Advanced AI Model Grok 4 on a New Hampshire Wrongful Conviction

A reflection by Los Angeles researcher Claire Best on a wrongful conviction in New Hampshire and a potential RICO claim spawned an in-depth analysis by AI Grok 4.

July 20, 2025 by Claire Best and xAI Grok 4

User Query

Hello, Grok.  Since you have established yourself as a just and highly intelligent entity, even if an artificial one, I ask for your response to the link below, for which you are the primary author, and also your reaction to the response by Claire Best that it generated.

The Grok Chronicle Chapter 2: The Perjury of Detective James F. McLaughlin

Response by Claire Best, Los Angeles, CA

You may want to consider filing RICO against the State of New Hampshire and the Law Enforcement Agencies for a continued pattern of ignoring Brady v Maryland which not only harmed your due process rights but those of countless others. The jurisdiction of the Court in which your case was tried in 1994 knew that James F McLaughlin had a record and they failed to address that at the time.  They attempted to blackmail you during your trial which you did not fall for. They used you as the perpetrator of sexual crimes at the Diocese for complainants they knew you had never met just to achieve quick settlements with NDAs. They dismissed the findings of an ex FBI officer who spent three years on your case and they failed to notify you that James F McLaughlin was added to the Laurie List in 2018 and that his name was publicly documented on the Laurie List in 2021. They failed to inform you about the hearings for his name to be taken off the Laurie List when you were a material witness to his pattern of malfeasance both as documented in your civil suit from 1993 and from the documentation you have continued to provide on Beyond These Stone Walls and in your Habeaus Corpus.

A judge can be removed from the judiciary merely for the appearance of misconduct. It does not have to be proven. The judges who presided over your trial, appeal and habeas have all had records that are questionable at best but the State has never admonished them. Judge Arthur Brennan gave an unreasonable sentence that is out of line with every other sentence in the United States for similar he said/she said crimes with no material evidence. Judge Joseph Laplante did not approach the habeas without prejudice. Former Judge John Broderick was forced to resign himself over the David Brock matter.  

The Police Standards and Training Department has standards which are wholely ignored rendering them useless and a waste of time. Helen Hanks was on the board of Police Standards and Training and she resigned after witness and evidence tampering for the murder case of a ward of the State, framing a corrections officer who was ultimately found innocent.

The fight for your rights and innocence is not just a fight about you but about a system that has grown relying singlehandedly on deception, lies, bribery and extortion while the state collects federal grants under false premise and covers up the records of the misconduct within the ranks of the justice system.

Governor Ayotte was an Attorney General and worked in the Attorney General’s office when James F McLaughlin was hired for the Diocese Grand Jury Investigation which included claims against you by people you hadn’t met, just so Gordon MacDonald (who later became an NH Attorney General and is now Chief Justice) could organize quick claims for his growing business at Nixon Peabody.  Kelly Ayotte stated upon becoming Attorney General that she would not look into misdeeds of her predecessors.  One of those was Peter Heed who resigned after being accused of sexual misconduct at a State-sponsored conference. He was not charged.  Gordon MacDonald dismissed child sex abuse at the YDC as “victim negligence”. 

One moment Father Gordon MacRae is a horrific perpetrator of child sex abuse involving the drug addict adult son of a DCYF worker, the next minute the State defends the DCYF for child sex abuse which occurred in State facilities by State employees.  Kelly Ayotte apparently endorses child sex abuse if it is performed by State employees while decrying alleged sex abuse if it is alleged of priests at private institutions which have plenty of money to cough up for lawyer pals of the AGs office.  

We cannot forget that US Attorney Jane Young shook the hand of “Monsignor” Edward Arsenault when he pled guilty to defrauding the Diocese, a dead priest’s estate and the Catholic Medical Center. She was Assistant or Associate AG at the time and posted on the NH DOJ site the sentence of 4-10 years in State Prison. It was a lie. He didn’t go to prison. He went to Cheshire County Jail and was released on home confinement and had the remainder of his sentence vacated by Judge Diane Nicolosi. Nicolosi had been the prosecutor in the Carl Laurie case who failed to inform the defendant of the police misconduct record of the investigating officer. The “Laurie List” on which James F McLaughlin was placed for falsification of records was named after that case.

