From The Recovered Memory Project
41 Corroborated Cases of Recovered Memory from Legal Proceedings
Cases 21-30
21. Alley v. Alley (King County Superior Court, 1994). Plaintiff successfully sued her father, William Alley, for sexual assault in her childhood. "No one in the Alley's family testified on the father's behalf...[The plaintiff's attorneys] used psychiatric records filed during Williams Alley's 1970s divorce to support the family's claim of incest and abuse." Richard Seven, "It Wasn't the Money, It Was Principle; Jury says Father Raped Daughter," Seattle Times, June 14, 1994: B1). "In addition, an unexpected witness for the plaintiff came forward during the last week of the trial, after having read about the case in the paper, to offer testimony that when she was 12 and Julie Alley was 6, Ms. Alley told her that, "My daddy touched me," and pointed to her vagina." ("Dentist Found Liable in Recovered Memory Case," PR Newswire, June 13, 1994. )
22. People v. Lynch. California criminal charges against William Lynch. "Charged with 14 counts of lewd conduct with a child stemming from alleged attacks on four women when they were between 7 and 13 years old from March 1967, to July, 1972." One of the women repressed the memory, the others remembered the abuse ever since. (Julie Tamaki, "Abuse Case to Challenge New Law on Limitations," Los Angeles Times, May 15, 1994: B1).
23. Chris White, whose repressed memories of sexual abuse at Ryerson Public School 20 years ago, resulted in a guilty plea by Robert Warren. "Now in his mid-50s and living in British Columbia, Warren had been with the Toronto Board of Education for 23 years and had two other convictions for sexual offenses against children. One dated back to 1965 in Lindsay; the other was in British Columbia in 1988." (Judy Steed, "Abuse Victim..." The Toronto Star, May 7, 1995: A1).
24. Cheit v. San Francisco Boys Chorus and William Farmer (San Francisco Superior Court: civil settlement with SFBC, default judgment against Farmer, 1994)(Plumas County Criminal Court: warrant and criminal arrest, 1994). Corroborated by other victims and by tape-recorded admission. See, Mike Stanton, "Bearing Witness" [three-part series] Providence Journal-Bulletin, May 7-9, 1995; see also, Miriam Horn, "Unlocking Hidden Memories, " U.S. News & World Report, November 29, 1993; "Update: Recalling the past, embracing the future," August 4, 1997.
25. State v. Quattrocchi (Rhode Island Superior Court jury verdict; RI Supreme Court No. 95-343-C.A.). The first criminal case in Rhode Island involving recovered memory. The state presented evidence from two other girls who reported sexual assaults by Quattrocchi: one was his own goddaughter, who the defendant cornered naked in a shower when she was seven-years old (in 1977). She told her parents about it when she was a sophomore in college. The other incident occurred four years later (in 1981) and resulted in a contemporaneous report to the police. The events at issue in this criminal case cover the same years as those incidents. [In Catch-22 reasoning, the Rhode Island Supreme court subsequently ruled that such evidence was "too prejudicial" and the defendant would have to be retried without such evidence. Without such evidence, many states considered this kind of testimony too unreliable - in absence of the kind of corroboration that the Rhode Island court now prohibits.]
26. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Crawford. (Guilty verdict in murder case, 1995). "Franklin Crawford, 49, of Dayton was charged in May 1994 with the murder of Pearl Mae Altman after another man said that seeing a woman who resembled the victim brought forth repressed memories of witnessing Crawford throwing the woman off a bridge. "John Reed cried as he testified Thursday that he was 16 on Oct. 22, 1971, when he saw Crawford throw Pearl Mae Altman into the Allegheny River." "Man Guilty in 1971 Slaying After Witness Recalls the Drowning," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 19, 1995: D15.) A woman's purse and shoes were found 23 years ago near the spot where he said Altman was thrown in the river. Crawford also happened to have been the prime suspect at the time. Crawford's then-wife testified "that her husband came home that night, removed his clothes, and put them in the washer. She said it was the only time in their marriage he put clothes in the washer. She said he got dressed again and, before leaving, told her to tell anyone looking for him that she hadn't seen him." Lawrence Walsh, "Murder Memory Misjudged by Judge," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 11, 1996: B6. [This case was reversed on the ground that the judge did not allow testimony of a psychiatrist who would have testified about the "unreliability" of recovered memory, the corroborative ase notwithstanding. The case is still pending.]
