Bernard Baran

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Bernard F. Baran Jr. (May 25, 1965 – September 1, 2014) was an American day care worker wrongfully convicted in the day care sex-abuse hysteria of the 1980s and 1990s. Baran's case spanned almost 25 years from his arrest at the age of nineteen until 2009 when all charges were finally dropped. Baran's case is notable among day care hysteria cases for the level of homophobia present in the court record of the prosecution. Baran was accused, tried and convicted within a three-month period and sentenced to three life sentences in January 1985. He was released from prison after being granted a new trial in 2006. In 2009, the Massachusetts Appeals Court vacated the convictions, deeming the case "notorious," and citing the behavior of the original prosecutor as "troubling." Baron received a $400,000 settlement from the state of Massachusetts in 2010 and passed away in 2014, eight years after his release. Unlike other day care cases, Baran's case did not garner much national press coverage. Baran...

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