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Reader reactions to this series
Originally published Sunday, March 8, 1998 Precise procedure must be followed in child interviews
This is reported to a doctor or other professional who is legally obligated to report any suspected abuse to CPS. Then the other parent suddenly finds himself or herself under investigation and having no contact, or very limited supervised contact, with the child. The accused parent has to spend thousands of dollars trying to clear himself or herself. The courts are very cautious in protecting children, so it may be very difficult for innocent people to regain their parental rights. The same problems abound in the investigations of the Wenatchee cases. Still, no one bothers to tape interviews of the child, and the parent who has wrested temporary custody of the child or children from the other parent has ample opportunity to coach the child. Social workers or counselors who do not have professional training in such investigations may be involved in interviewing the child and can skew the interviews by leading questions and there is no way for the accused to prove that has happened. There need to be laws requiring that interviews of children in all cases of alleged abuse must be videotaped and conducted by trained professionals only.
Leslie Jordan
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I appreciated the thorough and intelligent examination of the Wenatchee sex abuse trials. I am a legal assistant in family law and am well aware of the problems dealing with CPS and psychologists. Many people do not realize that it is not uncommon for accusations of sexual abuse to come up in divorces or cases involving custody disputes. Most often the accusations are concocted on the flimsiest of indications -- the mother, more often, or father, alleges the child said something that could be construed to indicate the other parent did something sexually inappropriate. 
