|
The trend in 2004 is to
entrap innocent persons by sucking them into fictitious criminal
conspiracies and then using leverage (fear of death) to extract
"confessions. See Rafay/Burns
| Wilf Hathway | Or to find
a vulnerable person and intimidate them 17 years after the fact:
John Chalmers or to lose the
evidence and subborn perjury 17 years after the fact as with
Dennis Perry in Georgia
John
Stoll sues | John
Stoll's release and events leading up to it | Houston
| Gerald Amirault | Wenatchee
| Bakersfield | Saskatoon
| Bernard
Baran
NBC News: Dateline NBC 22
October 2004
Secrets & Lies; Accused
members and victims of Bakersfield child sex abuse rings
Announcer: And now, Secrets
& Lies. Here is Stone Phillips.
STONE PHILLIPS: Good evening.
As loving parents, we all want to believe our kids. As experienced
parents, we know that kids don't always tell the truth, that
sometimes they'll tell us what they think grown-ups want to hear.
And if the person asking the questions is a teacher, a principal,
a police officer, a child may be even more prone to say whatever
it takes to get the pressure off. Is it possible that's what
happened in the story you're about to see? The stakes were extremely
high, because in this case the question was, were children in
a California town being sexually abused by dozens of adults,
some by their own parents? Here's Keith Morrison.
KEITH MORRISON reporting: (Voiceover)
It was hot the summer it all began. But then, every summer is
hot in Bakersfield, California--triple-digit blazing heat--a
hundred miles and a culture shock up the road from LA.
In the summer of 1984, heat
rose in waves around the derricks still pumping a full century
after oil was first found pooled under the desert here. But that
summer, something that seemed like evil was bubbling up, too,
about to engulf a recently divorced father whose name is John
Stoll.
(Blurred images of children
in pool; countryside; sun; sign; sites in Bakersfield; oil derricks;
John Stoll talking to reporter)
Mr. JOHN STOLL: I came out
here in 1977.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) By the
summer of '84, he was 40 and feuding with his ex-wife over their
five-year-old son, Jed.
(Home and yard; photo of John;
John talking to reporter)
MORRISON: How'd you feel about
that boy?
Mr. STOLL: Neatest thing I
ever saw. I really thought a lot of Jed. Really just amazing.
He was most important thing in my life at that point.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Since
the day his son was born, Stoll had considered himself the more
stable parent. They shared custody, though Jed lived mostly with
her.
(Infant mobile and crib)
Mr. STOLL: I'd get him every
other weekend, so I'd want to have a good time. We went whale
watching and, you know, went out on a boat. And I'd take him
places and do things with him.
MORRISON: But she felt you
were a bad influence.
Mr. STOLL: She felt that I
was trying to turn Jed against her.
MORRISON: At the time, John
Stoll was an oil field worker, a foreman in fact. And in an oil
town like Bakersfield, that was a respected job. He had a steady
paycheck, nice house, and perhaps most important, a possession
that made him immensely popular with his neighbors and friends.
He had a swimming pool.
(Voiceover) In a town where
"heat wave" could describe the weather for the entire
summer, Stoll's pool became the centerpiece of his social life.
Friends and their kids were constantly dropping in. His son,
Jed, was encouraged to bring pals over during his weekend visit.
Children Stoll didn't even know were running in and out of his
home, half-dressed, changing into their swimsuits.
Then, in early June, an officer
dropped by, said he was following up on a complaint filed by
Stoll's ex-wife.
(Bakersfield; blurred images
of people swimming; mailboxes and home; police sign)
Mr. STOLL: You know, he said
that she made a report Jed was--Jed and another little boy had
a sexual encounter of some kind.
MORRISON: While they were at
your house.
Mr. STOLL: Yes, sir.
MORRISON: What would Jed have
been doing with some other little boy at your house? I mean,
why...
Mr. STOLL: They were in the
shower together, OK? And...
MORRISON: How old were they?
Mr. STOLL: Five.
MORRISON: Both of them.
Mr. STOLL: They were just little
kids experimenting, I guess. I didn't even really get into it
with him. And that was it. I moved on. I figured if--the more
you make out of it, the bigger the deal you make out of it, the
more they're going to think it's a big deal.
MORRISON: But it turned out
to be a very big deal. Just days after that first visit by police,
they came again. And this time, it was a raid.
Mr. STOLL: And they threw the
search warrant on the table.
MORRISON: What are you thinking
as the police come in the house?
Mr. STOLL: I mean, I'm just
dumbfounded. I have no idea, absolutely why idea why they would
be here. And I'm going, `What the hell is this?' I mean, I was
just--you know, and they said, `We need to question you downtown.
MORRISON: So then you get into
an interrogation room downtown.
Mr. STOLL: (Nods)
MORRISON: And what did they
tell you?
Mr. STOLL: They said that I
was going to be arrested for child molestation. Whew. And that's
when they told me that they spoke to Jed, and Jed said I molested
him.
MORRISON: Your son, with whom
you were so close and had all that fun...
Mr. STOLL: Yep.
MORRISON: ...the kid you looked
after when he was a baby...
Mr. STOLL: Accused me of molesting
him.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) But it
got worse. In the next few days, five more children surfaced,
first- and second-graders, claiming they had been molested, too,
raped by John Stoll. He had no criminal record, but with six
kids ready to testify against him, Stoll's conviction seemed
all but assured. So the prosecutors offered Stoll what appeared
to be a generous plea bargain.
