When you are accused of a crime, the prosecution has vast financial resources. An effective defense or appeal can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Only the very wealthy can match the power of the state. Community groups frequently set up defense funds to raise money for the falsely accused and wrongfully convicted. But anyone who has ever been involved in such an effort knows that they are seriously handicapped because donations are not tax-deductible. The IRS does not grant 501(c)(3) status to groups established to help a specific individual. The NCRJ, however, is an educational organization that is also committed to protecting the civil rights of all accused persons. The IRS has declared us exempt from federal income tax as an organization described in Section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code. We can and do make donations to community groups working for specific prisoners, upon the approval of the NCRJ Board of Directors. Many of our donors do not deduct their NCRJ donations. If you make a tax-deductible donation to the NCRJ, you may leave it to us to distribute the money to those whose need is greatest at the time. Or you may request that your funds be used to help one or more of the people whose cases our Board has approved for sponsorship. We will take your desires into serious consideration. But to safeguard your tax deduction, we cannot promise to deposit any or all of the money into the fund.

At present, we have approved the following cases for sponsorship:

Nancy Smith and Joseph Allen were convicted of sexually abusing young children in August of 1994. Smith, a 37-year-old single mother with four children, was a bus driver for the Lorain, Ohio Head Start. Read More.

The Amirault Family. For 18 years, Violet Amirault ran a thriving and well-loved daycare center in Malden, Massachusetts. In later years, she was assisted by her son, Gerald, and her daughter, Cheryl. Read more.

Bernard Baran was 19 and working in a daycare when the panic ravaged the nation in the early 80s. He was sent to prison for 22 years, where he was raped, beaten, and denied adequate medical care. Read more.

Khemwatie Bedassie. The daycare panic is not over. This tragic case was complicated by anti- immigrant bigotry.

Read More.

Jack Carroll. The accusations in this case arose after the then 13-year-old daughter of Jack Carroll’s ex-wife reported to a friend that she was having dreams that an unidentified “someone” was touching her. Read More.

Bruce Clairmont. Bruce Clairmont's story begins in June, 1991, when he and his wife of 18 years, Deborah, separated. At that time, two of the children stated their preference to live with their father. Read More.

Gunther Fiek. On Sunday night, December 3, 2000, Gunther was lying on the couch with his wife, watching a movie, when he received a phone call from the father of one of his students. He told Gunther that he needed to see him immediately and they agreed to meet at about 10 PM in the church parking lot. Read More.

Elsie Oscarson. On Dec. 3, 2004, I went to Courtroom 2A of the Chittenden County District Court in Burlington, Vermont, to attend a re-sentencing hearing for Elsie Oscarson, who had been convicted (falsely, I believe) of sexually abusing her two sons, Joey and Jesse, and had been sentenced to two concurrent sentences of 35 years to life. Read More.

Bruce Perkins. The frightening thing about "this nightmare" is that such a nightmare could happen to anyone. Once a sexual abuse allegation is made, and the wheels of the Child Protective Services system begin to roll, logic and presumed innocence can fly out the window. Read More.

James Rodriguez and others. The allegations of horrific sexual abuse started when Randy claimed he had been raped by his father and 10 other men at a park in Riverside. Read More.

Victor Rosario. In development.

Jorge Sanchez. In development.

Father Paul Shanley, 76, became one of the highest-profile figures in the Catholic abuse scandal that gripped the state in 2002. But while Shanley’s conviction in February was widely interpreted as a closing chapter in the scandal, his case bears classic warning signs of a wrongful conviction. Read More.

Ryan Smith was arrested at 13. "On Friday, April 17th 1998, at 5:30 p.m., life as I knew it would change forever, as an Ashland police officer knocked at my front door. He asked if he could have a moment of my time, and he introduced himself as Officer Alderman. Read More.

Onsy Zachary was falsely accused by his brother, who wants him deported. Onsy and his wife, Fadia, fled Egypt to escape religious persecution and sought religious asylum in the U.S. Read More.

Jesse Friedman. The story of Jesse's wrongful conviction is told in the acclaimed motion picture, Capturing the Friedmans. Read More.

Francisco Fuster, of Miami, FL, aged 36, was convicted in 1985 on 14 counts of child abuse. The children described the chanting of prayers to Satan, eating someone's head, and riding on sharks. Read More.

Robert Halsey drove a school bus for twenty years, delivering an entire generation of Lanesboro children to school. He and his wife raised one daughter and he had no criminal record. Read More.

In 1992 Fran and Dan Keller were sent to prison for sexually abusing a child in their suburban Austin Day Care Center. But parents have convinced themselves that the Kellers belong to a cult that tortured and brainwashed their kids and turned them into Satan’s slaves. Read More.

Ed Kramer is now in his 8th year of incarceration without trial (more than 14 years by Georgia’s algorithm for “time served”). Georgia's longest pre-trial detainee, Ed was charged on August 25, 2000 with crimes he did not commit; he has always maintained his innocence. Read More.

Dr. James Krivacska. In development.

Father Gordon MacRae. Another bogus false memory case against a Catholic priest. Read More.

 

Lynn Malcom. It all started on a quiet, normal day in January 1987. I had opened a daycare for only 2 1/2 months before the month of April when I was arrested for raping, molesting and violently abusing several children including my own. Read More.

The case of Dr. Robert Bruce Craft meets our criteria for fiscal sponsorship, but there is no current fund-raising activity for his case. But please read about his case for its educational value.