Yesterday was a full, very long day for me. I was at the Kern County Courthouse steps 90 minutes before the rally began and didn't get home until after 9 pm. It was organized by the folks that directed and produced Witch Hunt. Seems the local News organizations beat me there.
The directors are Don Hardy and Dana Nachman. Sean Penn was the Executive Producer, KTF Films was the company that produced the movie.
There were old, young and every age in-between there. The crowd slowly started assembling. Signs began to be made. I ran into Jeff and Cozmo, two friends I see at many of the rallies and protests. Jeff is a Vet that lives in an airplane hanger here in Bako. Sweet man and a wonderful little Conure Parrot he calls Cozmo.
When the rally began, there was a decent crowd in attendance. I am short so I made my way to the stage to get some photos from that angle as well.
What was emotional for me was seeing the victims of this prosecutorial misconduct up close and personal. They are all so old now. My age and older. The children are now grown and some have kids of their own. Most if not all of the victims showed up from where they now live around the US. They have all moved out of California, some of their children still live in Bakersfield.
Who can blame them for leaving this place? A place that took away the best part of their lives, that took them away from their children who ranged in age from 6 to 12. The place that took them in their prime and slammed them into prison for anywhere from 6 to 20 years. Look at the photo of John Stoll when he was given his sentence of over 100 years for molesting his own son. Then look at the photo of him now. John spent the longest time in jail..20-fucking-years.
Sean Penn spoke at the end of the rally. It was a call to hold our elected officials, including our bastard DA, Ed Jagels accountable for their actions. It was a call to know who your voting for and what they stand for. The message of the rally was this:
It can happen to anyone. Any of us can have our entire lives ruined and turned upside down by over zealous District Attorneys, Sherriff deputies and fucked up Judges in the pockets of law enforcement. Social Workers that have no idea what went down (if anything), they just prompt the kids and threaten the kids and maintain the status quo. Any of us can spend the best years of our lives in prison and be innocent of the charges. Anyone...
The Fox Theatre was packed. There were many many of us in attendance. Although I had seen the movie already, I went to see it without commercials and uncut for television. It was horrifying to see and hear what went down in the mid-80's here in Bakersfield. It was hard to hold back the tears when Jeff Modahl, John Stoll and all the other good folks caught up in this disgusting witchhunt told their nightmare stories to the camera.
I had to leave shortly before the end. I couldn't take anymore of it. My emotions ran the gamut, from anger to sadness to empathy and beyond. Seeing the victims sitting around me and then seeing them in their younger years on the screen, totally terrified, just choked me up. The footage of the trials was gut-wrenching. Watching Brenda Kniffen being sentenced, waving to her family and being taken away, only to faint tore me up.
The film goer's were caught up in the moment as well, booing when the bullshit DA Ed Jagels was on the screen, when his clone Lisa Green badgered the children during the appeals when they actually told the truth and admitted they had never been touched much less abused by their parents and their parents friends. The film also tells the stories of the children that were used to indict and convict their own parents. How some of them tried to commit suicide in later years because of the guilt. How they tried to soothe their emotional pain with drugs. How they are afraid to bathe their own children because they know what can happen when bullshit is slung from the highest law enforcement officials in town.
These victims were working class people. Not middle class, working class. The film covers all the participants in this decade's long nightmare. As the film's website states:
This film shows viewers what the real crime in this case is, not molestation, but the crime of coercion. Viewers hear from the child witnesses who were forced to lie on the witness stand as they describe scary sessions with sheriff's deputies in which they were told -- not asked -- about sexual experiences that happened to them. Their coerced testimony led to dozens of convictions. Many times their own parents were the ones they put behind bars.It will rock you, but not in a good way. It will challenge you to think about what can be done to any of us under the cover of law enforcement and justice. It's about civil rights being violated by all segments of law enforcement, elected officials, judges and the like. It's about hiding evidence that would of proven innocence for years if not decades. . Rent it, buy it, just see the 91 minutes of real Americana.
See how easy it was to ruin the lives of innocent, hard-working people. People like you...and me.
Thank you to the victims that allowed their nightmares to be told:
John Stoll
Jeff Modahl
Jack and Jackie Cummings
Rick and Marcella Pitts
Brenda and Scott Kniffen
Allen Grafton
Eddie Sampley
Victor Monge
Carla Modahl
