View source for Wee Care Nursery School abuse trial

{{Short description|Legal case in New Jersey, United States}}
'''Wee Care Nursery School''', located in [[Maplewood, New Jersey]], was the subject of a [[day care]] [[child abuse]] case that was tried during the 1980s.<ref name="fantasy"/><ref name="cm">{{cite news |title=Nightmare at the Day Care: The Wee Care Case |publisher=Crime Magazine |accessdate=2007-08-21 |url = https://www.crimemagazine.com/nightmare-day-care-wee-care-case}}</ref> Although Margaret Kelly Michaels was prosecuted and convicted, the decision was reversed after she spent five years in prison. An appellate court ruled that several features of the original trial had produced an unjust ruling and the conviction was reversed.<ref name = "Case">''State of New Jersey v. Margaret Kelly Michaels'' (1993). 264 N.J. Super. 579; 625 A.2d 489</ref> The case was studied by several psychologists who were concerned about the interrogation methods used and the quality of the children's testimony in the case.<ref name = Bruck>{{cite journal | last = Bruck| first = Maggie|author2=Ceci, Stephen J. |year = 1995| title =  Amicus brief for the case of state of New Jersey v. Michaels presented by committee of concerned social scientists| journal =Psychology, Public Policy, and Law|  volume = 1| issue = 2|  pages = 272–322| doi = 10.1037/1076-8971.1.2.272}}</ref> This resulted in research concerning the topic of children's memory and [[suggestibility]], resulting in new recommendations for performing interviews with child victims and witnesses.<ref>{{cite news |first= David |last= La Rooy |title= As the Vatican is confronted by the UN we must remember that the best evidence in child abuse cases will come from the victims themselves. |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/as-the-vatican-is-confronted-by-the-un-we-must-remember-that-the-best-evidence-in-child-abuse-cases-will-come-from-victims-themselves-9064277.html|work= The Independent |accessdate=2014-02-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Lamb| first = M.E.|author2=Orbach, Y. |author3=Hershkowitz, I. |author4=Esplin, P. W. |author5=Horowitz, D.  | year = 2007 | title =  A structured forensic interview protocol improves the quality and informativeness of investigative interview with children: A review of research using the NICHD investigative interview protocol| journal =Child Abuse and Neglect|  volume = 31| issue = 11–12|  pages = 1201–1231 | doi=10.1016/j.chiabu.2007.03.021| pmid = 18023872 | pmc=2180422}}</ref>
== Accusation ==
In April 1985, a nurse took the temperature of a 4-year-old boy with a [[rectal thermometer]] and the boy said, "That's what my teacher does to me at nap time at school." The comment was reported to the local authorities, and all the children at the Wee Care Nursery School were questioned.<ref name=umkc>{{cite web |url=https://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcmartin/michaelsevil.html |title=The Kelly Michaels Case |accessdate=2007-08-26 |publisher=[[University of Missouri-Kansas City]] School of Law |archive-date=2007-09-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070910042702/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcmartin/michaelsevil.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Social workers and therapists collected testimony from 51 children from the day care center. During the interviews, children made accusations such as that Michaels forced them to lick peanut butter off of her genitals, that she penetrated their rectums and vaginas with knives, forks and other objects, that she forced them to eat cakes made from human excrement and that she made them play [[duck, duck, goose]] while naked. Michaels was indicted for 235 counts of sexual offenses with children and youths.<ref name = Case/> She denied the charges.<ref name=Narvaez>{{cite news    | last = Narvaez| first =A.   | title =Former Day-Care Teacher Denies Sexually Abusing Schoolchildren  | work =[[The New York Times]]  | date =February 28, 1988  | url  =https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6D61530F93BA15751C0A96E948260  | accessdate=2007-01-21  }}</ref>
Upon conviction, when asked whether they actually believed some of the more sordid claims from the children, prosecutors Glenn Goldberg and Sara McArdle answered "No" and "Oh, absolutely" simultaneously.<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB104873640281005000 |title=Epilogue to a Hysteria: Did prosecutors really believe their phony child-abuse charges?
