PART I: AN INTRODUCTION

Since the spring of 1994 a strange child abuse investigation has been ongoing in Wenatchee, Washington. "Over the course of two years, it grew into a sprawling bizarre collection of individual cases involving upwards of 40 children. Police say three loosely organized and overlapping groups of adults participated in child-swapping sex rings, sexually abusing the children over a period of eight years" (Seattle Times, November 30, 1995). During the process of the investigation, Robert and Connie Roberson, a Pentecostal pastor and his wife, were arrested and charged with holding orgies with children in their church. On December 12, 1995, a jury acquitted the Robersons of all the bizarre charges.

This is one of the strangest child abuse cases ever tried in America, and it has attracted national attention. It has been investigated by major news organizations, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News, the Seattle Times, NBC Dateline, and Time magazine. Scripps Howard News Service articles on the subject were titled "The Sex Crime Monster that Ate Wenatchee" and "Salem West." Dorothy Rabinowitz of The Wall Street Journal spent a full week in Wenatchee investigating the case, concluding that it was a witch hunt. Attorney Kathryn Lyon of Tacoma, Washington, took six weeks off from her work and launched an independent review of the sex ring case. According to the Spokesman Review, October 22, 1995, Lyon, who has an interest in defending child abuse cases, said she spent $40,000 researching this matter. Her 200-page report documents a pattern of prejudice she says is at the heart of the sex ring investigation.

In seeking to understand this case, the O Timothy Editor has been doing research on and off for about the last few months. I have read several dozen reports from a wide variety of sources, including transcripts of the testimonies of many of the key figures in the case. We have read reports filed by attorneys and investigators on both sides--those supporting the prosecution as well as those supporting the accused. We also discussed the case over the phone with Pastor Roberson. This research opened up a number of fields associated with child abuse, particularly the strange phenomenon of "recovered memories."

What is happening in this strange case in Wenatchee? The following report from the Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service provides an overview.

WITCH HUNT IN WENATCHEE--PART II: AN OVERVIEW OF THE CASE

The following report is by Armin Brott, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, September 29, 1995:

WENATCHEE, Wash.--Thousands of residents of the state of Washington live in fear of explosive force of Mount St. Helens, one of the few active volcanoes in the United States. But the residents of the small, central Washington town of Wenatchee are afraid of a power they say is much more dangerous: detective Robert Perez of the Wenatchee Police Department.

Claiming to have uncovered a series of local "sex rings," Perez and prosecuting attorney Gary Riesen have charged more than 80 adults with having weekly orgies with as many as 50 children. Thus far, more than 20 have been convicted or pleaded guilty. In most communities, getting so many child abusers off the streets would be a cause for great celebration. But many in Wenatchee say that Perez, Riesen, and several Child Protective Service (CPS) workers are conducting what amounts to a massive witch-hunt, using unethical and illegal methods to prosecute innocent people. . . .

It all started with a 10-year old girl named Donna Everett, who had been taken from a physically abusive home by CPS workers and put into foster care. Perhaps as a result of her abuse, Donna was angry, frequently violent, unruly and disobedient. In March 1994, her foster father, Robert Devereaux, got fed up with Donna’s behavior and asked authorities to remove the girl from his home. This request was granted, and Donna was placed in the home of Lucy Perez, whose husband, Robert, had recently been appointed Wenatchee’s only sex-abuse investigator.

On July 29, 1994, in a seemingly unrelated incident, Robert Devereaux told another foster daughter, 15-year old Annie Weishoff, that she couldn’t have sex with her boyfriend in his house. Furious, Weishoff--who suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome and has an IQ of 60--tried to kill Devereaux by giving him a cup of soda laced with iodine. Devereaux was unhurt, but reported the incident to the authorities and Weishoff was arrested and taken to the Chelan County Juvenile Center.

On Aug. 3, Weishoff was visited at Juvenile Hall by Detective Perez. After several hours alone with Perez, Weishoff told Perez that her foster father had been abusing her for years. That same day, Perez arrested Devereaux and charged him with numerous counts of sexual abuse.

The next day, Weishoff’s juvenile caseworker, Paul Glassen, visited her. "I feel really bad," she told Glassen. "THIS POLICE OFFICER WAS, LIKE, TRYING TO SET DAD UP OR SOMETHING. HE MADE ME SAY A WHOLE BUNCH OF LIES." Alarmed, Glassen wrote up a report of Weishoff’s allegations against Perez and submitted it to his supervisor, who in turn passed it on to Perez. Early the next day, Perez arrested Glassen for "tampering with a witness." Official charges were never filed, but Glassen was immediately placed on "administrative leave," and later fired.

In September 1994, just a few weeks after Bob Devereaux’s arrest, Donna Everett (now Perez’s foster daughter) suddenly began telling the Perez family that she, her sister and her three brothers had all been sexually abused by their biological parents, Idella and Harold Everett. Based on Donna’s disclosures, the detective arrested the Everetts. Mrs. Everett, whom Perez charged with 4,836 counts of abuse, signed a confession and agreed to testify against her husband. In exchange, most--but not all--of the charges against Mrs. Everett were dropped. But Perez was starting to make a name for himself.

