Revenge, Poor Police Work Alleged Defense Outlines Case For Accused Pastor, Wife

The child-rape case against Pastor Roby Roberson and his wife was thrown together by a vindictive detective only after Roberson questioned a sex-ring investigation that targeted his flock, defense lawyers said Monday.

The attorneys, Robert Van Siclen and Bill Parker, told a 12-member jury in opening statements that the case against the Robersons is based on revenge and built on poor police work, unreliable witnesses and shoddy evidence.

All of the Robersons’ alleged victims have one thing in common, Parker said in Douglas County Superior Court: Each was interviewed first by Wenatchee Police Detective Bob Perez, the key investigator in the case whose foster daughter’s accusations led to many of the charges.

From that point on, the alleged victims - some of whom are mentally disabled - became “invested” in the story, Parker said.

Authorities contend the couple were part of an organized pedophilia ring in the Wenatchee area. Investigation into two alleged area sex rings has drawn national attention and raised questions about authorities’ methods and motives.

Roby Roberson is charged with four counts of first-degree child rape, five counts of first-degree child molestation and one count of second-degree child molestation. His wife, Connie Roberson, is charged with two counts of first-degree child rape and five counts of first-degree child molestation.

Roby Roberson, unordained pastor of the Pentecostal Church of God House of Prayer in East Wenatchee, was threatened by Perez when he started questioning sex-ring prosecutions of members of his congregation, Parker told jurors.

Roberson was willing to speak out when others kept silent for fear of being implicated, Van Siclen said.

Others “were scared that they might get swept up in the wave,” Parker said, but Roberson stood up for members of his flock because he felt it was his duty as their pastor.

During cross-examination of the state’s first witness - Douglas County sheriff’s Deputy Michael Wagg - Van Siclen aggressively questioned Wagg on his investigative techniques as the leader in the probe of the Robersons. And the attorney tried to paint Wagg as a man who rushed to arrest the Robersons without checking all avenues to learn whether they might be innocent.

Wagg acknowledged that when he first questioned an alleged child victim, he did not ask “open-ended” questions as he had been trained to do in abuse cases, but instead based his questions on what Perez said the child had told him.

Asked whether he tried to corroborate the child’s statements with other children identified by the child as having knowledge, Wagg said, “We attempted to.” Wagg said the arrest was based on the child’s statements and on testimony from an adult.

In his opening statement Friday, deputy prosecutor Eric Biggar had said charges against the Robersons were the result of a thorough, independent investigation by county authorities.

But defense attorneys said they will show that adult and child witnesses against the Robersons are unreliable for various reasons, including mental retardation and unreliability.

“The state’s case rests upon a certain myth,” Parker said. “And that is that children (in abuse cases) are always to be believed.”

Prosecution witness Gary Filbeck told prosecutors he witnessed assaults on two children by Roberson, but he told defense attorneys he couldn’t see anything, the defense lawyers said.