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Purpose; Academic and Clinical Studies
Background
History of this project
The Archive
101 corroborated cases of recovered memory
Response to Critics
Dr. August Piper (1999)
Dr. Richard McNally (2003)
FAQs
Other Scholarly
Resources
Bibliographies, links
to websites by four
doctoral-level
psychologists
Supportive
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For those with personal
questions & concerns
about sexual abuse &
those interested in
political & social
responses to sexual
abuse
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The Archive > 43
Cases from Legal Proceedings
1-10 | 11-20 | 21-30
| 31-40 | 41-End
11. R's recovered memories of being raped as many
as 20 times by her neighbor in childhood, Lorne Francois.
"The woman testified that she was about 13 years old when
she went to the accused's home one evening to use his living-room
telephone because her family had no phone...She said Francois
pulled down her pants and underwear and had sexual intercourse
with her. When it was over, she said, "he told me now
to tell anybody, or else." "Prescott Child Sex-Abuse Probe,"
Ottawa Citizen (April 1, 1992: p. B2). Mr. Francois
did not take the stand, and the jury reached a unanimous
decision of guilty. The verdict was upheld by the Ontario
Court of Appeal (1993), 14 O.R. 3d 191, with one judge dissenting
due to concerns that the jury drew improper inferences from
the defendant's failure to take the stand. As stated by
the majority:
"The trial judge's instructions were unimpeachable." The
verdict was also upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada (R.
v. Francois,
[1994] 2 S.C.R. 827).
The most powerful corroboration of R's claim came from Project
Jericho, a massive investigation into child sexual abuse in
the Prescott area. That investigation uncovered a host of
other victims. Francois was found guilty in 1995 "of two sexual
assault charges involving a 13-year-old boy more than 20 years
ago." "Prescott man guilty of sexual abuse," Ottawa Citizen
(May 3, 1995: p.D1). "He is already serving six years for
sex crimes, including raping a teenage girl and sexually assaulting
two teenage boys." Id. Charges that Francois sexually assaulted
two patients at the Royal Ottawa Hospital when he was there
for a court-ordered psychiatric assessment in 1991 were dropped
when the Crown failed to move with sufficient speed. Jacquie
Miller, "Child molester's new charges quashed," Ottawa
Citizen (March 3, 1993: P. A1).
Given Francois's 30-year history of violent sexual attacks
on children, the Crown moved in 1997 to have him declared
a dangerous-offender. An Ottawa court decided, however, that
he was unfit to take part in the hearing. He was been committed
to a mental hospital, instead. Jeremy Mercer, "Pedophile unfit
to take part in legal action: 69-year-old man faces hospitalization
for dementia instead," Ottawa Citizen (December 5,
1997: p. C3).
12. Frank Fitzpatrick's memory of prolonged child
sexual abuse by Father James Porter. His personal investigation
resulted in tape-recorded incriminatory statements by Porter,
and eventual identification of dozens of others victims.
Porter was prosecuted criminally in Fall River, Massachusetts,
and he pled guilty. A civil suit against the Catholic church
was settled on terms favorable to the plaintiffs. Robert
Correia
& Linda Borg, "'I'm Sorry,' Porter weeps; Victims, judge
unmoved; he gets 18-20 years," Providence Journal-Bulletin,
December 9, 1993: 1)
13. John Robatille's memory of sexual abuse by Father
Porter, triggered by reports about Frank Fitzpatrick. "His
specific memories were confirmed by two classmates... Harvard
psychiatrist Stuart Grassian surveyed 43 [of the Porter
victims] in 1993 and found another 8 - or 19 percent -
who reported no thoughts or memories of the childhood abuse
until the case broke in the media." (Katy Butler, "The
Latest on Recovered Memory," Family Therapy Networker,
Nov/Dec 1996: 36).
14. Keene v. Edie (King County Superior Court, 1993)
The jury "found that Ronald Edie, 57, of Auburn, had molested
his former neighbor between 1973 and 1977...Her claims
were bolstered by testimony of two of Edies daughters and
a woman who testified he molested them when they were children."
(Richard Seven, "Psychiatry of Repressed Memories on Trial,"
Seattle Times, July 9, 1993: A1.)
15. Cynthia Lewis's memories of child sexual abuse
by Rev. Alfred R. Desrosiers. Her memories were revived
in 1993 when her mother, dying of cancer, expressed the
wish to see Father Desrosiers, a long-time family friend.
After a hearing to assess the reliability of the recovered-memory
evidence, Judge Needham allowed the case to proceed. One
reason
"was corroborative evidence" in the form of "conversations
Father Desrosiers had with Louis E. Gelineau, then Bishop
of Providence, and the Rev. Normand Godin after Lewis reported
her recalled memories to the diocese." Tom Mooney, "Why
a court accept ‘recovered-memory: While its legal
validity is debate in one sexual-abuse case, a judge rules
that it is reliable and admissible in a trial involving
a Catholic priest," Providence Journal-Bulletin (April
13, 1998: A1).
