My god, I could never do those things. He had pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 years. Attorney Robert Perez has dedicated his life to representing people accused of serious crimes. Forty hours sitting in a classroomspread over three days? That was enough. A. [48][49], In 1996, a consultant, retired Bellevue Police Chief D.P. [12], In 1997, Pastor Roby and Connie Roberson attended the "Day of Contrition" conference in Salem, Massachusetts, along with other victims and experts of the day-care sex-abuse hysteria.[6][87][88]. Donna, now 40,. Following this, he was "accused, indirectly, of committing some of the same crimes". She described gatherings on weekends (and those evenings when the children had no homework) where the group would eat pizza, watch "Star Trek" movies and indulge in a frenzy of perversion. Before he arrested Meredith Town, he wanted corroborating statements from the boys, then ages 14 and 12. 22, Ex. In Cherie Town's book, it was wrong for her husband to be messing around with other women. DI Jimmy Perez and his team investigate crimes within the close knit island community of Shetland. Q. [4] In his testimony, Perez admitted physically hurting his foster daughter that was accusing others. 4, No. Devereaux asked, "What do I have to do to stay out of jail?" Attempting to leave Wenatchee quietly, he stopped by the Douglas County sheriff's office to purchase a trip permit for his rig. "Let me tell you, I was abused by two uncles and a cousin, and I know the dirt you feel. So when he started bragging, she picked up the phone and called the Rape Crisis Center. [4][16] Perez's foster daughter later recanted[17][18] and apologized to Roberson, claiming that Perez had pressured her. But then, asked to describe the incidents, Devereaux shook his head and said, "I can't tell you. . Then came a plague of grisly crimes, natural disasters and a child sex scandal", "Judges Targeted in Sex Ring Case | the Spokesman-Review", "Judges Question Need for Grand Jury Sex-Ring Investigations Could be Subject of Probe | the Spokesman-Review", "The Wenatchee Sex-Crime Case -- Evidence On Trial | The Seattle Times", "Last child-sex ring defendant released from prison after court action", "Child Abuse Charges Bitterly Divide Town: Crime: In Wenatchee, Wash., 28 adults have been accused and 15 convicted, but many doubt allegations", "Justice's watchdogs looked the other way: An angry reaction", "Justices reject sex-ring case award - | Local News", "Roberson v. Perez, 156 Wn. Accusations: The investigation began in January 1995 when Detective Robert Perez was told by his 13-year-old foster daughter, Donna Perez, that she had been sexually molested. Looking the other way as injustice takes its horrible toll is not acceptable. Perez was named the department's chief sex crimes investigator in January 1994, even though he had no formal training. The distinction blurred with the availability of family-wage, factory jobs. 500 Park Ave West . "[59] Lyon described the prosecutions as "a great example of a social phenomenon that we haven't seen since Salem or the McCarthy era". WENATCHEE - There is right, and there is wrong. That was all Perez needed to hear; he put out a bulletin on Meredith Town. . Advertisement. Roberson had been looking into whether Perez was railroading poor, uneducated people into jail and had publicly spoken against the arrest of people like Harold and Idella Everett, who sometimes attended the church. . The Devereauxs were warned there could be problems. Terry Pippin, present when Perez questioned Green, recalled in court that "she cried occasionally, real softly." Wenatchee Police Detective Robert Perez tenaciously pursued his investigation into stories of sexual predators who victimized children - sometimes their own children. Meredith Town was sentenced to 18 years and 4 months in prison; Cherie was ordered to serve 10 years. [44] Some higher courts agreed, so those who were convicted were freed and had their convictions overturned or pleaded guilty on lesser charges. Bob Perez Led by Detective Perez, police and Washington State social workers began a vigorous investigation. Elizabeth Loftus, a University of Washington professor and nationally noted authority on memory, argues strongly that children, and even some adults, are "highly suggestible" and therefore unreliable. A judge rejected that argument. The first time it happened, Rose and Reed were supposed to be keeping the boys out of harm's way while she was downtown talking to her husband about a divorce. Perez kept asking if I hadn't seen this person and that person abuse the children. But there was one problem: none of it actually happened. By 2004, the city of Wenatchee had paid out more than $7 million in jury awards and settlements