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Saturday, July 18, 1998
By ANDREW SCHNEIDER U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno has ruled out a criminal investigation of alleged misconduct by police and state social workers involved in the Wenatchee child sex-abuse cases. But two other Justice Department units have been told to examine the accusations for possible civil action. Material that the department received on Wenatchee has been given to the Special Litigations Section of the Civil Rights Division and the section handling Child Exploitation and Obscenity. Richard Roberts, who heads the Civil Rights Division's criminal section, signed a letter regarding the assignment. In June, the Justice Department was given more than 4,600 petitions asking for an investigation of numerous allegations of improper actions in the 1994 and 1995 arrests of 43 people for alleged child-rape and molestation. The petitioners asked for a criminal investigation of techniques used by Wenatchee Detective Robert Perez, state Department of Social and Health Services caseworkers and mental health therapists hired by the agency. In his response, Roberts wrote that material his department examined "did not present evidence of prosecutable violations of federal criminal civil rights." The letter was addressed to Kathryn Lyon, author of "Witchhunt," a book about the investigations, and Jack Hill, head of Pierce County's office of assigned counsel and a longtime critic of the Wenatchee investigations. Hill said he's encouraged that the Wenatchee cases will be examined by the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. "This section, in the past, has reviewed the handling of many of the more sensational child sex cases," Hill said. "They reviewed the rash of (reputed) satanic sex rings in the '80s and early '90s and reported that the techniques used to investigate many of these cases were improper and led to false accusations. Almost overnight, those prosecutions began to dry up. "If they examine the methods used to question children in Wenatchee and find they were as improper as the evidence indicates, they could make a dramatic difference on how these cases are handled in the future." The Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section is responsible for protecting the rights of children who are victims of or witnesses to crimes. Several of the alleged child victims in the Wenatchee cases say they were forced to accuse their parents and others by police and interviewers hired by the agency. Justice Department officials stressed they did not conclude that local and state officials took no improper actions. Rather, their decision not to act through the criminal section is "limited to the investigation of possible violation of federal criminal law." The department's criminal section is restricted, for the most part, to investigation of incidents involving physical force or abuse by officials. "The thrust of the allegations in this case involves not physical force, but psychological coercion in obtaining certain testimony," Roberts wrote, adding that the criminal section does not have the authority to undertake "sweeping investigations of the child protection programs in Washington state." Reno has in the past refused requests to investigate the Wenatchee incident. On Oct. 3, 1995, then-Gov. Mike Lowry asked Reno to conduct a similar investigation. Five months later, Reno said her department could not take criminal action. Her response mirrored the language of Roberts' letter. Lyon, a former public defender who investigated the Wenatchee cases for two years, was one of the first to document the alleged abuses. She said she wasn't surprised Reno declined to go forward with a criminal investigation. "I am encouraged that she is permitting others to look at the complaints," Lyon said. "The specialists in these sections have the knowledge and ability to see what has been done improperly. "If our laws don't force accountability on law enforcement, child welfare workers and prosecutors, they must be changed. These people can promote those changes." Justice Department officials were unwilling to say specifically what the two sections cited by Roberts will examine. The Special Litigation Section is responsible for cases involving the rights of people who are confined in systems or institutions owned, operated or hired by state and local governments. The section, according to the department, "is on the cutting edge of defining the rights of people with disabilities . . . and ensuring that the rights of juveniles, prisoners and elderly are fully protected." In Wenatchee, many of those accused of crimes say they were coerced or tricked into confessing, and many are mentally or developmentally disabled. In another move in connection to the Wenatchee child sex-abuse investigations, Rosalyn Oreskovich, a state DSHS assistant secretary, has said her agency is developing guidelines to handle potential conflicts of interest involving foster parents and other issues involving the rights of parents and children. Oreskovich made the statement in response to several recommendations made months ago by Vickie Wallen, the state ombudsman for children and families. The Wenatchee episode prompted Wallen's office to express concern over the agency's possible harm to children in permitting Perez to act as foster father of two girls who were the primary accusers in scores of cases he was investigating. Oreskovich and other DSHS officials had repeatedly insisted the children were not harmed and the decision to keep the children in the Perez home was appropriate. INSIDE SEATTLEPI.COM
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