SeanTX
11-27-2013, 07:48 PM
Another case of JustUs, this couple had their lives ruined over bizarre false accusations and "expert" medical tesitmony. Nice that the DA's office agreed not to oppose her release, but still won't admit any wrongdoing ...
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/fran-keller-to-be-freed-in-satanic-abuse-case/nb5S2/
Fran Keller to be freed in satanic abuse case
comment(22)
28 214 34 1286
By Chuck Lindell
American-Statesman Staff
Fran Keller, a former Austin day care owner who said she was swept up in a national hysteria over satanic ritual abuse, is expected to be freed Tuesday afternoon after spending 21 years in prison for sexual abuse of children in her care.
The Travis County district attorney’s office agreed not to oppose Keller’s release but stopped short of endorsing her claim of innocence, said her lawyer, Keith Hampton.
The agreement will allow Keller, 63, to post a personal bond and be freed from Travis County Jail Tuesday afternoon, Hampton said. Her husband, Dan Keller, could be released from prison under similar conditions as early as next week, Hampton said. Dan Keller turns 72 Friday.
Hampton vowed to continue efforts to establish the Kellers’ innocence. In the meantime, he said, Tuesday was a day to celebrate Fran Keller’s freedom in time to spend Thanksgiving with her family.
The Kellers, tried together in 1992, were sentenced to 48 years in prison after three children from their home-based Southeast Austin day care made allegations of sexual abuse that included strange and horrific rituals.
For those who believed in the prevalence of ritual abuse, the allegations were powerful proof that secret societies and dangerous cults — often protected by top politicians, business leaders and law officers — engaged in depraved attacks on children who could be dominated and indoctrinated through pain, humiliation and terror.
snip
By the time of the Kellers’ six-day trial in November 1992, the list of atrocities had grown.
According to the children, the couple served blood-laced Kool-Aid and forced them to have videotaped sex with adults and other children. The Kellers, they said, sometimes wore white robes and lit candles before hurting them.
The children also accused the Kellers of forcing them to watch or participate in the killing and dismemberment of cats, dogs and a crying baby. Bodies were unearthed in cemeteries and new holes dug to hide freshly killed animals and, once, an adult passer-by who was shot and dismembered with a chain saw. The children recalled several plane trips, including one to Mexico, where they were sexually abused by soldiers before returning to Austin in time to meet their parents at the day care.
Hampton, working for free, filed an appeal in January that claimed new evidence and revelations have undermined the linchpins of the Kellers’ convictions — including an emergency room doctor who now repudiates a diagnosis that provided the only physical evidence of abuse in the case.
Dr. Michael Mouw was an emergency room physician at Brackenridge Hospital who examined the 3-year-old girl in 1991 on the night she first accused Dan Keller of abuse. Mouw testified at the Kellers’ trial that he found two tears in the girl’s hymen consistent with sexual abuse and determined that the injuries were less than 24 hours old.
But in an August hearing on the appeal, Mouw testified that his diagnosis of abuse was incorrect. Years after the trial, while attending a medical seminar, Mouw said a slide presentation on “normal” pediatric hymens included a photo that was identical to what he had observed in the girl.
snip
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/fran-keller-to-be-freed-in-satanic-abuse-case/nb5S2/
Fran Keller to be freed in satanic abuse case
comment(22)
28 214 34 1286
By Chuck Lindell
American-Statesman Staff
Fran Keller, a former Austin day care owner who said she was swept up in a national hysteria over satanic ritual abuse, is expected to be freed Tuesday afternoon after spending 21 years in prison for sexual abuse of children in her care.
The Travis County district attorney’s office agreed not to oppose Keller’s release but stopped short of endorsing her claim of innocence, said her lawyer, Keith Hampton.
The agreement will allow Keller, 63, to post a personal bond and be freed from Travis County Jail Tuesday afternoon, Hampton said. Her husband, Dan Keller, could be released from prison under similar conditions as early as next week, Hampton said. Dan Keller turns 72 Friday.
Hampton vowed to continue efforts to establish the Kellers’ innocence. In the meantime, he said, Tuesday was a day to celebrate Fran Keller’s freedom in time to spend Thanksgiving with her family.
The Kellers, tried together in 1992, were sentenced to 48 years in prison after three children from their home-based Southeast Austin day care made allegations of sexual abuse that included strange and horrific rituals.
For those who believed in the prevalence of ritual abuse, the allegations were powerful proof that secret societies and dangerous cults — often protected by top politicians, business leaders and law officers — engaged in depraved attacks on children who could be dominated and indoctrinated through pain, humiliation and terror.
snip
By the time of the Kellers’ six-day trial in November 1992, the list of atrocities had grown.
According to the children, the couple served blood-laced Kool-Aid and forced them to have videotaped sex with adults and other children. The Kellers, they said, sometimes wore white robes and lit candles before hurting them.
The children also accused the Kellers of forcing them to watch or participate in the killing and dismemberment of cats, dogs and a crying baby. Bodies were unearthed in cemeteries and new holes dug to hide freshly killed animals and, once, an adult passer-by who was shot and dismembered with a chain saw. The children recalled several plane trips, including one to Mexico, where they were sexually abused by soldiers before returning to Austin in time to meet their parents at the day care.
Hampton, working for free, filed an appeal in January that claimed new evidence and revelations have undermined the linchpins of the Kellers’ convictions — including an emergency room doctor who now repudiates a diagnosis that provided the only physical evidence of abuse in the case.
Dr. Michael Mouw was an emergency room physician at Brackenridge Hospital who examined the 3-year-old girl in 1991 on the night she first accused Dan Keller of abuse. Mouw testified at the Kellers’ trial that he found two tears in the girl’s hymen consistent with sexual abuse and determined that the injuries were less than 24 hours old.
But in an August hearing on the appeal, Mouw testified that his diagnosis of abuse was incorrect. Years after the trial, while attending a medical seminar, Mouw said a slide presentation on “normal” pediatric hymens included a photo that was identical to what he had observed in the girl.
snip