This movie is based on an overwhelmingly outrageous and heart-breaking true story. However as with many true stories portrayed in motion pictures this movie was fictionalized at various points. Over the years I have read about and researched many documents and sources both online and in print in reference to this terrible ordeal, and wanted to share some of what I've discovered with others who have seen it. Of all the villians which in this case are the prosecutors and members of the DA's office the only ones whose real names was actually used in the movie were Andrew Gindes and Judge Ferguson. DA Bennis, Janey the county welfare worker, and Vera Bradley the child abuse counselor were all unreal identities in real life though the titles of the characters they portrayed were (I'm sorry to say) very real. Sam Bennis the DA of Kern County who signs arrests warrants for, jails, tries unfairly, and convicts all while publicizing the case in every method of media and without so much as one tenth the proper amount of evidence or probable cause to be doing so is in real life a man named Edward Jagels the sinister DA of Kern County who believe it or not is STILL in office to this day! How absurd I know. Secondly the shelter where Brandon and Brian are brought to and interrogated into testifying that their parents abused them is in real life Jamison Children's Center. In the film it is called Shalimar Children's Center and I think that that might have been nickname for the center of which it also used to be known as or possibly even still goes by sometimes. I've read online that the Jamison Center is also known as Shalimar which is actually the name of the street the building is on. Maybe in the movie the referred to it by the name it is lesser known as in order to protect it's privacy, and of course that wouldn't make sense given the profound lack of respect and concern Kern County had and still has for some of it's people (such as those in this movie)! I have watched it so many times and it just makes the clarity of our nation's meaning and philosophy fuzzier and fuzzier.
I mean the United States of America was founded under the principles of freedom, truth, justice, respect for every individual and just look at what many citizens have had to go through ever since then! At one point we see Scott remark "I thought in this country we were innocent until proven guilty" and then I would have said "In this country yes, in this county no!" Anyone who would like to read further about not only the Kniffen's terrible ordeal but many other similiar cases of innocent victims of the law as well you shoud get a copy of Mean Justice by Edward Humes. I've read this book several times and can see very well that this sort of injustice most definitely is not unusual in Kern County, California given it's majorily corrupt justice system! It's time the United States of America put an end to this horrid mistreatment by governmental authorities and leaders to citizens (who as we all know are the entire source of not only the employment but the very lives of their givernment) now. We must slam the bar on it for good!
Upon reading about Brian Kniffen. He thought while he was in foster homes his family had just abonded him. He had no idea they had tried to fight custody. He had to go to consolers and get some help, and he was in trouble in school..
On the movie, they panted Brian that he got through all of that, but not easily.
Here's a good article to read. This article is about Brian Kniffens life (the younger son.) This shows what really happened to Brian Kniffen that the movie doesn't protray. READ the article, it's very interesting.
Sons of Convicted Parents Tell How Testimony Was Coerced
Brian Kniffen clung to his mother as the deputies swarmed around them. "Go with these people and do what they say," said Brenda Kniffen to her weeping 6-year old son that day in April 1982. "Then everything will be alright and we'll be back home." Those were the last words Brian heard from his mother for many, many years, he said Thursday after testifying once again in a Kern County courtroom. He had been here before, as a child, sitting on a booster seat in a witness chair 10 feet away from his mother and father, Scott, weeping and scared and made to start over and over again. At that 1984 trial, he testified that his parents, Brenda and Scott, and their two friends, Deborah and Alvin McCuan, had molested him in hotels, hung him from hooks in their homes and sodomized him repeatedly. Thursday, he was hoping to make things right by telling a Kern County judge what really happened. Now 20, he told Judge Jon Stuebbe in a closed courtroom that he was coerced and badgered by social workers and district attorneys, he said after the hearing. "I believed my mother's words when she said to do what these people said," Brian said. "And I believed them (social workers and district attorneys) when they promised I could go home if I just said it all had happened. So I did. "And I never did go home." The testimony of Brian and his older brother Brandon and the McCuans' two young daughters at the 1984 trial sent the