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Martha Coakley: Terrible Prosecutor

Show Us Where The Bad Prosecutor Touched You

By: Dan McLaughlin (Diary)  |  January 14th, 2010 at 04:53 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

It’s worth recalling, as the Massachusetts Senate election approaches, that Martha Coakley is not just some bland Democratic machine apparatchik. She’s a bland Democratic machine apparatchik with a long record as a prosecutor that includes some very ugly things.

Exhibit A is the notorious case, familiar to readers of the Wall Street Journal over the past three decades, of Gerald Amirault. The case, discussed in summary here, was a terrible miscarriage of justice involving fantastical accounts of sex abuse of children, exposed by Journal reporter Dorothy Rabinowitz; it was originally prosecuted by another politically ambitious Democrat, Scott Harshbarger. And then:

When Martha Coakley became district attorney of Middlesex County in 1999, the Amiraults were still in the news. But by this time hardly anyone believed they were guilty of the horrendous crimes they were alleged to have committed. In fact there was no evidence that anyone had abused any children in the Fells Acres Day Care.

But what did Martha Coakley do when the Parole Board voted unanimously (5-0) to pardon Gerald Amirault? She did everything in her power to see that he stayed in prison, including sending an assistant DA to oppose his release at the hearing. Coakley also went on talk shows to spout her views about his guilt. (Read about Martha Coakley’s involvement in Cheryl Amirault’s Plea Bargain also).

That alone should disqualify Coakley as a candidate for higher office. But there’s more.

Such overzealousness is why criminal-defense-minded writers like Radley Balko and Jeralyn Merritt – neither of them exactly a right-wing Republican – are opposed to Coakley. Both cite other examples as well (Balko notes that Coakley first came to prominence in the notorious “shaken-baby” case against British nanny Louise Woodward, in which Woodward’s murder conviction was reduced to manslaughter by the judge).

But overzealousness in questionable (or worse) cases isn’t Coakley’s problem. There’s also the opposite, her lenient treatment of a Somerville cop who raped his 23-month-old niece – yes, a toddler – with a hot curling iron. Coakley’s office let him out without bail pending trial; only under her successor was he convicted and sentenced to two life terms in jail.

It starts to be apparent that the persistent incompetence and tone-deafness of Coakley’s campaign may not be a new thing for her.

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  • Finrod

    Their Part 2 on her is all about how she had a chance to put the infamous Father John Geoghan behind bars in 1995 for child molestation, but instead in a closed-door meeting gave him merely a year’s probation, giving him no criminal record at all.

  • raydawggie

    Certainly sounds like it. Your typical Democratic prosecutor – looking only to advance their career, and who cares about justice?

    Heck, I half-bet that Mike Nifong will have managed to recast himself as an overzealous defender of the downtrodden and be embraced by the left within a few years.

  • red_mass

    Martha is where she is because, she is part of corrupt Massachusetts Democratic political machine. She is the most partisan incompetent AG. Hopefully this race will break the machine for good

  • and1morething

    She needs no moral compass because she will march to the extreme left’s marching orders. Dems are Dems. No individual’s rights will stand in the way of their forceful delivery of Utopia to the unwashed masses.

  • Sundayjack

    And you can’t rightly blame Martha for this part, but the “victims” in that case settled with the Amiraults’ insurance company for a whopping $20 MILLION. http://www.cyberussr.com/hcunn/witch/tm-$20m.html. That whole affair was just insane. Poor Gerald wears a ankle bracelet still, and has to maintain registration as a 3rd degree sex offender. It’s galling.

  • stoppingchildabuse

    Amirault was found guilty and this verdict was upheld several times by both political parties. There were physical findings of abuse in the children and the children showed signs of strong sexualized behaviors after the abuse. The children as adults continue to state they were abused.

    http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/fells-acres-%E2%80%93-amirault-case/

    • Aaron Gardner
    • mbecker908

      on this brain dead, utterly stupid, crappy excuse for a piece of humanity.

      • ceili_dancer

        n/t

    • mbecker908

      And I should note that you’ve been here exactly one day.

      You can take your case up with Dorothy Rabinowitz – as noted by Mr. McLaughlin in his diary – who is one of the top investigative reporters in the US and sits on the Editorial Board of the Wall St Journal. She has extensively investigated high-profile “child abuse” cases including Fells Acres.

      This is from the archives of the WSJ:

      From the WSJ Opinion Archives
      THE AMIRAULT CASE
      Justice at Last
      Dorothy Rabinowitz on the Amirault case.
      Monday, July 9, 2001 12:01 A.M. EDT

      On Jan. 30, 1995, The Wall Street Journal published “A Darkness in Massachusetts,” an article by Dorothy Rabinowitz exposing the phony 1986 child-abuse convictions of the Amirault family of Massachusetts. Now, as Ms Rabinowitz reports today, Massachusetts’ parole board has voted to commute the sentence of Gerald Amirault, the last of the family behind bars. Mr. Amirault has spent more than 15 years in prison. Here’s a collection of Ms. Rabinowitz’s work on the story over the past five years:

      * A Darkness in Massachusetts, Jan. 30, 1995
      * A Darkness in Massachusetts–II, March 14, 1995
      * A Darkness in Massachusetts–III, May 12, 1995
      * The Children Behind the Glass, May 15, 1996
      * A Citizen of Massachusetts, Sept. 11, 1997
      * ‘Finality’ for the Amiraults, June 30, 1999
      * The Pursuit of Justice, Continued, Oct. 7, 1999
      * Cheryl Amirault Is Freed, Oct. 22, 1999
      * Only in Massachusetts, Dec. 29, 1999
      * A Juror Has Second Thoughts, May 12, 2000
      * A Hearing in Boston, Oct. 31, 2000

      Rabinowitz’ latest article, January 14, 2010 can be found here.