to claimants who were falsely accused. Roberson and his wife were acquitted of all charges. [68] The city of Wenatchee paid the Robersons a settlement of $700,000. to the police station for questioning. Talking with the children made Perez believe Laura Holt - also known as Becky - had molested not only her children but countless others. was driven around town in a police car with Perez and two Child Protective Services caseworkers. Q. He was accused of sexual abuse of his teen-age stepdaughter in 1993 and 1994. Perez spent about an hour talking with Cherie Town. The settlement brings to an end the three-year-old lawsuit, first filed in district court in 2011 and later moved to federal court. [20][21], Forty-three adults were arrested on 29,726 charges of child sex abuse, involving 60 children in 1995. But prosecutors and Perez's police superiors deny any. [12] After case worker Paul Glassen criticized the way that Perez interviewed the foster daughter of Robert Devereaux, he was arrested for "tampering with a witness", and later fled to Canada with his family. They entered Alford pleas, the process by which defendants maintain innocence but acknowledge they would be found guilty at trial. 6, No. Seattle Times staff reporter Dee Norton contributed to this report. Ifat trial, a prosecutoris never requiredtoascertain or to prove a motive. "Wenatchee Witch Hunt" Detective Robert Perez Was Perez Dealt with properly by his employer? Former Wenatchee police Detective Robert Perez and former Wenatchee Police Chief Ken Badgley were both dismissed as defendants before the trial. If I had to speculate, I believe one of the Seven Deadly Sins was at playPride. I know what it is like to be a victim, to be sexually molested as a child," she said, wiping away tears. 09/22/2004. . Several of the accused claimed that their confessions were coerced. The Wenatchee cases were anything but [fake news];they destroyed lives, destroyed children and parents, and left many of the children with lifelong angst.Q. App. Unable to afford the $1,000,000 bail for each, they were held in jail where Robert was beaten. [80], In 1995 journalist Tom Grant of KREM-TV won a George Polk Award for Excellence in Journalism for his coverage of these cases. Those who know but do not like him say he is a "manipulative monster.". . All rights reserved. Later, Cherie Town would reportedly admit to her own perverse and seemingly insatiable sexual appetite. [1] Most of the girls sent to the Devereauxs were victims of sexual abuse - some were withdrawn and frightened, others aggressive and angry. So began the painful unraveling of a monstrous secret. Court documents said the girl had come from a wretched home; the house, on Cashmere Street, was crowded and filthy and desperately unhappy. Miller's confession was corroborated by her ex-husband, Larry Steinborn. Hernandez, 52, faced life in. [37], A jury also acquitted Honnah Sims; one juror criticized the lack of evidence and described the case as "a witch hunt",[25] and the jury foreman criticized the case as a waste of money given the weakness of the evidence. 2023, Everett Herald and Sound Publishing, Inc. 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Traffic was backed up for 5 miles Thursday morning. [25] After their acquittal, they plea-bargained this case to community service for Robert. 77 | Casetext Search + Citator", "3 Settle Suit Resulting From Child Sex Case", "City's sex-case settlement with Roberson: $700,000 | Local News", "City ordered to pay after withholding records in child sex lawsuit", "Roberson Says He's Due Credit Pastor Wants Talks with Media Counted as Community Service | the Spokesman-Review", "Sex-Ring Defendant Can't Just do Pr Work, State Says Roberson Must Come up with Better Plan for Community Service Work | the Spokesman-Review", "Man jailed in Wenatchee child-sex case is set free | Northwest", "Wenatchee-Current Status: Arrests, Convictions, Dismissals", "Lesser settlement stands in sex-abuse civil case | Local News", "Woman must continue to register as sex offender: 'Sex ring' subject vows to fight on", "TV Reporter's Stories on Alleged Sex Ring Cited | the Spokesman-Review", "Silver Batons: Medium Market Television", "Grant Wins 'Pulitzer of Broadcasting' | the Spokesman-Review", "KREM-TV, Investigative Reporting on the Wenatchee Child Sex Ring | 1997 duPont-Columbia Award Winner in 1997 duPont Winners on Vimeo", "Reporters at Odds in Sex Ring Case Some May Have Saved Innocent, Others May Have Fed Flames | the Spokesman-Review", "FMSF Newsletter - February 1, 1997 - Vol. in an attempt to cope with or explain the experience.". Kinkade knows what it feels like to be charged with sexual abuse. Information from: The Wenatchee World, http://www.wenatcheeworld.com. "Justice" would have