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Monday, March 9, 1998
By ANDREW SCHNEIDER The state child protection ombudsman will examine -- "from beginning to end" -- the way employees of the Department of Social and Health Services handled the investigation of alleged sexual abuse in Wenatchee. "Our initial focus will be on how the children were questioned and interviewed by (Child Protective Services) workers and law enforcement and the mental health treatment decisions that were made," Vicki Wallen, director of the Office of Family and Children's Ombudsman, said in an interview late last week. Wallen, 36, began exploring these issues last year, and has recently renewed efforts to find out what happened in the Wenatchee cases. "We will examine all aspects of how employees of the Department of Social and Health Services handled the investigations of the accusations of sexual abuse, from beginning to end," she said. In a five-month investigation, the Post-Intelligencer found that many of the 60 children labeled as sex assault victims by police and CPS workers were coerced into making accusations even after initially and often repeatedly denying they were abused. Forty-three adults were charged with child rape and molestation during the two-year investigation. Sixteen remain in prison. The newspaper also documented that DSHS had sent many children, especially those who failed to accuse parents and neighbors of abuse, to counselors and therapists in Wenatchee and at Pine Crest Psychiatric Hospital in Idaho. Treatment provided the children appeared to center on getting the children to produce evidence for use in prosecutions. Wallen's team is small -- lawyers Dennis Ichikawa and Jim Handley, clinical social worker Mary Meinig and database expert Susan Bauer. But all are experienced in investigating child and family issues and have taken national and Washington State Patrol training. "We will review the actions of DSHS personnel involved in these joint law enforcement/CPS interviews and try to determine the methods and techniques used during this questioning, including the keeping of records of the interviews," Wallen said. Detective Bob Perez, the chief investigator in the cases, insisted that some children who were being treated by the Children's Home Society be transferred to other counselors, in part because Home Society counselors did not believe the children had been abused and thought they would make bad prosecution witnesses. "We've got to determine what, if any policies or protocols were in place to guide these activities and then determine whether those policies and protocols were complied with," Wallen said. She and her team will try to determine what happened to all the children swept into the court cases. "We're going to examine (cases of) the 17 children who have had their parents' rights terminated and the 21 others who are still in foster homes or state custody," she said. "We're also going to try find those who were involved with DSHS but are now 18 years old or over." Many of the issues Wallen will examine also will be reviewed in court hearings and trials. This week in Wenatchee, a judge has been ordered by the state Appeals Court to review the questioning of children that led to the charges against Idella and Harold Everett. The Everetts, who are mentally impaired, were two of the adults convicted as sex abusers. And last Friday in Spokane, Superior Court Judge Michael Donohue ruled that a civil trial could proceed against DSHS employees and the state, the city of Wenatchee, Detective Perez, Douglas County and mental health counselor Cindy Andrews. The civil suit was brought by Pastor Robert Roberson and several others charged with sex crimes in Wenatchee and later acquitted. Lawmakers and other officials, including the governor, have appeared willing to leave the growing number of requests for a Wenatchee investigation in the hands of Wallen and her small staff. But she cautions that many suggested areas for investigation are beyond the mandate of her office. "It would be inaccurate for anyone to suggest that our targeted review of DSHS' actions constitutes a full-blown inquiry into the government's conduct in the Wenatchee child sex-abuse investigation," she said. "We are not directly investigating the actions of judicial or law enforcement personnel." However, she insists that any information of possible wrongdoing or violations of due process or civil rights that they uncover during their investigation of DSHS actions will be turned over to the appropriate state or federal agencies. Wallen's office is receiving about 100 new complaints about DSHS each month. She estimates that it will be close to year's end before the first phase of her investigation is complete. The biggest problem, she said, is the ability to protect the confidentiality of the documents and interviews that her team obtains. She doesn't want the attorney general or any other lawyer to be able to subpoena material they collect. "We are only as good as the information we get from our sources," Wallen said. "We've been contacted by a number of people who are interested in assisting in our investigation but only if we can protect their identity." This type of encroachment has already occurred. On Oct. 23, she announced that her office was reviewing 3,200 documents provided by former Pierce Country Public Defender Kathryn Lyon, who spent two years investigating the handling of the sex-abuse cases. "Two days later a lawyer from the state Attorney General's office, which is defending the state in civil suits related to Wenatchee, called and said he wanted Lyon's documents," Wallen said. "We refused. But it had a chilling effect and can happen again unless the Legislature passes a law which protects our material and those we interview." A bill providing this protection -- the Family and Children's Ombudsman Shield Law -- has been passed by the House and is awaiting Senate action. "This protection of their sources is mandatory. Without it, people who have the proof won't come forward," said Lyon. It remains to be seen if DSHS will act on the ombudsman's recommendations. They haven't yet. In January, Wallen's office issued a brief report on the propriety of Perez being allowed to remain the foster father of two girls who were the key accusers or corroborators in most of the Wenatchee prosecutions. They found that keeping the girls in Perez's home was "detrimental to the girls' best interest . . . and clearly affected perceptions of the girls' credibility." Days later, Rosalyn Oreskovich, DSHS assistant secretary, insisted "there was nothing improper about Detective Perez and his wife serving as foster parents." Wallen stands by her office's findings. "The fact that there was a conflict of interest in the placement of the two girls with Detective Perez is not debatable. DSHS believes the placement was appropriate. We disagree." Wallen doesn't hide her enthusiasm for the Wenatchee quest or her zeal for protecting the rights of the state's children and their families. "I love this job," she said, but remembers what Gov. Mike Lowry told her when he created the office in December 1996. "The governor told me 'You may thank me now. You may not feel that way three years from now.' "
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