|first=Dorothy |last=Rabinowitz |newspaper=Wall Street Journal
|author-link= Dorothy Rabinowitz
|date= March 27, 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041217235642/http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110003255|archive-date=2004-12-17}}</ref>  But when journalist [[Dorothy Rabinowitz]] asked about some of these bizarre elements, such as knives that left no scars, Goldberg replied, "What is there left to know? The jury has spoken. She's convicted."<ref name=wsj>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122719893698044499 |title=The Sacrosanct Accusation: No questions, they told me about phony sex-abuse charges. I asked anyway.
|first=Dorothy |last=Rabinowitz |newspaper=Wall Street Journal
|author-link= Dorothy Rabinowitz
|date=April 28, 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041217091307/http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110003414|archive-date=2004-12-17}}</ref>
==Trial==
The trial began on June 22, 1987.<ref name = Case/> "The prosecution produced expert witnesses who said that almost all the children displayed symptoms of sexual abuse."<ref name=Narvaez2>{{cite news   | last =Narvaez| first =A.   | title =Legal Arguments End in Jersey Child-Abuse Trial   | work =[[The New York Times]]  | date =March 29, 1988  | url =https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE5DB1E3AF93AA15750C0A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 | accessdate=2007-01-21 |quote=Legal arguments in the nine-month trial of a day-care teacher accused of sexually abusing 20 children at a center in Maplewood ended here today.}}</ref> Prosecution witnesses testified that the children "had regressed into such behavior as bed-wetting and defecating in their clothing. The witnesses said the children became afraid to be left alone or to stay in the dark. They also testified that the children exhibited knowledge of sexual behavior far beyond their years."<ref name=Narvaez2/> Some of the other teachers testified against her.<ref name=Narvaez2/> The defense argued that Michaels had not had the opportunity to take the children to a location where all of the alleged activities could have taken place without being noticed.<ref name=Narvaez2/>  The jury was not shown the transcripts of the interrogations of the children that produced the accusations.<ref name=wsj/>
After nine months, the case went to the jury for deliberation. At that time, 131 counts remained, including charges of aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of children, and making terroristic threats. The jury deliberated for 12 days before Michaels was convicted of 115 counts of sexual offenses involving 20 children.<ref name=Case/><ref name=lat>{{Cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-04-20-vw-24973-story.html |title = Abuser or Abused? : Ruling Triggers Questions over Who's Real Victim in N.J. Molestation Case| website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date = 20 April 1993}}</ref>
On August 2, 1988, Michaels was sentenced to 47 years in prison, with no possibility for parole for the first 14 years.<ref name = Case/> The judge "said the facts in the case were ''sordid, bizarre and demeaning'' to the children."<ref name=Rangel/> Michaels "told the judge that she was confident her conviction would be overturned on appeal."<ref name = Rangel>{{cite news |author= Rangel, J. |title= Ex-Preschool Teacher Sentenced to 47 Years in Sex Case in Jersey|work=[[New York Times]] |date=June 3, 1994}}</ref>
==Release==
In March 1993, after five years in prison, Michaels' appeal was successful and she was released.<ref name = Case/> The [[New Jersey Supreme Court]] overturned the lower court's decision and declared "the interviews of the children were highly improper and utilized coercive and unduly suggestive methods."<ref>{{cite news |author= Seth Mydans |title=Prosecutors Rebuked in Molestation Case |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE1DD1E3BF930A35755C0A962958260&scp |work=[[New York Times]] |date=June 3, 1994 |accessdate=2007-08-21 }}</ref>
A three-judge panel ruled she had been denied a fair trial because "the prosecution of the case had relied on testimony that should have been excluded because it improperly used an expert's theory, called the [[child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome]], to establish guilt."<ref>{{cite news|last =Fiason|first =F.|title =Child-Abuse Conviction Of Woman Is Overturned|work =[[The New York Times]]|date =March 27, 1993|url =https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CEFD61230F934A15750C0A965958260  | accessdate=2007-01-21}}</ref>
In June 1993, the State Supreme Court refused to hear the prosecutor's appeal of the decision.<ref>{{cite news  | title =Court Rejects Bid to Restore Abuse Verdict   | work =[[New York Times]]  | date =June 10, 1993   | url =https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7D9173FF933A25755C0A965958260 | accessdate=2007-01-21  }}</ref>
In February 1994, "the court heard arguments...about the admissibility of evidence."