(Blurred images of people in
pool; empty witness chair; photos of various children; empty
courtroom)
MORRISON: What deal did they
offer you?
Mr. STOLL: Twelve years.
MORRISON: Why didn't you take
it?
Mr. STOLL: I'm not a child
molester.
MORRISON: Or so he said. But
then John Stoll's son, Jed, and five other little boys took the
stand and gave humiliating testimony before a judge and jury.
The children hung their heads and answered, `Yes,' or `No,' to
explicit questions about horrific acts of molestation.
You down there sitting at your
table in the courtroom, listening to your son.
Mr. STOLL: Yeah.
MORRISON: What was that like
for you?
Mr. STOLL: Devastating's a
good word. It really hurt.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Detectives
never found any physical evidence of a crime. But the heartbreaking
testimony of six little boys was all the evidence prosecutors
needed. Stoll was found guilty.
(Home; empty witness chair;
mug shot of John)
Mr. STOLL: Not just guilty.
`As to count one: guilty. As to count two: guilty. As to count
three: guilty.' And you're going, `Oh, dear God.'
MORRISON: How long did they
sentence you?
Mr. STOLL: Forty years.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) That
was 20 very long years ago. But Stoll, still to this day insists
he is innocent.
(Cloudy sky; John talking to
reporter)
Mr. STOLL: Never, ever in my
life could I imagine someone could be convicted for something
they didn't do.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Oh, there
is, by the way, another rather important thing you should know.
The investigation had shown that John Stoll had not acted alone,
not by a long shot. Prosecutors told a horrified city that they
had discovered entire rings of sick sexual perversions--dozens
of adults targeting their own children. It seemed something evil
was bubbling up in the scorching heat of Bakersfield.
(Stoll and others in courtroom;
sun shining on flag; shadowed images of accused perpetrators;
Bakersfield; crane)
Announcer: Who else would be
accused?
Mr. STOLL: There was people
sleeping under the beds, on the tables, under the tables.
MORRISON: All accused of the
same thing.
Mr. STOLL: All child molesters.
Announcer: How did one California
town become the center of an alleged child sex ring? When Secrets
& Lies continues.
(Announcements)
Announcer: We now continue
with Secrets & Lies on DATELINE with Stone Phillips.
Mr. STOLL: And I'm sorry, but
I'm not child molester.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) John
Stoll protested his innocence, but authorities claimed otherwise.
Stoll used his swimming pool as bait, they said. An operation
so successful, prosecutors argued that Stoll was more than a
calculating molester, but the mastermind of a depraved sex ring
that preyed on young children.
(Jail; blurred images of people
in pool)
Ms. MARGIE GRAFTON: Do you
want to trade cars?
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Margie
Grafton was a friend of Stoll's, and at that time a young mother
with two little boys.~
(Margie Grafton with two children)
MORRISON: You knew John Stoll.
Ms. GRAFTON: Yes, yes. One
of the girls that I had worked with, it was her boyfriend. And
we started doing things on the weekends with the kids.
MORRISON: And he had rented
a house...
Ms. GRAFTON: Yes. He had a...
MORRISON: ...with a pool.
Ms. GRAFTON: He had a nice
house. Yeah, mm-hmm. Of course, if you had a friend with a pool
it was really good. So we'd go different places, though we'd
always end up at the pool, you know?
MORRISON: Tell me about Margie
Grafton.
Mr. STOLL: She's just a nice
person, and I liked her boyfriend, Tim. We got along well.
MORRISON: And your kid played
with her kids.
Mr. STOLL: Mm-hmm. Jed would
only come on the weekends; he didn't have any little buddies,
but he knew Don and Allen. So I would say, `Margie, you guys'...
MORRISON: `Bring them on over.'
Mr. STOLL: Yeah. `Come on over.'
And then it started visiting, then it's overnights. You know,
they'd just, `Can we stay the night.' `Sure. Sure. Go ahead.
Yeah. No problem.'
MORRISON: What is your first
inkling that something was wrong?
Ms. GRAFTON: The day I came
home from work and my kids were gone.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Children
gone? Her boyfriend had been babysitting, she said.
(Photo of boys)
Ms. GRAFTON: And he said some
people came and took my kids. I said, `Who?' He said, `CPS workers.'
MORRISON: Child Protective
Services.
Ms. GRAFTON: Yes. Yes. We had
no idea why they took them. We walked over to the courthouse
to clear up--clear it up.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) And when
she got there, arrested, she and her boyfriend, just hours after
Stoll was picked up. In fact, they bumped into each other in
the booking room.
(Mug shot of Grafton; mug shot
of Tim Palomo; mug shot of John)
Ms. GRAFTON: (Voiceover) They
took my fingerprints and put me in a cell. I'd never been to
jail before.
(Mug shot of Grafton; jail
door being opened)
Ms. GRAFTON: And there were
people there that were in for murder.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Grafton
and her boyfriend were put on trial at the very same time as
Stoll, as well as a fourth person: Grant Self, a convicted child
molester, who was renting Stoll's poolhouse the time the allegations
were made. While he did occasional contracting work with Stoll,
Stoll says he knew nothing of Grant Self's past.