THE SECOND PLAYER

As the spiritual leader of the Pentecostal Church of God, House of Prayer, Pastor Robert Roberson had known the Everetts and their children for several years. In fact, after the Everetts’ arrest, Pastor Roberson and his wife, Connie, petitioned the court to become the foster parents of Richard Everett, Harold and Idella’s oldest son. Roberson, who has a lot of experience counseling victims of sexual abuse, felt confident that none of the Everett children showed any signs of having been molested. And despite the fact that Idella had signed a confession, Roberson remained deeply suspicious of the charges’ truth--especially given that Idella is illiterate and has an IQ of only 68.

"It’s extremely doubtful that anyone with an IQ that low has the capacity to understand what she’s signing," says Dennis Sheppard, a forensic psychologist and expert in confessions and trial competency. "And if she’s admitting to something that could put her in jail for life, she’d better have a pretty good idea of what the consequences are."

So when Mrs. Everett recanted, claiming that Perez had pressured her into signing the confession, Roberson began speaking out publicly. He questioned what he believed were coercive tactics used by the Wenatchee police to obtain confessions, and the possible conflict of interest raised by Perez’s being the foster father of the accuser.

Sometime in the middle of October, though, Roberson realized for sure that something more sinister was happening. "I GOT A CALL FROM ONE OF THE CPS WORKERS," REMEMBERED ROBERSON. "SHE TOLD ME THAT IF I STAYED INVOLVED IN THE EVERETT CASE OR TRIED TO HAVE ANY CONTACT WITH THE EVERETT KIDS, PEREZ WOULD ARREST ME IMMEDIATELY."

THE CIRCLE

Donna Everett’s foster placement in the Perez home wasn’t an easy one. According to a January 1995 report by an outside therapist, Donna was "getting very angry and during her fits of rage she would destroy property, throw things, and become unmanageable." Things were so bad that the Perezes told Donna they were "about ready to have her removed."

Only three days after the therapist’s report, Perez claimed that Donna made a new round of disclosures of abuse. This time, according to Perez, Donna alleged that she, her brothers and sister, and at least six other children, were the victims of group sex in her parents’ home and the homes of several friends--the Towns and the Holts. She called it "The Circle." In addition, Donna now claimed for the first time--more than five months after Robert Devereaux’s arrest--that Devereaux had raped her and several of his other foster daughters upstairs in their bedrooms.

After being threatened with arrest, Pastor Roberson kept a low profile for the next several months. But on Jan. 30, 1995, he made an appearance at the courthouse to speak at Idella Everett’s sentencing hearing. With Perez sitting just a few rows behind him, Roberson accused the detective and various CPS workers of mishandling sex abuse cases.

Two days later, on Feb. 1, Donna again sat down with her foster parents and made some startling new charges, adding more alleged perpetrators and more victims. "Even before I was in foster care with Bob (Devereaux), we would all go to his house," she allegedly told Perez. "My mom and dad, Linda Miller and her kids, Kerri Knowles and her three kids, and Donna Albee and her daughter Kim." According to Donna, six kids would go upstairs with most of the adults and "the kids had to get on the beds and the adults would like up and take turns with us. They did everything to us and would make us do it to each other while they watched."

It was at this session, Perez alleges, that Donna also told him that Paul Glassen, the caseworker who had accused Perez of coercing his client, was also involved in the sex abuse. "He did the same things as everyone else and sometimes, he was there when everyone else was there and molesting me," Donna told Perez.

When Glassen heard that he had become Perez’s latest target, he wasted no time; he took his Canadian-born wife and their 5-year-old son and moved to Canada. "I knew what they could do to my son," Glassen says. "And I wasn’t going to let Perez or anybody else start brainwashing him or God knows what."

When Annie Weishoff was released from the Chelan County Juvenile Center, she was placed in foster care with Janet Rutherford, a woman who had known Annie more than 10 years.

One Tuesday night, in late February of this year, Rutherford received a call from a social worker, Kate Carrow. "We need some information," Carrow reportedly told Rutherford. "And we’d like Annie to help us."

Carrow asked Rutherford to bring Annie in for questioning on Friday. Rutherford agreed, but demanded that she and her husband be allowed in the room with Annie. Carrow refused. Rutherford then asked if her lawyer could be there for the interrogation. "There was this long silence," she remembers. "And then Carrow says, ‘It sounds like you have something to hide. Should we be investigating you?’ It was clear to me that she was threatening me."

Despite their misgivings, the Rutherfords brought Annie for her Friday appointment, carrying with them a copy of a Washington state law that reads, in part, "PRIOR TO COMMENCING THE INTERVIEW THE DEPARTMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY SHALL DETERMINE WHETHER THE CHILD WISHES A THIRD PARTY TO BE PRESENT FOR THE INTERVIEW AND, IF SO, SHALL MAKE REASONABLE EFFORTS TO ACCOMMODATE THE CHILD’S WISHES." THEY SHOWED THE PAPER TO PEREZ, WHO IGNORED THEM AND WHISKED ANNIE AWAY. INSIDE THE INTERROGATION ROOM, Perez asked Annie why she thought she was being interviewed. According to Perez’s police report, Annie replied, "To help you guys lock Bob up." Perez then repeatedly asked Annie to confirm that Devereaux had abused her, telling her that other children had already confirmed it. But each time Annie denied that anything had happened.