<ref name=fantasy>{{cite news  | last =Sullivan | first =J.  | title =In Retrying Abuse Case, A New Issue   | work =[[New York Times]]  | date =February 4, 1994  | url  =https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE5DF1239F932A35751C0A962958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1  | accessdate=2007-01-21  |quote=Just how to prevent fantasy from being presented as fact in sex-abuse cases is facing the New Jersey Supreme Court in the wake of one of the most sensational of the spate of cases involving day-care workers during the 1980's.  The court heard arguments today about the admissibility of evidence in the case of Margaret Kelly Michaels, who was convicted of sexually molesting 19 children, many of them 3- and 4-year-olds, during her seven-month employment at Wee Care Nursery in Maplewood. She served 5 years of a 47-year sentence before her conviction was overturned early last year. }}</ref>
In December 1994, the prosecution dropped the attempt to retry the case "because too many obstacles had been placed in the way of a successful retrial."<ref name=Nieves>{{cite news |last =Nieves   | first =E. | title =Prosecutors Drop Charges In Abuse Case From Mid-80's | work =[[New York Times]]  | date =December 3, 1994 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9902E3D91F30F930A35751C1A962958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1  | accessdate=2007-01-21  |quote=Ending one of the most sensational child sex-abuse scandals in the nation, prosecutors today formally dropped their case against Margaret Kelly Michaels, the former day care teacher who spent five years in prison before her 1987 conviction was overturned on appeal last year.}}</ref> The major hurdle was that "if the state decided to reprosecute Michaels, it must produce 'clear and convincing evidence' that the statements and testimony elicited by the improper interview techniques are reliable enough to warrant admission."<ref name=Nieves/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume9/j9_1_1.htm|title=IPT Journal - "State v. Michaels: A New Jersey Supreme Court Prescription for the Rest of the Country"|website=www.ipt-forensics.com}}</ref> "While the Supreme Court stopped short of instructing the prosecutor to drop the case, the court made it clear that it believed the children's testimony would not hold up."<ref name=Nieves/>
==Interrogation methods==
During Michaels’ appeal, researchers [[Maggie Bruck]] and [[Stephen Ceci]] prepared an [[amicus brief]] regarding the case that pointed out several problems with the children's testimony that was the primary evidence. Some of the issues that were addressed were the role of interviewer bias, repeated questions, [[peer pressure]], and the use of [[anatomically correct dolls]] in contaminating the children's testimony. These interview techniques could have led to [[memory errors]] or [[false memories]]. In addition to the problems with the interviews themselves, the fact that there were no recordings of initial interviews meant that important evidence was missing; therefore, it was not possible to determine the origin of some of the information that children reported (i.e., it could have been suggested to them by interviewers in the early interviews.)<ref name = Bruck/>
Interviews from the  Wee Care Nursery School and [[McMartin preschool trial]]s were examined as part of a research project on the testimony of children questioned in a highly suggestive manner.  Compared with a set of interviews from [[Child Protective Services]], the interviews from the two trials were "significantly more likely to (a) introduce new suggestive information into the interview, (b) provide praise, promises, and positive reinforcement, (c) express disapproval, disbelief, or disagreement with  children, (d) exert conformity pressure, and (e) invite children to pretend or speculate about supposed events."<ref>{{cite journal | last = Schreiber| first = Nadja| author2 = Lisa Bellah, Yolanda Martinez, Kristin McLaurin, Renata Stok, Sena Garven and James Wood| title =  Suggestive interviewing in the McMartin Preschool and Kelly Michaels daycare abuse cases: A case study| journal =Social Influence  | volume = 1| issue = 1| pages = 16–46| publisher = Psychology Press| year = 2006| url = https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=james_wood | doi = 10.1080/15534510500361739| s2cid = 2322397}}</ref>
== See also ==
{{portal|1980s}}
* [[Day care sexual abuse hysteria]]
* [[List of wrongful convictions in the United States]]
== References ==
{{reflist|2}}
== External links ==
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/innocence Frontline: Innocence Lost]
* [https://www.religioustolerance.org/ra_micha.htm Wee Care Nursery School] at the [[Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance]]
{{satanic ritual abuse}}
{{Miscarriage of Justice}}
[[Category:Day care sexual abuse allegations in the United States]]
[[Category:Education in Essex County, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Overturned convictions in the United States]]
[[Category:Child care companies]]