Cps Worker Can’t Recall Recantation Case Manager Testifies At Plea Withdrawal Hearing In Wenatchee Sex Ring Case

A Child Protective Services case manager testified Tuesday she has no recollection that one of the key accusers in the so-called Wenatchee child-sex-ring cases recanted during psychiatric counseling.

CPS case manager Connie Seracino oversaw the cases of some of the children in the sex-ring cases - both purported victims and children of those accused.

She said she did remember noting in the file of Harold and Idella Everetts that lead sex-crimes investigator Wenatchee police Detective Bob Perez had told counselors at Children’s Home Society - under contract with the state to provide mental-health counseling - he didn’t think they should testify because they did not believe some of the abuse allegations.

Seracino testified on the fifth day of a hearing ordered by the state Court of Appeals to gather evidence on whether the Everetts’ guilty pleas should be withdrawn.

The Everetts’ attorney, Jim Beecher, asked Seracino about a recantation during counseling at the Children’s Home Society.

It was not clear whose recantation he was referring to. The Everetts’ two daughters alleged abuse and at least one of them later recanted but has since reaffirmed her accusations.

If visiting Whitman County Superior Court Judge Wallis Friel allows the couple’s pleas to be withdrawn, he must then decide whether to order a trial. The hearing began March 11 and is expected to wrap up this week.

The Everetts were among 28 people in Chelan and Douglas counties accused of raping and molesting children in the so-called sex-ring cases in 1994 and 1995. Fourteen people pleaded guilty, five were convicted and charges were dismissed or greatly reduced against six others. Three people were acquitted. One of the convictions was overturned by an appellate court, resulting in a guilty plea to reduced charges.

The Everetts both entered Alford pleas in November 1994, in which they admitted no wrongdoing but agreed that the state had enough evidence to convict them of sexually abusing children. He is serving a 23-year sentence and she is nearing the end of a nearly five-year term.

The Everetts’ case is pivotal because their two daughters were key prosecution witnesses in several cases. The girls made sweeping allegations of sexual abuse against many people after one was a foster child in the home of Perez, the police detective.

The Everetts now say they were coerced by Perez into confessing and taking pleas. One of their daughters recanted her accusation in 1996, and two of their sons testified last week that Perez pressured them to accuse their parents and called them liars when they denied the abuse.

The girl who recanted has subsequently reversed herself again, however. She testified Friday that the abuse did occur.