Wenatchee World Oct. 5, 1995

Sex-probe report called one sided

Local officials blast information sent for federal inquiry.

Wenatchee - Local officials say the U.S. Attorney's office is relying on a one-sided report compiled by critics of Wenatchee's sex ring investigation and Child Protective Services to decide whether a federal inquiry is warranted.

People involved in the investigation have disputed much of the information in the document, called "The Wenatchee Report" and say neither state nor federal officials have called them to get the other side.

"We don't know what the agenda is" said Wenatchee Police Chief Ken Badgley. "Are they going after a state agency, local people, or is this just an honest inquiry. ... It concerns me if they're making decisions based solely on one source of information."

"I don't see a balance (in the report) at all," said CPS Supervisor Tim Abbey. "Most of these issues have been addressed in court and readdressed. Are they now questioning every rape in the area? It just makes me sick. What is truth anymore?"

Chelan County Prosecutor Gary Riesen returned home early from a meeting of county officials Wednesday, after he heard that the governor and House Speaker Clyde Ballard had requested a federal review of the allegations. He said he's angry that neither state nor federal officials have asked to see any police reports or prosecutions records involving the case.

"In June the governor's office called us and asked us, 'Do you want any help to deal with child abuse in the community?' They ask me, we didn't ask them...and they sent $19,000 to my office for extraordinary prosecution expenses in connection with these cases. And now the governor wants to investigate me for using the money he sent me? I am astounded by that, shocked,: Riesen said Wednesday night.

"And beyond the governor's deal, which is completely amazing to me, is that Clyde Ballard, who is my representative, got his information about this situation from a reporter from New York City who spent three days in Wenatchee. But neither he nor the governor asked me one question about what was going on here or about cases where we had convictions, including cases where juries composed of the citizens of Chelan County found these people guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Again, I am shocked that my representative would not ask me to find out what are the facts."

An editorial writer from the Wall Street Journal visited Wenatchee and then wrote a piece that appeared Sept 29, critical of the sex-ring cases.

Jim Crum, an assistant U.S. attorney in Spokane, said he received the Wenatchee Report in September and sent it to his office's civil rights division in Washington, D.C., two weeks ago, before Gov. Mike Lowry and Ballard formally asked U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to review the allegations.

"There are a myriad of allegations (in the report), and some of them that have been made would fall under a civil rights violations," Crum said. "This is a real specialized area, and the experts are back there. My core question to them is 'If even some of these allegations are true, does the civil rights statute apply?' That's what I'm waiting for them to tell me."

The U.S. Department of Justice only gets involved in local matters that involve alleged civil rights violations.

The Wenatchee Report, written by attorney Kathryn Lyon of Olympia, contains more than 250 pages of interviews and documents purporting to show civil rights violations involving children and families in Chelan and Douglas counties.

Lyon writes at the beginning of the report that she is employed by Pierce County as a public defender but took vacation time and a leave of absence to do her research and used a loan to cover her expenses.

"I am not paid by or affiliated with any agency or organization" she wrote. But Lyon did attend at least one strategy meeting with defense attorneys this summer, at the law office of Steve Lacy, and she indicates in the report that she worked with - or got information from - members of Concerned Citizens for Legal Accountability (CCLA) and VOCAL (Victims of Child Abuse Laws), groups highly critical of CPS and the sex ring probe.

And Lyon's report also goes heavily in the allegations in a discrimination lawsuit filed by attorney Steve Lacy, on behalf of his clients Juan Garcia, Paul Glassen and Juana Vasquez, who provided much of the information in the report.

Glassen and Garcia were fired from their jobs at the Wenatchee Children's Services office earlier this year. Garcia was accused of getting intimate with one of his clients, a 16 year old girl. Glassen was accused of failing to tell investigators about child abuse that had been reported to him. Both men deny the allegations, and in the lawsuit claim they were fired because of their support for Vasquez, who won a discrimination lawsuit in Mid-1994

Vasquez, a Children's Services supervisor, has been on home assignment for more than a year. State officials have said they're investigating allegations of wrongdoing against Vasquez, including reports that she thwarted a police investigation into Glassen and passed confidential information to people outside the office. Vasquez claims the investigation is retaliation for her discrimination lawsuit.

Much of Lyon's report revolves around allegations that Wenatchee sex crimes Detective Bob Perez and others, including CPS caseworkers, coerced and manipulated children and adults into lying about sex abuse. The so-called sex ring investigation has led to child rape and molestation charges against 28 adults. Of those, 11 have pleaded guilty, three have been convicted by juries, three have had the charges dismissed or greatly reduced, one has been acquitted and the rest are awaiting trial.

Lyon has said she wants the laws changed in Washington to require video or audio tapes of police interviews with alleged victims and suspects of child abuse, and she and other have strongly criticized Perez for being both an investigator of child rape and foster parent to two of the children who have made disclosures in the case.

Chelan County Prosecutor Gary Riesen said only some states routinely use videotapes in such investigations, but there are no counties in Washington where it's done. and Police Chief Badgley, who mad the decision to let Perez continue investigating the sex ring even after disclosures by his foster daughter, said he doesn't have a problem with the decision.

"It just makes the burden of proof a little harder," Badgley said. "What we did was say, 'That's fine, but in order to make any arrests, you've got to have more than just one child say that it happened." There had to be independent corroboration, from an adult or another child outside the family, and that's why we always felt comfortable with the charges that were filed. We had that corroboration."

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