27. Thomas v. Freeman (Lee County, North Carolina, unanimous jury verdict, June 22, 1995; Case No. 93 CVS 831; upheld by North Carolina Court of Appeals, November 19, 1996; No. COA96-226). Unanimous jury verdict for Shirley Thomas against her father, Velton Freeman, "for decades' old, once-repressed memories of horrific physical and sexual abuse...Witnesses corroborated Thomas' claims with their own memories of Freeman hitting, bruising and cursing Thomas; of him carrying her out of her bedroom at night and her returning later in tears; of Thomas being terrified of his wrath; and of Thomas' mother leaving marriage and the household in 1962 or '63, long before her mother and sister claimed it occurred in 1966." (See five-part series by Jill Warren Lucas, beginning with "Jury Awards $600,000 in abuse case," Sanford Herald, June 13, 1995.)
28. D.M.M, a 39-year old Canadian actress. "Remembered repeated abuse by her family doctor when she joined Alcoholics Anonymous after years of heavy drinking...[In March, 1996] a provincial justice ordered Leo Pilo, M.D. to pay her $95,000 -- despite the testimony of FMSF advisory board member and psychiatrist Harold Merskey, who suggested that D.M.M. was probably suffering from ""false memories."" D.M.M.s accusations were supported by four other women who said Pilo had sexually abused them in childhood. Pilo's medical license had been previously revoked in a separate proceeding in which he admitted the women's charges." (Katy Butler, "The Latest on Recovered Memory," Family Therapy Networker, Nov/Dec 1996: 36, 37). Criticism by affiliates of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. Full-text of the relevant legal documents in response.
29. Wilson v. Phillips (California jury verdict, 1996). LaDonna Wilson and her half-sister (who does not want to be identified) sued John Phillips for sexual molestations when each daughter was about 5 years old. A jury awarded $1.15 million in compensatory damages. "During the trial, Wilson, her sister and mother testified about a time when Wilson's bed came crashing down on a box of kittens. When the others came into the bedroom, Phillips was there naked." (David Reyes, "2 Daughters Win $1.15 Million in Sex Abuse Case," Los Angeles Times, March 30, 1996: 1b).
30. Franklin v. Stevenson (Utah jury verdict, 1996). Cherise Franklin's memories of sexual abuse by Kenton Stevenson. As documented at trial, Franklin was in and out of therapy; her flashbacks were not recovered during therapy session. "After recording her [recovered] memories in a dated journal, Franklin hired a private detective, found Stevenson's former wife and learned that Stevenson had been found to have abused his own children as well. At trial [in August 1996] in Salt Lake City, Stevenson's 16-year-old daughter, Rayne Burtchin, testified that her father had sexually abused her. A stepdaughter testified that he had mutilated animals in front of her. The accounts were supported by a 1986 Family court divorce and custody ruling, finding that Stevenson had sexually abused his son and two daughters and had raped one with a coat hanger." (Katy Butler, "The Latest on Recovered Memory," Family Therapy Networker, Nov/Dec 1996: 36, 37). The Findings of Fact established that Stevenson abused all three of his children in the other marriage. In a highly unusual move, the judge entered a judgment not withstanding the verdict, in favor of the defendant. The case is on appeal. Note: Question No. 2 in the Special Verdict form asked "Did Cherise Franklin produce corroborating evidence in support of the allegations of abuse against Kenton Stevenson? The jury responded: Yes.