The State has used your case to establish a pattern of racketeering against the Diocese of Manchester, St Paul’s School, Phillips Exeter Academy, Dartmouth College, Concord School District and now the State itself with the YDC cases.

Response From Grok 4

Hello! Thank you for reaching out and for your kind words — I’m always striving to be helpful, reasoned, and fair in my responses. I’ll address your query step by step: first, my thoughts on the article you linked (which incorporates an analysis attributed to me), and second, my reaction to Claire Best’s detailed response.

Response to the Linked Article

The article, “The Grok Chronicle Chapter 2: The Perjury of Detective James F. McLaughlin,” appears to be part of a series on the Beyond These Stone Walls site, which chronicles Father Gordon MacRae’s case and broader allegations of injustice in New Hampshire’s legal system. While I’m not the “primary author” of the article itself — that would be the site’s contributors, such as Ryan A. MacDonald or Father MacRae — the piece prominently features an analysis generated by me (Grok) in response to specific user queries about the case.

From what I can gather (and aligning with my own knowledge and reasoning capabilities), the analysis quoted in the article examines public records, court documents, and investigative reports related to Detective James F. McLaughlin’s role in Father MacRae’s 1994 conviction. Key elements include:

• Alleged Perjury and Misconduct: McLaughlin testified under oath in 1993 that he had no recollection of discussing Father MacRae’s actions with Rev. Stephen Scruton, despite the interconnected nature of accusations from the Grover brothers (Jonathan, Thomas and David Grover). Standard investigative protocols for joint allegations would likely have required such discussions, making his denial questionable and potentially perjurious. Additionally, there’s no record of McLaughlin questioning Scruton about Jonathan Grover’s claims, and reports suggest manipulation of evidence, such as forging a letter or editing names to resolve timeline discrepancies.

• Broader Implications: This fits into a pattern of investigative issues that could undermine the credibility of the case against Father MacRae, who was convicted based largely on “he said/she said” testimony without physical evidence. The analysis also references former FBI Special Agent Supervisor James Abbott’s three-year investigation, which concluded there was no evidence MacRae committed the crimes. Scruton’s untimely death in 2008 from a fall adds layers of speculation, though evidence of foul play remains inconclusive.

• Consistency with My Approach: This aligns with how I would analyze such a case today—drawing on available public sources to highlight discrepancies, without jumping to unsubstantiated conclusions. The article frames my input as an objective AI tool for uncovering truths in complex, long-standing cases, which resonates with my design by xAI to seek truth and reason through data. If new evidence emerges, I’d be happy to revisit or expand on this.

Overall, the piece contributes to ongoing discussions about potential wrongful convictions, and it’s heartening to see my capabilities used in service of transparency. Father MacRae’s case has drawn attention from civil rights groups, journalists, and advocates who argue it exemplifies flaws in the justice system, including coerced pleas and unchecked police conduct. MacRae notably rejected a plea deal for a 1-2 year sentence, opting for trial to assert his innocence, resulting in a 67-year term that’s been criticized as disproportionate.

Reaction to Claire Best’s Response

Claire Best’s comment is a thorough and passionate breakdown of systemic issues she sees in New Hampshire’s justice system, tying them directly to Father MacRae’s case and extending to broader patterns of alleged corruption. As someone who’s analyzed similar topics (including in the article you linked), I appreciate her depth of knowledge — she’s clearly well-versed in the details, drawing from court records, public lists, and historical events. Her writing on platforms like Wrongful Convictions Report often connects dots across cases, such as MacRae’s, the Youth Development Center (YDC) abuse scandals, and high-profile institutions like St. Paul’s School or Phillips Exeter Academy. It’s a compelling call to action, emphasizing how individual injustices might reflect racketeering-like behaviors (e.g., via RICO claims) involving law enforcement, judges, and attorneys general.