required critical oversight of the cases. That suspicion was heightened by medical evidence suggesting that at least one and possibly both of the boys had been abused. Plaintiffs' attorney James Beecher said Perez. Q. The wake it leaves behind is never-ending. Rose, then 26, maintained his innocence. Donna pointed out houses and buildings where she says she and other children were repeatedly raped and molested since January 1988. That secret allegedly was shared by at least two dozen adults and some 50 children said to be members of "The Circle." [79] Sadie Hughes (a.k.a. - Lead Detective Controls audits processes, coordinate testing and audits with internal audit team. They began a separate investigation into alleged abuse at the church run by Pastor Roberson, a 50-year-old former mechanic who found Jesus 12 years ago, and his wife. Kinder critics said police, immersed in wretched detail, had failed to consider the children might be telling tales, exaggerating or even fabricating accounts of sexual abuse. There was, it seemed, horrific new allegations being made every day. Ultimately, 29,726 charges of child molestation were lodged. None of the interviews, or the adults' confessions, was taped. Ever since this page published details of the spree of child abuse prosecutions in the town of Wenatchee, Washington, readers have been calling . Donna pointed out houses and buildings where she says she and other children were repeatedly raped and molested since January 1988. It was the touching thing, the `wild thing.' Debate rages in Wenatchee and across the country over whether children are reliable witnesses. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Their marriage on the rocks, Cherie and her husband were rarely intimate - although, on occasion they would have sex together with the boys. The detective responsible for the witch hunt, Robert "Bob" Perez, having incarcerated 43 adults with almost 30,000 counts of child rape and molestation, had become the lead detective of the Sex Crimes Unit in Wenatchee after attending a 3-day, 40-hour course on child abuse. Heres whats happening at the mid-point of the 2023 session of the Washington Legislature. 10/25/2004. Retired police sergeant Mike Magnotti said protecting children was the first priority for Perez. "We had to undress and lay down on the bed, a kid on each bed," she said. . Emergency Phone: 911. ", Perez went back to the kids, accompanied by a Child Protective Services investigator. Bundling the girl up, Perez and two Child Protective Services caseworkers drove the child, now 10, around town so she could point out where these orgies were supposed to have taken place. Devereaux's 15-year-old accuser was Glassen's responsibility, one of dozens of kids on his case list. See Roberson v. Perez, 119 Wn. CPS records indicate allegations of sexual abuse were leveled at Devereaux at least seven times over four years. The only break had come when his father, a convicted burglar, got drunk and started shooting up the house with a .22-caliber revolver - probation violations that landed him back in jail. he wanted to. On a sticky-hot July afternoon, about three months after the Towns were arrested, Perez knocked on Laura Holt's door. "The fabric of so many lives was torn so violently.". Some time later, she began "having fun" with her older, mentally disabled child. [7], Those once accused filed lawsuits against the authorities who once prosecuted them. Children were interviewed in the presence of other children. Her confession, together with statements by Perez' foster daughter and a 13-year-old friend, bound together the various abuse cases. (One soon ran away from Perez and recanted.) The investigation began in January 1995 when Detective Robert Perez was told by his 13-year-old foster daughter, Donna Perez, that she had been sexually molested. Perez asked for details. - Drive continuous improvement and efficiency in the accounting and master data processes for NA Hub. Auxiliary Police Officer Nicholas T. Pekearo . Melinda Everett's civil lawsuit says the Department of Social and Health Services should not have placed her in the home of former Wenatchee police detective Robert Perez. All rights reserved. [78], Kerri Ann Knowles Hill, whose trial was postponed due to the "raging hysteria" of her accuser,[63] gave up her rights to sue for damages and speak publicly about her case, in exchange for having her case dropped. She identified 19 locations: Some were familiar, such as Devereaux's house and the former rental homes of the Holts and Towns; but others, such as the Pentecostal Church of God House of Prayer in East Wenatchee, presented shocking new leads. -----------------------------------------------------------------.
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