In February 1987, police in Ashland, Massachusetts, began investigating a case of reported child sex abuse involving C. Stewart .
The allegations came in the wake of more than a decade of national hysteria over claims of sexual abuse of children. Dozens of people were targeted. Children, subjected to leading and suggestive questioning by police and social workers, told implausible stories.
Stewart, who was then 33 years old, worked for a local oil company. He and his wife, T. Stewart, who was 29 years old, and their four children lived on a quiet street, with just six other houses.
The complaints were made by sisters Patricia M. and Linda M. in January 1987 and involved four girls: Patricia M.'s daughters, 7-year-old K.L. and her 5-year-old sister E.L., and Linda M.'s daughters, 7-year-old J.M. and her 5-year-old sister, L.M. The girls were first cousins. Their maternal grandparents lived across the street from the Stewarts, and the girls had lived in that house at various times and played with the Stewarts’ daughter, 8-year-old C.S, and a neighbor, 10-year-old B.M. The complaint accusations went back to 1984 when the complainants were 2 and 4 years old.
Officer Joseph Magnani first interviewed the cousins on February 16, 1987. The interviews were not recorded, although Magnani made notes. On March 5, 1987, Magnani searched the Stewart home. The children had said in their interviews that the purported abuse had occurred in the basement, which contained an apartment as well as a small utility room. Magnani seized some knives from a kitchen drawer in the basement apartment and would later testify that he believed the objects matched the children’s descriptions of weapons used by C. Stewart and others. From a closet in one of the basement bedrooms, Magnani seized what was described as a “fur item,” but was actually a blanket.
A grand jury in Middlesex County indicted C. Stewart on July 2, 1987, on four charges of forcible rape of a child, four charges of indecent assault of a child under 14 years old, two counts of causing a child to pose for sexually explicit photographs, and three counts of administering a drug for the purpose of unlawful sexual intercourse.
In September 1987, C. Stewart filed a motion to dismiss. His attorney said that although his daughter and B.M. had each given statements to Magnani denying anything unusual happened in the basement, the grand jury had not heard this exculpatory evidence.
At an evidentiary hearing on September 22, 1987, Magnani testified that C.S. and B.M. had denied any abuse occurred but that both girls seemed nervous and not responsive to many of his questions.
Judge James McDaniel Jr. denied Stewart’s motion to dismiss on November 30, 1987. He said, “The failure of the prosecutor to present the contested purported exculpatory evidence to the grand jury in no way impaired the integrity of that body.”
On December 10, 1987, a grand jury indicted T. Stewart for the same offenses as her husband, plus two additional counts of posing children for sexually explicit photographs and one additional count of drugging a child. Like her husband, T. Stewart moved to dismiss the indictment based on the state’s failure to disclose the exculpatory statements. Judge McDaniel denied that motion as well.
The indictments said that the purported abuse of K.L. and E.L. occurred between the spring of 1984 and November 1, 1986, “primarily spring, summer and fall 1984, summer and fall 1985, and summer and fall 1986.” For J.M. and L.M., the purported abuse occurred between 1985 and November 1, 1986, “primarily summer and fall 1985 and summer and fall 1986.”
On March 29, 1988, Judge McDaniel dismissed the indictments involving the photographs. This came a month after a ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court struck down the constitutionality of that criminal statute.
The Stewarts’ trial in Middlesex County Superior Court began on June 21, 1988.
The four girls each testified. Their testimony was inconsistent and often fantastical. Their descriptions of the basement were at odds with its actual layout. Several of the girls testified that the Stewarts threatened to feed them to the wolves and kill their families if they told anyone what had occurred in the basement. They also said C. Stewart wore a wolf costume and a wolf mask, which one of the girls described as having a big nose, red mouth, and pointy teeth; and they heard howling noises, which they later identified as coming from the Michael Jackson song “Thriller.” One went further and testified that sometimes an animal, which she was told was a wolf, was in the basement. One of the girls testified that T. Stewart wore a red dress, and C. Stewart said his wife was the devil and that she would eat them up in the night if they ever told their parents. The girls testified that they themselves dressed up like animals in the basement, including as a deer, a skunk, a dog, a cat, and a rabbit.
The girls testified that they returned to the Stewart basement multiple times at B.M.'s suggestion or because she ordered them into the basement at knifepoint. They testified that B.M. and C.S. participated in the abuse. Some of the girls testified that men called "Glen" or "unc" or "Leo" were also in the basement. E.L. testified that a man in the basement gave them pills and that T. Stewart showed the girls how to lick their fingers, place them in a bowl of “white stuff” and then put the white stuff in their nose. E.L. said she felt sick after she did this.
Linda M., the mother of J.M. and L.M., testified that she and her girls lived across the street from the Stewarts between July 1985 and June 1986. She said it was L.M. who first told her about an alleged incident in the basement, initially saying that the Stewarts’ middle son, J.S., who would have turned 4 years old in the summer of 1986, had touched her sexually. Linda said she asked L.M. if it was J.S. or the Stewarts’ oldest son, who was then 7 years old and known as Little [C.]” The girl said just J.S. Linda M. testified that L.M. also complained that J.S. "stuffed sand up her rectal hole."
