Fired Cps Worker Wins Suit $1.57 Million Awarded In Action Related To Wenatchee Cases

A state worker who was fired after she raised questions about the investigation of alleged child sex-abuse cases in Wenatchee has been awarded $1.57 million in damages by a Chelan County Superior Court jury.

Juana Vasquez sank in her chair and sobbed in relief at the verdict Wednesday.

Vasquez’s attorney, Steve Lacy, said the state Department of Social and Health Services disliked Vasquez because she won a discrimination suit in June 1994. Lacy said the department saw a chance to retaliate in August 1994, when she questioned the investigation of foster parent Robert Devereaux, now 58. State officials deny a connection.

Vasquez, 47, was accused of failing to report sex abuse in the Devereaux home and of being responsible for letting it happen - even though Devereaux was later cleared of sex-abuse charges.

One of Devereaux’s foster daughters, Annie Weishoff, now 19, rebelled after Devereaux forbade her to see a boy, and landed in detention. Wenatchee police Detective Bob Perez interviewed her and she then accused Devereaux of sex abuse.

Weishoff has since said that Perez pressured her to accuse Devereaux. She recanted a day later to one of Vasquez’s social workers, Paul Glassen. The recantation, however, was met with hostility from police and Child Protective Services. Glassen, who also is suing the state, was charged with obstructing justice and later fired.

Vasquez, meanwhile, came under fire after she sought to hold Perez accountable for the interview. She said he warned her that her actions would “cost you your job, Juana.”

She was reprimanded for failing to assist investigators, and faced other accusations that included failing to report abuse - abuse that is now known not to have existed. She was fired in 1995.

The verdict was returned while another hearing related to the sex-abuse cases continued in a courtroom across the hall. Visiting Whitman County Superior Court Judge Wallis Friel was hearing arguments on whether Harold and Idella Everett’s convictions stemming from the sex-abuse investigations should be overturned.

Twenty-eight people in Chelan and Douglas counties were charged with raping and molesting children in 1994-95. 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.