Beware alcoholic DAs. They are capable of horrifying false accusations. The case of Bernard Baran, accused of daycare sex abuse and, 20 years later, exonerated.
Retrospective find of the month:
Numerous clues revealing likely addiction are disclosed in How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics. Clue # 16, “Has ever knowingly made a false accusation” in the chapter, “A Supreme Being Complex,” describes how false accusations, an especially vile subcategory of lying, are often made by addicts. Turning facts and reason on their head, addicts “play an instigating and continuing role in most crowd psychology,” turning crowds into mobs, which can result in riots and witch-hunts*. These include the spate of daycare sex abuse “witch-hunts” of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.
While the hysteria had largely died down by the time I began researching addiction, I thought it would make a fascinating study and add to the massive amount of evidence that alcoholics have a disproportionate impact on history. I hypothesized that such witch-hunts require several addicts: the original accuser(s), at least one prosecutor and at least one therapist who talks children into making the accusations. The odds of a witch-hunt resulting in a grotesque miscarriage of justice increase when the judge, police who are directly involved and defense attorneys are also alcoholics.
Bernard Baran was the first person convicted in the wave of hysteria comprising the daycare sex-abuse and satanic-ritual abuse trials in the mid- to late-‘80s. Baran, an openly gay man, began working at an Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, as a teacher’s aide in 1983. In September, 1984, the parents of a boy who had recently been placed at the Center by social workers told the Center they “didn’t want no homo” near their son and insisted that Baran be fired.
When the board of directors of the ECDC refused to fire Baran, by all reports an exemplary worker, the parents—who were known drug addicts and police informants—removed their child from the Center. A few days later the parents called their connection at the local police department drug control unit and alleged that Baran had molested their son at the Center that day—when they had removed the child three days earlier. Police began an investigation and, incredibly, not only validated the claim of sexual abuse, but also charged Baran with multiple counts of rape and indecent assault against several other (no doubt coached) children. Three months later, Baran was on trial. In violation of Baran’s 6th Amendment right to a public trial, the proceedings were convened in closed court; he was positioned so couldn’t even hear the children’s testimony. One week after the mockery of a trial began, he was convicted and given three life sentences.
After more than 20 years in prison, his conviction was finally set aside and, in 2006, Baran was released. In 2009, the Massachusetts Appeals Court vacated the convictions, deeming the case “notorious” and stating the behavior of the original prosecutor was “troubling” (a gross understatement). In 2010, Baran’s lawyers reached a (pathetically stingy) $400,000 settlement with the state, which still denies liability and refuses to expunge Baran’s record. (The documentary film Freeing Bernie Baran, covers the entire 25 years of this horrific case.)
The original accusers were known addicts. The complicit police were likely alcoholics. The assistant District Attorney, who used the case to advance his career and is now a judge, was probably alcoholic, as was the original judge on the case. This miscarriage of justice was made possible by a perfect storm that placed alcohol and other-drug addicts in positions of power, in just the right place at the right time. Bernard Baran is one of the most tragic victims ever of such a storm.
* As explained in Drunks, Drugs & Debits, when such accusations “stick” it’s because addicts frequently tell much more convincing lies than the sober among us tell truths.