Perez, 60, of Waterville died on Dec.. in an attempt to cope with or explain the experience.". [56][57], Pierce County public defender Kathryn Lyon compiled "The Wenatchee Report",[58] which "purport[ed] to show civil-rights violations involving children and families in Chelan and Douglas counties. Four stories below Riesen's office is the Chelan County Jail where the accused - stripped of their shoes, street clothes and freedom - wait for a chance to tell their stories. 10/25/2004. I would never subject my children to that.". A.I do not consider a 40-hour training course on child abuse "extensive" at all. Text. "Children's disclosures may be confusing and inconsistent. She listed 22 locations. This is a story of violence against innocents, the betrayal of trust, of ignorance and isolation - of a reportedly abusive subculture overlooked by mainstream Wenatchee for nearly a decade. 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. The family lived from welfare check to welfare check. The investigation found that Perez coerced suspects, many poor and developmentally disabled, into making false confessions, and coached testimony from witnesses. - Provide support to Hub members regarding detective controls processes (B2R, B2C, P2P, MDM). The Devereauxs were warned there could be problems. . After he informed her of her rights, she confessed to ongoing sexual contacts with all three children individually and in. Defense attorneys questioned the foundation of the charges, citing physician diagnoses that revealed "the alleged victims suffered from various forms of psychological problems including attention-deficit disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychotic disorders and other impairments.". Others argue children do not lie about something as physically and emotionally painful as sexual abuse. Wenatchee Update. In a separate appeal, this court reversed the jury verdict in favor of the Sims. Every person alleged to have been part of "The Circle" is poor, some desperately so. was driven around town in a police car with Perez and two Child Protective Services caseworkers. They were families, police say, in which adults treated children as commodities, "trading them like party favors" - not for financial gain, but for sexual gratification and illusions of power and control. Information from: The Wenatchee World, http://www.wenatcheeworld.com. ", Defense attorneys for Cherie Town asked the court to quash the confession, arguing that she is of "substantially low IQ" and "believed that if she told Perez what he wanted to hear, she would not get in serious trouble." 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. Before being chosen to work in the Robbery-Homicide division in 1996, he spent over nine years as a homicide investigator at the South Bureau and Wilshire Division. In police custody, Devereaux repeatedly denied abusing the girls, saying they would often come on to him but he always ignored the behavior or took steps to stop it. 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. [32] The main witness was Perez' foster daughter; Perez was the investigator of the cases. . The allegations started when two children under the foster care of detective Robert Perez began accusing their parents. ." The sheriff's office obtained search warrants and sought physical evidence, including samples of the carpet and sections of the rectory wall. Ever since this page published details of the spree of child abuse prosecutions in the town of Wenatchee, Washington, readers have been calling . DI Jimmy Perez and his team investigate crimes within the close knit island community of Shetland. 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. But Wenatchee police Detective Robert Perez, the foster father . [70][71] While on trial for child abuse, Douglas County also prosecuted the Robersons for welfare fraud, a case the Robersons described as "harassment". By the time he stopped talking, police were pretty sure Cherie Town knew more than she had let on. "It's a witch hunt, pure and simple," said Bob Kinkade, self-appointed leader of the local chapter of Victims of Child Abuse Laws. 11th Ave & Broadway . Whether his clients are charged with sex crimes, domestic violence, or homicide, Attorney Perez is ready to defend their rights in both state and federal courts. Perez, 60, of Waterville died on Dec. 12 at Central Washington Hospital of stroke-related complications, The Wenatchee World reported Wednesday. Accompanied by two Child Protective Service workers, Perez returned to 610 Mission St. Seattle Times staff reporter Dee Norton contributed to this report. Perez claimed in the lawsuit that he was retaliated against by City Manager Rob Mayes and former police chiefs James Runnels and Kyle Westall after he provided a deposition in a former sergeants' age discrimination lawsuit. 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. She responded, "I only did it twice.. . [48][49], In 1996, a consultant, retired Bellevue Police Chief D.P. I didn't know what I was saying, what I was signing. 928, 83 P.3d 1026 (2004). Bob Perez Led by Detective Perez, police and Washington State social workers began a vigorous investigation. Their marriage on the rocks, Cherie and her husband were rarely intimate - although, on occasion they would have sex together with the boys. App. . Now,Fox Nationsearches for such answers, as former prosecutor and 'Crime Stories' host Nancy Graceprovides insight intothe story that changed a town forever. The house - a hulking, beige two stories crouched near the curb - is a wreck. [2] Perez died in 2013 at age 60. "Chip" Small (judge in the Roberson case) and Carol Wardell (judge in earlier cases) with professional misconduct. 