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New: Tulia, Texas Racism and corruption
story | First settlement in Martensville
Gilmer, Texas,
2002
Gilmer, Texas
or Martensville, Saskatchewan?
Gilmer, Texas Satanic
murder hysteria
and Saskatchewan Satanic Panic: the
damage from these 90s wrongful accusations persists in 2002
Former Gilmer police Sgt. James Brown:
Sgt.
James Brown, 2nd ranking officer in Gilmer force, was charged
and then ordered by the judge to get out of town. In 2002 he
lost his civil claim at the U.S. Supreme Court. He now works
as a law enforcer for the state of Texas.
His life was ruined; he suffered
a stress-related attack and has been left with a permanent limp.
Many in Gilmer still say he
was guilty and got away with murder. (The Sterlings were also
ordered to get out of Martensville.)
Recantations
The recantation by Raymond
Smith in Gilmer, Texas is similar to the recantations by the
Ross children in Saskatoon. The children were placed with a family
who participated in the emotional and physical torture of Raymond
until he told them what they wanted to hear.
As an adult, Raymond admits
that he had never laid eyes on Kelly Wilson and described her
as a blonde because that is what he had been told. At the time
of her disappearance her hair had grown out to its natural darker
colour.
Raymond
was a vulnerable child bullied by by unscrupulous adults. The
team of "experts" knew exactly how to use existing
grudges in the community to extract accusations from people.
Raymond and his baby brother
Luther were taken from their mother, Tammi Smith, and her boyfriend
who were both accused.
(In Saskatoon, the Ross children
were emotionally bullied by the Dueck-Bunko team and "special needs"
Thompson home was the scene
of physical abuse. Torture was left to Michael, the older child
who was allowed to rape and sodomize his twin sisters.)
Bittersweet
reunion of Raymond and his mother, Tammi who was charged in Gilmer.
Videograbs
are from the NBC Dateline show "A Touch of Evil."
Unimpeachable evidence shows
that Wendell Kerr, a truck driver, charged and held for several
months was in New York
City at the time of the alleged ritual murder.
He and nine Gilmer residents
were charged with murdering 17 year old Kelly Wilson in 1993
in a grisly Satanic cult murder where she was held and tortured
for ten days in a shack in the words, barbecued, stabbed and
possibly eaten. There was no forensic evidence for any of the
charges. The body has not been recovered, although over the years
bodies of several girls in the larger Texas area have been found
and are suspected to be victims of a serial killer.
Prisons have become a huge
industry in
the U.S. In Ontario superjails
are already happening; Alberta is also building them.
 
The case was the subject of
an NBC Dateline called "A Touch of Evil" and aired
in March, 2002. Ray Smith, who is now an adult but who was six
at the time he named Brown and others appears on the show and
recants his testimony and explains how it was extracted from
him by Scott Lyfeld, the "Special Prosecutor" who led
what was called "The Team" (right) and created the
case.
Kelly Wilson's mother and step-father
still believe that Kelly was killed by a cult and that Brown
was involved. Her father and step-mother, on the other hand,
are convinced the entire episode was hysterical and that Kelly's
killer is still at large.
 
Dr. Bruce Perry, who was hired
by the Texas Attorney General did not hesitate to call actions
by local authorities criminal. He said on Dateline that Luther
and Raymond were kidnapped by the state and tortured by their
new foster parents.
He found the tape recorded
"confessions" violated the rights of those who had
been held.
Sgt. Brown was "named"
as being part of the fanciful Satanic murder by Connie Martin,
a Gilmer citizen, after many hours of badgering recorded on audiotape.
A comparison with the Foster
Parent prosecutions with the Gilmer case could begin with what
happened when the initial charges were laid.
 
As soon as James Brown's attorney
David More (left) learned the bizarre nature of the charges,
he alerted the Attorney General's office and Shane Phelps (right)
immediately investigated.
They were quick to find the
flaws in the very beginnings of the case. The fact that a 17
year old girl had gone missing under questionable circumstances
served to fan the flames of dormant hysteria. Kelly Wilson's
mother became part of a vigilante group who broke into homes
of the arrested accused and spread unsubstantiated rumours about
other townspeople.
