Ex-School Volunteer Acquitted
of Child Abuse Charges
Verdict: After deliberating for just seven hours, jury finds
Dale Akiki not guilty on all 35 counts. Trial was longest in
San Diego's history.
Los Angeles Times (LT) - SATURDAY November 20, 1993
By: MICHAEL GRANBERRY; TIMES STAFF WRITER
Edition: Home Edition Page: 29 Pt. A Col. 1
SAN DIEGO - A Superior Court jury concluded a 7 1/2-month
trial Friday by acquitting a former nursery school volunteer
of 35 counts of child abuse and kidnaping that had kept him
jailed without bail for 2 1/2 years.
With family members and friends cheering behind him, Dale
Akiki, 36, wept as the clerk announced the jury's findings of
not guilty to all felony and misdemeanor counts stemming from
alleged incidents at a local church in 1988 and 1989.
Nearly 170 witnesses testified during Akiki's trial--the
longest in San Diego history--which ended after only seven
hours of jury deliberation. "I just want to go home, I just
want to go home," Akiki said in leaving San Diego County Jail.
Akiki appeared stunned by how quickly the verdicts came.
"I couldn't believe it. It was a shock." He thanked sheriff's
deputies, who for 30 months shielded him from abuse by other
prisoners. "They helped me out," he said. "They protected me."
Akiki was surrounded by television cameras as he boarded a
waiting limousine.
The case drew widespread attention--and sympathy--partly
because of Akiki's appearance. The victim of a rare genetic
disorder called Noonan's syndrome, he suffers from club feet,
a concave chest and droopy eyelids. He has undergone 19
surgeries since childhood.
His trial quickly became a cause celebre for critics of
the criminal justice system, with many saying that it was one
of hundreds of child abuse cases nationwide culminating in a
lengthy and costly prosecution and ending with exoneration of
the defendant.
Jurors deliberated for two hours Thursday and less than
five hours Friday, with most saying afterward that they never
believed the nine children who testified, or that the children
even believed what they said in court.
Several on the panel sided with Akiki's attorneys, public
defenders Kathleen Coyne and Susan Clemens, who tried to show
that Akiki's alleged victims--nine boys and girls between the
ages of 3 and 5--had been systematically brainwashed by
parents and therapists.
But Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary Avery, the lead prosecutor,
disputed such claims.
"The whole idea of contamination and suggestibility just
does not account for the major behavior changes that occurred
(in the children) while they were in Dale Akiki's (nursery
school) class," she said, referring to such incidents as
bed-wetting and nightmares.
Witnesses accused Akiki of sexually molesting and
terrorizing children at Faith Chapel charismatic church in
Spring Valley by hanging them upside-down from a chandelier,
dunking them in toilets and making them drink the blood of
animals in ritualistic ceremonies.
Prosecutors were unable to produce any physical evidence
to support the charges.
Some children said Akiki brought an elephant and a giraffe
to class, killing them both as a way of warning his pupils not
to reveal his crimes.
"This wasn't a case of proving who did it. This was a case
of proving that it never happened at all," said Carol Hopkins,
deputy forewoman of the San Diego County Grand Jury in
1991-92, who became one of Akiki's defenders.
Hopkins is one of many calling for the ouster of Dist.
Atty. Ed Miller, whom critics accuse of succumbing to the
wishes of one of the city's most prominent businessmen in
trying Akiki.
Defense attorneys showed that a deputy prosecutor who
initially investigated the case failed to bring charges. And
witnesses testified that after the intervention of Jackson R.
Goodall Jr.--the owner of Foodmaker, Inc., the parent company
of the Jack in the Box--Miller assigned a new prosecutor.
He picked Avery, founder of San Diego's Child Abuse
Prevention Foundation. Goodall has been the largest
contributor to the organization and is chairmen of its board.
Miller has blasted the insinuation of a breach of ethics
and staunchly defended his prosecution, which critics say has
cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
"The contact I had with members of the public had
absolutely no influence on me whatsoever," Miller said. "I am
especially upset about any suggestion at all that this was not
handled in a professional manner."
Times staff writer Tony Perry contributed to this story.
DESCRIPTORS: CHILD MOLESTATION--SAN DIEGO; CHILD CARE
CENTERS; TRIALS; VERDICTS
Copyright © 1993, Times Mirror Company
Source: http://ags.sga.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/c...cases/akiki.htm
of Child Abuse Charges
Verdict: After deliberating for just seven hours, jury finds
Dale Akiki not guilty on all 35 counts. Trial was longest in
San Diego's history.
