Teedie, it's being reported that charges were dropped due to the statute of limitations. The allegations were made by 2 sisters, and a third sister stated she had known about the abuse for years and believed her sisters. However, one of the alleged victims did not want to be involved.
The answer to your second question is yes. Two of the three have been overturned because, basically, the defense was prohibited from putting on a defense. They think Mayo's case will be overturned too. Her lawyer did not complain about the right things in her appeal.
I've been doing some research on Judge Skeen. This one corrupt man. Seems when he was a DA, he prosecuted the famous case of German born
Kerry Max Cook, an innocent man who spent 22 years on Death Row. You can read the story in Cook's own words
here.
This misconduct included, but was not limited to, Mr. Jack Skeen hiding exculpatory evidence that was Sgt. Doug Collard’s secret admission before a finger-print licensing board he deliberately committed perjury when he aged the fingerprints found on the victim’s sliding patio door to coincide with the time of the murder thereby making them the murderer’s prints and specifically excluding any notion that they could be casual prints left days earlier. Sgt. Doug Collard stated he did in fact commit perjury, but he did so only at the behest of the District Attorney, Mr. A.D. Clark III. Mr. Skeen kept this document hidden from attorneys fighting for my life on the eve of my execution date, all the while arguing in legal Briefs before the United States Supreme Court that my fingerprints were six to twelve hours old, an expert said, placing me at the scene of the murder.
My "No Contest" plea to finally gain my freedom was based on my profound distrust of Mr. Skeen’s Administration to do the right thing and not engage in more misconduct to gain a third wrongful conviction; that they would once again lie, cheat and distort and/or hide the truth of my innocence from a jury.
.......
When the Crime Lab’s results finally came back two months after my No-Contest plea and the semen belonged to none other than James Mayfield - the original suspect as the victim’s married ex-lover — the District Attorney’s office simply removed the egg from their face and threw it my way, hoping it would stick and that the public wouldn’t remember that through two retrials they sponsored the testimony of James Mayfield that he was like a father figure to Ms. Edwards and therefore had absolutely no motive in this rape and murder.
Interesting. I first learned about this case from the blog,
Grits For Breakfast. Seems a lot of people are concerned about what's going on in Smith County.
You know, the ends never justify the means. If you think a man is guilty, you give him a fair trial all the same. Do things the right way. You don't twist and lie and cover-up facts that are harmful to your side. That's playing dirty, and that's how innocent people are locked up.
IMO, people's reactions to this case are largely emotional. They're not based in logic and reason. Also, most everyone has some experience with child sex abuse (some of us more than others, like Missizzy), so this hits home for a lot of us. If our children speak up, if we speak up about something, we want to be believed, we need to be believed. Here we have children who all at first denied these allegations, a foster mom (who had just lost her certification in CA and fled to TX) who is known for being controlling, angry and manipulative (and also apparently known for accusing football coaches, etc of abuse in the past) who wouldn't take no for an answer and zero corroborating or physical evidence. There is no exhibit A.
Also, some of these children have told stories that are physically impossible (FLYING) and claim that there were dogs shot and hung in front of the building, women choked in front of churchgoers - there would HAVE to have been ONE witness. Combine that with one of them already recanting their story, and this looks real bad.
I believe in so little in this world, but I actually do believe in truth and justice. That is where my faith lies. Truth has a strange, sometimes unexplainable way of becoming known. It will come out. It has to.
I know some of these people are probably "sorry" people (I don't know about Booger or the MIL though, they seem alright so far), but if they aren't guilty of the charges, they're not guilty of the charges.
I've also been researching other cases of child sex abuse hysteria, Missizzy. (I'm a bit slower than you, I think!) But atleast 1 child in the McMartin preschool case did recant in 2005. She says...
Never did anyone do anything to me, and I never saw them doing anything. I said a lot of things that didn't happen. I lied. ... Anytime I would give them an answer that they didn't like, they would ask again and encourage me to give them the answer they were looking for. ... I felt uncomfortable and a little ashamed that I was being dishonest. But at the same time, being the type of person I was, whatever my parents wanted me to do, I would do
The only other case I've had time to read about, and is probably THE WORST, most heartbreaking child abuse scandal in history. Is the
Wenatchee Sex Ring. Evil, really! Supposedly, it all started when Det Perez' 15 year old foster daughter told him she had been raped or molested by almost every adult she knew, and the same molestation had occurred to almost every other child she knew. Soon after, the pair around town with 2 CPS workers and she pointed out houses where it had taken place, even a pizza delivery man she spotted had raped her. Forty-three adults were arrested on 29,726 charges of child sex abuse, involving 60 children. If you read about this, be prepared to get angry. There are even claims that Perez broke a child's arm questioning them. They were called liars and told that if they didn't tell him what they wanted to hear, that their siblings would be separated in foster homes, etc. He even did this to the parents, coercing them into CONFESSIONS! Of course, he lied, because their children were taken away all the same. A local preacher criticized the arrests, and was promptly arrested and charged. Perez claimed ALL female children were examined and showed signs of penetration, and 75% of the males. One child said he or she knew for a fact they'd been molested because Perez had told them details about their mother's confession... a confession she had not made... YET. To say he screwed up lives in an understatement. And what was the motive? Were his intentions good somewhere deep inside? Makes me wonder.
I had heard of the daycare hysteria of the 1980's because I grew up in the 80's with a paranoid mother whose fears were realized in february 1987, when a child she had raised was actually killed by a (who might as well have been a devil worshipper). But part of me now feels like, in a way, I've been blind. This is scary indeed. If I'm ever called to serve on a jury, I promise I will be using logic and reason, no matter what. I know our justice system is flawed, but I think we have the right rules in place, if we can just all -- from judge to DA to jury -- follow them.