(Mug shots of Grafton and Palomo;
empty witness chair; light shining on water; John talking to
reporter)
MORRISON: Did you know him
very well?
Mr. STOLL: Never met the man
before he came to work. He was sleeping in his car and he said
he needed a place to stay, and I told him, `Well, you can stay
in the poolhouse for a couple of weeks until you found another
place.'
MORRISON: Did you worry about
the kids around him, or have any reason to?
Mr. STOLL: Why would you think
something like that? I mean, seriously, why? I mean, now I'm
seeing child molesters under the--you know under rocks. But I
didn't think about it. I never thought about someone like that,
you know what I mean? It never even crossed my mind.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Prosecutors
accused them all--Stoll, Self, Grafton and her boyfriend--of
raping boys from five to eight years of age. And one of the star
witnesses was Grafton's seven-year-old son, Donald, who took
the stand and said not only that Stoll had molested him, worst
of all, he told the jury, his own mother had forced him into
orgies.
(Blurred images of people in
pool; photo of boys; photo of John; photo of Grafton)
MORRISON: You were accused
of sexually molesting your own son?
Ms. GRAFTON: Yes. Just the
thought that everybody in the world thought that I had done that
was--it was devastating. It was devastating. I had to just sit
there and listen--listen to what they had to say.
MORRISON: And what was going
on inside while you heard those things?
Ms. GRAFTON: I couldn't believe
what they said. When you know that nothing happened, and you
believe in your system, then you can't believe that you're going
to go to prison for it.
MORRISON: But you went to prison.
Ms. GRAFTON: Yeah. Guilty,
guilty, guilty. Yes.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Convicted
of crimes so heinous she received a murderer's sentence.
(Mug shots of Grafton; cell
door closing)
Ms. GRAFTON: I was given 48
years.
MORRISON: Forty-eight years?
Ms. GRAFTON: Forty-eight years,
and no contact with my children.
MORRISON: Ever.
Ms. GRAFTON: Ever. I couldn't
call them, I couldn't write them.
MORRISON: But that seemed to
be just what Bakersfield--and the rest of the country--wanted.
When Grafton and Stoll were sentenced, child molestation--a crime
kept hidden in years past for want of shaming the victim--had
burst forth from a dark closet into the national spotlight.
Unidentified Woman #1: (In
court) You're charged in indictment A...
MORRISON: (Voiceover) In many
ways, prosecutors were breaking new ground and started uncovering
what they believed to be organized molestation rings from Minnesota
to Massachusetts. The case that captured the nation's attention
in 1984--though it eventually fell apart--was the McMartin preschool
trial in Los Angeles County. That case broke just weeks before
Stoll's. But, just 100 miles away in Bakersfield, where John
Stoll lived, it was different. The story came in just under the
national radar, and yet it was even bigger.
In Bakersfield during the mid-'80s,
the district attorney, Ed Jagels, uncovered not just one molestation
or two or even three, he and his staff eventually prosecuted
eight separate sex-abuse rings, all within this tight-knit community
a fraction the size of Los Angeles. What dark force was at work?
Authorities came to believe
the sex rings were part of a much larger satanic cult. Tips led
them to alleged gravesites in search of child sacrifices, but
no bodies were found. Still, hundreds of suspected molesters
were investigated, dozens prosecuted.
(Court proceedings in McMartin
trial; court proceedings in Stoll trial; Ed Jagels speaking at
press conference; court proceedings of several trials; countryside;
man digging; photographers; police officer; proceedings from
several different trials)
Mr. STOLL: At one point--this
was a 12-man cell. There was people sleeping under the beds,
on the tables, on the tables.
MORRISON: All accused of the
same thing.
Mr. STOLL: All child molesters.
It was just like this great upheaval of child molesters, two
cells full of them.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) And there
in jail, while awaiting trial, Stoll met and befriended an inmate
whose case was almost identical to his, though Jeff Modahl had
been accused of belonging to one of the other alleged child sex
rings. Modahl's 10-year-old daughter, Carla, had testified her
father, along with his friends and family, had molested her.
But Modahl, like Grafton and Stoll, said the stories were lies.
(Feet of walking guards and
inmates; empty cell; Jeff Modahl in court; photo of Carla Modahl;
mug shot of Jeff; mug shot of Grafton; mug shot of John)
MORRISON: Well, you know, it's
a famous story that everybody that's in jail is innocent. They
all say they're innocent.
Mr. STOLL: Sure. But we were.
MORRISON: And nobody believes
what a prisoner says.
Mr. STOLL: Sure. And I can
understand that. That's OK. I mean, I finally realized that,
`Well, nobody believes this.'
MORRISON: Perhaps because in
court the children gave such graphic accounts of how they'd been
raped, ritualistically sodomized by their parents, their neighbors.
(Voiceover) Young children
could never possibly concoct such horrific stories on their own.
Why would they give such damning testimony, putting their own
parents in prison, if it weren't true?
(Empty courtroom; photo of
boys; mug shot of Grafton; mug shot of Jeff and photo of Carla)
Announcer: Is it possible some
or even all the children lied? How could that happen?
Ms. CARLA MODAHL: Because that's
what they wanted me to say. They kept telling me I can go home
if I just say this, this and this.
Announcer: A stunning turn
of events, when Secrets & Lies continues.
