The Power to Harm: Children sacrificed for the case (page 2)

Disclosures in this report:

Accusations that swept Wenatchee in 1994 and 1995 were heard nationwide. These sex-abuse cases were reported and dissected on television and radio. They were chronicled in publications as lofty as the New York Times and as lurid as Hustler magazine.

For two years, authorities in Wenatchee responded to a shocking number of child rape and molestation allegations. Many of the households involved were already known to social workers. These were poor families. Many parents were of limited mental capacity. Some of the children had histories of sex abuse or behavioral problems.

Investigators claimed they had discovered a network of adults, including a Pentecostal pastor and members of his church, who were running child sex rings. When some defendants, including the church members, were acquitted, talk of sex rings evaporated, but the prosecution of other suspects continued with fervor.

Today, the lead detective on the 1994-95 cases has taken a leave of absence, and several of the convictions he secured have been overturned by higher courts that have been highly critical of the way children and suspects were questioned.

Children sacrificed for the case
Failure of the legal system

The legal system failed in Wenatchee, and many residents of the city knew something had gone wrong. More than 2,000 people signed a petition asking then-Gov. Mike Lowry for an outside investigation.

After Lowry forwarded the request to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, the Justice Department investigated allegations of civil rights violations -- and said it found nothing wrong. Wenatchee officials heralded the report as proof of a "great job." In fact, that "investigation" was nothing more than a review of court documents. FBI agents say that was all they were told to do. They interviewed nobody.

Riesen, the Chelan County prosecutor, and his counterpart in Douglas County, Steven Clem, refuse to comment on the investigations. At the height of the action, however, Riesen called Perez's work "outstanding" and a model for other police departments.

That work included charging 65-year-old Harold Everett with 6,422 counts of rape and molestation. He's now serving 23 years in prison after pleading guilty to eight counts, but last month the state Court of Appeals ordered his conviction and that of his wife, Idella, be reviewed.

"It's just simple math," he says. "I ask these people, 'How many times a week did you have sexual intercourse with this child?' I'm sitting there literally with a calculator and a pad, writing down what (criminal) charge it fits. You add them up, and that's what goes on the arrest form."

Alone, the number of people charged raises red flags for experts such as Alan Rubenstein, district attorney for Bucks County, Pa.

"A single case of sex abuse of a child is horrible,'' Rubenstein says. "A town filled with cases like Wenatchee is inconceivable."

In 1990 Rubenstein refused to prosecute a highly publicized case because the children's accusations of abuse were coerced. Since then, he's become a vocal critic of investigators and prosecutors who fail to hold child sex-abuse allegations to the same scrutiny they do other crimes.

"The momentum grows, the pressure soars and that's the time to stop, to make sure of what evidence you've really got," he says. "Who is saying what? Why are they saying it? Is there really proof that something happened? Have so-called experts, social workers, therapists and others pushed kids into reporting incidents that never happened?"

INSIDE SEATTLEPI.COM

Day in Pictures
The German chancellor and more

David Horsey
Giving Chinese dissidents a choice

'Mad Men' returns
Cable hit rides wave of publicity

IN THIS SECTION
· Introduction · History · The Case · The Investigator · The Therapy · The Children · The Accused · The Advocates · The Context · The Probe · The Aftermath · Editorials · Reactions