Molesting Charges Against Woman Dropped 3 Adults Who Accused Donna A. Rodriguez Now Deny Statements They Made Earlier To Police

Chelan County Prosecutor Gary Riesen has dropped charges against a woman who had been accused of child rape and molestation in an alleged sex ring.

Riesen said he no longer has the evidence to proceed with the case. The three adults who accused Donna A. Rodriguez now deny statements they made earlier to police, he said.

Rodriguez, 44, a member of the Pentecostal Church of God House of Prayer church in East Wenatchee, was one of 23 adults charged with having group sex with children at the church and at other locations in Wenatchee and East Wenatchee. One other case has been dismissed.

Riesen dropped the charges Tuesday. On Thursday, his secretary said he would not comment on the Rodriguez case or the status of any pending cases.

But The Wenatchee World reported Wednesday that Riesen said he did not expect to dismiss any of the remaining cases.

The investigation into two loosely organized child-sex rings in the area has begun drawing criticism from some residents questioning authorities’ tactics and motives.

When he filed the charges against Rodriguez in March, Riesen had two statements from children and three from adults accusing Rodriguez of having sex with children. The adults were Idella Everett, who pleaded guilty to child rape earlier this year and is now in prison, and two people now awaiting trial on child-rape charges, Linda Miller and her former husband, Larry Steinborn.

Riesen said four of the five now deny their statements, though a judge has ruled that Miller’s statement was not coerced and can be used as evidence in her Sept. 5 trial.

All the statements were taken by Wenatchee Police Det. Bob Perez, whose foster child made the allegations that prompted the overall probe. The 11-year-old girl, now the only witness against Rodriguez, began making accusations after she was placed in the detective’s home.

All of Perez’s interviews in the case have been witnessed by other officers or child-welfare officials. He has been criticized for destroying his original notes, something he says he does routinely after he writes his reports. None of the interviews were recorded.

The other child witness in the Rodriguez case, a girl who had been under Rodriguez’s care, was videotaped a few days after Rodriguez’s arrest and release from jail in February saying she had been coerced by Perez into lying.

The videotape was made and distributed by the local chapter of Victims of Child Abuse Laws.