Toward the end of the interview (again, according to Perez’s own police report), Annie turned to Perez and said, "My foster parents told me that you are not supposed to talk to me without anyone present for me. You should have had someone with you when you talked to me in juvie."

Perez told Weishoff that "her foster parents had given her some misinformation" and that he tries to "have another person present during interviews" even though it is "not a requirement of the law." But on the other side of the locked door, the Rutherfords were nervously waiting for their foster daughter, holding a copy of the evidence that directly contradicted the detective. (Later, Perez claimed that he had excluded the Rutherfords from the interview because they were, as promised by Kate Carrow, suspects.)

And then Perez made what appear to be the most flagrant threats. "I then told Annie that if the statement she had given me in August was a lie, I would send a report to the prosecutor for him to consider the filing of charges for false reporting . . . I then asked her (if) what she had told me in August was the truth or not. She looked down and after a few seconds said, ‘I was lying."’

THE CIRCLE WIDENS

Without Annie Weishoff’s support, Perez’s case against Devereaux seemed to be faltering. So on March 13, he and two CPS caseworkers took Donna Everett on a drive through Wenatchee and asked her to identify all the locations at which she was molested. Over the course of several hours, Everett pointed out 22 places--including the home of her grandparents (who, she claimed, raped her regularly when she was between the ages of 2 and 6), and Pastor Roberson’s church. According to Perez, Donna told him that "Roberson came over (to Devereaux’s) and did the wild thing to the kids."

With the number of alleged perpetrators and victims growing by the day, many of the accused began to compare Perez’s investigations to the Salem Witch-Hunts. (Salem, Mass., was the scene in 1692 of an infamous witchcraft trial.) Looking for help, they turned to a group called VOCAL-- Victims of Child Abuse Laws--a national organization that supports people falsely accused of abuse. On March 23, at a meeting of the local chapter of VOCAL, Pastor Roberson spoke out angrily against Perez and his investigative methods. On March 28, Roberson and his wife were jailed, accused of having run weekly orgies for several years on the church altar and in the church basement--orgies involving at least 25 adults and a similar number of children.

Police investigators spent 13 hours searching the church. Using infrared lights to help them locate evidence of semen or other bodily fluids, they also neatly snipped out dozens of "suspicious"-looking sections of carpet, pulled up pews, and cut out several sections of the gypsum wallboard. A week later, the lab reported that all of the items taken from the church had tested negative. But this didn’t help the Robersons, who languished in jail three more months, unable to make the $1 million bail.

Donna Everett is not the only child making accusations of abuse. Melinda Everett, Donna’s natural sister--who, coincidentally, is another of Perez’s foster children--has also implicated a number of adults.

And Andrea Southard, a former foster child of Devereaux has also accused him of molesting her. She also presented Perez with a list--which her new foster mother helped her prepare--of 18 alleged molesters, including Paul Glassen.

Several days later, Southard changed her mind about some of the alleged abusers, including Jon Carpenter, whom she had repeatedly identified as having committed dozens of rapes. According to a police report, Southard said that she "knew Jon was a friend of Devereaux’s and due to the pressure of the case, she had thought he might be involved, so she named him." One or two other children have also made accusations and later recanted, claiming they were pressured by Perez.

In addition, several adults--besides Idella Everett--have made confessions, but all have recanted. All were elicited from people who are either illiterate or have IQs in the 60s or 70s. "If you’re trying to get confessions, going after people with developmental disabilities sure makes it a lot easier to achieve the desired result," said Sheppard, the forensic psychologist.

DO THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS?

ALTHOUGH THERE ARE NEARLY 50 ALLEGED VICTIMS OF THE WENATCHEE "SEX RINGS," MOST OF THEM ACTUALLY STRONGLY DENY THAT THEY WERE ABUSED BY DEVEREAUX, ROBERSON, OR ANYONE ELSE. Diana C., another of Devereaux’s foster daughters, would have told Perez--or any other investigator--that Devereaux never went into any of the girls’ rooms without knocking, never spent time alone with them, and that adults rarely came to the house. Jamie B., Laura D., Shawna G., Melissa K., and many others, would have said the same--if anyone had asked them. THOSE PEOPLE WHOM PEREZ DID INTERVIEW PAINT A CONSISTENT PICTURE OF PEREZ AS A COERCIVE, UNRELENTING INVESTIGATOR.

Eleven-year-old Kim A. was interrogated--alone--by Perez for more than four hours. After repeatedly denying that she was abused by her mother or anybody else, Kim claims that PEREZ PICKED UP A PHONE AND TOLD HER IF SHE DIDN’T ADMIT SHE HAD BEEN ABUSED, HE WOULD HAVE HER MOTHER ARRESTED.

Tracy H. also says Perez interrogated her alone, threatened her, and actually TOLD HER THAT SHE COULDN’T LEAVE THE ROOM UNTIL SHE TOLD PEREZ THAT SOMETHING HAD HAPPENED OF A SEXUAL NATURE IN HER FOSTER HOME.

