Copyright 1993 The Washington Post
Sunday July 18, 1993, Page Y7

"FRONTLINE"; Little Rascals: Was Justice Really Served?
By Patricia Brennan, Washington Post Staff Writer

If Robert Fulton Kelly Jr. did what the tots at his day-care center said he
did, plenty of people would agree that he deserves the 12 consecutive life
terms he's serving under North Carolina law. The jury deciding his 1991 case
unanimously concluded that he was guilty on 99 of 100 counts of child sexual
abuse.

But when documentary producer Ofra Bikel talked to five of his jurors,
exhausted after eight months of testimony and 14 days of deliberation, three of
them said they still think he is innocent.

A two-part, four-hour "Frontline" report (Tuesday and Wednesday at 9 on PBS)
raises questions about the jury trials of Kelly, who owned the Little Rascals
day-care center in Edenton, N.C., and of Kathryn Dawn Wilson, 26, the center's
cook. Five other persons await trial in one of the country's largest
child -molestation cases and the largest and most costly criminal case in North
Carolina history.

Bikel was thoroughly familiar with the Little Rascals case before Kelly, 44,
went to trial, having examined its tangled roots in "Innocence Lost." Her
"Frontline" documentary aired in May 1991 and won both an Emmy and an Alfred I.
duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton.

When the first film aired, implying that hysteria had triggered the Little
Rascals case, some Edentonians were angry. They may be equally upset with the
sequel, "Innocence Lost: The Verdict."

The story caps Bikel's three-year-long work on the case, frought with charges
and countercharges among people who had known one another for years. In it,
she covers the trials (Kelly's, from August 1991 to April 1992; Wilson's in
November 1992) and talks to the defendants, their relatives, parents of
children who testified and who didn't, experts in child sexual abuse, and
surprisingly candid jurors -- five in Kelly's case, two in Wilson's.

Bikel said the verdicts "appalled" her. "There is nothing to make me believe
that they could have done that. Could he have done it? I guess. Do I think so?
No. Do I think Dawn did it? Never."

The case against Kelly rested heavily on the testimony of 12 children who
were 2 and 3 years old when the abuses were said to have occurred, 5 and 6 when
they took the stand. Because Bikel was not allowed to film their testimony nor
their parents', adult actors voice their words. The four female therapists who
elicited information from the children did not testify in either trial. Their
reports, highly criticized by more than one expert, became part of the written
testimony and became a key element especially in the Wilson trial.

The most unsettling aspect of Bikel's picture are the remarks of the jurors
after they had voted unanimously to convict Kelly. Three told Bikel that they
believed he was not guilty, but they convicted him anyway. One juror said he
had been sexually abused as a child, after saying during jury selection that
he hadn't. Another said that a Redbook magazine article about pedophilia was
consulted by the jurors when they tried to evaluate Kelly's personality,
violating the judge's proscription against consulting outside sources. One man
said that even though the judge had told the jury, in Farmville, not to go to
Edenton, 60 miles away, he went to the town at least twice. Two jurors who
said they initially believed Kelly not guilty were so concerned about their
own health that they voted to convict him rather than continue deliberations.
Not permitted to take notes during the long trial, several said they became
confused during jury discussions later.

Are Bikel's findings are enough to reopen the cases? "I don't know," she
said. "It's very rare that what happened in the jury room is cause for
reversal. And it's very rare that jurors would say things like that on national
television."

The Wednesday night portion of the documentary focuses on Dawn Wilson, a
single mother of a 19-month-old child when she was arrested at age 23. As the
film unreels, Wilson is faced with the prosecution's offer of a plea bargain:
If she pleads guilty to the charges, she may escape further jail time, but she
would be forever ruled a child sex abuser and potentially could lose custody
of her daughter; if she claims innocence, she faces a jury trial and risks a
life sentence.

While Bikel's documentary is impressive, it does not include certain facts,
reported at the time, that the jury may have found pertinent:

  = Kelly's ex-wife testified she found child pornography addressed to him in
    a post office box, and that he was physically and sexually violent toward
    her in their nine-year marriage. Kelly himself testified at his trial that
    he likes adult pornography, but not materials related to children.

  = Wilson testified that she had a drug habit for two years before her
    daughter was conceived and before she began working at the day-care center.
    "That has nothing to do with this case," said Bikel.

Bikel's documentary implies that the Little Rascals case may have begun with
a falling out between friends Betsy Kelly and Jane Mabry when Mabry's son
Joel, then 4, told his mother Bob Kelly had slapped him. Another mother,
Audrey Stever, was concerned when her 3-year-old son told that Bob Kelly
"played doctor" with the children in his care. Stever reported his remarks to
the police, who told her to consult with the local social services department.
That agency began an investigation.

Of the 90 Edenton children who were sent for treatment, most were seen by
the four therapists. But their methods drew criticism. One mother told Bikel
that what was supposed to be therapy for her son was instead an investigation.
A child psychiatrist who examined their written materials agrees: "They all
were involved in securing allegations. I found that very little to nothing was
done in the way of treatment ... In fact, I think a lot was done to undermine
their mental health."

At the trial, the children's parents said they exhibited abnormal behavior,
such as fear of going into bathrooms, masturbating in front of adults and
night terrors. Medical evidence presented in court was contradictory. Without
any physical or material evidence of abuse, without adult eyewitnesses, without
original interview tapes or notes (destroyed by the interviewing police
officer), and without the therapists' appearances in court, the case rested on
the 12 children who took the stand.

They told stories of rape and sodomy; of knives, scissors, toys and pencils
being inserted in their vaginas and rectums; of being forced to have oral and
anal sex with each other and to watch while the adults had sex; of being forced
to perform oral sex and urinate and defecate on each other, and of doing these
things while being photographed. One girl said she was given pills that made
her sleepy. Others said the adults threatened to kill their parents if they
told what was happening.

In addition, the children told of day-care employees killing animals and
babies, of being taken into space ships and hot air balloons and boats and
being thrown overboard to sharks. They said they were dangled over alligator-
infested waters, and placed in a bag and hung in a refrigerator. One 2-year-old
said he leapt into the shark-filled water to save another child. They spoke of
devil worship.

The jury believed the children. Judge D. Marsh McLelland sentenced Kelly to
12 consecutive life terms, one for each of the children who testified he had
abused them.

Kelly still says he is not guilty and is the victim of hysteria based on
rumors and fueled by jealousy and spite.

Wilson, sentenced to life, will come up for parole in 20 years. "After Dawn
was convicted, we went to see her in jail," said Bikel. "I will never forget
this as long as I live, the sight of this little face behind the bars. She
was so pale she was translucent. They kept feeding her tranquilizers."

Bikel called the prosecutors in Dawn Wilson's case "malicious. I cut out a
lot of what the prosecutors said about her. They're very smart, but they are
so dangerous. The job of the prosecutor is to get justice, but they just
wanted to win the case."

Bikel said she "tried to be objective" as she made the documentaries, but
said she would not be unhappy if the cases were reopened as a result of her
film.

"I really would like to make a dent sometime," she said. "That's not the way
to try those cases."

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