredited witch-hunts in order to make her name as a protector of children.

Quote from Wikipedia article on Fells Acre:

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 revealed 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 many other acts.

I think that unease about Coakley’s role as a prosecutor played a MINOR role in her defeat. However if the unease affected 2 or 3 percent of voters, that would have been enough.

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish

Sayeret Matkal
21 January 2010, 4:24 am

One factor is Coakley’s defeat which has oddly not been mentioned, is her disgusting role in the Amirault false child-molestation scandal.

Just a few days ago , the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts unanimously affirmed the conviction of former priest Paul Shanley on Repressed Memory grounds. The following is a summary of the case against Shanley by author JoAnn Wypijewski :

The accuser asserted that from the age of 6, in 1983, he had been raped and otherwise indecently assaulted by the defendant for three years in a busy church on Sunday mornings. Each assault, it was alleged, instantly erased his memory of what had just happened, so that the boy re-approached the defendant in a state of innocent unknowing, to be assaulted again, to forget everything again and again, and then move on in life without the slightest inkling of the experience until twenty years later, when it all came back to him.
http://www.alliancesupport.org/news/archives/002743.html

Kilbarry1
21 January 2010, 10:18 am

Sayeret Matkal: One factor is Coakley’s defeat which has oddly not been mentioned, is her disgusting role in the Amirault false child-molestation scandal.

Actually I did mention it a long way back but no-one took it up so here it is again:

Martha Coakley was involved in two of the most repulsive miscarriages of justice in American history – the Fells Acres Satanic Ritual Abuse case (in which she objected to the release of Gerald Amirault in 2001) and the successful prosecution of ex-priest Paul Shanley in 2005 on Repressed Memory evidence. By 2004/05 Satanic Ritual Abuse was dead in the USA and Repressed Memory was on the way out. Coakley was not carried away by public hysteria – she deliberately revived discredited witch-hunts in order to make her name as a protector of children.

Quote from Wikipedia article on Fells Acre:

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 revealed 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 many other acts.

I think that unease about Coakley’s role as a prosecutor played a MINOR role in her defeat. However if the unease affected 2 or 3 percent of voters, that would have been enough.

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish

I don’t know why everyone seems to think that arguments about health care are more important than Coakley’s support for TWO repulsive witch-hunts.

Kilbarry1
21 January 2010, 10:35 am

Regarding the Paul Shanley case which Coakley prosecuted, on 10 January the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts unanimously affirmed the conviction of former priest Shanley on Repressed Memory grounds. The following is a summary of the case against Shanley as outlined by JoAnn Wypijewski in The Nation last March:

The accuser asserted that from the age of 6, in 1983, he had been raped and otherwise indecently assaulted by the defendant for three years in a busy church on Sunday mornings. Each assault, it was alleged, instantly erased his memory of what had just happened, so that the boy re-approached the defendant in a state of innocent unknowing, to be assaulted again, to forget everything again and again, and then move on in life without the slightest inkling of the experience until twenty years later, when it all came back to him.
http://www.alliancesupport.org/news/archives/002743.html

When Shanley was prosecuted in 2005, Repressed Memory looked like it was going the same way as Satanic Ritual Abuse. In her desire to become famous as a protector of children, Coakley actually revived a dying witch-hunt. I consider that far more important than any health care issue.