THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 22, 1995 TAG: 9501230191
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 206 lines
It had been a particularly hideous day at one of the Little Rascals child sex abuse trials, and Nancy Lamb, a special prosecutor, was tense and tired when she flopped into her office chair after court adjourned.
The phone rang.
It was her day care calling, the Elizabeth City nursery where her own 3-year-old son spent many days while Nancy was in court accusing an unlikely group of Edenton citizens of revolting child abuse acts.
``The day-care supervisor told me my son was being aggressive; causing trouble,'' said Nancy.
``And I wept.''
For it was then that Lamb realized she, too, had become one of the Little Rascals' walking wounded.
``I knew it was my fault; that my son's aggressive behavior was because I had neglected him by being away so much with the trials,'' she said.
For Lamb, more often a coolly controlled Associate North Carolina Attorney General, it was a shocking moment of self-discovery. Over the years, the Little Rascals drama had demonstrated a cruel ability to reach far beyond the courtroom. Before the first trials were concluded, whole communities were polarized; friends became enemies, and the psychopathology of child sexual molestation became the topic of national argument.
And it drove Lamb, stylish star of nationally televised Little Rascals trial scenes, to invent a better way to prosecute child abuse cases.
``That was one of the reasons I left the Attorney General's office and returned to a prosecutor's job with the District Attorney's staff in Elizabeth City,'' she said. ``I felt I could do more at that level.''
Lamb, who looks more 30 than 39, was rehired last year as a senior assistant district attorney in the seven-county 1st Judicial District.
Frank Parrish, the new district attorney, listened to Lamb's ideas about creating a prosecution stance that was more protective and caring for the children involved in the brutality of a sex trial.
``The District Attorney is an old friend and colleague, and he has given me permission to organize a special child-abuse team. In fact, he's helping me,'' Lamb said.
It's not surprising.
Lamb and Parrish were assistant district attorneys together before Lamb was assigned to the Little Rascals case.
In 1992, Parrish was honored by the National Association of Government Attorneys in Capital Litigation as the ``most compassionate'' murder trial prosecutor in two U.S. judicial districts. The award may seem like a quirky contradiction in terms, but Parrish is noted for the humanity he can extend even to a murderer.
The resonance for human kindness that shows up in Parrish is also evident in Lamb, the mother of three small children and the wife of Zee B. Lamb, an Elizabeth City attorney who is also chairman of the Pasquotank County Board.
To some who watched Lamb help convict Robert F. Kelly Jr., the Little Rascals co-owner who got 12 life terms, the elegant prosecutor with the dark bobbed hair and flashing eyes at times seemed like vengeance personified.
``No. No vengeance,'' said Lamb, ``That's way off . . .
``You don't think about vengeance. You think about the children! The children!
``They have nobody else to look out for them. You're the people's lawyer, speaking for children who have no voice. You shield them from further cruelty. You'll never know how I dreaded putting a child on the witness stand; how many times I tried to hide my tears.''
Lamb believes there is more child sex-abuse than ever in an increasingly amoral and permissive society.
``All the more reason to improve the way we prosecute these cases. I feel personally obligated to make it easier for every mother whose child is a victim.''
The first step, she thinks, is speeding up the sluggish judicial process in child abuse cases.
``It took five years between the first Little Rascals accusations in Edenton and the time we finally went to trial and won convictions. We now know that such delay places enormous emotional stress on the children, as well as on their parents and their friends and their neighbors,'' Lamb said.
``Under our new procedure, we'll quickly complete the initial interrogations of the children. That's when you make what are often the most perceptive judgments,'' she said. ``And without any intended criticism of other agencies, it is supremely important for the District Attorney's office - the prosecutor - to be in on the case from the very beginning.''
The reason is simple and obvious, she said.
``Under the old system, the first complaint usually goes to a social service agency or the police or both,'' Lamb said, ``Then there is invariably a delay while social services and law enforcement investigate. And then comes the paper shuffling, and it may be weeks, months, or even years before it all ends up in the District Attorney's office. By then the case is often scattered piecemeal in various folders and reports that have separately accumulated.
``At that late and often confused point, when the grand jurors are probably waiting for you, it's hard for any District Attorney to get a clear, human view of what happened.
``You see, the longer the delays, the more the children and parents are exposed to gossip and rumors that create further stresses in whole communities.
``And attitudes of key witnesses can change with delay because of social pressures. Children can forget. The defense welcomes these delays. I wonder how many guilty child molesters have never been prosecuted.
``And the children, particularly, are likely to be emotionally damaged by a long wait before a trial. They grow up a little. They're sure their friends - peers - are talking about them.''
