Wenatchee child abuse prosecutions explained

The Wenatchee child abuse prosecutions in Wenatchee, Washington, US, of 1994 and 1995, were the last "large scale Multi-Victim / Multi-Offender case"[1] during the hysteria over child molestation in the 1980s and early 1990s.[2] [3] Many poor and intellectually disabled suspects pled guilty, while those who hired private lawyers were acquitted.[4] Eventually all those accused in these cases were released, and the authorities paid damages to some of those originally accused.

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. On March 13, 1995, Perez put Donna in his police car with two social services caseworkers and they drove through Wenatchee and East Wenatchee. Donna pointed out houses and buildings where she says she and other children were repeatedly raped and molested since January 1988. She listed 22 locations.[5] This drive became known locally as the "Parade of Homes" or the "drive-by".[6] [7]

Many of the people convicted were poor, had intellectual disabilities and were on welfare, and their lawyers stated that their guilty pleas were coerced.[8] In 1995, after Pastor Robert Roberson criticized the investigation, he was arrested and charged with eleven counts of the sexual abuse of a child. Roberson and his wife were acquitted of all charges.[4] [9] Perez's foster daughter later recanted[10] and apologized to Roberson, claiming that Perez had pressured her.[3] [11] Reporter Tom Grant broadcast part of her recantation on KREM-TV.[12] [13]

Arrests

Forty-three adults were arrested on 29,726 charges of child sex abuse, involving 60 children in 1995.[14] Parents and Sunday school teachers were charged, and many were convicted of abusing children, often including their own, or their foster children.[15] Several of the accused claimed that their confessions were coerced. "None of the interviews, or the adults' confessions, was taped",[16] nor did Perez take notes.[17] Sixteen adults entered Alford pleas; most of these were poor or "functionally mentally challenged".[18]

On March 23, 1995, Robert Roberson, pastor of some of the accused, criticized the authorities at a public meeting.[19] Five days later, the Robersons were arrested. Unable to afford the $1,000,000 bail for each, they were held in jail where Robert was beaten.[15] [20] Four months later they were each released on a reduced $12,500 bail to await trial.[18] [21]

Grant said that three defendants were arrested shortly after sharing their criticism of these cases with him. 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.[22] [23] [24]

In 1999, the Washington state legislature passed the "Perez Bill" which required child abuse investigators to keep accurate records of their interviews and forbade them from investigating cases involving their own children.[25]

Trials

Prosecutors were unable to provide any physical evidence to support the charges against the Robersons.[26] The main witness was Perez' foster daughter; Perez was the investigator of the cases.[4] The Roberson's 5-year-old daughter testified that her parents never abused her,[20] so Judge T. W. Small dismissed two charges that they had.[4] In his testimony, Perez admitted physically hurting his foster daughter that was accusing others.[27] The jury acquitted the Robersons of all remaining charges;[28] [29] one juror reported that acquitting them "was not a difficult decision for us."[30] Some jurors met with the Robersons after the trial; Roberson reported they were "so angry and upset that this case was even brought to trial".[31]

A jury also acquitted Honnah Sims; one juror criticized the lack of evidence and described the case as "a witch hunt",[18] and the jury foreman criticized the case as a waste of money given the weakness of the evidence.[32] [33]

Concerned Citizens for Legal Accountability, formed to ask for an outside investigation,[34] filed a complaint with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct criticizing judges T.W. "Chip" Small (judge in the Roberson case) and Carol Wardell (judge in earlier cases) with professional misconduct.[35] [36] The judges had earlier asked for a visiting judge to investigate.[37]

Conviction review summary

Critics maintained that these cases were mishandled by the police and proper protocol was not followed when interviewing the children.[38] Some higher courts agreed, so those who were convicted were freed and had their convictions overturned or pleaded guilty on lesser charges. Five served their full sentences before their cases were overturned. Some lost parental rights. By 2000, the last person in custody, Michael Rose, was released, after a judge vacated his March 1995 convictions.[39]

Washington Governor Mike Lowry requested a federal review,[2] [38] [40] but U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to involve the national Justice Department in these cases.[41] [11] The FBI did not question anyone; instead they shipped Reno documents which she found "do not present evidence of prosecutable violations of federal civil rights law."[42] Other legal watchdogs such as the state Commission on Judicial Conduct and the ACLU declined to criticize these prosecutions.[42] [43]

