The teacher he was referring to was Kelly Michaels.
"That's what my teacher does to me at nap time at school," the boy said. During an examination, the nurses took his temperature with a rectal thermometer. On April 30, 1985, a four-year-old boy who attended Wee Care visited his doctor. But a few days after Michaels's departure, suspicions arose about her conduct at the nursery. She had been considered a good employee, earning a promotion and working well with the children. An aspiring actress, Michaels hadĪlways considered the job temporary, and she left Wee Care the following April. The year before, Michaels had taken a job at the Wee Care Day Nursery in Maplewood, New Jersey. In 1985, Margaret Kelly Michaels found herself trapped in one of these controversial cases. Some journalists and defense lawyers compared the sexual abuse cases to the seventeenth-century Salem witch trials and the McCarthyism of the 1950s. They were concerned that the alleged crimes had no basis in reality. In many cases, prosecutors had little or no physical evidence -just the testimony of small children, some of whom seemed quite loving toward their supposed abusers.Ĭritics believed the defendants were accused on the flimsiest of evidence, and that young witnesses were coaxed and coached by parents, prosecutors, and child abuse experts. Sometimes the allegations involved satanic worship and the ritualistic slaughter of animals. One child or parent's charge of abuse often snowballed into dozens.
The press reported often-lurid charges of bizarre sexual practices committed by daycare workers against toddlers. SIGNIFICANCE: The reversal of Kelly Michaels's conviction on appeal reflected a concern with the techniques used to obtain testimony from the young children in this sexual abuse case -an issue raised in other highly publicized abuse trials.ĭuring the 1980s, the Unites States saw a wave of sensational trials involving alleged sexual abuse of children at day-care centers and preschools.
Sentence: 47 years imprisonment (5 years served)ĭate of Appeals Court Decision: March 26, 1993ĭecision: Verdict overturned on the basis that the defendant received an unfair trial Crimes Charged: Aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of children, and terroristic threatsĬhief Defense Lawyers: Harvey Meltzer and Robert ClarkĬhief Prosecutors: Glenn Goldberg and Sara Sencer McArdleĬhief Lawyers for Appeal: Morton Stavis and William Kunstlerĭates of Trial: June 22, 1987-April 15, 1988
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