Amy F., Melissa H., and her brother Brian, also claim that Perez repeatedly threatened them, ignored their requests to have their parents present, and ACCUSED THEM OF LYING WHEN THEY REFUSED TO ADMIT THAT THEY HAD BEEN ABUSED.

But perhaps the most shocking story comes from Sara Marie "Sam" D., who had left and was living in California with her legal guardians. While Sam was out of state, her parents were arrested and Perez came to California to bring her back to Wenatchee to testify against her parents. Sam denied that she--or the other members of her family--had ever been abused by her parents. And after spending several days back in Washington state, Sam was told by several CPS workers that she was "suicidal and dangerous."

"THEY STRAPPED ME DOWN TO A GURNEY AND DROVE ME--FOUR HOURS--TO A MENTAL HOSPITAL IN IDAHO." SHE SPENT FIVE WEEKS AT PINECREST, FORBIDDEN FROM HAVING CONTACT WITH HER FAMILY, AND UNDERGOING DAILY COUNSELING AND THERAPY SESSIONS.

"THEY NEVER ONCE MENTIONED ANYTHING ABOUT SUICIDE--ALL THEY WANTED TO TALK ABOUT WAS WHETHER I’D BEEN MOLESTED. AND WHEN I SAID I HADN’T, THEY TOLD ME I WAS IN DENIAL AND THAT I’D COME AROUND SOON."

ACCORDING TO MANY CRITICS, MANY OF THE TECHNIQUES USED BY PEREZ (AND THE CPS WORKERS HE COOPERATES WITH) TO ELICIT INFORMATION FROM ALLEGED VICTIMS ARE IN DIRECT VIOLATION OF THE CPS CHILD INTERVIEW FORM GUIDELINES. For example, in the section titled "Principles for Legally Sound Interviews," interviewers are instructed to "never pressure, intimidate, or offer rewards in order to obtain a response," and to "avoid repeated questioning when a question is unproductive or child is resistant or denying abuse."

"What’s really amazing," said juvenile caseworker Paul Glassen, "is that Perez is using these strong-arm tactics to elicit information from alleged victims of abuse--not from perpetrators."

Another complaint is that by not video- or audiotaping his interviews, Perez deliberately makes it difficult to verify the allegations he claims are made by the accusers. "Just a few years ago, law enforcement actually advocated taping because they never even considered that what they were doing was inappropriate," said Dr. Terrence Campbell, a consulting psychologist to the Macomb County, Mich., courts. "But when other people finally got a chance to see the tapes--such as during the McMartin trials--they saw that zealous ‘professionals’ were distorting the children’s memories by asking leading questions."

Perhaps even more disturbing to Perez’s critics is that he rarely takes notes during interviews he conducts, instead relying on others to do so. But whether the notes are taken by a CPS caseworker or Perez himself, the detective admits that he destroys them after writing his reports. According to his own statement, Perez started doing this after learning a rather unpleasant lesson while testifying in a previous case. The lesson? "That you can be played with on the stand, and your notes can be attacked," he said.

Nevertheless, Perez claims that he "cannot recall" any inconsistencies between notes taken by CPS caseworkers and his own reports. The facts, however, tell a very different story.

According to the notes taken by a CPS worker during the interview of Jacob B., Jacob identifies one of his abusers as a "Mexican" woman named Janette. In his report, the word "Mexican" doesn’t appear and Kathy Lancaster--clearly not Mexican--was arrested.

Although Perez declined to be interviewed for this article, he claims--in statements taken by defense attorneys--that there’s nothing wrong with his interviewing techniques and that he’s been wrongfully accused of misconduct.

Prosecuting attorney Gary Riesen agrees, saying that he believes Perez has used the proper procedures. "Just look at the convictions we’ve got," said Riesen, referring to the dozen or so people who have pleaded guilty or been convicted. "If Perez wasn’t going by the book, the courts would have had something to say about it."

Gary Riesen said, however, that "inconsistencies with many of the statements" obtained by Perez, and the recanting of confessions made by several adult witnesses have resulted in charges being dropped against several alleged perpetrators--most notably Robert Devereaux. Riesen also acknowledges that there is little if any physical evidence to support the accusations of abuse. Nevertheless, Perez’s efforts are applauded by Wenatchee’s Mayor Earl Tilly and Police Chief Ken Badgley.

Not everyone Perez has worked with, however, supports him. "I specifically remember him telling one parent, ‘If you do not cooperate with me, Juan will take away your kids,"’ said Juan Garcia, a CPS worker who worked with Perez several times. And IN A RECENT PERFORMANCE EVALUATION, PEREZ’S OWN SUPERVISOR WRITES THAT PEREZ "LIKES CONFRONTATION AND LIKES HAVING POWER OVER PEOPLE," HAS "A POMPOUS, ARROGANT APPROACH," AND "APPEARS TO PICK OUT PEOPLE AND TARGET THEM." . . .

