Susan Everett

The following are excerpts from interviews and do not include assertions of fact beyond these statements.

Interview: Susan Everett

Ms. Everett is niece of Harold Everett. Detective Perez came to the house where she was staying with her sister, Karen Lopez. Detective Perez was accompanied by an officer from the Grandview Police Department. Detective Perez said, "Where is Karen Lopez?" Susan said, "she's upstairs." Perez said, "Are you Susan Everett?" Susan said, "yes." Perez then said, "Well, you're under arrest." This was about 1:00 p.m.

Detective Perez then took her to the Grandview police station. At the station, Perez talked to her alone. He "yelled" at her "alot." He told her he knew she had molested her cousins. Susan said she had not. Detective Perez said he didn't believe her because her cousins and her Aunt Idella Everett had said it was true. He gave her a lot of names of people he claimed she knew had molested children. Susan can't remember all of these names because she doesn't know these people. The names she remembers he gave her were Harold and Idella Everett, Donna Hidalgo, and Karen Lopez. She told him truthfully that she didn't see them molest children.

When she would tell Detective Perez it didn't happen, he would cut her off. He wouldn't believe her when she denied it, he was yelling at her. She says she was very afraid of him. She said he intimidated her.

Detective Perez told Susan that he knew her sister, Karen Lopez was guilty and she would be going away for a long time. He said he knew she had done it. He said he knew what she, Susan, had been doing for the last several years. He said he knew what happened. She says she was not living in access to her cousins during the time frame he talked about.

Susan was really afraid during the interview. She has been seeing a psychiatrist for years. She was molested by her father between the ages of ten to seventeen. Her baby died last year and she is still affected by that, and also by the recent death of her father. Detective Perez knew some of these things.

After a time, Susan was taken to Wenatchee. In the car on the way, Detective Perez had her write out her personal history.

Her personal history included her father molesting her and the fact she was under psychiatric care. Detective Perez knew already that she had been molested. He seemed to know everything about her and she doesn't know how.

Susan said she didn't make any admissions at the Grandview police station or in the car on the way to Wenatchee. She had no dinner that day.

Susan was questioned at the Wenatchee police station from 7:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. that day. She was given no breaks. No other police officer was in the room. She says she doesn't recall that she was advised of her right to an attorney. Detective Perez said to her, "Be straight with me. If you tell me you did it I'll help you out." He wouldn't believe her when she said she didn't know of anything happening. Detective Perez told her she'd get thirty four years if she didn't tell what he knew.

Detective Perez was typing during the interview. He didn't take any handwritten notes. She started to make statements because she was so scared of him. Mostly she just agreed with·what he told her happened. Sometimes she made things up. She has difficulty remembering exactly what was said, but thinks she may have said things or agreed to things about herself, Idella Everrett, Karen Lopez and Donna Hidalgo. These things were all untrue. She felt very intimidated and scared and this is why she went along with it. She also believed that, as Perez told her several times, Karen Lopez was going away for a long time, and she didn't want her to go alone.

Detective Perez made Susan sign the statement. He told her if she didn't sign it she would go away for thirty four years. She didn't read it but skimmed it. He didn't read it to her. She says some of the things in it were not said by her at all and other things she had said were just things she made up. "None of it was true." What she read was "disgusting."

Susan says she has a ninth grade education but she wasn't in special education.

(Note: This was a first recantation, within a few days of her arrest. Also present, Connie Fry.) (Interview: Susan Everett, Wenatchee Jail, 9/5/95.)

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