 "
These are master Satanists.
The fact that there is no evidence proves that it happened.",
said Special Prosecutor Scott Lyford (left).
Phelps set about to have the
charges dropped, destroyed the manufactured evidence and issued
a public apology to Brown.
Scott Lyford was out to build
a career, not unlike Matthew Miazga
who corresponded with the head of Social Services reassuringly
about the rightness of the cause and tried to get a larger budget
to import his own team of "experts."
In both Texas and Saskatchewan,
the manufacturers of these wrongful prosecutions relied on the
backing of Christian fundamentalists. In Saskatchewan, a group
calling itself "Believe the Children" and led by Carol
Dalton received wide media play. Reason was pitted against faith.
This group greatly influenced a Saskatoon policy group which
was commissioned to revamp the protocol for investigating allegations
of child sexual abuse.
When several wrongfully accused
and their supporters tried to attend their meetings and offer
suggestions, their response was to call the police. From 1994
to 1996, all those who had been most vocal in trying to bring
these matters to public attention were charged with libel and
freed under undertakings which included strict gag orders.
The fundamentalist Christian
basis for belief that Satan was at large in Saskatchewan was
down-played while the social workers, Carol Bunko-Ruys (a free-lancer
on contract to the government), Liz Newton (a Social Services
employee) used their influence in the Saskatoon Adlerian Society
as a cloak of credibility. University chaplain Colin
Clay was instrumental in promoting the theory of recovered
memories.
In Texas, the fundamentalist
agenda was directly evident.
The first Saskatchewan prosecutor
Corporal Dueck took his charges to was Terry Hinz. Hinz would
not prosecute the case but as far as we know did nothing to stop
Matt Miazga and Sonja Hansen from prosecuting it. The Klassens,
who lived in Red Deer at the time they were charged hired Daryl
Labach. Labach took the family through a lengthy preliminary
inquiry which ended with indictments on all of them. They were
held over for a full year before the charges were dropped on
all but Peter Klassen. When Miazga announced
the charges were dropped because the children were traumatized,
neither LaBach or Hinz set the public record straight, although
both these officers of the court knew that a severe injustice
had occurred.
When Texas Attorney General
Dan Morales was briefed on the case, he publicly exonerated the
falsely accused whereas Saskatchewan Justice Minister Robert
Mitchell and his successor, Chris
Axworthy have set about to hide the incompetence of the department
and charge and smear those of us who have tried to make the facts
of the case public.
It saddens us to have to compare
our own province unfavourably with Texas which is renowned for
many injustices.
fifth estate's "Scandal of the Century"
and Dateline's "A Touch of Evil" have some other
similarities.
Raymond Smith apologizes for
what he did to James Brown and James Brown accepts, noting Ray
was a child. This is similar to Michael Ross's apology to Richard
Klassen and Klassen's acceptance on "Scandal of the Century."
However, in the Canadian foster
parent case a lawsuit filed
in 1994 remains viable and after years of stalling is working
its way to trial. Saskatoon police officer John
Popowich who was falsely charged in the Martensville case
also has a lawsuit which is set for trial in September, 2002.
Below are news clippings about
the Gilmer Texas case:
Satanic Sexual Molestation
Cases Dismissed in Gilmer, Texas
Monday, November 6, 1995
Texas Attorney General Dan
Morales on Monday said allegations of sexual molestation of children
by a satanic cult in Gilmer were the product of coercion, deceit
and threats by public officials and others who were supposed
to protect the children.
Consequently, the Office of
the Attorney General asked State District Court Judge James B.
Zimmermann of Upshur County to dismiss all but three of the child
molestation charges against several individuals.
"Some of these children
were abused in their homes of origin. However, they were all
undoubtedly also abused by an overzealous, out-of-control system,
created by a former special prosecutor, that was supposed to
be protecting them and seeking justice," Morales said.
A 13-page motion filed with
the court Friday, as well as other information presented to the
court during a hearing Monday, detailed the improper and abusive
tactics used by Child Protective Service Workers, foster families
and the former independent prosecutor. Morales wrote in the motion
to the court: "There can simply be no way that pursuing
these irreparably tainted criminal cases could ever be in the
best interests of the children. However, the interests of those
children have been protected.