Some relief may be in sight for Wenatchee’s accused. National media attention has focused on the town and at least one city official has called for an outside investigator. But still, irreparable damage has been done. Bob Devereaux had to sell his house to pay his legal bills, and finds that none of his old friends will talk to him anymore. Pastor Roberson and his wife are awaiting trial, and ever since their arrest, their church has been all but empty. "They’ve either been arrested or they’re too scared to come any more," he said.

Paul Glassen, however, believes that the children--especially those he feels were coerced into making false allegations--have suffered the most. "I’VE SEEN LOTS OF REAL CHILD ABUSE IN MY 30 YEARS OF COUNSELING, BUT I’VE NEVER SEEN ANY PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE AS BAD AS THIS," HE SAYS. "AND THE WORST THING IS THEY’VE BEEN ABUSED BY THE VERY PEOPLE WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT THEM" (Armin Brott, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, September 29, 1995).

WITCH HUNT IN WENATCHEE-PART III: OBSERVATIONS ON THIS STRANGE CASE

There are two separate factors to the Wenatchee case. First, there are individual cases of alleged abuse in certain families. There have been convictions of sexual abuse against five people. Another 14 have pleaded guilty to some charges. Forty-two children have been removed from the homes of parents charged in the cases. Thirty-two of those remain in the care of the state and make up more than a quarter of the 120 foster children in Chelan and Douglas counties. Most are 10-12 years old.

Second, there is the separate and larger issue of the so-called "sex ring" connected with the Roberson’s church. The charges pertaining to the "sex ring" were not proven and resulted in acquittals. Four adults, including the Robersons, were charged with sexually abusing children at the East Wenatchee Pentecostal Church of God House of Prayer. All four have been cleared.

In my conversation with Pastor Robertson on February 25, he said that he does not believe ANY of the families charged abused their children sexually. He has had knowledge of these cases from the beginning. The children of the first two families charged were in his church, and when he questioned them about the charges against their parents, all of the children categorically denied that their parents had sexually abused them.

Pastor Roberson said Ken Lanning, who heads up the FBI child abuse unit, told him that a number of red flags were raised in his mind in regard to the genuineness of the charges. First, there were many women charged, and this does not fit the profile for such crime. Second, the alleged pedophiles had no history of this type of activity. Again, this does not fit the FBI’s profile for this type of crime.

Sixteen of the 19 who have been convicted have entered Alford pleas, which means they maintain their innocence, though they have agreed to plea bargains out of fear. The public defender told them, basically, that many people were going to testify against them, that they would go to prison for life, that he could not defend them effectively, and that they needed to cut a plea bargain.

It is important to note that no physical evidence was found to prove the allegations. The verdicts were based on the testimony of children and adults, most of whom later recanted. The moral character of the "star witnesses" was questionable at best. One had tried to kill her foster father because he refused to allow her to commit immoral acts in his home. The other key witness, an eleven-year-old girl who is the care of the investigator Robert Perez, has an uncontrollable rage which has caused tremendous damage: "Earlier this year, the girl tore apart her bedroom, then ran from the house. Unable to control her, and fearing she would hurt herself, Perez called fellow officers and CPS for help. The girl was held overnight in juvenile detention; Perez filed a malicious-mischief complaint against her. He says he did that in order to help ‘establish boundaries’ for the child. She faces community-service time" (Seattle Times, Nov. 30, 1995). Perez admitted on the witness stand that he has had to use physical force to restrain the girl.

CONFESSIONS WERE SUSPECT FROM THE BEGINNING AND WERE LATER RECANTED. MOST OF THE CHILDREN SUPPOSEDLY INVOLVED DENY IT

Those who made confessions were either illiterate or have IQs in the 60s or 70s. Idella Everett was recently tested at 58. Further, a number of those involved were Spanish-speaking Hispanics, and there was a communication problem during the sessions with law enforcement. (In certain seasons, due to the vast fruit orchards in the Wenatchee area, 20% of the children in the public school system are Hispanic.) The confessions were also elicited through threats and untoward pressure by the investigator. No records were kept of these sessions. "Children have been told they might never see their parents again unless they ‘admitted’ to having been raped. Memory-recovery ‘experts’ have gotten toddlers to ‘recall’ being fondled and worse--though the ‘experts’ methods are widely panned by reputable psychologists" ("Salem West," Scripps Howard News Service, Nov. 30, 1995).

Consider the following description of one of the confessions: "Linda Miller was accused of molesting her own two daughters, A.M. and C.M., as well as the two foster children of detective Bob Perez, D.E. and M.E. Perez is the primary investigator of the case. Miller was arrested in March and confessed to a multitude of crimes. Her confession was given after she had been without sleep for two days. She was questioned for about six hours by Detective Perez, beginning at midnight. She names people in her confession that she didn’t even know and she recanted almost immediately. However, her confession has been the root of numerous other arrests, including that of Pastor Roby Roberson and his wife Connie" (Tom Grant, reporter, KREM-TV, Spokane, Washington).

The following summary of the testimonies was made by an attorney who has spent thousands of dollars researching this case:

"In Chelan County it appears that many purported or potential victims or witnesses were simply not interviewed. Significantly, the allegations against Robert Devereaux involve many adults and children and were said to happen over a period of several years. Many children have resided in the Devereaux home at various times. Given the nature and scope of the allegations one would presume that certain former foster children would have been witness to the events. However, THERE ARE NO REPORTS THAT DOCUMENT THAT THESE CHILDREN WERE EVER IDENTIFIED OR INTERVIEWED.