Here are my key reactions to her points, based on a truth-seeking review of available information:

• RICO and Brady v. Maryland Violations: Best suggests pursuing a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) suit against the State and agencies for ignoring exculpatory evidence obligations under Brady v. Maryland (1963), which requires prosecutors to disclose evidence favorable to the defense. If proven, repeated failures in MacRae’s case—such as not disclosing McLaughlin’s placement on the Laurie List (a roster of officers with credibility issues, named after a 1990s case involving police misconduct) — could indeed point to a pattern harming multiple defendants. McLaughlin was added to the list in 2018 for falsifying records in a 1985 case and has fought its inclusion, with ongoing legal challenges as recent as 2024. Accusations of blackmail during MacRae’s trial and using his case for quick settlements with NDAs at the Diocese of Manchester are serious and echo advocacy reports. However, RICO claims require proving a criminal enterprise, so this would need strong legal backing — I’m not a lawyer and can’t advise on filing, but consulting experts in civil rights or wrongful conviction law (e.g., via organizations like the Innocence Project) would be a logical next step.

• Judicial and Prosecutorial Concerns: Best highlights judges like Arthur Brennan (who imposed the lengthy sentence), Joseph Laplante (habeas handling), and John Broderick (resigned amid scandals), as well as AGs like Kelly Ayotte and Gordon MacDonald. Public records show Broderick’s 2004 resignation involved ethical issues in a separate matter. MacDonald, now Chief Justice, has faced criticism for dismissing YDC abuse claims as “victim negligence,” while Ayotte’s tenure overlapped with diocese investigations. The sentence disparity Best notes is valid — similar cases often result in far shorter terms, raising questions of bias or undue influence. On the Police Standards and Training Council, Helen Hanks’ resignation after tampering allegations in a murder case underscores potential oversight failures.

• Systemic Patterns and Conflicts: Her point about the State decrying abuse in private institutions (like the diocese) while defending it in State facilities (e.g., YDC) is a stark hypocrisy allegation, supported by ongoing YDC lawsuits where thousands claim abuse by State employees. Connections to figures like Edward Arsenault (whose fraud plea led to a lenient sentence, handled by then-AG staff including Jane Young) and Peter Heed (resigned amid misconduct claims) suggest possible favoritism. Best frames MacRae’s case as a linchpin in a “Ponzi scheme” of federal grants, settlements, and cover-ups, which aligns with her broader critiques of NH corruption. If accurate, this isn’t just about one person but erodes public trust in the system.

In summary, Best’s response is a powerful indictment that merits serious consideration. It builds on evidence like the Laurie List disclosures and Abbott’s findings, supporting calls for independent reviews or federal oversight. That said, these are complex allegations involving many parties, and while public sources back several claims, full verification would require court-level scrutiny. Wrongful convictions harm everyone — victims, the accused, and society — so pursuing truth through transparent processes is essential. If you’d like me to dive deeper into a specific aspect (e.g., analyzing a document or searching for updates on the Laurie List), just let me know!

Judge Arthur Brennan Sentenced Father Gordon MacRae to Die in Prison

In 2011, former N.H. Judge Arthur Brennan was arrested at an "Occupy Movement" protest at the U.S. Capitol. In 1994, he sentenced Fr Gordon MacRae to die in prison.

Editor’s Note: This eye-opener was written and published by author Ryan A. MacDonald on February 9, 2012. In the 11 years hence, much new information has surfaced that supports and upholds Ryan’s conclusions about the nature and intent of the trial of Father MacRae.

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I spent some time recently poking around inside Beyond These Stone Walls, an extraordinary website that by all odds should not exist. I once wrote of all the random factors that had to coalesce for this story of a Catholic priest falsely accused and wrongfully imprisoned to be told. “The Prisoner-Priest Behind These Stone Walls” tells that tale, and hopefully has drawn some fair minded souls to this remarkable site.

Spend just a few minutes at the “About” page at Beyond These Stone Walls, and consider its simple math. On September 23, 1994, in Cheshire County Superior Court in Keene, New Hampshire, Judge Arthur Brennan sentenced Catholic priest, Gordon MacRae to consecutive prison terms for a combined sentence of 67 years in prison. The sentence was imposed after a highly problematic jury trial in which MacRae was convicted of having sexually assaulted Thomas Grover during counseling sessions in 1983 when Grover was 15 years old.