(Announcements)
Announcer: A town consumed
by tales of sexual abuse, parents are sent to prison after their
own children accuse them. But what really happened, when Secrets
& Lies continues.
(Announcements)
Announcer: We now return to
Secrets & Lies. Here again is Stone Phillips.
PHILLIPS: Returning to our
story, dozens of people in Bakersfield, California, have been
accused and convicted of taking part in child sex rings. Children
as young as five told authorities they'd been molested, even
raped. Some children made detailed accusations against their
own parents. But now, as you're about to see, some of the cases
are starting to fall apart, convictions reversed. How could it
happen? Once again, Keith Morrison.
Mr. STOLL: See, here were some
adults that knew that this was bull...(censored by network).
There were some adults that knew, Keith, I know they knew, and
they left it go.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) John
Stoll, Margie Grafton, Jeff Modahl, and many of the other parents
allegedly connected to the Bakersfield sex rings, were alarmed
when they compared notes during their trials. The children who
had testified against them, said Stoll, sounded almost like they
were reciting from a script, what they said was so similar. But
when Stoll was sent off to prison to serve that 40-year term,
he had no proof, no evidence to support his suspicion. Still,
he spent the first years in prison in a mind-twisting rage.
(Sun shining on flag; mug shot
of John; mug shot of Grafton; mug shot of Jeff; court proceedings;
man in holding cell; court proceedings of various trials; photos
of Carla, Ed Sampley, and boys; John and others in court)
Mr. STOLL: The first five years
in prison I was in and out of the hole.
MORRISON: Why'd you get in
the hole?
Mr. STOLL: I had an attitude.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) For Stoll,
changing that attitude meant finally shutting his mind off from
the world beyond these walls and giving up any hope that someone
outside cared about him or his claims of innocence. And then,
years later, Stoll got word that Margie Grafton and her boyfriend
had been set free, their convictions thrown out. Had she been
able to prove what both had believed at trial, that the children's
stories were made up. Well, no. Instead Grafton's lawyer discovered
that important exonerating evidence: a psychiatric profile which
pointed to her innocence had been kept from the jury.
(Prison; barbed wire fence;
empty cell; mug shot of Grafton; person unlocking cell door;
Grafton and boys sitting on porch)
Ms. GRAFTON: It just happened
one day, they called me to the office and--the counsellor's office,
and said that I was released.
MORRISON: Just like that?
Ms. GRAFTON: Just like that.
MORRISON: `You can go home
now.'
Ms. GRAFTON: Yes.
MORRISON: How long were you
incarcerated?
Ms. GRAFTON: Almost eight years.
I missed my kids for years. I missed their childhood. I didn't
to watch them grow up. I didn't get to watch them lose their
teeth or do little plays in school or anything like that.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) But for
Stoll, there was no such exonerating evidence, and "normal"
for him remained his six-by-nine-foot prison cell. In 1995, Stoll
was transferred to a new prison, a dangerous time in an inmate's
life as he fights for position in the cell block hierarchy.
(Image of John in court superimposed
over empty prison cell; prison; razor wire; guard walking through
prison block)
Mr. STOLL: '95, I'm walking
across the yard, and I see this huge guy, and he goes, `John.'
And I was, `Whoa!'
MORRISON: (Voiceover) It was
Stoll's old friend big, tough, Jeff Modahl, shuttled from one
prison to the next, the two hadn't seen each other since their
convictions 10 years before. As the two friends swapped stories,
Stoll learned of a stunning development in Modahl's case. Shortly
after he was convicted, Modahl's daughter, Carla, had actually
admitted that she had lied.
Here's the letter she wrote
to her dad in 1985. "Dear Dad," it says, "I lied
in court. I'm sorry for lying about this, Dad. I'm so sorry."
And when we found Carla Modahl
years later, she told us the same story, that she'd been fooled
by a social worker and a prosecutor to testify against her dad.
At the time of the trial, she was living in a foster home, she
said, and wanted desperately to be reunited with him.
(Mug shot of Jeff; cell door
closing; Jeff in court; photo of Jeff, Stoll and men; photo of
Carla; handwritten letter; excerpts from letter)
Ms. MODAHL: They kept telling
me I could go home if I'd just say this, this and this. They
promised me my dad would never go to prison.
MORRISON: What did you think
would happen if you didn't tell them what they wanted to hear?
Ms. MODAHL: I thought I'd never
go home or see my dad if I--if I didn't say it.
MORRISON: But if you told them
that he had sexually abused you, they let you believe that you
would be able to go home...
Ms. MODAHL: Yes.
MORRISON: ...and see your dad?
Ms. MODAHL: Yes.
MORRISON: And he wouldn't go
to jail?
Ms. MODAHL: Yes.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Instead,
he was given a 48-year sentence, and when Carla, at age 10, took
her letter to court and begged to have her dad released, it didn't
work.
(Jeff in court; photo of Carla;
photo of Jeff)
Ms. MODAHL: They didn't believe
me.
MORRISON: They only believed...
Ms. MODAHL: What I said the
first time.
MORRISON: ...the bad story.
(Voiceover) Fourteen years
later, in 1999, though, there was another strange twist in the
Modahl case: exonerating evidence surfaced: a medical examination
given to Carla shortly after her dad, Jeff, was arrested said,
"There is no evidence at present time of sexual molestation"--information
never shared with the jury. Modahl's conviction was overturned
and he was released from prison. By the time he was set free,
Jeff Modahl had spent 15 years in prison.