"SOME POTENTIAL WITNESSES HAVE BEEN IGNORED. On June 9, 1995, I spoke to Nicki Simpson (d.o.b. 7/26/76). She said she had been one of Mr. Devereaux’s foster children from 1990 until recently. SHE SAID THAT WHILE IN HIS HOME SHE NEVER OBSERVED ANY OF THE ALLEGED EVENTS AND SHE DOES NOT BELIEVE THEY OCCURRED. She said that in fact Mr. Devereaux always made his charges observe high standards of modesty. He would knock on their doors in the morning to wake them up but would not come in. Ms. Simpson said that she has made every effort to relate these facts to the State and she has appeared on television but she has been ignored or told to stay out of it.

"IT IS SURPRISING, GIVEN THE ALLEGED OBSERVATIONS OF THE CORE CHILD AND ADULT WITNESSES, THAT THE MAJORITY OF PURPORTED VICTIMS OF GROUP SEXUAL ACTIVITIES HAVE FAILED TO MATERIALIZE AS VICTIMS OR WITNESSES. The opportunity has sometimes been provided to them. For example Jeanne Diercickx, Victim/Witness Coordinator for the Douglas County Prosecutor’s office, has interviewed several named or potential child witnesses to group sexual activities at the Pentecostal church. MOST HAVE DENIED ANY OBSERVATION OF OR PARTICIPATION IN THESE EVENTS.

"THUS, THE GOVERNMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE GROUP SEX CASES IN CHELAN COUNTY HAS BEEN HIGHLY CIRCUMSCRIBED. INTERVIEWS ARE LIMITED TO CERTAIN CORE WITNESSES. THESE CHILD WITNESSES ARE ALL IN FOSTER CARE AND HIGHLY ACCESSIBLE TO THE STATE. THEY ARE HIGHLY INACCESSIBLE TO RELATIVES, THE DEFENSE, AND THOSE WHO MIGHT BE PERCEIVED AS CONTAMINATING THEIR DISCLOSURES, including their former friends or church members" (Kathryn Lyon, "Factors Bearing on the Reliability of Children’s Statements," copyright 1995).

THIS CASE ILLUSTRATES THE PHILOSOPHY WITHIN SOME GOVERNMENT AGENCIES THAT CHILDREN’S TESTIMONIES SHOULD BE BELIEVED REGARDLESS OF CORROBORATING EVIDENCE

Though tests have demonstrated that some children do lie and can easily be made to give false witness and to create fantasies, many psychologized government agencies too often hold the unreasonable and unscientific view that children do not lie or fantasize in regard to sexual and allegedly abusive matters. "Studies have proven that young children can easily be coaxed into believing almost anything. In one experiment by Cornell University researchers, children aged three to six quickly were led to believe that they had gotten their hands caught in a mouse trap and been taken to a hospital. Other research suggests that therapists’ common use of anatomically exaggerated dolls has an error rate of up to 70%" ("What Wenatchee Prosecutors Should Remember," Paul-Noel Chretien, The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 29, 1995). An article in this month’s "Digging in the Walls" section of O Timothy magazine deals more extensively with the issue of children’s testimonies. See "Justice Department Attorney Warns of Unreliability of Child Testimonies." This is reprinted from the Wall Street Journal, Nov. 29, 1995.

Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury, chairman for the Institute of Political Economy, made the following assessment of the Wenatchee sex crimes investigation:

Here may be a key to the mystery: Child abuse is a mantra to some. Some child advocate groups, many of which get federal funding for training child abuse investigators, have testified before Congress that as many as three out of four American kids are in some way sexually abused.

When Perez and Child Protective Services started out on their local witch hunt, they may have been responding to this mantra. Now that it is apparent to everyone that the reputed giant Wenatchee sex ring is a hoax that is chewing up innocent families, it may be too late for the town to call it quits.

MANY OF THE CHARGES APPEAR RETALIATORY

"Pastor Roby Roberson is not arrested until after he criticizes the police at a public meeting. Bob Kinkade, who was associated with VOCAL (Victims of Child Abuse Laws), becomes an outspoken critic of police then finds himself named as a sex ring participant. CPS caseworker Paul Glassen reports that a girl has recanted and finds himself accused of tampering with a witness. Defense investigator Larry Daly takes on the Donna Sims case and finds himself barred from the CPS office because of vague rumors that he was abusing children" (Tom Grant, reporter, KREM-TV, Spokane, Washington).

THE CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES OF WASHINGTON STATE HAS DEMONSTRATED A GESTAPO ATTITUDE

Child protective agencies are assigned with an extremely difficult job. The breakup of multitudes of families has created massive human tragedy. CPS, DSS, and other government agencies are called upon to solve horrendous problems they did not create. We do not want to disparage their job in relation to genuinely dysfunctional families and real child abuse. We also acknowledge gratefully that many government personnel are reasonable, level-headed people who are not caught up in psychological myths. Our concern is with the application of godless humanism and psychology to the family. Because of the unscriptural and unreasonable philosophy employed by some agency workers and leaders, many people have been hurt and not helped.

