Aclu Seeks Child-Custody Re-Evaluation But Dshs Stands Behind Actions In Wenatchee Sex-Abuse Cases

The American Civil Liberties Union wants the state Department of Social and Health Services to re-examine how it dealt with 38 children in state custody whose parents were involved in Wenatchee sex-abuse investigations.

But an agency spokeswoman said Wednesday that DSHS stands behind its actions and does not intend to re-evaluate its handling of the cases, even those in which parental rights have been terminated.

The civil rights group made its request Monday in a letter to Lyle Quasim, head of DSHS.

“We want DSHS to halt all adoption of the 17 children for whom parental rights have been terminated and also to evaluate the cases of 21 other children who were placed in foster care by the agency because of the Wenatchee investigations,” said Gerald Sheehan, the ACLU’s state legislative director.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported in an investigative series that many of the 60 Wenatchee children who allegedly were sexually abused by 43 adults were coerced into accusing parents or neighbors during investigations in 1994 and 1995.

Of the 43 cases, which include a network of 28 adults accused of running child sex rings in Chelan and Douglas counties, five people were convicted at trial, 16 people pleaded guilty to sexual abuse, six pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, four were acquitted and charges against 10 others were dropped for lack of evidence or discredited witnesses, according to the P-I’s figures. In addition, two convictions were overturned by an appeals court, with one resulting in a guilty plea to misdemeanor charges.

“Given the wide-ranging violations of basic fairness in the conduct of the Wenatchee investigations, we are concerned that parental rights may have been terminated by the state based on coerced confessions, false information or inadequate facts,” Kathleen Taylor, the state ACLU’s executive director, wrote in the letter.

But DSHS spokeswoman Kathy Spears said in Olympia that the P-I series contains “many misrepresentations and falsely drawn conclusions.”

“We stand firmly behind the facts that show children were sexually victimized in Wenatchee by parents, relatives and other adults,” she said.