(Medical documents; excerpts
from documents; Jeff in court; Jeff in prison)
MORRISON: When you got out
of jail, what did you do?
Mr. JEFF MODAHL: The most humiliating
thing when I got out of prison, I got out of jail: I had no place
to go. I didn't have a home, I didn't have--I--I had no place
I knew where I was even going to sleep that night for sure. I
didn't have clothes. I wore a paper suit, made out of paper,
to walk out of that county jail. And you want to talk about humiliation?
Geez.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Again,
for Stoll, there was no exonerating evidence. No money for lawyers,
either. And so, in prison he remained.
(John in court)
MORRISON: Why is it, though,
that Modahl and the others are out and you're not?
Mr. STOLL: He got some help
from--from his attorney, and I didn't have an attorney. That
doesn't matter to me. I mean, it's spilt milk. He's out, good.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) So now
John Stoll through himself into prison life, became a sort of
leader among the inmates, prepared to spend his life inside,
and had no idea the departure of his friend, Jeff Modahl would
set in motion dramatic events, and disturbing revelations.
(Guard walking catwalk; inmates
in cafeteria; jail cell; Jeff sitting in chair; John in court)
Announcer: Help arrives from
John Stoll's tortured past.
MORRISON: Do you know if John
Stoll ever molested any of those kids who went to that house?
Announcer: The children who
had doomed him to prison, now grown, were ready to speak out,
when Secrets & Lies continues.
(Announcements)
Announcer: Secrets & Lies
continues.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) In the
middle of the 1980s, during the peak of the so-called Bakersfield
sex ring scandal, 39 people were convicted, most sentenced to
long prison terms. But as years went by, 22 of those convictions
were overturned. Still, prosecutors insisted these people were
guilty. And all the while, two things remained unchanged: the
DA who oversaw the prosecutions was still in office, and John
Stoll was still in prison.'
Jeff Modahl, after his release
in 1999, tried to throw a lifeline to his old friend.
(Court proceedings for various
trials; various people being released from prison; Jagels; John
in prison; Jeff working on farm)
Unidentified Attorney #1: What's
important to realize is that John Stoll had no record before
this started.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Modahl's
attorneys contacted this group of lawyers with the California
and Northern California Innocence Project.
(Attorneys talking to reporter)
Unidentified Attorney #2: Well,
then we began looking through the trial transcripts.
Unidentified Attorney #3: Each
of the children were inconsistent with their own testimony. Many
of them admitted during the trial that they were lying at times.
Attorney #1: What really struck
me was John was so open about his whole story, that it had the
ring of truth about it.
MORRISON: Can you really tell?
I mean, some people are awfully good at answering questions like
that.
Unidentified Attorney #4: You
know, we're--we're not naive about innocence and guilt. If it's
a case that we decide to commit our really limited resources
to, it's got to be a good case.
Attorney #2: We each came to
our own opinion, and then shared, `Oh, my God. He's innocent.
We've got to get him out.'
MORRISON: (Voiceover) But what
would the alleged victims of Stoll's sex ring have to say about
that? One by one, Stoll's lawyers tracked them down. Remember
little Donny Grafton, Margie Grafton's son? He testified 20 years
ago that Stoll and his mom forced him into orgies. Didn't they?
(Blurred images of people in
pool; photo of Don Grafton; photo of Don and Margie)
Mr. GRAFTON: She never did
anything wrong.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Today,
Donald Grafton says it never happened. He tells us authorities
pressured him to lie.
(Don talking to reporter; photo
of boys)
Mr. GRAFTON: I was just tricked
into lying to put my mom into prison, all because I--I went along
with what they said. I lied. Said, `We need you to go along with
what everybody else is saying. This will all be over soon. The
more you go along with us, the quicker it'll go.'
MORRISON: In other words, if
you said what they wanted you to say, you'd get your life back.
Mr. GRAFTON: Yeah.
MORRISON: You'd get your mother
back.
Mr. GRAFTON: Get back--go back
to normal.
MORRISON: Did John Stoll ever
molest you?
Mr. GRAFTON: No.
MORRISON: Do you know if John
Stoll ever molested any of those kids who went to that house?
Mr. GRAFTON: I never saw it,
I never heard about it, I never even thought about it.
Mr. ED SAMPLEY: I went swimming
there a few times, a handful of times.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) This
is Ed Sampley. He was eight when he testified Stoll had assaulted
him.
(Childhood photo of Sampley)
Mr. SAMPLEY: Sometimes just
out of the blue it'd come up, for whatever reason, I'd think
about it.
MORRISON: This was haunting.
Mr. SAMPLEY: Yeah, it was.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Haunting
because Sampley--one of Stoll's alleged victims--says the man
never touched him.
(Sampley)
Mr. SAMPLEY: This man was totally
innocent. It's hard to understand how I could fabricate a lie
like that. I did have a lot of guilt. You know, there's a man,
he's--he's imprisoned as a child molester, that never did anything.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Then,
there was this young man, who has asked not to be identified.
He also testified against Stoll.
(Man in shadows talking to
reporter)
Unidentified Man #1: I knew
I was lying, but they told me I had to.
MORRISON: Do you remember how
you felt in court, saying those things?