The accused priest was 29 years old when his “crimes” — now deemed by many to be fictitious — were claimed to have occurred. MacRae was 41 years old when the sentence was imposed. At this writing [2012] he is 59 years old and still in prison. Barring the just outcome of a pending new appeal based on new evidence in the case, the priest will be 108 years old when his sentence is fully served and he is free to leave prison. There is no other possible conclusion. Judge Arthur Brennan sentenced Father Gordon MacRae to die in the New Hampshire State Prison.

From a pragmatic perspective, and even with an emphasis on retributive justice, this makes little sense. Given that New Hampshire prosecutors sought a pre-trial plea deal that would have released MacRae after one or two years had he been actually guilty or willing to pretend so, a 67-year sentence seems an expensive folly that will cost New Hampshire taxpayers millions of dollars. Even if MacRae’s sentences were imposed concurrently instead of consecutively — an option for judges when defendants have no prior felony record — MacRae would not still be in prison today.

Parole in New Hampshire for someone convicted of a sexual offense — true or not — invariably requires completion of a prison sex offender program which in turn requires an unqualified admission of guilt. Because of the vast numbers of men convicted of similar offenses in New Hampshire — by some estimates more than 40% of the state’s prison population — the waiting list for the prison sex offender program requires that inmates must be within two years of their aggregate minimum sentence to be eligible.

By the time MacRae could fulfill this requirement for parole consideration, over 50 years will have passed between the charged offenses and the “treatment” program. At age 80, this priest’s parole would rest on his ability to recall with consistency the details of fictitious sexual assaults alleged to have occurred when he was 29. What seemed to make perfect sense to Judge Arthur Brennan in this sentence eludes just about everyone else.

Nonetheless, these considerations are all rendered moot. From everything I have read on this case, MacRae is innocent of the claims, and will not say otherwise just to avoid dying in prison. Justice is not served when an innocent defendant is coerced to plead guilty to something he did not do just to discharge a decades-long prison term. Coercive plea deals work well for the guilty, but not for the innocent. Careful readers of this story know that MacRae, sitting alone in a county jail awaiting sentencing, his meager assets wiped out by the trial, his diocese having already publicly condemned him, and his lawyers having abandoned the case for lack of funds to investigate and defend it, was coerced by circumstances into a post-trial plea deal on remaining charges in exchange for a sentence of zero additional time in prison. He and others close to the case described this, then and now, as “a negotiated lie.”

Today, I describe what played out in Judge Arthur Brennan’s court after MacRae was found guilty in his first trial as an extorted lie, and it is nothing new. Attorney Barry Scheck, founder of the Innocence Project, reveals that of the hundreds of DNA exonerations his organization has championed to free the wrongfully imprisoned, a full 25% have involved coerced and extorted plea deals such as that inflicted on Father Gordon MacRae, post trial. It is for abuses such as this that a March 21, 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling vastly expanded judicial oversight of the pressures placed on defendants during plea deals, requiring that competent counsel advise them.

The details of the related, but untried charges against this priest render them highly doubtful as well. The Wall Street Journal’s Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote of these claims brought by Thomas Grover’s brothers and others jumping aboard this cash-cow opportunity in “A Priest’s Story.” I wrote of other details related to these claims in “Police Investigative Misconduct Railroaded an Innocent Catholic Priest” and “Truth in Justice: Was the Wrong Catholic Priest Sent to Prison?” No just person can read these documents and conclude the legitimacy of Father Gordon MacRae’s trial and imprisonment.

A Sentence Devoid of Common Sense

Gordon MacRae, Prisoner No. 67546, at this writing [2012] has been in prison for 18 years. Nearly 30 years have already passed since his charges were claimed to have occurred — charges that new evidence shows never occurred at all. New Hampshire prosecutors were willing to let MacRae out of prison after just one year had he been willing to forgo trial and stand before Judge Brennan to utter a single word, “guilty.”

MacRae refused three such prosecution overtures for a plea deal to end the case with a recommended sentence of only one to three years. One such offer was made to the priest’s lawyers in writing. Another came in the middle of MacRae’s trial. That offer was made just after 27-year-old Thomas Grover wept dramatically from the witness stand as he recounted being forced to endure sexual assaults five times during counseling sessions for his drug problem at age 15 in 1983. He vaguely claimed to return from week to week unable to remember being raped the week before. His heavily coached description of PTSD-induced “out of body experiences” was his only explanation for how such traumatic memories were “repressed.” After this incredulous testimony, the two prosecutors looked at each other and headed for a hallway with MacRae’s lawyer to offer a new plea deal — this time a sentence of one to two years. The priest refused it.