The Office of the Attorney
General has been committed, and will continue to be committed
to ensuring that those children who were abused will never have
to return to that abusive environment. Tragically, because of
the actions of those who were supposed to protect and care for
these children, this is simply all that can be done for them."
The cases originated between
May of 1993 and January of 1994 when the Upshur County Grand
Jury returned 48 indictments alleging child sexual abuse against
Eugene W. Kerr, Geneva S. Kerr, Wendell E. Kerr, Loretta A.C.
Kerr, Wanda H. Kerr, Danny O. Kerr, Connie S. Martin, Roger D.
Holeman, and Tammy J. Smith.
The indictments alleged various
sexual abuses of 15 children.
The allegations were brought
to light and investigated by then Child Protective Service caseworkers
Ann Goar (right) and Debbie Minshew.
Subsequent to the initial indictments,
Upshur County District Attorney Tim Cone recused himself from
the cases and appointed Galveston attorney Scott Lyford as a
special prosecutor. Goar and Minshew helped Lyford continue the
investigation and to prepare for trial.
The Lyford team presented astonishing
reports of satanic rituals, sexual and physical torture, cannibalism,
and mass murder. Lyford later accused seven of those already
indicted, plus a police officer of participating in the abduction,
rape, torture and satanic murder of 17-year-old Kelly Wilson
of Gilmer.
In March, 1994, the Office
of the Attorney General was asked by Upshur County officials
to take over the investigation and prosecution of the murder
case and the child abuse cases.
Morales discovered the murder
indictments were based on no physical evidence and information
that was obtained through coercion, threats and unacceptable
interview techniques by the Lyford team. The murder indictments
were dismissed, and the Attorney General announced that in light
of the findings regarding the Lyford team's tactics, the child
abuse cases would be reconsidered.
Morales' investigation, assisted
by a nationally-recognized child psychiatrist and other physicians,
determined the children were forced to tell tales of satanic
ritual and abuses.
Independent information, as
well as individual testimony by the children, revealed the Bass
foster family forced children to run up and down the stairs until
they were so tired they cried, and then Barbara Bass would hold
a child tightly and rub her knuckles into the child's ribs until
it hurt, at the same time telling the child he or she must admit
to being abused and participating in satanic rituals.
The Basses called it the "holding
technique" and used it on the children prior to visits or
interviews with physicians or the Lyford team, according to the
children.
The children also were interviewed
repeatedly, for hours at a time and in intimidating circumstances,
with many adults from the Lyford team surrounding them.
Morales wrote in the motion
that the State's ability to seek justice "has been severely
undermined as a result of the outrageous conduct of the Lyford
team....
While many of these cases were
viable at their inception, they have now been inundated with
lies, deceit, perversions and coercion all in the name of exposing
the massive Satanic cult in which the Lyford team so wanted to
believe. Now, having uncovered evidence that destroys the credibility
of all involved, the State is left without credible witnesses
to prove the instant cases."
One charge against Connie Martin
and two charges against Wanda Kerr have not been dismissed.
This was also going on in the
U.K. where they trawled for suspects
Brian
Dueck is now the ranking
superintendent in the Saskatoon Police Service. See also the
two Florida stories: Murder on a
Sunday afternoon and Monique
Turenne | February 2003: Mark
Cook's wife, Jessica and her boyfriend Michael Montgomery
frame Mark Cook and put him away for 17 years in a vicious custody
dispute in Fort Worth | Alabama: BEVERLY
BRABHAM: A
Victim of the Good Old Boys | Wrongfully
convicted and imprisoned |
Index
to other Saskatoon Police stories
| More unsatisfactory inquests: Naistus
| Wegner | Neil
Stonechild results not yet in | inquests into Bigsky
and McMillan have been called for
spring, 2002
Updates
on the $10M+ lawsuit filed by falsely indicted in the Foster
Parent case
Don Smith: conspiracy
to ruin him on porn charges | Ivan
Cohen |
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
