Wenatchee abuse-case trial to be held in King County

WENATCHEE -- A Spokane County judge has decided that a lawsuit accusing Wenatchee-area law enforcement of negligence in the 1994-95 child sex-abuse investigations will be heard next summer in King County.

Superior Court Judge Michael Donohue said trial would begin July 9 and last about four weeks.

THE AFTERMATH
Read the P-I's February 1998 investigation into civil rights violations during the Wenatchee sex ring prosecutions.
Some key followups.

It would be the first time such a negligence case has been heard in a Washington courtroom.

In September, the state Supreme Court, in a precedent-setting decision, unanimously upheld a state Court of Appeals decision that law-enforcement agencies could be held financially liable for conducting faulty child-abuse investigations.

Police traditionally have been immune from such actions.

The sex-abuse investigations have been heavily criticized by the courts. Since 1997, 11 convictions have been overturned.

Six other people have been freed from long prison terms by pleading guilty to lesser or unrelated charges. Of the 26 who were convicted of felonies, only two remain in prison.

The state Court of Appeals had found that Donohue, appointed by the state to preside over the case, erred before a 1998 civil trial when he dismissed a negligent-investigation claim brought by East Wenatchee Pentecostal preacher Roby Roberson and others against the city of Wenatchee and Douglas County.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Legislature imposed a responsibility on police and social workers to protect children and their parents and to not harm the parent-child relationship with poor investigations.

In the 1998 civil trial, held in King County, a jury rejected claims that authorities violated civil rights of Roberson and the others.

Pat McMahon, who represents the insurance carrier for the city of Wenatchee, one of the defendants, said Tuesday that he would file a motion seeking to move the trial back to Chelan County.

Roberson said his lawyers planned to ask that the trial be held in Spokane County.

"All your radical pro-system, pro-government, pro-state people are all over there" in the Seattle-King County area, Roberson said. "We can trust people more over in Spokane."

Also Tuesday, Donohue rejected a request from a lawyer representing former Wenatchee police Detective Bob Perez to have the trial postponed until November of next year.

Roberson, his wife, Connie, former Sunday school teacher Honnah Sims and parishioner Donna Rodriguez are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

They were arrested and accused of being the leaders of a sex ring operating out of Roberson's Pentecostal church. The Robersons and Sims were acquitted in 1995 trials, and charges against Rodriguez were later dropped.

Defendants in the lawsuit include the city of Wenatchee; Perez; Police Chief Ken Badgley, who is retiring in January; Douglas County; Douglas County Sheriff Dan LaRoche and county Detectives Robbin Wagg and Dave Helvey.

On Tuesday, Donohue also added mental health counselor Cindy Andrews as a defendant.

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