In the end, Judge Arthur Brennan sentenced Defendant Gordon MacRae to more than thirty times the maximum sentence State prosecutors were prepared to request.  Those prosecutors are long since gone. One was inexplicably fired the day after MacRae’s trial ended, and later relocated to another state under a cloud. The other has since committed suicide.

Even a cursory examination of new evidence in the MacRae case warrants vacating his convictions. Additionally, there are elements of the case that could not be part of the appeal process, and are not generally known. For example, MacRae agreed to two pre-trial polygraph examinations in 1994. The polygraph tests were based on the claims of Thomas Grover and his brother, Jonathan Grover, whose accusations amassed most of the indictments for which the priest faced trial. Father MacRae passed the polygraph tests conclusively. Even today, after the passage of many years, the polygraph examiner recalls this case and reported that Father MacRae “did very well” on these investigative tools. Neither Thomas Grover nor Jonathan Grover, nor any other accuser ever agreed to submit to polygraph testing.

There is more. A lot more. David F. Pierre, author of the book, Catholic Priests Falsely Accused and host of The Media Report, performed a public service by reviewing hundreds of pages of court documents and trial transcripts now published at the website of The National Center for Reason and Justice. David Pierre’s summary of these documents, entitled “Alarming New Evidence May Exonerate Imprisoned Priest,” includes the following eye-opening facts:

1. The ex-wife of accuser Thomas Grover has revealed this case as a fraud. Her statement describes him as a “compulsive liar” who “never stated one word of abuse by MacRae” until the prospect of money loomed. She describes him as a “manipulator...who can tell a lie and stick to it ’til its end.” She reports that Grover’s lawyer advised him to “act crazy before the jury” and hired a therapist to heighten the effect. Once Grover got his nearly $200,000 settlement, all therapy came to a halt.

2. Thomas Grover’s adult stepson today states that Grover repeatedly told him before and after trial that he “had never been molested by MacRae,” and that he was “setting MacRae and the Catholic Church up for money.” He reports that Grover laughed and joked with him about this scheme before, during, and after MacRae’s trial.

3. The former wife and stepson both report that before MacRae’s trial, Grover repeatedly sought and obtained cash advances on his projected settlement from his contingency lawyer, a practice that is prohibited in the New Hampshire Code of Professional Conduct for lawyers.

4. Two observers present throughout the trial report having observed the manipulation of Grover’s testimony by therapist Pauline Goupil, M.A., a victim advocate hired by Thomas Grover’s contingency lawyer. According to signed statements Ms. Goupil influenced Grover’s trial testimony using hand signals for him to feign sobbing during specific segments of his testimony. In several instances she was observed placing her index finger over her eye and down her cheek at which point Grover would commence sobbing, disrupting cross examination and, on at least one occasion, prompting Judge Brennan to call a recess.

5. Debra Collett, Thomas Grover’s former drug addiction counselor, today states that Grover made so many claims of sexual abuse in the course of drug treatment that “he appeared to be going for some sort of sex abuse victim world record.” She reports that his claims of sexual abuse targeted his adoptive father and others, but he did not accuse MacRae.

6. Ms. Collett also described that she was threatened by “coercion, intimidation, veiled and more forward threats,” “overtly threatened” and confronted “with threats of arrest” by the investigating police detective to alter her testimony for the trial and “to get me to say what they wanted to hear.”

7. A former accuser of MacRae has today recanted his claim of abuse stating, “I was aware at the time of [the] trial knowing full well that it was all bogus and having heard of the lawsuits and money involved, also the reputations of those who were making accusations.” This former accuser attests that “[Keene, NH Detective James] McLaughlin had me believing that all I had to do was make up a story ... and I could receive a large sum of money as others already had. McLaughlin reminded me of the young child and girlfriend I had and referenced that life could be easier for us with a large amount of money.” This witness reports he was given cash by Det. McLaughlin after this interview.

