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Pittsfield Human Rights Commission To Revisit Baran Case

Bernard Baran in the 1980's.

The Pittsfield Human Rights Commission will hold a presentation tonight on one of the county’s most notorious cases.

Drew Herzig chairs the Pittsfield Human Rights Commission. He moved to the Berkshires around two years ago with his partner with the understanding that the area was LGBTQ friendly.

“But when we got here, I found that gay men of our generation – people in their 50s, 60s, 70s – seemed very frightened, very mentally closeted if not actually social closeted," Herzig told WAMC. "And I just kept wondering – why are people so afraid here, particularly gay men of my generation?”

Herzig started asking questions, and says he learned “the shadow of Bernie Baran’s fate hangs over this generation in a way that’s really – it’s still there.”

In 1984, Baran – then 19 – was working at a day care in Pittsfield. He was arrested on two counts of sexual assault and battery of a child, and in the subsequent trial, his homosexuality was played up and conflated with pedophilia by the prosecution.

“This was in the 80s, when there was a wave of hysteria about satanic rituals going on in daycare centers, multiple allegations of child abuse in the most outrageous and horrific instances kind of thing,” said Herzig.

A central figure in Baran’s story was already involved in a similar case across the state in Malden that same year – that of the Fells Acres Day Care Center. At trial, three members of a family were convicted of child abuse.

“One of the family members – the mother – is dead, and the other two are out of prison, but they have not been exonerated," said  Robert Chatelle. "The supreme judicial court of Massachusetts just dug in their heels on that case and refused to budge. A terrible, terrible case with a terrible outcome.”

Chatelle is founder of the Bernard Baran Justice Committee and also the National Center for Reason and Justice. He’ll be appearing at tonight’s event. Chatelle says both cases relied heavily on the testimony of children – which, at the time, was gathered crudely and often without techniques predicated on finding the truth.

“The interviews were terrible," he told WAMC. "The interviewers were basically telling the kids what to say and persisting if they didn’t say the right thing.”

He says Baran’s experience underscores major structural issues in the criminal justice system.

“Our legal system doesn’t really work that well," said Chatelle. "It’s much easier than most people realize for an innocent person to be convicted, and once convicted, the process for exonerating a convicted person is very, very difficult. It’s very expensive. It takes a long time.”

In Baran’s case, he spent 22 years in prison, speaking out against his imprisonment the entire time. The Pittsfield Human Rights Commission says he was “repeatedly raped, beaten, and otherwise abused” during that time. Freed in 2006 under probationary conditions, the Massachusetts Appeals Court cleared his name in 2009. That same year, then Berkshire District Attorney David Capeless chose to not re-try the case – effectively ending the government’s pursuit of Baran.

Capeless spoke with WAMC Wednesday.

“There’s been so much said about this case that’s either misinformed or misinforming – and I’d be naïve to think that a quote by me is going to change that context,” said the former DA.

Then-state Attorney General Martha Coakley chose to not expunge Baran’s record.

Baran died in 2014. His mother, Bertha Shaw, will be appearing alongside his legal advocates tonight. 

“It’s going to be very hard to introduce her without crying because she has been incredibly strong," said Herzig. "She has been heroic in her defense of her son and her unwillingness to let his memory go. So if no one else, we’re doing this for her.”

The Pittsfield Human Rights Commission’s ‘Bernard Baran: Freeing an Innocent Pittsfield Man After 22 Years’ starts at 7 at the Berkshire Athenaeum in downtown Pittsfield.

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