State Drops Charges In Little Rascals Case

Prosecutors dropped all charges Friday against the last two defendants in the Little Rascals scandal - one of the most lurid cases of mas child-molestation of the 1980s and the latest to fall apart.

Assistant District Attorney Nancy Lamb said prosecutors decided not to retry Robert F. Kelly Jr., 48, and Kathryn Dawn Wilson, 31, in order to “allow wounds to heal.” She said parents were reluctant to let their children testify again.

Kelly and Wilson were among seven people originally charged with molesting 29 children who attended the Little Rascals Day Care Center in this small town on Albemarle Sound.

Kelly, the center’s owner, was convicted in 1992 after the longest, most expensive trial in North Carolina history - nine months and more than $1 million - and was given 12 life sentences. Wilson, a cook at the day care center, was found guilty the next year and sentenced to life.

An appeals court in 1995 reversed the convictions, and the two had faced a retrial on 106 charges - 99 for Kelly, seven for Wilson.

Kelly spent a total of six years behind bars, Wilson four. Both have been free on bail. There was no immediate comment from either.