Use Of Drugs In Sex Ring Case Raises Questions Kids Reportedly Given Drugs As Part Of Memory Therapy

A third of the children involved in a lurid sex ring case took psychotropic drugs paid for by the state after they entered foster care, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The drugs may have affected the children’s testimony, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.

Some defendants who were cleared of sex charges claim memories of sexual abuse were planted by investigators after the children became wards of the state.

Investigator Kathryn Lyon said the psychotropic drugs were part of “recovered memory” techniques used to convince the children they had been victims of sex crimes.

Psychotropic drugs are used to alter thought processes, mood or behavior, and are used to battle psychosis or depression.

The newspaper found that psychotropic drugs were prescribed for at least 10 of the 30 Wenatchee-area children involved in the case who were in foster care. Its investigation found:

A 12-year old boy taking an anti-depressant tried to kill himself.

A 15-year-old boy taking a drug tried to kill himself.

A 9-year-old boy whose parents were sentenced to prison tried to stick a “metal object through his chest,” according to a DSHS report.

In 1994 and 1995, 28 Wenatchee-area people were charged with child rape or molestation in the sex-ring investigation. Of those, 14 pleaded guilty, five were convicted and charges were dismissed or greatly reduced against six others. Three people were acquitted.

But a series of lawsuits and countersuits are keeping the case alive in the courts, and have raised questions about the actual extent of the crimes.

Lyon, an Olympia lawyer and former public defender, produced a lengthy report criticizing Wenatchee Police Detective Bob Perez’s investigation and the actions of state child welfare workers in the case.

“It’s hard not to draw the conclusion that ‘therapy’ was a process of extracting information,” Lyon told the newspaper. “There’s a point at which these kids are not going to know what the truth is anymore.”

Roy Harrington, regional administrator for the state Department of Social and Health Services, said children under medication were under a physician’s care, and their welfare was monitored by the juvenile courts.

“I think the foster care system in Chelan and Douglas counties functioned much better than the conventional wisdom about foster care would have it,” Harrington said.

But Sarah Doggett remembers things differently.

Less than two weeks after her parents’ arrest in the investigation, Doggett was driven to the local Child Protective Services office. She was strapped to a stretcher and driven 300 miles to a hospital in Coeur d’Alene.

She contends that for a month, therapists tried to give her mood-altering pills and make her admit to having been sexually abused by her parents. She resisted the efforts.

“They kept saying ‘you need to get your moods fixed,”’ Doggett said. She is now 18 and no longer in state foster care.

Doggett has sued Wenatchee police, counselors and DSHS.

Critics say the entire sex ring case is rife with potential conflicts of interest.

Perhaps the most controversial case involves a 14-year-old girl identified only as “M.E.” whose parents pleaded guilty to sexually abusing her.

M.E. was a foster daughter of Perez, who lead the investigation.

There have been reports that M.E. has recanted her earlier testimony.

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