On 25th of March 2003 a Complaint was filed against Boys Town and Kelly by Rivers to seek for damages suffered in form of assault, infliction of emotional distress and negligence. He alleged that while residing at Boys Town between 1981-1987 he was sexually and physically abused by Kelly and another employee from Boys Town employee. Opinions from experts in regards to repressed memory, allegedly suffered by Rivers were questioned at the hearing. According to testimony given by experts, Rivers suffered symptoms that indicated that he was sexually abused as a child while staying at Boys Town. The theory of repressed memory upon which these opinions were formed is a three stage process which begins with experiencing a traumatic event whose memory is lost in the subconscious mind of the victim but later returns to the subconscious mind and the memory becomes accurate. However according to Dr. Pope, a psychiatry professor at Harvard University Medical School such opinion fail to meet the methodological measures required for accurate scientific research. He alleged that repression has many times been confused with forgetting and that memory recovery after repression does not exist. Furthermore, scientific studies have established the existence of amnesia but none has proven the existence of repressed memory.
Dr. van der Kolk’s testimony based on five books, five articles and twenty studies that allegedly proved the existence of repressed memory was the main testimony for the Plaintif. The case of Shahzade v Gregory, 923 F.Supp. 26 also provided testimony for Rivers in which it had been determined by the federal court that the phenomenon of repressed memory had been proven and that the plaintiff’s characteristics were consistent with the descriptive symptoms of sexual abuse and repressed memory. On the other hand Drs Loftus and Pope testified for the defendant with their numerous books and articles to dispel the existence of recovered memory. They argued the theory of repressed memory is not acceptable since it is very controversial and has not been scientifically proven. They urged the court to consider it non admissible since it is not reliable scientifically.
The burden of satisfying the foundational requirements of Daubert which were to show that the phenomenon of recovered memory and repressed memory are scientifically proven and are generally accepted by the scientific community fell on Rivers. At the end of the hearing it was established that the evidence brought before the court was not enough prove any scientific or medical relationship between sexual abuse and perceived symptoms. The Plaintiff failed to provide evidence that was scientifically tested with a proven error rate after peer-review. Accordingly, the court found that the Plaintiff would not be allowed to testify that particular characteristics behaviours or symptoms are in line with a sexual abuse diagnosis, that Rivers has the characteristic, behaviour or symptoms of an individual who was sexually or physically abused in their childhood, or that he was sexually or physically abused in his childhood during his stay at Boys Town. The Plaintiff was also not allowed …