By: David Bloomberg Re: Detroit Lawsuits (File: DETSUITS.ZIP) To: MIT.EDU!witchhunt PRODIG

By: David Bloomberg
Re: Detroit Lawsuits

(File:  DETSUITS.ZIP)

From: romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu!prodigy.com!BSAK18A  (MR ROGER L WHITE)
To: MIT.EDU!witchhunt

PRODIGY(R) interactive personal service            01/12         4:17 PM
Number of notes exported:     1
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^   Board:  MEDICAL SUPPORT BB   ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 Topic:  OTHER MEDICAL        ^^^^^^^^^^^^
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Board:      MEDICAL SUPPORT BB
Topic:      OTHER MEDICAL
Subject:    FMS: NEWS ARTICLE
DETROIT NEWS, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1995

Justices will consider if two women from Metro Detroit may use evidence
from "repressed memory" in pending lawsuits.

Lansing - Marlene Lemmerman of Birmingham says her father and aunt sexually
abused her from 1939, when she was only 3, until 1949 - assaults her mind
blocked out until a series of nightmares and flashbacks in 1989. Gale
Williford of Clinton Township says her father molested her from 1947 to
1957, when she turned 15, and that she also repressed those memories until
psychotherapy in 1992.

On Thursday, the Michigan Supreme Court considers whether to let Lemmerman
and Williford pursue civil suits stemming from decades-old allegations. The
validity and reliability of "repressed memories" of childhood sexual abuse
is a question confronting courts countrywide. Such claims sometimes arise
from pointed questioning by counselors, according to skeptics in the legal
and mental health fields. But attorney Lore Rogers of Ann Arbor, handling
Lemmerman's case, has confidence in belated recollections. "There are many
adults who, as children, repressed the memory of being abused by a parent
or other significant adult", she said. "We have a long history in our
culture of not believing children and women who were sexual assault
victims", Rogers said. "We still view them as less credible than any other
kind of crime victim."

However, University of Michigan psychologist Melvin Guyer says there's no
scientific basis for what he calls "false memories". He argues that people
actually are more apt to remember abuse or other trauma than ordinary
events. "Corroboration is necessary for the interests of justice and
because memory is such a fragile thing," said Guyer, a psychiatry professor
at UM Medical School. "People routinely remember things that didn't happen,
and remember them with a great certainty. People believe memory is like a
videotape, but it's not."

Lemmerman, 58, in 1990 sued the estate of her late father, Benjamin Fealk,
and her aunt Rachael Levy. The Oakland County suit also accused her mother,
Bella, of attacking her with scissors when Lemmerman reported the
molestation. A 1993 Macomb County suit by Williford, 52, alleged systematic
sexual abuse by her father, Irwin Bieske. In both cases, all defendants
denied wrongdoing and said no independent evidence exists. They also said
the suits were filed decades after legal deadlines for such claims had
expired. But the Court of Appeals ruled the deadline for suing had been
extended by the "disability of insanity", namely the women's repression of
traumatic memories.

In the Supreme Court review, Levy's lawyer, Martin Fealk of Farmington
Hills, argues that memories of childhood sexual abuse recovered through
psychotherapy are so inherently unreliable that independent evidence is
essential. The Supreme Court is hearing the cases Thursday. Chief Justice
James Brickley begins presiding in this court session, which starts today,
and new Justice Elizabeth Weaver joins the bench.   END OF ARTICLE