The next week, Linda testified, her niece, E.L., said she had also been in the basement. Linda said E.L. told her “that there were wolves behind her grandmother’s house, that [B.M.] would come up in the night and stab her and feed her to wolves, if she didn’t do what she was told … she talked about [J.S.] and Little [C.] down in the cellar, pulling their pants down.”
Later, she testified, Linda and her sister, Patricia, asked K.L., “Are we … talking about little [C.] or big [C.] being down in the basement with you?” She said that K.L. said it was “big [C.].”
Judith M., the sister of Linda and Patricia and an aunt of the four cousins, was a health care worker. She testified that she spoke with her nieces several times in 1987 and had some of the children use anatomically correct dolls to demonstrate what they said happened in the basement. She said L.M. took off all the clothes of a doll she named for herself and all the clothes off a doll she named C. and put the two dolls together. She testified that L.M.’s actions indicated that the C. doll was touching L.M.’s vagina. L.M. also said that T. Stewart was upstairs on the telephone at the time, Judith testified.
Judith testified that months later, in December 1987, L.M. told her that T. Stewart had been in the basement and was not always wearing clothes and that she touched L.M. on the chest and bottom.
Judith also testified that J.M. had told her that she wasn’t abused.
Magnani, the police officer, testified about his investigation. He said that he quickly suspected C. Stewart. He began his interviews by telling the children they were "victims," and he ended his interviews with "positive reinforcement" by telling them that he was “proud” of each of them.
He also testified about what the girls told him during the interviews. In these interviews, based on Magnani’s notes, the girls’ descriptions of the alleged actions of C. Stewart and T. Stewart were often at odds with their testimony. In particular, three of the girls said the reason they said in many of their 1987 interviews that T. Stewart wasn’t present and that she was upstairs taking care of her baby was because they feared her more than C. Stewart. None of the girls testified about this fear. Instead, they had testified that they had just forgotten.
Attorneys for the Stewarts moved to strike much of this testimony, asserting that it was non-corroborative hearsay. Judge McDaniel overruled their objections. The defense had made similar unsuccessful motions to strike parts of the testimony of Linda M. and Judith M.
Magnani testified that J.M. told him she wasn’t abused. “She did tell me that her cousins and her sister would go into the cellar and play, but she never did,” he said. “I asked her why, and she said she didn’t want what happened to her cousins and to her sister to happen to her.”
Magnani also testified about the layout of the basement. It had a small furnished apartment—with a bathroom, two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room—and a narrow L-shaped utility area that contained the washer and dryer, and heater and oil burner. There was no large open space, and the utility room had no pole and no internal staircase, which contradicted the testimony of the girls.
C. Stewart and his wife both testified and denied sexually abusing any of the girls or having been in the basement with them. They also said that neither of them had ever worn the fur blanket seized by Magnani or worn anything that resembled a wolf mask or head.
Edward Sullivan, who had lived in the basement apartment from October 1985 until March 1988, testified that the fur blanket was his and that he brought it to the apartment in November 1985. Sullivan said he and C. Stewart worked at the same oil company, but they did not meet until September 1985.
The Stewarts’ three oldest children—C.S., J.S., and C. Jr.—each testified. They all denied any involvement in acts of sexual abuse or knowledge of the allegations. B.M. testified that she never threatened the girls, pointed a knife at them, or engaged in any sexual activities with them. She testified that she had never witnessed any of the alleged abuse. She never saw the Stewarts wear a wolf costume or without their clothes on; never saw them give any of the children white powder, pills, or cigarettes; and never saw them photograph the children without their clothes on.
B.M.’s mother testified that B.M. and her family were away on vacation from July 20, 1985, until just before Labor Day of that year.
The Stewarts’ 19-year-old babysitter, M.S., who also lived in the neighborhood, testified that she had known the Stewarts for eight years at the time of the trial and had babysat for B.M., K.L. and E.L.
M.S. said she helped T. Stewart with her kids during the summer when C. Stewart was at work. She said the Stewart children were supervised when they played with the other children, and the children played outside, not in the basement. She testified that she never saw either C. or T. Stewart in the basement and never heard or saw anything unusual at the Stewart home. She said she never saw any animal costumes at the Stewart home, never heard any animal sounds there, and never saw marijuana cigarettes, pills, or white powder there.
The defense also presented the testimony of two expert witnesses. A clinical psychologist testified that anatomically correct dolls are not a useful tool for determining whether children have been abused. A chemist from the Massachusetts Crime Lab testified that he tested the basement and items found in the basement for blood and seminal fluids but found nothing of evidentiary value.
The defense sought to call three character witnesses, including a minister, to testify about the good reputations of C. Stewart and T. Stewart. Judge McDaniel barred the jury from hearing this testimony, ruling that the defense had not laid a proper foundation for its admission.
