Perez Kept As Defendant In Sex Ring Suit Judge Rejects Detective’s Request; Lawsuit In Chelan County Separate

A judge refused Friday to dismiss a police detective from a lawsuit over alleged civil rights violations in the Wenatchee child sex ring investigations.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Michael Donahue ruled that part of the child sex abuse investigation occurred in Douglas County, where the lawsuit was filed. Douglas County therefore has proper jurisdiction, he said.

Detective Bob Perez’s attorney, Pat McMahon, who is also the attorney for the city of Wenatchee, had asked to dismiss Perez from the case on grounds that a police officer can only be sued in the county where the officer works unless the investigation crosses into another county.

He argued that Perez, a Wenatchee police officer and lead investigator in the Chelan County investigation, had nothing to do with the Douglas County investigation against Pastor Robert “Roby” Roberson and others.

“Our position was that Roberson and (his attorney, Robert) Van Siclen did not have any evidence linking Bob Perez to the Douglas County investigation or the prosecution or Roberson,” McMahon said.

But Van Siclen argued Perez did have a hand in the Douglas County investigation. He said Perez took one of the sex abuse witnesses, who was also his foster daughter at the time, on a car ride in Douglas County and had her point out places she may have been molested.

Plaintiffs in the Douglas County suit are Roby and Connie Roberson, acquitted on child-rape charges last December; the Robersons’ daughter; Honnah Sims, who was acquitted last summer of child rape, and her husband and their son; Donna Rodriguez and Karen Lopez, against whom charges of child rape or molestation were dismissed, and their child; and Susan Everett, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.

They claim that investigators with Child Protective Services, the Douglas County sheriff’s office and the Wenatchee Police Department violated their rights in last year’s sex abuse investigations.

A similar lawsuit has also been filed in Chelan County but names just five plaintiffs - Roby Roberson, Everett, Lopez, Rodriguez and Rodriguez’s daughter.

The lawsuits were originally filed in Thurston County in July and then separated and refiled in Chelan and Douglas counties. They do not specify the amount sought in damages, but preliminary claims filed with the two counties sought $80 million.

Twenty-eight people were charged with child rape and molestation in the Wenatchee area as part of the sex-rings investigation. Fourteen people pleaded guilty, five were convicted and charges were dismissed or greatly reduced against five others. Three people were acquitted, and one case is pending.

Donahue was called by Douglas County Superior Court Judge Carol Wardell to rule on the motion after she removed herself from the case last week. The two other Superior Court judges in Douglas County previously were dismissed from hearing the case.