Man #1: Scared.
MORRISON: Scared of what?
Man #1: Scared of losing my
parents, scared of the police.
MORRISON: Forced to lie as
young children? Exactly what Stoll had been saying for years.
So with this ammunition, his lawyers applied for a writ of habeas
corpus--essentially asking for another day in court to present
their new testimony.
(Voiceover) Months passed.
The wait seemed interminable. And then, finally, decision: motion
granted. A judge would re-hear the case against Stoll. No cameras
were allowed during testimony, but outside the courtroom those
little boys--now men--described circumstances from 1984 which
they said were surreal, terrifying.
(Mug shot of John; John in
court; Sampley smoking)
MORRISON: So how did all this
stuff get started?
Mr. SAMPLEY: The sheriffs came
to my house, and told my parents other kids had seen stuff happen
to me.
MORRISON: What kind of stuff?
Mr. SAMPLEY: Said, sexual acts
had occurred bet--between me and John Stoll, and I had seen stuff
happen between John Stoll and other children.
MORRISON: Anal sex, oral copulation.
Mr. SAMPLEY: I'm not sure what
the--the details...
MORRISON: You can't remember
what the...
Mr. SAMPLEY: No, I--I don't
know what the story ended up being, but I was...
MORRISON: They asked you to
lie.
Mr. SAMPLEY: Yeah, they were
asking me--telling me I had to lie, and if I did this, it would
go away and get this terrible man off the streets.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Donald
Grafton was seven at the time when he says he was pressured to
testify against Stoll.
(Photo of boys)
Mr. GRAFTON: I knew I was forced
to lie, but I still--I--I--I gave in.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) For these
boys, the story was the same, of first being visited by the social
worker, Velda Murillo, seen here in an old training tape.
(Photos of Don and Sampley;
excerpts of training video)
Ms. VELDA MURILLO: (From videotape)
And sometimes moms are even participating, so it's important...
MORRISON: (Voiceover) She came
to their homes with a sheriff's officer, but she asked most of
the questions, they told us. Took them to a room away from their
parents, and told them she knew they had been molested by Stoll
after swimming in his pool. They more they denied it, they told
us, the more Murillo seemed convinced they were hiding something.
Grafton says he and his brother were put into foster care until
they cooperated. Sampley says he felt badgered by Murillo and
the officer. In the end, more than a seven-year-old could handle.
(Excerpts from training video;
blurred images of people in pool; Don talking to reporter; Sampley
talking to reporter; childhood photo of Sampley)
Mr. SAMPLEY: It wouldn't go
away.
MORRISON: So how could you
make it go away?
Mr. SAMPLEY: If I told them
that something had happened.
Man #1: And they kept asking,
over and over, the same questions. And all I kept saying was,
`Nothing ever happened.'
MORRISON: But you changed your
story.
Man #1: Yes.
MORRISON: Why?
Man #1: Because if not, I could
get in trouble.
MORRISON: Get in trouble how?
With who?
Man #1: They told me I would
lose my toys and my parents.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Sampley
and the others say they were finally told what to say not only
by social worker Murillo, but also by a prosecutor.
(Sampley talking to reporter)
Mr. SAMPLEY: They did coach
us, totally, made us go over our stories over and over.
MORRISON: Twenty years ago
they were children. Now, as adults, they took the stand and proclaimed
John Stoll innocent. Grown men reverted to little boys. They
exhumed humiliating, guilt-riddled memories. They sat up on the
stand and they looked down at John Stoll in the courtroom, and
they begged for his forgiveness.
Mr. STOLL: To see them sitting
up there, tears running down, looking over at me, telling me
how sorry they were, how `I apologize, John,' oh, man. Those
young men have a lot to be proud of. And they were on my side.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) But if
the young men thought their new testimony would make everything
better and get John Stoll out of prison, they weren't so sure
once the case was heard. For one thing, Ed Jagels, the district
attorney from the 1980s, reelected time and again, continued
to insist that Stoll was guilty. The prosecutor now trying the
case challenged their testimony.
(Empty courtroom and image
of John; Jagels; attorney in court)
Mr. SAMPLEY: She called us
liars, and I felt bad. If--you know, here--here we were, redeeming
ourselves and making it right, and she calls us liars. And that's
just terrible.
Mr. GRAFTON: She didn't seem
to care about the truth.
MORRISON: She was trying to
destroy your credibility?
Mr. GRAFTON: Absolutely.
MORRISON: Trying to save that
now you're lying, when back at the trial you were telling the
truth.
Mr. GRAFTON: Yeah. Now that
I'm a--a God-fearing man and I--I serve the Lord wholeheartedly,
now I'm a liar. Back then when I was six, when I didn't hardly
know the difference, I was telling the truth.
MORRISON: There was some thought
in the prosecutor's mind that these people who had recanted were
actually now lying about what they said truthfully when...
Attorney #2: To what end? To
what end? What would they possibly gain from stepping forward?
Now, she implied that they--that they anticipated gaining money,
that they were going to sue and get rich off of it.
MORRISON: Part of a lawsuit.
Attorney #2: Right.
MORRISON: You bet.
Attorney #2: First of all,
that meant each of them independently came up with this idea,
because then when we talked--asked them about the case, they
recanted.
MORRISON: Well, maybe you suggested
they might want to sue.