Culpability

In 1996, a consultant, retired Bellevue Police Chief D.P. Van Blaricom, hired by a city insurer who looked into how the Wenatchee police ran the child abuse investigations, stated that the cases were handled properly. In 1998, Phillip Esplin, a forensic psychologist for the National Institutes of Health's Child Witness Project said that "Wenatchee may be the worst example ever of mental health services being abused by a state ... to control and manage children who have been frightened and coerced into falsely accusing their parents and neighbors of the most heinous of crimes."[44] In 2001, a jury found the city of Wenatchee and Douglas County, Washington negligent in the 1994-1995 investigations. They awarded $3 million to a couple who had been wrongly accused in the inquiry,[45] but the state supreme court later upheld an appeals court ruling reducing this award to the Sims.[46] [47]

Following a "brief training course",[7] Robert Perez was rotated into sex-crimes investigation in 1994[48] despite having been arrested, involvement in a child custody dispute,[49] and a 1989 performance evaluation that said he "likes confrontation and likes having power over people".[18] [50] But the Seattle Post-Intelligencer argued that while Perez got a lot of the criticism, "he was just the point man for an investigation either directed by or undertaken with the active involvement of CPS officials",[5] and the Wall Street Journal blamed "the entire law enforcement establishment [including] the prosecutors".[2] Perez died in 2013 at age 60.[51] [52]

Pierce County public defender Kathryn Lyon compiled "The Wenatchee Report",[53] which "purport[ed] to show civil-rights violations involving children and families in Chelan and Douglas counties."[54] Lyon described the prosecutions as "a great example of a social phenomenon that we haven't seen since Salem or the McCarthy era".[6] Perez attempted to subpoena Lyon's sources,[54] but was unsuccessful, except for a tape that Lyon had already shared with others.[55] This work formed the basis of Lyon's 1998 book, Witch Hunt: A True Story of Social Hysteria and Abused Justice.[17] [56] [57]

Aftermath

Courts have freed all those once imprisoned in these prosecutions. Carol and Mark Doggett (whose daughter had been taken to a mental facility in Idaho to recover memories against them,[22] [58] and then ran away while denying having been abused[59]) were freed,[60] [61] but then still required legal assistance to get their children returned to their custody.[62]

Those once accused filed lawsuits against the authorities who once prosecuted them.[63] [64] [65] The Robersons and Sims settled with the state of Washington for $850,000 in a case that was split off from a suit against the police due to a clerical error.[66] The city of Wenatchee paid the Robersons a settlement of $700,000.[67] The city was fined almost as much during the civil trial for withholding evidence.[68] [69] While on trial for child abuse, Douglas County also prosecuted the Robersons for welfare fraud, a case the Robersons described as "harassment".[18] After their acquittal, they plea-bargained this case to community service for Robert.[70] [71] The last lawsuit against the authorities in these cases was settled in 2009, with the children of Harold and Idella Everett, who initially made an Alford plea (pled no contest),[72] receiving $120,000.[73] Manuel Hidalgo Rodriguez, convicted in 1995,[48] [74] was awarded $2.9 million from his defense attorney Ed Stevensen,[75] who took a job with the prosecutor 3 weeks after losing his case,[76] but in the end received $689,000.[77]

Kerri Ann Knowles Hill, whose trial was postponed due to the "raging hysteria" of her accuser,[58] gave up her rights to sue for damages and speak publicly about her case, in exchange for having her case dropped.[78] Sadie Hughes (a.k.a. Sadie Knowles), described as "low IQ",[76] and "who described herself as developmentally disabled", said "I pleaded guilty to something I didn't understand," and must continue to register as a sex offender.[79]

In 1995, journalist Tom Grant of KREM-TV won a George Polk Award for Excellence in Journalism for his coverage of these cases.[80] In 1997, KREM and Grant won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award "for Investigative Reporting on the Wenatchee Child Sex Ring."[81] [82] [83] Grant first used the term "witch hunt" to describe these cases in March, 1995. Following this, he was "accused, indirectly, of committing some of the same crimes".[84] [15] In September 1995, Grant wrote, "Now I know what it's like to be falsely accused. ... I doubt anyone is really investigating me, but I do believe they are trying to discredit my work."[85] Grant later concluded that these cases involved "good intentions, driven to hysteria, and then funneled through some people, particularly Perez, who did not use the correct techniques in investigating these cases".[86]

