Below in Bob Kelly's trial Mark Everson  briefly discusses what is
almost certainly the Smithfield SRA case.:

Note how (1) Everson thought of SRA before it was mentioned, (2) Everson
admits to some period of questioning with success, and (3) how Everson
describes the demeanor of the child (how many children's eyes light up
when they describe being tortured?). Note that this is unlikely a very
accurate or complete picture of Everson's actual session with the child.

 7   MARK DOUGLAS EVERSON, called as a witness, being first duly
 8   sworn, was examined and testified as follows during
...
20   And let me give you an example of this in a case I saw
21   several earlier years ago.  This was another day care case,
22   um --
23                MR. MILLER:  Objection.
24                THE COURT:  Overruled.
25                Go ahead.

.P-P-X
                                                               20335
 1   A      Um, another day care case in which, um, the children
 2   talked about lighted candles, um, as part of the abuse.
 3   And --
 4                MR. MILLER:  Motion to strike.
 5                THE COURT:  Denied.
 6   A      And, um, as an interviewer when I hear lighted
 7   candles I -- I wonder about some kind of devil worship or
 8   satanic ritual or that kind of thing.  And I wanted to find
 9   out from this particular child whether that was an element
10   of what he was reporting.  Um, and I asked him things like,
11   "Well, what did the person say?  What happened with the
12   candles?"  Um, but I couldn't get a very clear picture of
13   what he was trying to say, how the candles fit in, and what
14   else was happening.
15          And I had already known -- knew from interviewing
16   this child that he was not the kind of child who if I said,
17   did this happen, did this happen, did this happen, he'd say
18   yes to everything.  And there are some kids if you ask them
19   a yes-no question they will always say yes.  And you know
20   not to ask a yes-no question because you'll get some wrong
21   information.
22          I had a sense of this kid, that he was bright, he was
23   articulate, and he wasn't that kind of a kid.  So I made the
24   decision to escalate the interview and ask a direct question
25   about satan kind of things.  Um, and knowing that the

                                                               20336
 1   defense might accuse me of putting ideas in the child's
 2   head, but I -- I had a way of safeguarding against that.
 3   What I said to the kid was -- after trying other things that
 4   didn't work, I said, "Did the man ever mention God or the
 5   devil?"  And that was my direct question.  Some people would
 6   say it's a suggestive question.
 7          The boy's eyes lit up, and he said, "Yes."  And I
 8   could tell I was hitting on something important to him that
 9   my question triggered in his mind.  And he said yes, and he
10   went on to tell me how the man had told him that the devil
11   wanted him to hurt children, that he hated God, that he
12   loved the devil.  Um, the boy went on to talk about burning
13   a Bible.  The boy went on to talk about the man giving him a
14   pill, a drug, that he said would make the boy feel like
15   Jesus.  But I asked the boy, "How did you feel when you took
16   it?"  And he said, "It was awful."
17          And the point I am making is that I chose to escalate
18   to a direct, maybe leading question, because I put the idea
19   of God and the devil in his head, but my safeguard was what
20   he'd give me after that.  If he only said yes and wouldn't
21   tell me anything more, then I would say, well, maybe I just
22   put it in his.  But he was able to give me a very clear
23   statement and adding a lot of elements that I never
24   mentioned to him in a package that hangs together:  the
25   devil wants me to do this, the devil hates children, if you

                                                               20337
 1   take this pill you'll feel like Jesus, um, burning the
 2   Bible; it all fits together.
 3          So that's kind of a safeguard that an interviewer has
 4   in interviewing children, in terms of asking a direct
 5   question that somebody might say was a leading question.
 6   Um, you look for what it gives you, and whether it gives you
 7   emotion on the child's part and information on the child's
 8   part that goes way beyond what you said in the question and
 9   it fits together in some way.
10   BY MR. HART:
11   Q      Um, you also made mention that you have made
12   observation in addition your clinical work, ah, regarding
13   suggestibility of children that -- that countered somewhat a
14   good part of the literature.  What kind of observations have
15   you made in your own experience in your clinical work to
16   cause you to feel that some of the literature is overstated
17   as to the effect of suggestibility?
....
Jonathan G. Harris  Associate Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering,  MIT Rm 66-450
25 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
jgharris@worldnet.att.net (617)253-5273  Fax 252-1651