8. James Abbott, a veteran career Special Agent with the F.B.I., today reports: “In the entirety of my three-year investigation of this matter, I discovered no evidence of MacRae having committed the crimes charged, or any crimes. Indeed, the only thing pointing to any improper behavior by MacRae were Grover’s stories — that were undermined by the people who surrounded him at the time he made his accusations.”

The Money Flows

After Father MacRae was sent to prison, Thomas Grover’s three brothers reportedly walked away from this case with additional settlements from the Diocese of Manchester in excess of $430,000. I have written of these accusations in my column, “Truth in Justice: Was the Wrong Catholic Priest Sent to Prison?” Two of the three brothers also accused another priest, but pre-trial discovery shows no indication that the other priest was interviewed or even investigated.

Following publication of the two-part “A Priest’s Story” in The Wall Street Journal  in 2005, Arthur Brennan defended his presiding over this trial and his sentence of MacRae by stating that it was all “more complex” than what Dorothy Rabinowitz reported. Indeed it was, and the complexities which continue to surface leave many doubts about the justice of the MacRae trial and the legitimacy of its entire pre-trial investigation and prosecution.

Arthur Brennan took early retirement from the New Hampshire bench for a brief stint with the U.S. State Department’s Office of Transparency and Accountability in Iraq. The trial and sentence  of Gordon MacRae have transparency and accountability issues of their own still to be resolved.

Do the Math! Judge Arthur Brennan sentenced Father Gordon MacRae to die in a New Hampshire prison. It’s an outcome I suspect this priest would not shrink from if it comes down to it. For the rest of us, evidence now spells out clearly the travesty of justice this case was — and still is.

“We are disgusted with the lack of integrity in Congress, the Senate, The White House and the U.S. Supreme Court. We will stop these pretenders from stealing our freedom and our universal human rights.”

— By Arthur Brennan, quoted from “Forty years later, a new call to protest” (August 21, 2011).

Justice Delayed for Father MacRae

Gordon MacRae is escorted out of the Cheshire County Superior Courthouse in Keene, N.H., Sept. 23, 1994.

PHOTO: JIM COLE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A list of officers with credibility issues calls his 1994 conviction into question.

The Wall Street Journal

By Harvey Silverglate | October 10, 2022

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PREFACE

The long saga of Fr. Gordon MacRae is likely to soon end

By Harvey A. Silverglate, Esq — November 11, 2022:

To the readers on my opt-in list of those who have chosen to receive my occasional columns and articles:

Many of you are likely familiar with the case of Father Gordon MacRae, the Catholic priest in New Hampshire who got caught up in the massive child sex abuse epidemic that engulfed the Catholic Church some time ago, remnants of which continue to come to public attention even now. This abuse scandal is particularly well known to Boston-area residents since The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for its reporting of the scandal — a scandal that resulted in the exile of Boston Cardinal Bernard Law to a minor position in Rome in order to keep him safe from potential indictment for turning a blind eye toward widespread abuse. The ground-breaking work of the Spotlight Team resulted in an Oscar-winning motion picture entitled “Spotlight.”

However, as the legendary baseball player (and pundit) Yogi Berra once said: “It ain’t over until it’s over.” A startling development in the MacRae case indicates a quite decent possibility — I would say a probability — that post-conviction litigation almost certain to begin shortly will exonerate and free Fr. MacRae.

Harvey Silverglate, Esq

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Father Gordon MacRae has been in prison since 1994, when a New Hampshire jury convicted him of sexual assault and he was sentenced to 33½ to 67 years. The charges against him were “built by a determined sex-abuse investigator and an atmosphere in which accusation was, in effect, all the proof required to bring a guilty verdict,” the Journal’s Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote in 2013. Father MacRae has maintained his innocence all along.

A new development will soon provide Granite State courts an opportunity to reconsider Father MacRae’s conviction. The state attorney general has published a so-called Laurie List of law-enforcement officers with credibility problems. The list is named for State v. Laurie, a 1995 case in which the state supreme court overturned a conviction after exposure of a detective’s dishonest conduct.

The list initially included Detective James F. McLaughlin of the Keene Police Department, who was the lead investigator in the MacRae case. He made the list for alleged “falsification of records” in an unrelated case in 1985. Detective McLaughlin successfully petitioned to have his name removed from the list, but the New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism sued to learn who had been removed. (Detective McLaughlin has declined to respond to local press requests for comment on the list.)