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.[17] [87] [88]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The imaginary "sex rings" in Wenatchee, WA. . 2007-12-29 .
  2. News: Wenatchee Update. Wall Street Journal. 6 October 1995 . https://web.archive.org/web/20010711071424/http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/ccla/pages/wj951006.htm . 2001-07-11 .
  3. Web site: Other Well-Known Cases | Innocence Lost | FRONTLINE | PBS. .
  4. News: Timothy. Egan. Pastor and Wife Are Acquitted on All Charges in Sex-Abuse Case.. After less than a day of deliberation, a jury today acquitted a lay pastor and his wife of all charges of sexual abuse of children in a trial that critics say demonstrated the worst aspects of police misconduct in such cases. The defendants, Robert and Connie Roberson, were accused of being at the center of a sex ring in which children were ritualistically raped and abused. ... Prosecutors offered no physical evidence to support the charges. . . 2007-10-31 . December 12, 1995.
  5. News: Andrew . Schneider . Andrew Schneider (journalist) . Mike . Barber . Children sacrificed for the case: Allegations set up a puzzle of doubtful ethics, dubious facts . . February 23, 1998 . On the morning of March 13, 1995, Perez put Donna in the front seat of his police car. Two CPS caseworkers were in the back taking notes as they drove through Wenatchee and East Wenatchee. Donna pointed out houses and buildings where she says she and other children were repeatedly raped and molested since January 1988 -- 22 places in all. Along the way she saw a delivery man and a taxi driver. They were added to the list.". 2007-11-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20031004193153/http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/powertoharm/history.html . 2003-10-04.
  6. Web site: A Nightmare In The Northwest. CBS News . June 28, 1998.
  7. Web site: Timelines . 1995 . https://web.archive.org/web/20010422083504/http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/ccla/pages/timeline.htm . 2001-04-22 . Kathryn . Lyon . Concerned Citizens for Legal Accountability . 2020-09-06 . bot: unknown .
  8. Web site: A cloud over Wenatchee. 1995-12-17 . Tampa Bay Times. https://web.archive.org/web/20201026190405/https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1995/12/17/a-cloud-over-wenatchee/ . 2020-10-26 .
  9. News: CNN - Pastor, wife acquitted in child sex trial - Dec. 12, 1995. https://web.archive.org/web/20000903082937/http://www.cnn.com/US/9512/sex_ring/. 2000-09-03.
  10. Wenatchee situation . FMS Foundation Newsletter . 5 . 7 . 14 . July 1, 1996 . https://web.archive.org/web/20010615161447/http://user.aol.com/DougHSkept/witchhunt/m_e_recants.txt . 2001-06-15 . live .
  11. News: NO HEALING' IN WENATCHEE. William. Claiborne. June 14, 1996. The Washington Post.
  12. Web site: WENATCHEE SEX RING: Questions resurface about 'witch hunt' . June 17, 1996 .
  13. Web site: TV Station Ordered To Turn Over Tape: Judge Says Krem-TV Violated Girl's Rights In Wenatchee Sex Ring Case | The Spokesman-Review. www.spokesman.com . October 18, 1996 .
  14. News: A record of abuses in Wenatchee. . . The town of Wenatchee, Washington, made world headlines in 1994 and 1995 when police and state social workers undertook what was then called the nation's most extensive child sex-abuse investigation.. 2007-11-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20031203182345/http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/powertoharm/ . 2003-12-03 .
  15. News: Wenatchee: A True Story. Wall Street Journal. 1995-09-26. Rabinowitz. Dorothy . Dorothy Rabinowitz . https://web.archive.org/web/20030821134950/http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=95000905 . 2003-08-21 .
  16. Web site: The Unraveling of a Monstrous Secret -- Sex-Abuse Scandal Has Wenatchee Reeling . . June 8, 1995. Marla . Williams . Dee . Norton.
  17. Book Review - 'Witch Hunt: A True Story of Social Hysteria and Abused Justice' . IPT Journal . LeRoy G. . Schultz . 1998.
