Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/the-child-abuse-storm-scale/5012676/
"There is a war going on and it has to be fought with non-traditional means," said Paul Der Ohannesian, assistant district attorney, Albany County, New York, in his recent training for prosecutors of child abuse.That is a frightening statement because some prosecutors act like there really is a war, that the accused is the enemy and presumed abusive. "I am sick to death of things like presumption of innocence." (Kathleen Morris, former district attorney, when questioned about her prosecution of a child abuse case in Jordan, Minnesota, Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 21, 1984)
With such prosecutorial zeal, it isn't surprising that numerous state supreme courts have rendered opinions in child abuse cases like the one reached in Massachusetts in June of 1998.
"Weak evidence, in combination . . . [with] constitutional errors, cast very serious doubt on the results of this trial. On the whole, I am left with the utmost conviction that all these errors and issues have resulted in a substantial miscarriage of justice." (Justice of Massachusetts Supreme Court Honorable Issac Borenstein, June 1998, in his opinion concerning the Cheryl Amirault LeFave case)
What is surprising is that despite the rebukes of superior court judges, the prosecutorial techniques used to gain ...