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Fran’s Day CareRandy Noblitt, PhDhttp://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/frans-day-care/©Copyright R. Noblitt 2009. All rights reserved.In recent days, an interest in the case of Fran and Dan Keller has reemerged andthat reemergence has triggered new interest in the outcries of children thatresulted in several investigations, trials, convictions, and tragedies throughoutthe 1990s. I can speak about Fran’s Day Care with some authority.In 1992, the Travis County prosecutor’s office contacted me for advice as to howthey should proceed with a bizarre case involving multiple child victims of sexualand ritual abuse in a day care. The accused perpetrators were the owners-operatorsof the nursery, Fran and Dan Keller. The day care was situated in a remote areabeyond the suburbs of Austin, Texas. At this time, the legal community was reelingfrom the McMartin Day Care ordeal which was the costliest prosecution inCalifornia history up to that time, and had resulted in two hung juries in aseven-year prosecution. The prosecution, wishing to learn from the mistakes ofMcMartin, wanted advice regarding how to proceed without contaminating thechildren’s stories, compromising the alleged perpetrators’ rights, and getting tothe truth of the children’s outcries.Some of the parents whose children attended the preschool became suspicious whentheir children returned home wearing underwear not their own, or with theirclothes inside out or with their hair wet. There were always reasonableexplanations: the child had an accident and was changed into clothes on hand forthat purpose; or the child splashed water on herself when the children werecleaning up; and so forth. However, when one of the children made an outcry, theparents more closely scrutinized the strange behaviors some of the children hadstarted engaging in and the aforementioned episodes, and they took their concernsto the police. The police took the concerns seriously and collected statements andevidence. The grand jury found a basis for indictment. The Kellers responded tothe warrant for their arrest by fleeing the state in disguise, obtaining falseidentifications in their new personas, and attempting to leave the country. Theywere apprehended in Las Vegas, Nevada and extradited back to Travis County.It was at this point that I was introduced to the situation. I was in privatepractice in Dallas, two hundred miles north of Austin and had no knowledge of whatwas happening at Fran’s Day Care. The prosecutor, Judy Shipway, contacted me foradvice on how to deal with the children, their stories, their parents’ reactions,and the impact of ritual abuse allegations on the court. I advised her to focus onthe sexual abuse allegations for which there was substantial support and evidence.I expressed my opinion that introducing the topic of ritual abuse would beexploited by the defense as a means of discrediting the children. I also advisedMs. Shipway to make sure that every child had a therapist and that no therapisttreat more than one child from Fran’s Day Care. Finally, I advised the prosecutorto request that the children’s parents not communicate with one another untilafter the trial to avoid inadvertent contamination of their children’s stories andtheir own interpretations. These suggestions were all implemented.I was also invited to review the evidence which included drawings and writingsproduced by Danny Keller; the confession of co-defendant Doug Perry; the testimonyof the children. I was able to describe for the prosecution the kinds of abusesritually practiced by various groups and individuals and explain the psychologicalconsequences of such abuse. I was able to interpret for the prosecutor thechildren’s stories in the context of what had been learned from other victims
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