  18. Web site: Sex Case A 'Wenatchee Witch Hunt' Some Incidents of Incest Were Uncovered but There's Been No Proof of Group Child Abuse . . October 22, 1995 . J. Todd . Foster.
  19. Book: Siegel, Mike . AIRING THE WAVE: Talk Radio At The Dawn Of The Digital Era. Mike Siegel . 2016 . Page Publishing. 9781682897379.
  20. Web site: Cameo Garrett: Wenatchee Mentality: Conversation with Robbi Roberson. 21 March 2008.
  21. Web site: Wenatchee Witch Hunt clip from 1995 . YouTube . 2020-04-25 . 2020-05-31.
  22. Web site: Who is Abusing the Children of Wenatchee? . Armin . Brott . Armin Brott . October 8, 1995 . https://web.archive.org/web/20010708172345/http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/ccla/pages/brott1.htm . 2001-07-08 . .
  23. Web site: FMSF Newsletter - November/December, 1995 - Vol. 4, No. 10. www.fmsfonline.org.
  24. Web site: IPT Journal - "Investigations and Interviews in Cases of Alleged Child Sexual Abuse: A Look at the Scientific Evidence". www.ipt-forensics.com.
  25. Web site: The ghost won't lie still: Ten years after first arrest, 'sex-ring' episode still haunts the community | Local News . wenatcheeworld.com . 2004-04-11 . 2020-05-04 . Martín . Salazar.
  26. Web site: Roberson Trial Considered Text (sic) Of Sex-Ring Investigation | The Seattle Times. archive.seattletimes.com . Nov 26, 1995 . Thomas W. . Haines .
  27. News: DETECTIVE IN CHILD SEX RING TRIAL HURT GIRL. William. Claiborne. December 8, 1995. The Washington Post.
  28. Web site: Couple Acquitted. 12 December 1995 . https://web.archive.org/web/20010421060448/http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/ccla/pages/reuters1.htm . 2001-04-21 . Reuters .
  29. Web site: 'Child sex' pastor and wife are acquitted . unfit . London Electronic Telegraph-World News . 13 December 1995 . John . Hiscock . https://web.archive.org/web/20010708174310/http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/ccla/pages/roby_1.htm . 2020-05-19. 2001-07-08 .
  30. News: Verdict in Wenatchee. Wall Street Journal. 16 December 1995. Rabinowitz. Dorothy.
  31. Web site: Jury Acquits Pastor And Wife 'There Is No Sex Ring In Wenatchee,' Says Roberson After Verdict | The Spokesman-Review. www.spokesman.com . December 12, 1995 . J. Todd . Foster .
  32. Web site: Questions raised in sex-ring trial . . Aug 2, 1995.
  33. Web site: Wenatchee World - Guest Commentary by Karl Ohler . unfit . https://web.archive.org/web/20010421060030/http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/ccla/pages/ohler.htm . 2020-05-19. 2001-04-21 .
  34. Web site: COLUMN ONE : Wenatchee: Little Town of Horrors: This bucolic Northwest city seemed to epitomize the innocence of rural America. Then came a plague of grisly crimes, natural disasters and a child sex scandal. 12 July 1995 . .
  35. Web site: Judges Targeted in Sex Ring Case | the Spokesman-Review . 1996-04-16 .
  36. Web site: Group: Judges acted unprofessionally . 1996-04-16 . .
  37. Web site: 1995-08-05 . Judges Question Need for Grand Jury Sex-Ring Investigations Could be Subject of Probe | the Spokesman-Review.
  38. Web site: The Wenatchee Sex-Crime Case -- Evidence On Trial | The Seattle Times . archive.seattletimes.com . Nov 26, 1995. Marla . Williams . Deborah . Nelson . Duff . Wilson . Thomas W. . Haines .
  39. News: Last child-sex ring defendant released from prison after court action. . . December 27, 2000. When he got out of prison, Michael Rose hugged his mother and just felt relieved that the ordeal of child-sex ring prosecution was over. . 2007-11-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20031222021057/http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/wena27ww.shtml . 2003-12-22 .
  40. Web site: Child Abuse Charges Bitterly Divide Town: Crime: In Wenatchee, Wash., 28 adults have been accused and 15 convicted, but many doubt allegations.. November 12, 1995. Los Angeles Times . https://web.archive.org/web/19990129063217/http://www.s-t.com/daily/11-95/11-07-95/1107sexring.HTML . 1999-01-29 . Aviva L. . Brandt . live .
