The Fells Acres daycare case was a Massachusetts child sexual abuse prosecution in which three members of the Amirault family who ran the Fells Acres Day Care Center in Malden were convicted in 1986 and 1987 of molesting children in their care. Gerald Amirault served 18 years in prison. His mother Violet and sister Cheryl each served about eight. The convictions have never been overturned, but the child interviews that produced them are now widely regarded as unreliable, and every attempt to formally clear the family, most recently a 2022 pardon petition, has failed.
How the Accusations Started
Fells Acres Day Care Center was a family-run school operated by Violet Amirault and her two adult children, Gerald “Tooky” Amirault and Cheryl Amirault LeFave. Gerald worked as a handyman and bus driver.1PBS Frontline. Exposed – Outcomes
The investigation began in 1984 after Gerald changed a four-year-old boy out of wet clothes at the school. The boy’s mother, whose family had experience with childhood sexual abuse, asked her brother to question the child. The boy told his uncle that Gerald had taken his pants down.2Encyclopedia.com. Fells Acres Sexual Abuse Trials 1986-87 The mother later said the boy described being led blindfolded into a “secret room” for daily abuse. She called a child abuse hotline in September 1984, and Gerald was arrested the next day. The school closed, and police held a meeting for parents at which authorities encouraged them to question their children about a “magic room,” a “secret room,” and a “clown.”3CBS News. Family Accused: The Amiraults’ Story
After that meeting, the number of alleged victims grew quickly. By 1985, prosecutors had charged all three Amiraults with abusing 21 children. The allegations included claims that Gerald, sometimes dressed as a clown, assaulted children in the secret room, that children were tied to trees, that animals were killed in front of them as threats, and that the abuse was photographed for child pornography. Some children described robots, eating frogs, and other scenes that even supporters of the prosecution acknowledged were fantastical. No photographs, pornographic material, or physical evidence of the abuse was ever found.2Encyclopedia.com. Fells Acres Sexual Abuse Trials 1986-87
The Child Interviews at the Center of the Case
How the children’s testimony was obtained became, and has remained, the core dispute in the case. Pediatric nurse Susan Kelley conducted extensive interviews using anatomically correct dolls, asking children to point to parts of the doll or demonstrate the alleged acts. These interviews took place roughly 18 months after the children had left the daycare.3CBS News. Family Accused: The Amiraults’ Story
Defense attorneys argued that investigators started from a fixed assumption that abuse had occurred, asked repeated leading questions, and pressured children until they produced answers that fit. Research cited by the defense showed that preschool-age children are unusually susceptible to suggestion, and that young children will sometimes claim to have been touched during routine medical visits even when video evidence shows otherwise.2Encyclopedia.com. Fells Acres Sexual Abuse Trials 1986-87
Broader research on child interviews from that era documented interviewer bias, repeated questioning designed to change children’s initial answers, use of bribes and implied threats, and failure to record initial interviews. In some experiments, up to 90 percent of children agreed with an interviewer’s incorrect version of events when pressured.4University of Missouri-Kansas City. The Suggestibility of Children’s Recollections
The Trials and Sentences
Gerald Amirault was tried separately and convicted in 1986 on eight counts of rape of a child and seven counts of indecent assault and battery. He was sentenced to 30 to 40 years.5FindLaw. Commonwealth v. Amirault Violet and Cheryl were tried together and convicted in 1987 on separate counts of rape and indecent assault and battery. Each received eight to 20 years.3CBS News. Family Accused: The Amiraults’ Story
During both trials, child witnesses testified from a small table near the jury box, positioned so they could not see the defendants. This arrangement drew on recommendations from Dr. Eli Newberger, a child psychiatrist, about the trauma of testifying in front of alleged abusers.5FindLaw. Commonwealth v. Amirault
The Appeals
Gerald’s initial appeals were denied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1987 and 1989. Violet and Cheryl’s convictions were affirmed in 1990.5FindLaw. Commonwealth v. Amirault
In 1995, all three defendants filed motions for new trials. In a March 1997 ruling, the SJC found that the special seating arrangement had violated the defendants’ right to face-to-face confrontation with witnesses under Article 12 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. The trial judges, the court said, had failed to make the individualized findings needed to justify shielding child witnesses from the defendants’ view, and Dr. Newberger’s general testimony about child trauma was “too general” to override a constitutional right meant in part to “confound and undo the false accuser.”5FindLaw. Commonwealth v. Amirault But because trial counsel had not objected on confrontation grounds during the original trials, the court concluded that the procedural failure complicated the defendants’ ability to secure new trials on that basis.
