Jurors Ask Court To Let Guilty Verdict Stand In Sex-Ring Case

Fri., Aug. 15, 1997

Associated Press

Jurors who found Linda Miller guilty in 1995 of molesting four girls in group sex acts with other adults are breaking their silence after an appellate court’s ruling to overturn the conviction.

Miller, 38, was sentenced to 33 years in prison after being convicted of eight counts of first-degree child molestation in Chelan County. Now, she could go free if she is granted a new trial.

Miller is still at the Purdy Corrections Center pending further appeal action on her case.

“I’m very frustrated,” said Wenatchee juror Vicki Hobbs. “Everyone that was on that jury has absolutely no doubt about the allegations being true.”

Jurors initially refused to talk to the media about the trial, but the ruling by Spokane-based Division III Court of Appeals in June changed their tune.

“Those of us on the jury didn’t just fall off the turnip truck,” wrote jury foreman Peter DeVries in a letter to Chelan County Prosecutor Roy Fore.

“I resent having my careful judgment, based on all of the evidence, overturned on technicalities.”

Fore wants the state Supreme Court to allow the guilty verdict.

The appellate court ruled the trial was marred by three errors made by Chelan County Superior Court Judge T.W. “Chip” Small. The court ruled Small should have allowed a last-minute expert witness to scrutinize earlier testimony. It said information about the outcome of two other defendants’ trials should have been allowed and said Small allowed inconsistent testimony by a witness.

None of that should have mattered, jurors said.

“I would like to see the court have some actual guts and look at the trial and talk to people like me,” said Wenatchee juror Don Morehouse. “She got a fair trial. Send her back where she belongs and stop wasting other people’s money.”

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 reduced against six. Three people were acquitted.

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