  41. News: The Pursuit of Justice in Dade County. Wall Street Journal. 1996-10-28. Rabinowitz. Dorothy . Dorothy Rabinowitz . https://web.archive.org/web/20030803074347/http://www.psych.mcgill.ca/courses/xcourses/oct29.htm . 2003-08-03.
  42. News: Andrew . Schneider . Mike . Barber . Justice's watchdogs looked the other way: An angry reaction . . February 27, 1998 . https://web.archive.org/web/20040206195509/http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/powertoharm/probe2.html . 2004-02-06 .
  43. Web site: Where Were the Law Guardians? . . 1998-04-28 . Nat . Hentoff . Nat Hentoff.
  44. News: Wenatchee abuses attacked nationally. . . May 28, 1998 . The Wenatchee child sex-abuse investigations are the nation's most blatant example of continuing judicial abuse, civil libertarians and nationally known commentators said at a conference here yesterday. . 2007-11-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20040920085807/http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/powertoharm/after13.html . 2004-09-20 .
  45. News: Jury finds city, county negligent in child sex ring case. . https://archive.today/20130202104105/http://seattlepi.com/local/33472_wenatchee01.shtml . dead . February 2, 2013 . . August 1, 2001 . 2007-11-26 . Mike . Barber . Larry . Lange .
  46. News: Associated Press . Justices reject sex-ring case award - | Local News . . Dec 2, 2005 . 2020-02-20.
  47. Web site: Roberson v. Perez, 156 Wn. 2d 33 | Casetext Search + Citator . Dec 1, 2005 . http://web.archive.org/web/20051201000000/https://casetext.com/case/roberson-v-perez-3 . FindLaw's Supreme Court of Washington case and opinions. . December 1, 2005 . live . Alt URL
  48. Web site: Wenatchee Witchhunt on Dateline, November 1995 . YouTube . 2020-05-31.
  49. Web site: Part I, b - Detective a man who charmed, harmed . https://web.archive.org/web/20020221224517/http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/powertoharm/perez.html . 2002-02-21 . February 23, 1998 . Andrew . Schneider . Mike . Barber . Andrew Schneider (journalist) .
  50. Web site: Robert Perez Police Department Evaluation. February 24, 1989 . Concerned Citizens for Legal Accountability. https://web.archive.org/web/20010630124228/http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/ccla/pages/perez.htm. 2001-06-30.
  51. Web site: Ex-Wenatchee sex crime detective Bob Perez dies. 2013-12-18 . Seattle Times.
  52. Web site: Jefferson Robbins . Bob Perez, driving force in discredited sex abuse cases, dies | Local News . . 2013-12-18 . 2020-02-28.
  53. Web site: Kathryn Lyon . The Wenatchee Reports . 1995 . https://web.archive.org/web/20010630121826/http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/ccla/pages/lyon.htm . 2020-05-02 . 2001-06-30 . Concerned Citizens for Legal Accountability.
  54. Web site: Author Fights Sex-Ring Case Subpoena | the Spokesman-Review . 1996-03-28.
  55. Web site: Writer Need Not Reveal Sources in Wenatchee Sex-Ring Cases | the Spokesman-Review . 1996-04-02.
  56. News: Associated Press . Child sex ring book gets mixed reviews | Northwest . lmtribune.com . 1998-02-20 . 2020-05-02.
  57. Web site: One Brave Soul's Crusade for Truth About Wenatchee | the Seattle Times . 1998-03-03.
  58. Web site: Wenatchee, A True Story -- II . . Dorothy . Rabinowitz . Dorothy Rabinowitz . October 13, 1995 . https://web.archive.org/web/20010421055504/http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/ccla/pages/wj951013.htm. 2001-04-21.
  59. Web site: Wenatchee Witch Hunt and the Doggett Family . YouTube . 2020-04-23 . 2020-05-31.
  60. Web site: Wenatchee Couple's Rape Conviction is Overturned | the Seattle Times . 1997-12-10.
  61. Web site: State v. Carol M.D, 89 Wn. App. 77 | Casetext Search + Citator . live . December 9, 1997 . https://web.archive.org/web/20010422030131/http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/cases/wenatchee/doggett.htm . 2001-04-22 .
  62. Web site: Afterward: Freedom is never the same for those who've been to prison on phony charges . Pulitzer.org . December 29, 2000 . 2004-12-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20041218020757/http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=90000450 .
