Little Rascals Charges Dropped

EDENTON, N.C.: Sex abuse charges have been dropped against Little Rascals Day Care Center owner Robert Kelly and cook Kathryn Wilson, eight years after tales of odd sex games at the nursery school fueled child abuse fears nationwide. Having seen their children relive their experiences at the hands of Kelly and his employees during an earlier trial, parents were reluctant to have them testify again, prosecutors said. A whopping 429 counts of sexual abuse against 29 children were brought against Kelly, his wife Elizabeth, and five other adults in the original 1989 case. Although Kelly and Wilson were sentenced to life in prison, procedural mistakes made during the trial resulted in the convictions being overturned. If not for their desire to "allow (the children's) wounds to heal," prosecutors say evidence against the pair would certainly end in a fresh conviction on the 99 charges remaining against them. While that knowledge might provide scant comfort to some, for Susan Small, mother of two of the Little Rascals victims, seeing the abuses aired in a public forum has been vengeance enough. "I'm at peace with the decision. I don't feel like the system has let me down."