Review: Witch Hunt (2008)

[Steve Rhodes]

WITCH HUNT
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  ****

WITCH HUNT is the sort of documentary that can reduce a grown man to tears. 
I know because it certainly had that effect on me.  By directors Don Hardy 
Jr. and Dana Nachman, it tells a chilling and cautionary true story that 
will have you thinking "there but for the grace of God go I."  Any innocent 
person's liberty is at stake when rogue prosecutors are allowed to go 
unchecked.

Over the span of a just a couple of years in the mid-1980s in Bakersfield, 
California, child molestations and satanic killings started spreading like 
wildfire out of nowhere, or so the District Attorney, who still is in office 
today, would have us believe.  Three dozen people, including many married 
couples, were incarcerated in some of California's worst prisons, after 
being convicted on a wide range of sexual offenses.  And dozens and dozens 
more were arrested but not tried or had their kids taken away while the 
charges against them were investigated.

Their offenses, for which many of them were sentenced to terms of over two 
hundred years each, including having sex with their kids while hanging them 
from hooks, trading the kids among the adults in the neighborhood, swapping 
their kids at motels and, in the most extreme series of accusations, of 
killing kids in satanic rituals and burying them in the backyard.

All of the adults, many of whom knew each other, protested their complete 
innocence, rejecting any deals for settlement since it would require them to 
confess to something they didn't do.

The documentary, using excellent archival footage and interviews, amply and 
convincingly demonstrates exactly how this travesty of justice took place.

After serving anywhere from 12 to 20 years in prison, the accused were 
finally able to prove their innocent and get their original convictions 
completely overturned.

The prosecution based their original cases solely on the testimony of the 
kids, not on any records or medical exams.  These kids, now grown and 
severely and permanently scarred by what the prosecution did to them, told 
what really happened.  They said they were grilled for hours on end with the 
prosecution refusing their claims that nothing happened.  The investigators 
screamed at them, ridiculed them, and said that all of the other kids 
already said that the molestation had happened.  Finally, exhausted, they 
simply agreed to say "yes," when prompted with detailed descriptions of 
various horrible acts.

The kids were told that if they would just agree, then no would get hurt or 
go to jail and that they could finally go home.  Once at trial, the cycle 
repeated itself, with the kids saying nothing happened while on the stand 
initially, but, once the prosecution asked for a break and coached the kids 
more, the kids said what the prosecution wanted.

The accused were told that if they took lie detector tests and passed, they 
would be released and not held for trial.  Many of them did this, all passed 
and none were released.

The defense lawyers asked the judge to order a medical examination of the 
kids to prove that no molestation had taken place.  The prosecution 
successfully fought against it, claiming it would traumatize the kids to do 
so.  On the later appeals, in a box never turned over to the defense was 
proof that the kids were given medical exams, but, since the exams clearly 
stated that no molestation occurred, the exams' existence was hidden from 
the defense.  Similarly, taped records of the bogus interviews of the kids 
were also made but not released to the defense.

A couple of dozen of these people were at our screening and told their 
stories afterwards.  The grown kids who were there said that they haven't 
been able to hold or bathe their own kids out of fear that something like 
this will happened to them.  They were still traumatized.  Other grown kids 
who weren't at our screening have turned to drugs or attempted suicide, 
since their lives were so wrecked.

Of the 36 people falsely convinced, all were freed after 12 to 20 years, 
except for 2 who died in prison while waiting for the wheels of justice to 
slowly grind away.  Even when the accused got their new trials, it took a 
long time.  In John Stoll's case, even though the evidence to overturn his 
conviction was overwhelming, the prosecutor dragged out the rehearing for 
five long months.  The prosecution's mantra in the original conviction was 
"children don't lie about stuff like this."   And, even today, the law 
enforcement officials are unwilling to admit gross miscarriages of justice 
were made.  The new country sheriff there writes off the problems -- adding 
parenthetically, "if there were any" -- claiming that they stemmed solely 
from the lack of proper training.

So, if you get hauled away in the middle of the night or if your children 
get put in a foster home for a few years while they investigate charges 
against you, I guess you're just supposed to give the justice system a 
break, because it might just be a case of poor training.

I got to talk afterwards with some these poor souls who suffered these 
horrible injustices.  Nice, salt-of-the-earth people to a person -- they are 
exactly the kind of people you would be happy to have baby-sit your kids and 
would love to have as next-door neighbors.

What a huge travesty!

WITCH HUNT runs a riveting, edge-of-your-seat 1:31.

The film is being shown as part of San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival 
(www.Cinequest.org), which runs February 25 - March 8, 2009.

Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email: Steve.Rhodes at InternetReviews.com

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