  63. Web site: Roberson v. ... | Local News . wenatcheeworld.com . December 14, 2007 . 2020-02-20.
  64. Web site: Wenatchee: Sex Probe Tests Truth and Trust. 14 June 1998 . Kim . Murphy . . https://web.archive.org/web/20200506191323/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-jun-14-mn-59973-story.html . 2020-05-06 .
  65. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/19990203104913/http://www.seattletimes.com/extra/browse/html/altwena_062896.html. Wenatchee Braces For Sex-Ring Lawsuits . June 28, 1996 . February 3, 1999 . . live .
  66. Web site: 3 Settle Suit Resulting From Child Sex Case . January 1, 2000. Los Angeles Times . Associated Press . https://web.archive.org/web/20200708080657/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-jan-01-mn-49728-story.html . 2020-07-08 .
  67. Web site: Jaime Adame . City's sex-case settlement with Roberson: $700,000 | Local News . wenatcheeworld.com . Dec 26, 2007 . 2020-02-20.
  68. Web site: City of Wenatchee fined $621,461 . seattlepi.com . 2003-01-06 . 2020-05-18.
  69. Web site: City ordered to pay after withholding records in child sex lawsuit . Products.kitsapsun.com . 2003-01-07 . 2020-05-18.
  70. Web site: Roberson Says He's Due Credit Pastor Wants Talks with Media Counted as Community Service | the Spokesman-Review . 1996-07-12.
  71. Web site: 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 . 1996-07-13.
  72. Web site: Mark Jewell of the Associated Press . 1998-09-25 . Man jailed in Wenatchee child-sex case is set free | Northwest . 2020-05-06 . The Lewiston Tribune.
  73. Web site: Last case settled in botched sex ring case. 2009-05-25 . Seattle Times . https://web.archive.org/web/20200614040038/https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/last-case-settled-in-botched-sex-ring-case/ . 2020-06-14. Alt URL
  74. News: Reckoning in Wenatchee. Wall Street Journal. 21 September 1999.
  75. Web site: Lawyer will pay millions for poor job. Michelle. McNiel. The Wenatchee World . May 13, 2010 .
  76. Web site: Wenatchee-Current Status: Arrests, Convictions, Dismissals . December 23, 1995 . Concerned Citizens for Legal Accountability . https://web.archive.org/web/20010414071106/http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/ccla/pages/current.htm . 2001-04-14 . 2020-09-15 . bot: unknown .
  77. Web site: Jefferson Robbins . Lesser settlement stands in sex-abuse civil case | Local News . wenatcheeworld.com . 2013-09-11 . 2020-02-20.
  78. Web site: Judge dismisses last of sex-ring cases. products.kitsapsun.com . October 4, 1996 .
  79. Web site: Woman must continue to register as sex offender: 'Sex ring' subject vows to fight on . The Wenatchee World . 2007-02-27 .
  80. Web site: TV Reporter's Stories on Alleged Sex Ring Cited | the Spokesman-Review . 1996-03-12.
  81. Web site: Silver Batons: Medium Market Television . January 16, 1997 . Columbia University News Archive .
  82. Web site: Grant Wins 'Pulitzer of Broadcasting' | the Spokesman-Review . 1997-01-19.
  83. Web site: KREM-TV, Investigative Reporting on the Wenatchee Child Sex Ring | 1997 duPont-Columbia Award Winner in 1997 duPont Winners on Vimeo . Vimeo.com . 2013-04-01 . 2020-05-18.
  84. Web site: Reporters at Odds in Sex Ring Case Some May Have Saved Innocent, Others May Have Fed Flames | the Spokesman-Review . 1996-01-29 .
  85. Web site: Tom Grant . 1995-09-29 . https://web.archive.org/web/20010630125756/http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dehill/witchhunt/ccla/pages/tomgrant.htm . 2020-05-18. 2001-06-30 . Concerned Citizens for Legal Accountability.
  86. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20200614040116/https://ajrarchive.org/Article.asp?id=1400&id=1400 . Witch Hunt in Wenatchee?. June 1996 . 2020-06-14 . live . American Journalism Review . Jim . Kershner. Alt URL
  87. Roberts, Paul Craig (January 19, 1997) "New Witch Hunt? Child-Abuse Lies". Deseret News.
  88. Web site: FMSF Newsletter - February 1, 1997 - Vol. 6, No. 2. www.fmsfonline.org . Pamela . Freyd . Pamela Freyd . February 7, 1997 .