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Intro: At a time when the national obsession is terrorism, it’s hard to remember when it was something else. But in the mid-1980s, hysteria over reports of sexual abuse at day care centers swept the country. In 1984, the Bronx became the epicenter of that hysteria and five innocent people were convicted and sent to prison. Jessica Mador spoke with the last man to be freed. Narration: Reverend Nathaniel Grady has been a Methodist minister for almost fifty years-except for the ten he spent in prison. In 1984, he was put on trial and convicted of molesting five children at a daycare center inside his Bronx church, a crime he says he never committed. The memories are still fresh. AX Rev. Grady: As aggressive as I am, I was paralyzed. For 13 weeks, I could not believe what was happening. Narration: By all accounts—the evidence presented at the trial was flimsy. The testimony came from three and four year olds, who at times seemed confused. Two children even pointed to the judge or the district attorney when asked to identify their abuser. There was no physical evidence. In the end, he was convicted of abusing the children inside the classroom--while the teachers were present, even though the teachers testified they never witnessed anything. Grady says he never even knew who the children were. Narration: Did you know the parents of the children who accused you? AX: Grady: I knew none of them Narration: You knew none of them? AX Grady: I did not know the children nor the parents. My role there was just as the pastor, I had no interraction other than let me see, at Christmas I was santa clause Halloween I dressed up at halloween that was the only interaction I had with the youngsters. Every now and then I would stick my head in and say hi AX: Rudin It was a complete lynch mob atmosphere. Narration: Joel Rudin is the attorney who got Grady out of prison. His theory is that Grady got caught up in the national hysteria--The nation-wide fear that children were being abused at day care centers—because he was a high-profile target since he had worked with the Yonkers police department and was politically connected. At the time of the trial, that frenzy was in full-swing. lots of money was being spent to uncover possible cases of abuse. AX: Rudin: The FBI had a multi-million dollar taskforce that had been created a couple years earlier to try to get at sexual abuse. And they had spent millions and millions of dollars and had apparently come up with nothing particularly useful or that would justify the expense.//They saw it as an opportunity to make a high-profile case against a well-known guy to justify the expenditures of money that had been spent. Narration: The children’s testimony that convicted Grady wouldn’t be admitted into court today. Just five years after he went to prison, studies about how easily children can be manipulated into having false memories began to surface. And new standards about questioning children were established. But it was too late to help Grady, whose accusers were questioned more than eighty times before the trial. Ten years later, what makes Grady angry isn’t thinking about the time he lost in prison. It’s what he was accused of doing. His eyes get wet when he talks about it. AX Grady: When you read the transcript that someone put their penis in the vagina of three-year olds. i can’t begin to tell you. That is what it’s saying-took them off their cot at the daycare center//where were the teachers? And take the child into the bathroom. It’s sick when I think about it. that' what the crime is--rape! AX: RUDIN: I never doubted that he was innocent. What struck me about Rev Grady was I think he was incensed at the situation he was in and each additional day he was in prison filled him with more anger. a sense of anguish and rage that he felt at the injustice that had been done to him. And it was constant. AX: Grady: I became impatient with the process, the waiting. I would say to joel, hurry up can’t you do something? what's taking so long. Narration: Rudin finally won on appeal and Grady was released in 1996. The ordeal broke up his marriage and put a strain on his relationship with his two sons, but he was able to go back to work, at a different church. Three years ago, he fell in love again and remarried…But he still thinks about what happened to him every single day. (sound of boxes) AX Grady: Both of our cars are in the driveway because of the boxes and boxes of things, I have every letter that was written to me during my time of incarceration. Iit's difficult to throw those things away. it brings great sadness to me. that's another reason i have not been able to spend not more than ten-fifteen minutes at a time--it doesn't take much, to just read a paragraph and then the emotions of the experiences come breaking through. (Sound of looking through papers) -what is that one? (he reads the indictment) -this is a....it says....42 counts of rape... - Narration: Grady is sixty-seven years old now. He’s getting ready to retire in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he and his wife bought a place. He says he is looking forward to getting away from the memories in New York. (sound of boxes stacked) AX Grady: I need to get on with my life but those boxes, those papers will remind me of the past but it is also an affirmation for me of what god has done. (boxes fade) Narration: Jess Mador, Columbia Radio News.