ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 21, 1996 TAG: 9603210045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHICAGO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Prosecutors dropped all criminal charges Wednesday against a couple whose four children claimed they had been fed rats and cockroaches, sexually abused and injected with drugs by their father.
Even in an age when child abuse has become shockingly common, their allegations seemed too horrible to believe. And after the children recanted, telling a newspaper they'd made it all up, prosecutors realized they couldn't prove their case.
Gerald Hill was set free to the applause of relatives after prosecutors told a Cook County judge they were dropping the 1,200-count indictment against him.
``It is his day. He has stood in court and the right thing has happened,'' said Hill's lawyer, Elliott Price.
Four sexual assault charges against Barbara Hill were dropped at a separate hearing Wednesday.
``I'm glad to be out, and I thank the Lord for letting me come home,'' she told reporters. ``I just want to go on with my life with me and my kids and be happy now.''
The case disintegrated after all but one of the four children, ages 5, 10, 11 and 12, told a Chicago Tribune reporter they'd made the whole thing up, then stuck by their recantations.
First assistant Cook County state's attorney Andrea Zopp would not say whether she still thinks the abuse took place.
``We did look closely at [the allegations] when we charged them,'' Zopp said. ``Sometimes even having done that, the case does not fold out the way you wanted to.
It was a stark departure from the picture prosecutors painted after announcing the indictment Feb. 5.
On the record, prosecutors had said Hill molested the children and injected them with drugs. Off the record, they said the parents were so depraved, they fed their children rats and roaches.
Judge Mary Maxwell Thomas said the case ``should be a stern reminder to prosecutors'' to proceed cautiously when spectacular abuse allegations arise.
The children are in the state's protective custody. Hill still faces allegations in Cook County juvenile court, where the burden of proof is lower than that of criminal court.
Cook County Public Guardian Patrick Murphy, who represents the children, said he would oppose any effort by Hill to regain custody.
``There is a whole different standard in juvenile court,'' Murphy said. ``He faces allegations of abandoning, neglecting and abusing the children. We think we can prove that.''
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