The Oregonian
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Portland, Oregon 97201
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Re: Wenatchee Sex Abuse Case
Dear Editor:
We just saw your article of September 17, 1995. We've been watching developments in this case over the last six months we are familiar with the participants and the underlying facts. If we can do this from over a thousand miles away, we think that you could do it in your own 'backyard.'
The entire scenario began months before the arrest of Bob Devereaux (the foster father of many troubled girls in Wenatchee). At a restaurant the former CPS worker Paul Glassen heard Bob Perez say that he (Perez) was "going to get Bob Devereaux." Two months later Glassen interviewed a teenage girl who lived at the Devereaux foster home. The girl told Glassen that Perez had intimidated her into lying about Devereaux being a child molester. Glassen dutifully reported this to his superiors in CPS. He was arrested the next day for 'tampering with a witness,' suspended, saw his name appear as one of the alleged perpetrators, and was eventually fired. He quickly moved his family to Canada to avoid becoming one of the many 'accused', and having his young son taken away. He has been back to testify in several criminal cases.
You talk in the article about the sex orgies which supposedly took place in the church in East Wenatchee. But not that the Washington State Police took samples from the church and found NO evidence. Isn't it strange that all these hundreds of sex acts took place without leaving one bit of physical evidence on the carpet? The lab reports were withheld from the media and defense attorneys while the prosecution made bald-faced lies about how the "physical evidence continues to grow."
You praise Bob Perez in your article. There are personnel reports written by his own supervisors stating that he 'tended to target people' and to 'intimidate'. He also had a low mental acuity rate. Given the statements of the children 'victims' and the adult 'perpetrators' about Perez's conduct in long grueling interrogations, it seems he threatens children with jailing them or their parents. He offers false promises of leniency to get confessions from mentally retarded adults. So, it would appear that Perez's supervisors had it correct.
You talk about Rev. Roberson being an associate of the 'Ghost Rider' outlaw motorcycle club. He was never a member of that organization. He merely visited the president of that club when he was in jail, upon the request of the jail chaplain, because no other minister would go see him. Rev. Roberson has written evidence concerning that visit as proof if you had asked him.
You state in your article that Roberson would not answer "the charges against him directly," the implication being that he was guilty. What if one of your reporters was facing a criminal charge? Their attorney would tell him or her to say the same thing.
Your reporter came to Wenatchee the afternoon of the day before he spoke to Rev. Roberson at 10:00 am. When invited to stay until 4:00 P.M. that afternoon to meet with Rev. Roberson's attorney, he said that he was leaving Wenatchee before then. Dorothy Rabinowitz of The Wall Street Journal was not in such a hurry; she spent about a week in Wenatchee gathering her information.
The Robersons were not accused until Rev. Roberson stood up in the defense of others falsely accused. After they were arrested, friends and relatives took their young daughter Rebekah to doctors in Everett, WA. to certify that she bore no signs of any abuse. But after relentless interrogation by CPS, Rebekah was persuaded to make charges of abuse against her parents. Obviously children can be influenced into making false charges. CPS could make videotapes of their child interveiws, and have the equipment to do so, but they don't because they don't want anyone to see how the heavy-handed methods they use when conducting their interviews.
Now TV reporter Tom Grant, who has diligently tried to report the truth of the Wenatchee situation, is now supposedly the target of an investigation of child abuse. That's the price of questioning the authorities in Washington State.
You went into great detail about how the 'perpetrators' were poor and uneducated, with low IQ scores, non-working, and users of public assistance. You speak of them becoming acquainted with each other in all sorts of ways so they could perpetrate their crimes on the children. This is crass stereotyping on your part. It's like saying all Black people eat watermelon and fried chicken. You should not perpetuate stereotypes suggesting that someone is guilty of child abuse merely because he or she is economically and socially disadvantaged.
Towns across the country have been affected by mass hysteria over child abuse, from the McMartin preschool in California, the craziness in Jordan, Minnesota, and the absurd accusations made in Edenton, North Carolina about the Little Rascals day care. We do not defend child abuse. But scores of people languish in prison today, wrongly convicted of child sex abuse as a result of hysteria. We have many more like Bob Devereaux who have had their reputations and lives ruined by overzealous social workers, police and prosecutors. The press should cast light on the situation, not resort to myths and stereotypes.
We hope and pray that you will take a closer look at Wenatchee. Some misguided social workers say "children don't lie." But children can be influenced to tell some pretty big whoppers when interrogated by adults in a position of authority!
Sincerely,
Martha A. Churchill
Dorsett C. Bennett II
Attorneies at Law
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