There was nationwide shock at the torture and murder of Matthew Shephard outside Laramie WY 7 Oct 1998. The motive, at least in part, was a "gay-bashing." In Massachusetts, various self-identified "liberals" smugly congratulated themselves on local superiority to the homophobic "Bible Belt," even though Wyoming prosecuted the murderers vigorously and effectively. Yet Massachusetts has an even more sinister case than Shephard's: the frameup of Bernard Baran. It is bad enough when private criminals vent their bigotry, but even worse when the criminals enjoy government support.

Update 2006/0620 Judge Francis R. Fecteau vacated Bernard Baran's 1985 conviction, on grounds his "ineffective" lawyer failed to contest the manifest unfairness of the 1985 trial. 2006/0630 Bernard Baran released on bail. Berkshire MA DA David F. Capeless annonounced he would appeal to reinstate the conviction. Despite the MA Supreme Judicial Court's appalling reinstatement (1997) of the Amirault conviction in the name of "finality," however, there is hope that Judge Fecteau's decision will be allowed to stand: Bernard Baran had not been able to afford a serious appeal in the 1980s, meaning the appearance of his arguments for the first time in appeals courts does not raise the question of "finality." For more, check websites http://www.freebaran.org/. http://www.harveysilverglate.com/Baran.html

letter printed in the "Wall Street Journal," Wed 12 Jan 2000

(The letter was written in response to a column by Dorothy Rabinowitz, Wed 29 Dec 1999, lauding the rollback of convictions in the Wenatchee WA witch-hunt [even more destructive than Fells Acres]. Rabinowitz, long an eloquent defender of the Amiraults, noted the unique perversity of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court [SJC] and political authorities in the "high-profile" Fells Acres case.)

Letter copyright © 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted here by permission of author.

Ms. Rabinowitz stated that of all the "high-profile" cases, only Gerald Amirault, who is in his 14th year in prison, seems out of reach of the workings of justice. But there are also other, heart-breaking "low-profile" cases. One of them is Bernard Baran, who was convicted of child molestation on Jan. 30, 1985, and sentenced to two concurrent life sentences. At the time of his arrest, Baran was 19 years old. Now in his mid-30s, he is at the Bridgewater treatment center.

The first complaint against Baran was from the drug-addicted boyfriend of a mother of a young boy with severe behavior problems; the boyfriend stated that Baran should not be allowed to work at the early-childhood development center in Pittsfield, Mass., because he was a homosexual. Soon after, the child was removed from the center and the following day there were accusations of molestation. When police went to the day-care center they were informed that it was the center's policy never to leave an adult alone with children; there were always several adults present and the doors to the adjoining bathrooms were always left open.

Later, there was a meeting of parents, when police and social workers provided a list of symptoms that were supposed to indicate sex abuse; children were questioned by therapists using anatomically correct dolls. All this was similar to the Amirault case. A trial soon followed, and the children, who did not face Baran, made terrible witnesses; nevertheless, Baran went to jail for life with little hope of parole.

During a 1995 civil trial in which the mother of the child with behavior problems claimed $3.2 million against the day-care center (ending in a small out-of-court settlement after the credibility of both mother and child was demolished by the lawyers for the insurance company), another investigation all but exonerated Baran. Despite all of this he still sits in jail, where he has been sexually and emotionally abused, and ignored by the media and the justice system.

J.M.Hacquebord

Katha Pollitt's article in "The Nation," 21 Feb 2000.
http://www.thenation.com/issue/000221/0221pollitt.shtml

Bob Chatelle's extensive file on the Bernard Baran case

My visit to Bernard Baran, Mar 2001.