Kniffens and McCuans to prison for 1,000 years collectively. Brandon, now 23, also testified at the hearing Thursday, saying he was never molested by his parents and only agreed after many grueling interviews. Attorneys for the Kniffens and McCuans hope the boys' testimony as men will be a compelling piece of new evidence for Stuebbe to consider. The judge is presiding over a special hearing that is part of the appeal process. Because the hearing was closed Brian told his story to a reporter after the hearing. He smiles a lot, and reveals his deepest hurts in simple words. He remembers his life before with nostalgia. There were Sunday mornings, walking beside his father with a plastic toy mower as the two trimmed the lawn. There were soccer games and wrestling events and family get-togethers where the adults played cards and the kids played pretend. The night before the deputies came, he had a bad dream. He crawled into bed with his parents and fell back to sleep. "The next thing I remember she was leaning over me, crying, and telling me I had to go with these people," Brian said. Now his life would become a bad dream, he said. The man he remembers most is prosecutor Andrew Gindes, a tall imposing attorney who scared Brian with his questioning techniques. "He would slam books down, yell when we wouldn't cooperated. He was demanding and scared us and wouldn't take no for an answer. "I wish I could talk to him now and ask him... why, why did he do that to me?" Brian and Brandon were whisked away to foster homes and their relatives kept away except for a few strictly supervised meetings, according to court records. Brian lived in 16 foster homes before hew was 13. Some were fine, others made yet another scar on his fragile psyche. "There was one foster home where they kicked me out," he said. "I slept walked, and they were really churchy people. They thought I was possessed by the devil." Brian's grandparents, Dick and Marilyn Kniffen, tried to get custody of both boys but, for seven years, were unsuccessful. At 13, Brian finally moved in with them. Brandon remained in foster homes, kept away from relatives for several more years, according to court records. "For a long time I felt deserted by my family," Brian said now. "I didn't know that all along they were trying to see me, get custody. I just thought they had forgotten about me." Those feelings led to rage during his high school years. He fought a lot, he was jittery with nerves, moody, depressed. His grandparents, who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on appeals for Scott and Brenda Kniffen, put Brian into counseling where he learned to deal with the ancient hurts and angers. "I've always felt different from everyone else," he said, smiling and shrugged. "And I don't trust the law." Today he lives in a Bakersfield apartment with his girlfriend. They both work full-time and part-time jobs. They just bought a brand new car, he says proudly. He was proud of his testimony Thursday, as well, he said. He was a man, and could take care of himself. No one would ever make him say a lie again, he said. "I just wish I was bigger then," in 1984, he said. In 1993, both he and his brother recanted their testimony. Earlier, at 15, Brian had tried to set things right, he said, but a social worker told him his life in Foothill High School would be over if he did. The endless days in court would begin again, he would be questioned again and again. "So I just said I couldn't go through with it," he said. "That's not the same as taking back my recanting. It's just saying I couldn't deal with all that court stuff again at 15." A few years ago, he listened to the tape recording of an interview with former [Assistant] District Attorney Don McGillivray and himself. The moment he heard the words spill out of the speakers, the old fear curled in his gut. "They scared me, completely coerced me. I always knew it never happened. But I was only 6, you know what I mean? And they just kept on and on." Today, his greatest wish is for his parents to come home. He has visited them numerous times in prison, with glass barriers and guards keeping the meetings distant. He teases his mother into laughing when he comes to visit. "Wherever me and Brandon are is where they want to be when they get out," he said. "Because of what's happened to us, we'll be close the rest of our lives
Yes, this article does elaborate on the story in it's actuality. You should read the book Mean Justice by Edward Humes. I did, and found it to be deeply fascinating. It is a true account of Kern County and it's justice system which has become well-known for it's corrupt policies, and sinister prosecutors. Crazy allegations and wrongful accusations abound everywhere there are people. This however is a hot bed for them, and it is influencing similiar miscarriages to occur throughout the country and the world for that matter. The ring leader of it all is Edward Jagels. The Kern County district attorney who outrageously enough is still DA after all that has happened! It's time we put a stop to all of this absurd activity by authorities now and for good.