Ed Jagels

Ed Jagels was an American prosecutor best known for obtaining child sexual abuse convictions as Kern County, California District Attorney against 36 innocent people in the Kern County child abuse cases, and for leading successful conservative efforts to replace liberal California Supreme Court justices in the 1980s.

Jagels was first elected to the Kern County prosecutor's office in 1983, at a time when the United States public attention was focused on rumors of child molestation and Satanism, all of which proved to be false. Soon after his election he created a task force to investigate sex crimes against children. The cases eventually brought between 1983 and 1987 involved false claims of satanic ritual abuse performed by eight supposed pedophile groups. The cases, brought without physical evidence, were based solely on the testimony of alleged child victims who had been coached and sometimes tricked into testifying against their parents and other adults. Long prison sentences were obtained against many adults, but the cases began to unravel in the late 1980s as the children recanted their testimony.

Of the 26 convictions, 25 were reversed. One defendant was in prison for 19 years before his conviction was reversed. The county paid out nearly $10 million to settle claims made by the former prisoners and the alleged victims. Actor Sean Penn, who met a man accused of child sex crimes, narrated and served as executive producer for the documentary film, Witch Hunt, concerning the event.

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