Consider what has happened in Wenatchee:

Child Protective Services case worker Paul Glassen merely reported that one of the "witnesses" was lying and attempted to promote the truth in this confused case. For this he was falsely accused and fired from his job. He was forced to send his family to Canada to avoid the possibility of his child being taken by CPS. Juan Garcia and Juana Vasquez, employees for the Division of Children and Family services, also lost their jobs in connection with the "sex ring" case. Vasquez was Glassen’s immediate supervisor, and he supported Glassen. These three men have sued for wrongful discharge, alleging they lost their jobs only after speaking out about the case and about racial discrimination within their agency.

As of two days after their acquittal, Pastor and Mrs. Roberson still had not gotten their five-year-old baby girl back from CPS custody. It was only after Attorney General Janet Reno’s office was flooded with calls from irate citizens that the DSHS allowed the Robersons to regain possession of their baby. Based on no evidence whatsoever, and the shakiest of testimony, the Child Protective Services of Washington took this family’s baby from them. The little girl had to testify in a criminal trial, and she told the court that she had never received a ‘bad touch." She was placed in foster care for three months, after which she went to live with relatives, but the Robersons were denied visitation rights and were not been able to visit their own baby for almost a year" (Seattle Times, Dec. 12, 1995). Even now that it has been proven in a court of law that the Robersons are innocent of all abuse charges, the DSHS retains custody of their child and demands that they attend "counseling" sessions every two weeks and allow social workers access to their home. We believe this is unconstitutional harrassment of this family. DSHS should be forced to be counseled by people like the Robersons, instead of the Roberson types being counseled by DSHS--because we are convinced that godly Christian parents have more wisdom in child and family matters BY FAR than the government agencies.

Some of the children removed from the homes because of the abuse charges were given powerful drugs. Tom Grant, reporter for KREM-TV, Spokane, Washington, testified: "I’ve just uncovered documentation showing that several of the children removed from their parents in Wenatchee (because of the so-called sex ring) are now being given drugs. One eight year old was placed on Zoloft, then began some self-mutilating behaviors, and was eventually placed on amitriptyline (Elavil). A 12-year-old boy is on Zoloft, but after two months on the drug he began hearing voices telling him to kill himself. The drug Prozac is also mentioned, but I can’t document that its actually being given to kids. And some kids are simply referred to as being placed on ‘meds.’ In one other case, the child is given dilatin."

Hypnosis and other dangerous therapies were used to draw testimonies from the children. "Some of the children in Wenatchee have been wrenched from their homes and locked in a mental hospital in Idaho, where they were drugged and given ‘therapy’ (interrogation) until they confessed that their parents or others were molesters."

MANY INNOCENT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN HURT

Pastor and Mrs. Roberson’s ministry was crippled, their finances devastated, their reputation blackened, and their baby was taken away from them for almost a year. They spent three months in jail before they were able to make their bail bond. They are more than $200,000 in debt for fees connected with their legal defense. Their respected and dynamic food bank, through which they helped 9,000 people a month without state assistance, was destroyed. If you would like to help the Robersons with their legal fees, the address is 404 S. Jarvis St., E. Wenatchee, WA 98802.

Three government agency workers lost their jobs and had their reputations blackened. Bob Devereaux, a retired man who was falsely accused by his foster daughter (who quickly recanted), was originally charged with 335 counts of rape, which was narrowed to eight counts, for which he faced eight life terms. He plea-bargained to two misdemeanor counts: one count of spanking a foster child and one count of warning a suspect she might soon be arrested. For that, he was sentenced to 240 hours of community service; one year in prison, which was suspended; and was prohibited from working with or near minors. FOR LOVINGLY SPANKING A CHILD! And that is PRECISELY what these kids need. He appears to be one of the few involved in this case who has good sense! Before his retirement to Wenatchee, Devereaux worked in a title-insurance office in southern California. He had to sell his 3,000-square-foot house and all the furniture to pay the $50,000 lawyer bill, and he is now living in a tiny cottage and working at a convenience store. He told the McClatchy News Service in November 1995, that he was going to stay around Wenatchee for awhile. "I want to see what happens here," Devereaux said. "There are innocent people in prison."

Then there are the families which have been torn apart. Consider one case:

Sam Doggett and her four siblings were placed in separate foster homes. Their parents, Mark and Carol Doggett, were convicted this past summer of molesting their youngest daughter, now 10. Both were sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Sam Doggett is convinced her parents did nothing wrong, and she insists she wasn’t abused.

Her parents say the sex-abuse investigation turned to them after they reported one of their children had molested another. They were charged with sexually abusing all of their children. They were acquitted in all but one case, which they are appealing.

The oldest of the Doggett children, Sam, said she was at first placed with a foster family. Then she said she was taken to an Idaho mental hospital.

Authorities said it was because she was suicidal and had an eating disorder, but she contends she was sent away because she would not accuse her parents of sexual abuse.

After a month, she said, she was placed in an Omak group home.

She ran away from that home after she appeared on a television news show criticizing the investigation of her parents.

