Boys Ranch Files Altered, Letters Claim

Files on sexual abuse at the O.K. Boys Ranch were altered before they were turned over to attorneys for boys who sued the group home, according to confidential letters.

Ed Putman, once a licenser of the ranch for the state Department of Social and Health Services, wrote two letters to DSHS chief Jean Soliz - one in March 1993 and a second in September 1994 - telling of the doctoring of the files.

However, no action was taken.

Soliz said Friday she turned the first letter over to her special assistant, Sid Sidrowicz. Sidrowicz said he didn’t act because he didn’t understand the importance of the information Soliz passed on to him.

Soliz said when Putman’s second letter came 18 months later, she talked to Sidrowicz, who apologized for not taking care of the matter. She said she then asked him or one of her assistants to turn the matter over to the Office of Special Investigations within DSHS.

Yet a recently released OSI report on the department’s handling of the case made no mention of the alteration of the files. Asked why, Soliz said, “I don’t know yet, and I’ve got to find that out.”

Richard Kelly, one of several lawyers representing 16 boys who won $4.3 million from the state to settle lawsuits alleging physical and sexual abuse at the group home, said he was outraged that top DSHS officials knew of Putman’s allegations but did nothing.

“It shows that at the highest levels of DSHS, they were aware of a systematic alteration of critical evidence in a case, and they either chose to ignore it or intentionally buried the information,” he said.

Putman’s letters did not say how the files were altered, or by whom.

His first letter said if the boys’ lawyers discovered the alteration, it “could compromise the department.”

Putman declined to comment, saying he was afraid of losing his job.

His letters originally came to light in news reports on KHQ-TV in Spokane.

The attorney general’s office is in the midst of a criminal investigation of the group home.