Los Angeles Times (LT) - SATURDAY November 20, 1993
By: MICHAEL GRANBERRY; TIMES STAFF WRITER
Edition: Home Edition Page: 29 Pt. A Col. 1
SAN DIEGO - A Superior Court jury concluded a 7 1/2-month
trial Friday by acquitting a former nursery school volunteer
of 35 counts of child abuse and kidnaping that had kept him
jailed without bail for 2 1/2 years.
With family members and friends cheering behind him, Dale
Akiki, 36, wept as the clerk announced the jury's findings of
not guilty to all felony and misdemeanor counts stemming from
alleged incidents at a local church in 1988 and 1989.
Nearly 170 witnesses testified during Akiki's trial--the
longest in San Diego history--which ended after only seven
hours of jury deliberation. "I just want to go home, I just
want to go home," Akiki said in leaving San Diego County Jail.
Akiki appeared stunned by how quickly the verdicts came.
"I couldn't believe it. It was a shock." He thanked sheriff's
deputies, who for 30 months shielded him from abuse by other
prisoners. "They helped me out," he said. "They protected me."
Akiki was surrounded by television cameras as he boarded a
waiting limousine.
The case drew widespread attention--and sympathy--partly
because of Akiki's appearance. The victim of a rare genetic
disorder called Noonan's syndrome, he suffers from club feet,
a concave chest and droopy eyelids. He has undergone 19
surgeries since childhood.
His trial quickly became a cause celebre for critics of
the criminal justice system, with many saying that it was one
of hundreds of child abuse cases nationwide culminating in a
lengthy and costly prosecution and ending with exoneration of
the defendant.
Jurors deliberated for two hours Thursday and less than
five hours Friday, with most saying afterward that they never
believed the nine children who testified, or that the children
even believed what they said in court.
Several on the panel sided with Akiki's attorneys, public
defenders Kathleen Coyne and Susan Clemens, who tried to show
that Akiki's alleged victims--nine boys and girls between the
ages of 3 and 5--had been systematically brainwashed by
parents and therapists.
But Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary Avery, the lead prosecutor,
disputed such claims.
"The whole idea of contamination and suggestibility just
does not account for the major behavior changes that occurred
(in the children) while they were in Dale Akiki's (nursery
school) class," she said, referring to such incidents as
bed-wetting and nightmares.
Witnesses accused Akiki of sexually molesting and
terrorizing children at Faith Chapel charismatic church in
Spring Valley by hanging them upside-down from a chandelier,
dunking them in toilets and making them drink the blood of
animals in ritualistic ceremonies.
Prosecutors were unable to produce any physical evidence
to support the charges.
Some children said Akiki brought an elephant and a giraffe
to class, killing them both as a way of warning his pupils not
to reveal his crimes.
"This wasn't a case of proving who did it. This was a case
of proving that it never happened at all," said Carol Hopkins,
deputy forewoman of the San Diego County Grand Jury in
1991-92, who became one of Akiki's defenders.
Hopkins is one of many calling for the ouster of Dist.
Atty. Ed Miller, whom critics accuse of succumbing to the
wishes of one of the city's most prominent businessmen in
trying Akiki.
Defense attorneys showed that a deputy prosecutor who
initially investigated the case failed to bring charges. And
witnesses testified that after the intervention of Jackson R.
Goodall Jr.--the owner of Foodmaker, Inc., the parent company
of the Jack in the Box--Miller assigned a new prosecutor.
He picked Avery, founder of San Diego's Child Abuse
Prevention Foundation. Goodall has been the largest
contributor to the organization and is chairmen of its board.
Miller has blasted the insinuation of a breach of ethics
and staunchly defended his prosecution, which critics say has
cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
"The contact I had with members of the public had
absolutely no influence on me whatsoever," Miller said. "I am
especially upset about any suggestion at all that this was not
handled in a professional manner."
Times staff writer Tony Perry contributed to this story.
DESCRIPTORS: CHILD MOLESTATION--SAN DIEGO; CHILD CARE
CENTERS; TRIALS; VERDICTS
Copyright © 1993, Times Mirror Company
Source: http://ags.sga.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/c...cases/akiki.htm