She was afraid she would be placed in juvenile detention, she said.

"I’m not going back to them," she said.

Doggett, contacted by telephone through an intermediary, won’t reveal where she’s living now.

Doggett, who said she often has nightmares about her sisters being dead, says she wants to have her family back.

"It’s so hard to be separated," Sam said. "I just want to have a life again" (McClatchy News Service, Nov. 3, 1995).

THE WENATCHEE CASE IS ONE OF MANY FALSE ABUSE CASES WHICH HAVE SURFACED AROUND THE COUNTRY

"According to Carol L. Hopkins, what’s happening in Wenatchee is, unfortunately, not unusual. Hopkins, deputy foreman of the 1991-92 San Diego grand jury, was involved in an in-depth investigation of the juvenile dependency system. And in a recent letter to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, she claimed that THERE HAVE BEEN ‘WELL OVER A HUNDRED AND FIFTY SUCH CASES,’ and that they all fit the same basic pattern: allegations of ‘multi-perpetrators, multi-victims,’ initial denial of abuse by the children, invasive questioning resulting in increasingly bizarre allegations of molestation, and alleged perpetrators (men and women) with no previous criminal history or record of sexual deviancy."

"Hopkins urged Congress to begin hearings, which would ‘bring this chapter to a close before we stop believing true allegations of molestation. IT WOULD ALSO EXPOSE THE HUGE AMOUNT OF FEDERAL MONEY WHICH HAS BEEN SPENT TRAINING SOCIAL WORKERS, LAW ENFORCEMENT, THERAPISTS AND OTHERS IN HOW TO FIND ‘EVIDENCE’ AND PROSECUTE THESE CASES WHICH WERE THEN CREATED OUT OF WHOLE CLOTH" (Armin Brott, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, Sept. 29, 1995).

HOPEFULLY, THE WENATCHEE CASE, AND ONES SIMILAR TO IT AROUND THE COUNTRY, WILL PRODUCE NEEDED CHANGES

Toward this end, attorney Kathryn Lyon’s supervisor, Pierce County Department of Assigned Council Director John Hill, on his own time has drafted state legislation aimed at making child-witness interviews more reliable. "Hill believes there are lessons to be learned from the Wenatchee case, particularly about how children are interviewed in court cases. The reliability of such interviews has long plagued attorneys and prosecutors in this and other countries, he said. He has proposed the creation of a center where children can be interviewed by staffers trained in child-witness interviewing techniques. The goal of the center would be to protect the child AND the accused by making the interview process more reliable. The interviews would be taped to limit the number of times the child must tell the same story. . . . Videotaping child interviews, he said, also will make investigators more careful not to coach a child or to suggest answers to questions about suspected abuse. Hill sees many ways our society can benefit from the errors of the Wenatchee case: ‘I think Wenatchee is a catalyst for much-needed legislation,’ he said" (McClatchy News Service, Nov. 3, 1995).

As of the end of February 1996, Trevor Armbrister, Washington Bureau Senior Staff Editor for the Reader’s Digest, is in Wenatchee investigating this case for a report in his magazine. On Sunday morning, February 25, he attended services at the Roberson’s church. We pray that such reports will force needed changes in the social services and in the legal system.

CONCLUSION

The state agencies in charge of dealing with hurting families and delinquent children sometimes have very little wisdom. Many of those who control these agencies have rejected the Bible and are corrupted by godless psychology and humanism. Instead of dealing with the sins of destructive, immoral children, they coddle them and send them to "therapy" and entertain their filthy fantasies which are created in an attempt to destroy those who try to help them.

Child abuse is a great evil. The Lord Jesus Christ said this: "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18:1-11).

Child abuse should be punished, but there should be evidence that child abuse has truly occurred. One person’s recovered memory is not sufficient evidence. A child’s testimony, if unaccompanied by corroborating evidence, also should not be sufficient to convict an adult of abuse. The child’s character must be taken into account, as well as the circumstances under which he or she gave the testimony. In regard to recovered memory, while it might be possible for someone to forget that they were abused at a very young age and later remember it (though it is more likely for bad experiences to be recalled vividly than be forgotten), we do not believe anyone should be convicted on such testimony alone. And we certainly believe they should not be convicted on the testimony of an alleged memory dredged up by means of psychological therapy. Further, the Bible requires at least two witnesses to convict someone. This was true in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 19:15) as well as in the New (1 Timothy 5:19) and is an important safeguard to civil rights.

Praise the Lord that there is still great liberty in this land, and there are many level-headed people involved with the courts and the government. I have lived overseas more than 12 years of my life, and I never cease to be amazed at the blessings which are in America compared to most other parts of the world. All is not doom and gloom, by any means. When we look at these evils coming upon our society, it is easy to lose sight of the blessings. We should not do that. I am not making light of the problems; I am merely saying we must not lose sight of the blessings we have in the midst of a sinful nation.

To return to our subject, though, there ARE evils on every hand and the hour is late. God’s people must be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. I’m glad this world is not the end of things. Like the song says, "This world is not my home; I’m just passin’ through; my home is up somewhere, somewhere beyond the blue!"

See "Pastor Wins Settlement Against Washington State Social Services"