Woman freed after spending 20 years in prison for satanic ritual child abuse as evidence ruled to be faulty

A woman who has spent 20 years in jail for engaging in ritual child abuse has been released on bond after the district attorney’s office decided physical evidence against her was faulty.

Fran Keller, 63, and her husband Dan, 71, were sentenced to 48 years each in jail after therapists testified that they helped three children recall memories of satanic rituals and sexual abuse at their Oak Hill preschool in Austin, Texas.

The couple were convicted in 1992 of the alleged sexual abuse of a three-year-old girl at their home-based day care center but the only physical evidence came from an emergency room doctor who testified that internal lacerations on one child were evidence of abuse. In court documents filed earlier this year, Dr Michael Mouw says what he thought were lacerations were actually normal physiology.

The couple have always maintained their innocence and yesterday Fran Keller walked out of Travis County Jail in Austin, Texas a free woman.

Fran Keller's attorney, Keith Hampton, said: ‘The case was a true witch hunt because the investigators actually believed that this was part of a wide satanic conspiracy.’

He said the therapist's techniques — which were used to convince the children, parents and investigators that the Kellers committed human sacrifices, flew the children to Mexico and dismembered human bodies in cemeteries — have been debunked.

Prosecutors put two constables on trial in connection with the Keller case, but the judge dismissed those charges a year after the Kellers were convicted.

Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg issued a statement saying she agreed to release the Kellers on bond after learning of Dr Mouw's testimony.

She said: ‘I agreed that there is a reasonable likelihood that his false testimony affected the judgment of the jury.

‘The Court of Criminal Appeals will review both cases. No further action or decisions on the case will be made until that review is finalized.’

A judge still has to sign off on Dan Keller's release. Hampton said he did not expect prosecutors to seek a retrial.

The jury convicted the Kellers after prosecutors obtained convictions in similar cases in California, Massachusetts and Florida that gained national attention. Convictions in many of those cases have been overturned or prosecutors have petitioned to vacate the cases.

Hampton said after both of the Kellers are released, he will file court papers to have them exonerated and declared innocent.

In the appeal he filed in January, Mr Hampton accused the Austin police of withholding evidence that would have cleared the Kellers and said the judge allowed prosecutors to introduce unscientific psychological evidence at trial by an unqualified witness.

The Kellers were sentence after just a six day trial. The couple were among hundreds of childcare workers who were accused of being part of a group of Satan worshippers who engaged in ritual child abuse across America during the 1980s and 1990s.

Four San Antonio women imprisoned for sexually assaulting two girls in 1994 were freed last week after a judge agreed with their defense attorney and prosecutors that their 1998 convictions for sexual assault should not stand due to faulty expert testimony. In that case, another doctor recanted her testimony that what she thought were internal injuries indicating sexual abuse were actually anatomically normal.

Original report here

　

　

　

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