Man is granted new trial in 1985 molestation case By Shawntaye Hopkins, Globe Correspondent | June 22, 2006
After more than two decades in prison, a Berkshire County man convicted in 1985 of molesting five children at a Pittsfield day- care center will receive a new trial.
Bernard Baran Jr. of Lanesborough was one of the first convicted in a wave of prosecutions of day-care workers for sexual abuse in the 1980s. Many of those prosecutions were later discredited.
Baran, who has long maintained his innocence, had requested a new trial, contending that his defense was incompetent and that videotapes of children testifying at the trial had been edited to remove portions that might have helped his case.
``It's very clear that this kid's innocent," one of his lawyers, Harvey Silverglate, said yesterday. ``And he's spent a better part of his life in prison for a crime he didn't commit."
In January 1985, a Berkshire County Superior Court jury found Baran, then 19, guilty on five counts of indecent assault and battery and three counts of rape. He was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences.
Baran had worked as a teacher's aide at the Early Childhood Development Center in Pittsfield, which closed that year after lawsuits were brought in the Baran case, said one of his defense lawyers, John G. Swomley .
Superior Court Justice Francis R. Fecteau granted Baran the new trial in a decision entered into the court Friday. In his 80-page decision, Fecteau wrote that the failings of counsel in the case were ``so grave, so fundamental" that the outcome of the trial cannot be relied upon as just.
Berkshire District Attorney David Capeless said he would appeal the decision.
Silverglate said uncut videotapes of the children's testimonies that were shown to a grand jury in 1985 had been lost but were found recently. Those tapes were pivotal in filing a motion last year for a new trial, he said.
Swomley said some of the children suggested on tape that nothing happened but were later persuaded to say otherwise.
But Capeless said the children had been convincing to the jury. ``What's been forgotten here is that five young children came into the intimidating atmosphere of the courtroom, testified . . . and the jury believed them," Capeless said.
The purpose of the tapes, Capeless said, was to record what the children had said, and they were not investigative interviews.
Swomley said he visited Baran at the Massachusetts Treatment Center for sexually dangerous persons in Bridgewater on Tuesday, after learning of the ruling.
``I yelled, `We won,' and he ran over to give me a bear hug and then he started weeping," Swomley said.
Baran wanted to know whether his mother had the news, and he asked when he would be free, Swomley said.
In a telephone interview with the Globe last June, Baran said: ``All I've wanted is for the truth to come out. . . . And I've found out that sometimes that's not what the system is about."
Maggie Bruck , a psychiatry professor at Johns Hopkins University, said yesterday that people are more aware today than they were 20 years ago of the problems that can arise when interviewing children. Bruck, coauthor of ``Jeopardy in the Courtroom: A Scientific Analysis of Children's Testimony," testified in the court hearings when the motion was filed last year. Children might forget details, be embarrassed, or not know the right words to describe situations, she said, and some interviewers push them more than they would adults.
Capeless acknowledged that there is more awareness about potential problems in interviewing children now, but maintained that the trial was fair.
Baran is scheduled to appear in Worcester Superior Court today to seek his release. Stephen Philion Assistant Professor Department of Sociology and Anthropology St. Cloud State University St. Cloud, MN
http://stephenphilion.efoliomn2.com/