16. Hoult v. Hoult (Federal District Court in Massachusetts;
jury verdict, 1993). Successful civil suit against David
Hoult for sustained child sexual abuse. Ms. Hoult's claims
were supported by something her mother witnessed (her father
on top of another sibling in bed) and by a 13-year old babysitter
who testified that David Hoult had sexually molested her.
"Other family members rememberd Jennifer's father grabbing
he breasts." (Minouche Kandel & Eric Kandel, "Flights
of Memory," Discover, May 1994: 32.) Ms. Hoult's
family sided with her, and the jury verdict was unanimous.
David Hoult has since sued Ms. Hoult for libel, over her
subsequent statements that he had "raped" her. A federal
district judge recently dismissed that suit after reviewing
the trial record and concluding that "the issue of rape
was decided [in Ms. Hoult's favor] by the jury." Hoult
v. Hoult (Civil Action No. 96-10970-RCL)(Slip opinion,
p.6).
Update: On May 13, 2002, the federal district court found
that David Hoult had fraudulently conveyed over $130,000
in assets to avoid paying part of the $500,000 judgment that
her owes to his daughter Jennifer. Two weeks later, the court
entered an order requiring him to deposit all his income
in a designated Massachusetts bank account and to limit his
withdrawals from that account to cover his reasonable living
expenses. David Hoult has since been found in civil and criminal
contempt for refusing to comply with the order. This is the First Circuit’s most recent decision, which
goes largely against David Hoult.
Jennifer Hoult, now a prosecutor in
New York, has launched
a
Web site that documents the errors about her case that
are contained in "Remembering Dangerously," an
oft-cited article by Elizabeth Loftus in the Skeptical Inquirer. See, Jennifer
Hoult "'Remembering Dangerously' & Hoult v. Hoult: The
Myth of Repressed Memory that Elizabeth Loftus Created" (2005).
17. People v. Hoffman. (David Hoffman, sentenced in
Poughkeepsie, New York, June 15, 1994 for sexually abusing
the young daughter of his girlfriend 14-16 years earlier.
"The woman's first memory of the abuse came when she
was typing a report regard a sexual abuse case," working
in a probation office in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (ErinMarie
Medick, "Woman's Repressed Memories of Abuse Leads to
Conviction, Columbus Dispatch, June 14, 1994: 1A). The woman
eventually filed a police report, a detective interviewed
Hoffman, who had been convicted in 1986 of sexually abusing
children at a children's home in Duchess, County, New York.
Hoffman admitted he committed the earlier crimes, while
a graduate student at Ohio State University and pled guilty
as charged.
18. Gonzalez v. Boullon (Florida jury verdict, 1994).
Dr. Nina Gonzalez successfully brought a civil suit against
her stepfather, Luis Boullon, in Florida. "While a premed
at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass, she began to
remember what she recalled as nighttime visits from her
stepfather...Testimony of her little cousin and her stepmother
who she told of the 'massages' years before also weighed
with the jurors." Gonzalez's
older brother, Ricardo, testified he had witnessed two instances
of abuse. (John Lantingua, "$1 Million Award Over Repressed
Memory of Abuse," Miami Herald, February 14, 1994:
1A.)
19. Crook vs. Murphy (Benton
County Superior Court, Washington; Case No. 91-2-01102-5)
Verdict for plaintiff by Judge Dennis Yule, February, 1994.
Lynn Crook, the oldest of six childern, successfully sued
her father for recovered memories of child sexual abuse.
One of her sisters testified to an abusive event she always
remembered. This decision is
noteworthy for what it says about Richard Ofshe, a sociologist
who testified against Ms. Crook: "Just as (Ofshe) accuses
(therapists) of resolving at the outset (to find) repressed
memories of abuse and then constructing them, he has resolved
at the outset to find a macabre scheme of memories progressing
toward satanic cult ritual and then creates them." There
is a detailed excerpt
from the Los Angeles Times about how Ofshe & Watters
misrepresented the facts of this case in their book, Making
Monsters. Ms. Crook has written a response
to Ofshe & Watters, which was published in the Journal
of Child Sexual Abuse.
20. Alley v. Alley (King County Superior Court, 1994).
Plaintiff successfully sued her father, William Alley, for
sexual assault in her childhood. "No one in the Alley's family
testified on the father's behalf...[The plaintiff's attorneys]
used psychiatric records filed during Williams Alley's 1970s
divorce to support the family's claim of incest and abuse." Richard
Seven, "It Wasn't the Money, It Was Principle; Jury says
Father Raped Daughter," Seattle Times, June 14, 1994:
B1). "In addition, an unexpected witness for the plaintiff
came forward during the last week of the trial, after having
read about the case in the paper, to offer testimony that
when she was 12 and Julie Alley was 6, Ms. Alley told her
that, "My daddy touched me," and pointed to her vagina." ("Dentist
Found Liable in Recovered Memory Case," PR Newswire, June
13, 1994. )
read more cases > 1-10 |
11-20 | 21-30 | 31-40 | 41-End
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Page last updated
July, 2003
Project Director
Professor Ross E. Cheit
Taubman Center for Public Policy & American Institutions
at Brown University
67 George Street
Box 1977
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401-863-2201
Fax: 401-863-2452
 
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