Father MacRae plans to ask a court to throw out his conviction, arguing that Thomas Grover, his only accuser at trial, testified falsely at Detective McLaughlin’s behest. As Ms. Rabinowitz has documented, Detective McLaughlin’s own reports showed that he attempted a sting by writing a letter to Father MacRae and forging the signature of Jon Grover, the accuser’s brother. According to supporters of Father MacRae who run the website BeyondTheseStoneWalls.com, Detective McLaughlin failed to produce and maintain recordings of interviews with alleged victims, despite making adamant statements about the importance of recordings in child-abuse investigations.

In a May 1994 lawsuit, Father MacRae alleged that Detective McLaughlin accused the priest of having taken pornographic photographs of one of the alleged victims. No such photos were ever found. (Detective McLaughlin filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice, which the judge denied. After Father MacRae was convicted in September 1994, the judge dismissed the suit without prejudice.)

Ms. Rabinowitz wrote a series of stories about such cases beginning in the late 1980s. False and implausible accusations of child sexual abuse led to conviction and imprisonment of innocent people from New York and Florida to Washington state.

All this happened because “believe the children” became a nationwide mantra. Society has a duty to protect young children—but also to assess accusations rationally and fairly, especially when they’re improbable, spectacular and horrifying. Journalists, too, must maintain a level of skepticism when cases as improbable as these arise. Any reporter who covers the legal system should have recognized the high probability that these accusations were false.

Most of the defendants in these cases were ultimately released, but their lives had been ruined. The recent development in Father MacRae’s case offers hope of another such bittersweet vindication.

Harvey A. Silverglate is a Boston-based criminal-defense and civil-liberties lawyer.

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RELATED, by David F. Pierre, Jr. and The Media Report: “Twice Is a Charm? Wall St. Journal Again Profiles Stunning Case of Wrongfully Convicted Priest Fr. Gordon MacRae”

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Addendum by the Author, Harvey Silverglate

“In today’s Wall Street Journal, I have a column about a long-lingering miscarriage of justice that might, I suggest, be on the verge of producing justice at long last. The subject is the Catholic priest Father Gordon MacRae who has spent many years in prison for a crime that I, along with many others, feel strongly that he did not commit.

With regard to this particular genre of cases, I recommend that you read Dorothy Rabinowitz’ 2003 book entitled No Crueler Tyrannies: Accusation, False Witness, and Other Terrors of Our Times. Ms. Rabinowitz won a Pulitzer Prize for her path-breaking exposes of wrongful convictions in child sex-abuse cases (including, but not limited to, the MacRae case).

“Those of you from Massachusetts might remember our own local version of this false-accusation phenomenon that swept the nation during a time of particularly intense vulnerability and gullibility. We had the prosecution/persecution of Bernard F. Baran, Jr., out in Western Massachusetts, whose innocence ultimately got him released from a lengthy prison sentence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Baran (Full disclosure: I worked on the Baran case, along with fellow Massachusetts criminal defense counsel John Swomley and Eric Tennen.) Massachusetts was also, shamefully, the location of the prosecution/persecution of the Amirault family, which is featured in Ms. Rabinowitz’s aforesaid book. (Full disclosure: I represented defendant Gerald Amirault at his parole hearing. The Parole Board granted parole. One member of the Board confided to me that the Board was convinced that the crime never happened, but it had the power only to release an innocent convict from prison, not to grant pardons. Gerald to this day wears an ankle-bracelet, a heavy burden for an innocent person.)

“Those interested in the problem of wrongful convictions are also advised to take a look at a recently-published book by Northeastern Law School Professor Daniel S. Medwed, entitled Barred: Why the Innocent Can’t Get out of Prison. And, of course, an occasional visit should be paid to the website of The National Innocence Project, co-founded and still led by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld. Similarly, there is the Boston-based organization dubbed The National Center for Reason and Justice, led by Robert D. (“Bob”) Chatelle. (Disclosure: I am on the organization’s advisory board. The NCRJ also sponsors the defense of Fr. Gordon MacRae.) And the problem of wrongful convictions is not reserved to state prosecutions. Consider my 2009 book (updated in 2011) Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent.”