Separately, the defense also sought to introduce various medical and social-service records about the girls, including an unsubstantiated complaint of sexual abuse that K.L. had made in 1983 against her father. The defense also sought to introduce notes written by Linda M. about statements made by her daughters, which were fantastical and inconsistent with their testimony. In addition to accusations against the Stewarts and their children, the notes: accused the girls' grandfather of being a drug dealer who worked for the devil; accused an aunt of providing him with cancer-causing drugs that he hid in food; accused their grandmother of killing Linda M.'s baby; and accused their cousins’ mother of being a devil and punching and hitting the children. Judge McDaniel also ruled against the introduction of these documents.
Prior to the jury’s deliberations, Judge McDaniel entered findings of not guilty on the counts alleging that the Stewarts drugged the children and on two counts charging T. Stewart with forcible rape of K.L. and L.M. The jury began deliberating on June 30, 1988, then broke for the Fourth of July holiday. It returned on July 5, 1988, and convicted the Stewarts on the remaining charges.
On July 20, 1988, Judge McDaniel sentenced C. Stewart to four sentences of 15 to 25 years in prison on the rape convictions and four sentences of nine to 10 years on the indecent assault convictions, with all sentences to be served concurrently. He sentenced T. Stewart to two sentences of seven to 15 years on the two rape convictions and four sentences of seven to 10 years on the indecent assault convictions, with all sentences to be served concurrently.
The Stewarts appealed, and they were allowed to remain out of custody during the appeals process.
In their appeals, the Stewarts were represented by Andrew Good, Philip Cormier, and Sharon Beckman, who wrote in their motion, “This case should serve as a paradigm of how utterly innocent people can be wrongly charged and convicted of child sexual abuse.”
The appeals claimed that the state had failed to inform the grand jury of exculpatory evidence provided in the pre-trial statements of C.S. and B.M. The state had argued that it was justified in excluding this evidence because Magnani had doubts about the credibility of their statements, but the appeals said the law didn’t allow the state to use an opinion about credibility as a reason not to disclose.
The appeals also claimed that Judge McDaniel had erred in several trial rulings: barring attorneys for the Stewarts from presenting the testimony of character witnesses, which the appeal said would have “demonstrate[d] that the Stewarts’ reputations were totally inconsistent with the crimes charged”; barring the use of medical records and other documents that undermined the credibility of the state’s witnesses; and allowing the state’s non-child witnesses to testify too broadly about what the children said to them.
This testimony, by what are called “fresh complaint” witnesses, is allowed if it corroborates other testimony, but the motions said the testimony went beyond corroboration to include testimony by Magnani, the girls’ mothers, and their aunt about events that were not mentioned by the girls in their testimony.
Judge McDaniel gave the jury a limiting instruction on the use of this corroborative testimony, but that wasn’t sufficient to cure the problem, the appeals said.
“To the extent that the jury was exposed to evidence of non-corroborative details, events, and sexual acts, there is a substantial risk that the jury attributed the inconsistences between the complainants’ testimony and that of the fresh complaint witnesses, to the complainants’ youth, immaturity, stage frights, embarrassment or trauma,” the appeals said.
On April 9, 1993, a three-judge panel from the Massachusetts Appeals Court vacated the convictions due to "substantial error" and granted the Stewarts a new trial.
The appellate court said the couple’s attorneys had laid a proper foundation for introduction of evidence of their reputations for peacefulness and nonviolence.
It also said Judge McDaniel had erred in excluding the use of Linda M.’s notes and in not allowing the Stewarts access to the children’s medical records and related documents, including those relating to an unsubstantiated complaint by Patricia M. alleging that her ex-husband, K.L.'s father, had sexually abused K.L.
The court said that Magnani had testified inappropriately in several instances when he told the jury about statements he said the girls made to him. The court said that some of these statements, including Magnani’s testimony that the girls feared T. Stewart more than her husband, “bordered on gap filling and may have been unfairly pre-judicial.” If there was a retrial, the court said, “We admonish the Commonwealth to take great care when proceeding in this area fraught with potential unfair prejudice.”
The court agreed with the state that it did not knowingly deceive or mislead the grand jury with the omission of the exculpatory evidence.
The Appeals Court did not rule on the Stewarts' additional argument that the prosecution's closing argument was knowingly false, except to caution that, in any retrial, "counsel should in closing argument take care to adhere to the evidence and only those inferences which may fairly be drawn from that evidence."
After receiving a new trial, the Stewarts were placed on unsupervised pretrial probation. On December 21, 1994, the state dismissed the charges.
In 1997, three years after her exoneration, T. Stewart graduated from law school and became a public interest attorney whose practice included criminal appeals because, in her words, "our appeal saved our lives." C. Stewart attended the New England Fuel Institute and worked in the heating industry for 30 years. He died from cancer in 2024.
T. Stewart said, "Making public the suffering our family endured as a result of these utterly false accusations is beyond painful, but if sharing our ordeal can save just one person from wrongful prosecution or conviction, then it needs to be shared."
– Ken Otterbourg
Posting Date: 04-01-2026
Last Update Date: 04-28-2026