Attorney #2: We suggested it?
Attorney #4: And how would
that conversation go? We'd sit down and say, `There's this guy
in prison, and we know he molested you a bunch years ago, but
why don't you come and help us'...
Attorney #2: Right.
Attorney #4: ...`get him out
of prison so then maybe you could come in and sue the government
to say you lied because they made you lie.' It doesn't pass the
laugh test.
MORRISON: But now came the
one piece of testimony which could be more important than all
the rest. Stoll was hoping that his own son, Jed, would also
tell the court that he, too, had been forced to lie back when
he was just a little boy, six years old. Now, Stoll watched a
grown man take the stand.
Mr. STOLL: That's the first
I'd seen him, you know?
MORRISON: In how long?
Mr. STOLL: Twenty years. And
I was really proud of him, actually turned out OK.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Proud?
The son Stoll says he was so proud of got up on the stand and
stood by his testimony from 20 years before. He told the court
he was sure his father molested him.
(John in court)
Mr. STOLL: My Jed said that
he thought that I molested him. That just--that's a killer. That's--that
hurt so bad. That hurts. I mean, he thinks something happened,
and maybe after all those years of hearing something did happen,
maybe he believes it.
MORRISON: How do you feel about
him?
Mr. STOLL: About Jed? I love
him. He's my son. I don't--I'm sorry he feels that way, but I
didn't molest him.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Our interview
had come at the conclusion of that court hearing. The result,
partly because of what Jed had said, was anything but certain.
(John talking to reporter)
Mr. STOLL: Thanks, everybody,
for your interest.
MORRISON: OK. Thank you.
Mr. STOLL: Appreciate it.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Now,
as the interview ended, Stoll was led away to await whatever
his fate might be: freedom or more years in prison as a confirmed
sex offender? Who would the judge believe as he weighed his decision?
(John leaving interview)
ANN CURRY reporting: (Voiceover)
Next week, "Genius Loves Company," a look at the last
recording sessions of Ray Charles. Then, how sweet it is. What's
your choice for Buddy and Nikki's wedding cake. All that, plus
ghosts, goblins and ghouls live on our plaza. It's our annual
costume contest and Halloween extravaganza.
(Ray Charles and others in
recording studio; Buddy, Nikki and others with different wedding
cakes; various people in costumes)
CURRY: Only on "Today."
Announcer: Coming up on DATELINE
Sunday, a high-school house party--parents out of town, kids
out of control. The fun has a fatal end. A football star unconscious.
EDIE MANGUS reporting: He's
lying there, in front of all his friends, convulsing.
Unidentified Man #2: He certainly
was.
Announcer: Why didn't his friends
call 911?
Unidentified Woman #2: When
the story finally came out, it was like, `Oh, my God.'
Announcer: A teen in a coma,
a terrifying cover-up. What would your kids do? Circle of Friends.
And next, a white-knuckle moment
in that California courtroom.
Attorney #4: The judged talked
about everything that was bad about our case.
Announcer: Now we will learn,
along with John Stoll, what the judge has decided, when Secrets
& Lies continues.
(Announcements)
Announcer: And now the conclusion
to Secrets & Lies on DATELINE with Stone Phillips.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Decision
day in the retrial of John Stoll. What the judge ruled will determine
Stoll's fate: back to prison as a sex offender, or out as a free
man.
(Court proceedings)
Unidentified Judge: (In court)
The ruling on the petition for writ of habeas corpus is as follows:
MORRISON: (Voiceover) And from
the start, it looked bad for John Stoll. The judge pointed out
some inconsistencies in the boys' 20-year-old recollection.
(Court proceedings)
Attorney #4: The judge talked
about everything that was bad about our case.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) The judge
also pointed out that not only had Stoll's son, Jed, testified
that his father molested him, Jed also said no one put words
in his mouth or forced him to say things that weren't true. And
the judge never considered the allegation that a prosecutor coached
the boys.
But then, 18 minutes into the
ruling, the judge suddenly shifted directions in Stoll's favor,
ruling that the interviewing techniques used by social worker
Velda Murillo and the sheriff's officer were improper and resulted
in unreliable testimony of the child witnesses.
(Court proceedings)
Judge: (In court) The petitioner's
motion is granted, and the judgement rendered against the petitioner
is vacated.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) And with
those simple words, John Stoll was a free man, all charges thrown
out. After 20 years in prison in blinding light and blast-furnace
heat, John Stoll was free to go. It was his 61st birthday, 20
years lost, and now a modern-day Rip van Winkle.
(John and attorneys in court;
John being released from prison)
Mr. STOLL: I made my first
cell phone conversation 10 minutes ago. Whoa, that was--everything
is overwhelming, you know what I mean? Everything is just--everything
is `Wow.'
MORRISON: (Voiceover) That
night, his lawyers took him out to dinner. The last time Stoll
dined out, Walter Mondale was running for president.
(John and attorneys at restaurant)
Unidentified Waiter: What kind
of dressing on your salad?
Mr. STOLL: Oh, my.
Waiter: You get choices now.
You can have...
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Two of
their attorneys set him up in their guest house.
(John and reporter)
Mr. STOLL: This sure beats
a prison cell, doesn't it?
MORRISON: (Voiceover) He got
a computer, a cell phone, an iPod--in a matter of days, shot
ahead a generation.