      You are a Troll, and an extremely noxious one at that.

    • Vegas_Rick

      Facts no longer matter.

      • Ausonius

        as moral imperatives against the “obvious evil” of Republican candidates, facts not only do not matter, they confuse people and divert their energy from the imperative of stopping Republicans.

        “Whatever it takes…” Billy Jeff Clinton The moral candidate is at a disadvantage, when running against Nietzschean Dems.

  • stoppingchildabuse

    Thank you for your calm and civil comments about this case. Rabinowitz covers one side of the case, the side of the convicted child abusers. There is another side, the side of the victims.

    The victims should not be a political football for either side. Both sides (Republican Governor Jane Swift) supported the conviction as well.

    Here’s information from the other side, including a WSJ article:

    Letters to the Editor: The Real Darkness Is Child Abuse WALL STREET JOURNAL (J) 02/24/95 Larry Hardoon’s Letter The three Amiraults — Gerald, Violet and Cheryl ? were convicted after two trials before different judges and juries almost one year apart. They were represented by able and well-known defense counsel. The convictions were upheld after review by state and federal appellate cour… in Amirault, the majority of the female children who testified had some relevant physical findings, as did several female children involved in the investigation who did not participate in the trial. The findings included labial adhesions and hymenal scarring of the sort present in a very small percentage of non-sexually abused children….The victims and their families in these cases have been irrevocably harmed by what was done to them by the Amiraults. Every argument raised by Ms. Rabinowitz was ably presented by the defense at the trials. The juries, by their verdicts, rejected these arguments. Justice was done.
    http://web.archive.org/web/20010719201703/http://www.vocal-nasvo.org/hardoon.htm

  • stoppingchildabuse

    Freedom of speech is a good thing. A democracy depends on many opinions to grow.

    More information from the victims’ point of view, from the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald.

    Witness praises Amirault decision John Ellement, Boston Globe, 2/23/02 Hardoon…said…the quality of the investigation and the actions of prosecutors, police, and social workers working with the children were all scrutinized intensely during Gerald Amiraults? trial and still the jury convicted…Amirault supporters are focusing on 2 percent of the childrens claims that seem inexplicable and they are conveniently ignoring the 98 percent of the case that was overwhelming against Amirault.
    http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/054/metro/Witness_praises_Amirault_decision+.shtml

    Swift wont free Tooky by D. Guarino, E. Beardsley Boston Herald 2/20/02 Convicted child molester Gerald Tooky Amirault…denied commutation of his sentence by…Gov. Jane M. Swift.She carefully analyzed every? bit of information generated through the investigation and came to her decision that the verdict was just and the sentence was appropriate.
    “All along, they’ve always told the truth,” said Harriet Dell’Anno…, whose daughter, Jamie, remains in therapy over the incidents.
    http://web.archive.org/web/20020305205020/http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/swif02202002.htm

    Mass. Victims Fight Commutation Plea
    Leslie Miller AP 8/7/01 Victims in the Fells Acres child abuse case…described their pain publicly…in hopes of keeping the last person convicted in? the case behind bars…“So many times, Mr. Amirault hovered over me, touched me and hurt me and committed many disgusting acts of abuse.”
    Those children, now adults, stood by their testimony…“This family raped me, molested me and totally ruined my life”
    http://web.archive.org/web/20010807011330/http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010802/us/preschool_abuse_3.html

    COMMONWEALTH vs. GERALD AMIRAULT. 404 Mass. 221 December 6, 1988 – March 6, 1989 The parents of the child witnesses testified about their children’s behavior while, or shortly after, attending Fells Acres. The children complained and cried about the school; they complained of stomachaches, headaches, pain in their genital areas, and bowel problems. They began bedwetting, lost their appetites, had nightmares, used baby talk, became fearful of lights, of men, and of being left alone. The children also displayed sexually explicit behavior; some began masturbating. Two of the boys tried to stick their tongues into their mothers’ mouths.

    • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

      …we won’t bite your head off. We still support your opponent, of course,

      And it would be helpful to your cause if you didn’t have to rely upon ancient news stories from before the wheels fell off the prosecution’s case.

      • E Pluribus Unum
    • Richard Mullins

      or is it really you, Martha Coakley. She seems like a terrible DA and then later AG. She doesn’t compare to good female Republican DA’s that are really tough on crime.

    • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

      I write this knowing full well that by tomorrow I will be probably part of your ongoing narrative on SRA, but speaking as a site moderator: this is deemed a threadjack of the topic, so stop posting on SRA until a Director overrules me.

      Don’t ignore me.