The gut-grabbing enormity of the Little Rascals drama first hit Lamb during a study of reports turned in by investigators who had questioned some of the children months before.
``There was one statement by a little kid, a 4-year-old, about the color of semen.
``Good grief! How could a child know something like that?''
Lamb threw herself heart and soul into a prosecution that eventually resulted in the convictions of Kelly, the Little Rascals co-owner, and a life sentence for Katherine Dawn Wilson, a convicted cook at the day-care center. Kelly's wife, Betsy, pleaded no contest, along with Willard Scott Privott, an Edenton photographer.
Three cases are still to be tried.
But if Lamb has her way, there will be no more five-year delays of child abuse trials in the 1st Judicial District. Her new team will see to that.
From now on, Lamb or Samantha Edwards, a 29-year old Assistant District Attorney in Elizabeth City, will sit in on initial interrogations. They will be assisted by Melanie Jordan, 33, a former probation officer, and George M. Ryan, 41, a special investigator with the DA's office.
Jordan is a Meredith College graduate and, after paralegal training, was hired by Parrish this year and assigned to Lamb's new team.
Ryan is a former airborne soldier and federal undercover agent who came to the DA's office from the Gates County sheriff's department.
``Everyone on the team is a trained investigator and we're developing methods of interrogation that won't frighten children and will also prevent us from unwittingly asking leading questions,'' said Lamb.
``We also plan to have `court schools' for young victims or witnesses to familiarize them with what happens in a courtroom. Kids can be terrified by things that they don't understand; that big man in black up on the bench can be intimidating. We think this will help children be more at ease when they testify. We tested the idea with Little Rascals and it helped,'' said Lamb.
To avoid putting too many initial questioners in a room with a young victim, Lamb wants to have at least one special interrogation area equipped with two-way mirrors.
``This is becoming a standard procedure to prevent confusion and trauma during questioning of young witnesses or victims,'' she said.
``The important thing is to have someone from the District Attorney's office actually observing during the questioning. It's particularly important to me, as a mother, to be able to evaluate the emotional responses of a child before deciding on whether to not to put the child on the stand.
``It's awful to put a child in the witness chair with a courtroom full of staring people. I still lose sleep just thinking about it.''
At this point, Nancy Lamb's voice becomes courtroom-harsh:
``Our first responsibility - always! - is to the children. They have no one else.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
DREW C. WILSON/Staff
Prosecutors Nancy Lamb and Frank Parrish formed a new way to handle
child-abuse cases to avoid problems experienced in the infamous
Little Rascals case.
Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS/File
Nancy Lamb waits in the courtroom in 1992 for a verdict in one of
the Little Rascals child-abuse cases.
Graphics
PARALLEL PROSECUTORS
Some Albemarle court attendants are discussing a similarity they
see between Nancy Lamb, 39, the Little Rascals prosecutor, and
Marcia Clark, 41, the assistant district attorney in the O.J.
Simpson trial.
Both have turned down hard-won promotions to return to the
rough-and-tumble world of criminal prosecution. Both are striking
brunettes with an intense sense of courtroom theater.
In 1993, while prosecuting a man charged with a double murder,
Clark was quoted in a New Yorker magazine interview as saying:
We speak of justice for a defendant, but what about justice for
the victim? The notion of justice is not a one-sided thing . . .
Their (the victims') voices are forever silenced, and the love
they gave so freely and to so many is now cut off, and now mine is
the only voice left to speak for them, to cry out for justice on
their behalf.''
The jury returned a guilty verdict.
NANCY BEASLEY LAMB
Nancy B. Lamb, now 39, was an assistant district attorney in
Elizabeth City when she was first assigned to the Little Rascals
cases in Edenton. The initial investigation and prosecution was
conducted by H.P. Williams Jr., then District Attorney for the 1st
Judicial District.
Little Rascals soon commanded national attention, and Deputy
North Carolina Attorney General William Hart took over the case as a
special prosecutor to allow Williams to return to his duties as
District Attorney. Lamb was named an associate attorney general and
directed to join Hart.
Lamb's courtroom ability and striking appearance soon made her a
familiar figure as national TV networks began covering Little
Rascals. Few spectators in the courtrooms were aware of the intense
strain that the trials imposed on Lamb, the mother of a 6-year-old
son and two daughters, 3 and 8 months.
Nancy Lamb was born in Troy, N.C., and completed undergraduate
studies at Appalachian State University before graduating from Wake
Forest University law school. She joined the Elizabeth City District
Attorney's staff soon after graduating.
KEYWORDS: DAY CARE CENTERS CHILD ABUSE SEX CRIME
CHILD MOLESTER TRIAL PROSECUTORS
PROFILE BIOGRAPHY by CNB