Violet and Cheryl
In 1995, a judge overturned Violet and Cheryl’s convictions, and both were released after about eight years in prison.3CBS News. Family Accused: The Amiraults’ Story Violet died of cancer in 1997 while the case was still on appeal. The charges against her were formally dismissed posthumously in 1998.6WGBH News. Gov. Baker Seeks Pardons in Infamous Fells Acres Child Abuse Case
Cheryl’s conviction was reinstated after the 1995 ruling was overturned. In June 1998, Judge Isaac Borenstein granted her a new trial, citing new evidence that testimony from very young children “can be drastically distorted by suggestive interviewing techniques of the kind applied in the Fells Acres case.” The SJC reversed him in August 1999.2Encyclopedia.com. Fells Acres Sexual Abuse Trials 1986-87 Cheryl then reached an agreement with prosecutors: time served plus ten years of supervised probation, in exchange for ending her efforts to clear her name. The deal barred her from contacting victims, having unsupervised contact with children under 16, profiting from her story, or appearing on television.7Cape Cod Times. Convicted Child Molester Won’t Return to Prison
Gerald
Gerald’s appeals for a new trial failed. In April 2000 he petitioned for commutation of his sentence, and in September 2001 he appeared before the Massachusetts Parole Board and maintained his innocence. On July 6, 2001, the board voted 5-0 to recommend commutation, citing “prosecutorial procedures that have since been discredited and a lack of physical evidence.”8Seacoast Online. Swift Refuses to Commute Amirault
In February 2002, Acting Governor Jane Swift rejected the recommendation. Her spokesman said Swift had interviewed more than 35 people on both sides and concluded the original sentence was fair. The Boston Globe and Boston Herald editorialized against her decision, and polling at the time showed broad public support for Amirault’s release.9The Nation. Justice Not So Swift
Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley, later Massachusetts Attorney General, actively opposed the commutation, which kept Gerald in prison beyond the board’s 2001 recommendation. Coakley also negotiated the conditions on Cheryl’s release, including the ban on television and film interviews. According to Wall Street Journal reporter Dorothy Rabinowitz, Coakley asked the Amiraults’ attorney to stop representing Gerald while negotiating terms for Cheryl’s freedom.10The Week. Daycare Sex Abuse Case Haunts Massachusetts Senate Race Coakley later said she “did the right thing in opposing Amirault’s freedom.”
Gerald was released on parole in 2004 after 18 years in prison. His conditions were stringent: an ankle monitor, polygraph examinations every few months, travel restrictions, and lifetime placement on the sex offender registry.6WGBH News. Gov. Baker Seeks Pardons in Infamous Fells Acres Child Abuse Case
The 2022 Pardon Attempt
On November 18, 2022, outgoing Governor Charlie Baker recommended pardons for Gerald and Cheryl, citing “grave doubt regarding the evidentiary strength of these convictions” and the absence of modern investigative protocols during the original prosecutions.11WBUR. Governor Baker Massachusetts Pardons Amiraults Under Massachusetts law, pardons require approval by the Governor’s Council, an eight-member elected body. The Massachusetts Parole Board had already recommended against the pardons in August 2022.
The council held a six-hour hearing on December 13, 2022. Attorney James Sultan, representing the Amiraults, compared the convictions to the Salem witch trials and argued the children’s testimony had been obtained through “blatant manipulation.” Gerald’s wife Patty testified, “My husband would never hurt another being, let alone a child.”12WBUR. Amiraults Child Abuse Pardon Governors Council Hearing
Laurence Hardoon, the lead prosecutor from the original trials, argued that the convictions rested on a “long, solid legal history” upheld through six rulings by the state’s highest court, and warned that a pardon would “cast a pall over other children who will not be believed” in future cases. Victim Jenn Bennett told the council the abuse “robbed me of my childhood.” Another parent testified that her daughter still struggled with long-term effects.12WBUR. Amiraults Child Abuse Pardon Governors Council Hearing
Several councilors criticized Baker’s petition. Councilor Paul DePalo said the process “stinks” for lack of a detailed explanation. Councilor Eileen Duff said the petition failed to meet Baker’s own clemency guidelines.13WGBH News. Baker Withdraws Bid to Pardon Amiraults in Fells Acres Child Abuse Case On December 14, 2022, Baker withdrew the petition, his press secretary saying, “It is apparent that there are not sufficient votes from the Governor’s Council to support a pardon for the Amiraults.”14CBS News Boston. Baker Withdraws Pardon Petition The Amiraults’ defense team called the withdrawal “cruel.”
Where the Case Stands
The convictions remain in force. Violet’s charges were dismissed after her death in 1997. Cheryl completed her probation. Gerald, as of the most recent reporting, remains on parole under stringent conditions, wears an ankle monitor, and is on the sex offender registry for life. None of the 13 victims have recanted their testimony.15WGBH News. Pardons for Amiraults Hindered by Baker’s Lack of Contact With Victims The interview techniques used to obtain that testimony are now widely considered unreliable, but no court or governing body has undone the verdicts.