[sionnsar]

were accused by a very sick little girl whose guardian was a detective, as i recall

Yes. You struck a memory there... Detective Bob Perez, and a Dogpile search turned up a lot I had forgotten.

[tbw2]

I remember a later news story on this, when it started to get questioned.
The detective foster father would drive around with the little girl in the car, and she’d point to houses saying “the person who lived there molested me”. And he’d interview her in private and take notes, without even tape recordings. And those hand written notes would result in people being charged.
If the detective had beef with anyone, they’d get grilled - and probably dumped in the freezer.