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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Woman Says State Liable For Rape By Parolee Lawsuit Claims Officials Knew Man Was Likely To Attack Again

FROM FOR THE RECORD (Thursday, January 8, 1998): Correction A story in Wednesday’s Spokesman-Review incorrectly listed the age of Barbara Bell. She is 38.

Byron Scherf spent 12 years in prison for kidnapping a woman, raping her, dousing her with gasoline and then setting her on fire.

In 1993, he was released on parole. Two years later, he kidnapped at knife point and raped Barbara Bell of Spokane.

Scherf will now spend the rest of his life behind bars.

But Bell, 37, contends the state of Washington ignored warning signs and should have put Scherf back in jail before he kidnapped her.

In a civil suit filed last week, Bell is seeking to force the state into reforming the way it deals with sex offenders like Scherf. Civil awards in such cases have run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“There is no compensation that could make up for what I’ve been through,” said Bell during a press conference Tuesday in Spokane. “However, I do know that … the only way you enact change is to file a civil lawsuit.

“How else are you going to get the government to change its ways? If you just tell them, ‘Hey, I got hurt, it wasn’t nice, it wasn’t pleasant,’ they are not going to do anything.”

Bell was raped in October 1995 while Scherf was attending Eastern Washington University. He found Bell’s photo in a Spokane Realtors catalog, then called her, saying he was looking to buy a home.

He arranged an appointment to see a house near Cheney. Once inside, he forced her at knife point into the trunk of his car. He drove to a location near Spangle and raped Bell. Scherf threatened to kill Bell and her daughter if she reported the attack.

The crux of Bell’s suit is that the state was aware Scherf was violating conditions of his parole, yet did nothing, Seattle attorney Janet Rice said.

“What we have so far is that when Scherf was on parole he admitted, at least to his parole officer and we assume he did to his treatment therapist, that he was having sexual fantasies, masturbating to those fantasies, that he was going to a video store and getting pornography and that he had talked to a stripper about performing for him,” Rice said.

Those acts were a “clear violation” of Scherf’s psychological treatment requirements and therefore a violation of his parole, Rice said.

Yet nothing was done, she said.

“The whole purpose of this litigation is to change public policy and make the state more careful,” Rice said.

In addition to the state, the suit names two treatment specialists as defendants: Randy Garrett from Cedar Bridge Associates and John Colson of John W. Colson and Associates, both of Spokane.

Garrett and Colson “knew or should have known that Scherf would likely harm women if he were not incarcerated. Defendants also failed to disclose … information which would have led the (state) Department of Corrections to seek incarceration of Scherf,” the suit charges.

Colson, who treated Scherf at the time of the crime for diagnosed sexual psychopathy, would not comment on the lawsuit’s specific claims without consulting his attorney.

“I don’t think this lawsuit has much merit,” he said.

Garrett said he had limited contact with Scherf during the time the crime occurred.

“I don’t think they did their homework very well (in including him in the suit),” he added.

Garrett said he is not licensed to treat sexual offenders and only serves as a family or individual psychologist.

Garrett said he could not disclose the kind of work he did with Scherf. “I would need his release in order to talk about that,” Garrett said.

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