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. Distraught, Devereaux responded, "My life is ruined, okay, I did it. The woman owned a second rental house and believed the tenant, Dorris Green, had left her children with the Holts, knowing there was abuse going on. Legal Statement. In 1994, Perez (who had undergone a few hours of specialized training in child abuse investigations) took his foster daughters on a ride through the streets of Wenatchee, asking them to identify places where they had been abused . Eventually, he trained for three days under a department predecessor and. Detective Wayne H. Fortier; Grand Prairie Police Department, Texas. There is no interrogation room, so officers question suspects at their desks, which are arranged in two short rows in a drab gray room. I'm lying.". The interviews took place at the children's schools or foster homes. Before he arrested Meredith Town, he wanted corroborating statements from the boys, then ages 14 and 12. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Ultimately, 29,726 charges of child molestation were lodged. But the cases against Town and Green and 15 others were overturned on appeal after evidence emerged that suspects, children and other defendants were coercively questioned by Wenatchee Police Detective Bob Perez, and bullied into signing statements the detective typed for them. Q. None of the interviews, or the adults' confessions, was taped. To date, more than $7 million in civil settlements have . The Robersons were arrested on 22 counts of child rape and molestation. [25][55] 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",[10] and the Wall Street Journal blamed "the entire law enforcement establishment [including] the prosecutors". WENATCHEE - Former Wenatchee police Detective Bob Perez, who led a discredited child sex ring investigation in the 1990s in central Washington, has died. The driving force behind the investigations was a police detective, Robert Perez, who never taped a single interview, routinely destroyed any notes he made and relied primarily on the testimony of . Donna, now 40,. Perez, 60, of Waterville died Dec. 12. There is medical evidence to support some charges of sexual molestation. SEX RINGS LAWSUIT: Detective testifies as foster father. Kenneth Lanning, the FBI's child-abuse specialist, has advised against taping, saying it creates a "highly subjective piece of evidence.". [11] The 15-year-old said Devereaux had forced her and a 12-year-old foster sister to have sex with him. A. It was the touching thing, the `wild thing.' A former East Wenatchee cop, Kinkade does not shy from a brawl. that the police officer was `out to get her dad.' Individually and as a group, the accused were isolated from society's mainstream. In 2021, Maria Gutierrez alleged an Arlington police officer tore her rotator cuff. 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. Devereaux asked, "What do I have to do to stay out of jail?" Terry Pippin, present when Perez questioned Green, recalled in court that "she cried occasionally, real softly." Several of the accused claimed that their confessions were coerced. Some lost parental rights. Donna pointed out houses and buildings . Robert Stack 10/13/1982 1548 Ogden St: Robert Tolliver 11/12/1982 600 blk Poplar St. Savino Joseph Nuane 11/12/1982 2644 Larimer St. - Joe's Liquor Store Steven Emory Walter Stathers. Then a 15-year-old girl, in juvenile detention for allegedly trying to poison Devereaux and a foster sister, accused him of rape. A few days later, Child Protective Services concluded that the allegations of sexual abuse were "unsubstantiated," adding that police investigators had found "nothing prosecutable." . That month, in what seemed at first a wholly unrelated incident, Robert Devereaux lost his license to operate a foster home after he became the subject of sexual-abuse allegations. [47][19] 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. Glassen's wife is Canadian, so they packed and moved to British Columbia. Market data provided by Factset. After speaking one-on-one to many of the then-children who were coerced into accusing their mothers and fathers of molesting them, I have one word for Mr. Perez: "SHAME!" . or redistributed. Robert Perez also known as JR. There was no point risking getting pulled over on a traffic violation. Tim Abbey, former Wenatchee-area administrator for the state Department of Social and Health Services' Division of Children and Family Services, said he and former police detective Robert Perez . Again, prosecutors never brought charges, but Glassen was fired from his job for failure to report child abuse and neglect. Perez was named the department's chief sex crimes investigator in January 1994, even though he had no formal training. "Wenatchee Witch Hunt" Detective Robert Perez Was Perez Dealt with properly by his employer? A second trial on those. The room's only memorable feature is an oversized Pink Panther that lounges at the desk of Detective Robert Perez, sex-crimes investigator. [26] Five days later, the Roberstons were arrested.