(Laptop computer; John showing
electronics to reporter)
Mr. STOLL: It scanned every
song in here.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) The family
he was born with is long gone, and his own son refuses to see
him. But John Stoll discovered he does have family: the lawyers
who set him free.
(John and attorneys at restaurant)
Mr. STOLL: I mean, it's just
like family. It really is family.
Attorney #3: We gained a family
member. He's just a great guy.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) As for
the boys--now men--who say it was their lies who put Stoll in
prison?
(Empty witness chair)
Mr. STOLL: They didn't do anything.
They were children. Certainly can't be mad at them. I find the
people I'm mad at is, who told them that story? But I've sat
in my cell many a night thinking, `What the hell did they do
to get all of these children to tell this outlandish story?
MORRISON: (Voiceover) And as
those boys looked back at stolen childhoods and broken families,
it was hard to know who in the end was more damaged.
(Don crying; Sampley smoking)
Man #1: Me and my dad, after
that, just became distant.
MORRISON: Why?
Man #1: He didn't want to get
accused, I assume, for the same thing.
MORRISON: What kind of a loss
was that for you?
Man #1: A big one. I wish I
could go back.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Knowing
how easily a life can be destroyed by false accusations, Ed Sampley
makes sure he leaves the house when his daughters bring friends
over to play.
(Sampley leaving home)
Mr. SAMPLEY: I've consciously
made an effort to try to be normal and not have those feelings
of being scared.
MORRISON: To be around kids.
Mr. SAMPLEY: Yeah. But it's
really hard. I'm working on it.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Donny
Grafton has the same fears with his own children.
(Don and Margie)
Mr. GRAFTON: I have a hard
time, my kids sitting on my lap, the boy. The girl, she's not
allowed to sit on my lap. They don't--I don't--I won't change
diapers for the girl. My--my kid rubs my leg and I smack his
hand. (Crying)
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Carla
Modahl bounced from one foster to the next. Took to the streets,
got addicted.
(Photos of Carla)
Ms. MODAHL: I have a lot of
suicide attempts in my life from the guilt that I've carried.
It's a lot of guilt.
MORRISON: You were 10. It wasn't
your fault.
Ms. MODAHL: I may have been
10, but I knew right from wrong.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) To this
day, DA Ed Jagels stands by the convictions. He declined an interview
with DATELINE, but issued this written statement. "My office
remains convinced on the evidence presented at the 1984 trial
and 2004 evidentiary hearing, that the children were, in fact,
molested by John Stoll." The sheriff's officer who interviewed
the kids feels the same way. Social worker Velda Murillo declined
to comment.
As for Stoll, he's learning
to live with the one opinion that really matters to him: his
son's.
(Jagels; statement; text from
statement; excerpt from training video; John talking to reporter)
Mr. STOLL: That's the one thing
I cannot get away from. I can't help but think about that. Almost
every day Jed crosses my mind, because that was my son, you know,
and that's really the hardest. Jed's the hardest.
MORRISON: I notice you said,
"that was my son."
Mr. STOLL: Yeah. That was my
son, yeah. The one thing that kept me going, no matter what he
said, when he was in court at six years old, I remember what
he said the last day I saw him. Told me how much he loved me
and that he wanted to come and live with me. I can live with
that. I have to. I don't have any choice.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) But that
was 20 years ago. No compelled to try to understand, he called
his old prison buddy, who had an idea.
(Jeff)
Mr. MODAHL: I made some pretty
nice friends that I don't mind their company at all. And John
Stoll is very much one of them.
Want to go see the horsey?
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Jeff
Modahl sued and received a small settlement after his release.
He bought a farm in eastern Nebraska, nearest neighbor a good
mile or two away. Daughter Carla lives just down the road. Modahl
invited John to come and stay with him. And so one summer day,
not ready to deal with an airplane just yet, John Stoll boarded
an east-bound train. And two days later, finally arrived at Modahl's
farm.
(Jeff and child; train; John
on train; John and Jeff)
Mr. MODAHL: Yeah, this is the
guy I had to spend a lot of years with.
Mr. STOLL: Boy, we sure did,
didn't we?
Mr. MODAHL: Whether we liked
it or not.
Mr. STOLL: Whether we liked
it or not, yeah.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) And now,
the only other man in the world who had any idea what the other
was feeling.
(John and Jeff)
Mr. STOLL: It'll be a good
time to decompress, because I can't talk to people at home. I
mean, they--they're loving people and they--they really want
to help, but they just don't know. So, you know, now I have an
opportunity to talk to somebody who does know.
MORRISON: (Voiceover) Jeff
Modahl lost 15 years, John Stoll 20. There's a big sky here in
the Nebraska countryside. Air is clean and quiet. There's not
a wall around.
(Jeff's mug shot; John's mug
shot; Jeff and John)
PHILLIPS: As we reported, a
total of 39 people were convicted as a result of the Bakersfield
sex abuse prosecutions. Ten were given probation, 29 people went
to prison. Of those 29, 23--including John Stoll--had their convictions
overturned. Of the remaining six, three were released after serving
their sentences, one woman died of cancer while in prison, one
man remains in prison.
And Stoll's former tenant,
Grant Self, who had a previous conviction for child molestation,
is now in a state hospital for mentally ill offenders. He can
be kept there until authorities decide he is not a danger to
others.
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
