Questionable Conviction Undone Man Served Five Years For Wenatchee Sex Crime He Says Never Happened

It took Randall Reed five years and the help of two volunteer lawyers to erase the stain of his conviction in the Wenatchee sex-ring cases.

The 45-year-old former house painter became a free man Wednesday evening, ending a prison term handed him for sex crimes he insists never happened.

In a deal arranged by his attorneys, Reed entered a guilty plea Wednesday to a minor crime that voided his two 1994 convictions for child molestation.

Reed was one of more than 40 Wenatchee-area people charged in 1994 and 1995 with sex crimes as part of an investigation headed by police Detective Robert Perez.

A mother of an 11-year-old boy told police that Reed - who rented a basement room in her home - had molested her child.

In late 1994 Reed pleaded guilty to two counts of child molestation. He entered the plea fearing that he could face a 40-year prison term if convicted in a trial, said defense attorney Jon Zulauf.

Ever since, Reed’s been at Airway Heights Corrections Center, working to have his convictions overturned.

Zulauf and co-defense attorney Greg Hollon recently learned Chelan County prosecutors were ready to budge.

That followed a ruling last month by a state Court of Appeals judge that Reed’s convictions raised questions that he had been denied due process.

Reed finally signed the papers in a Spokane County courtroom Wednesday that ended his prison stay.

In exchange for his pleading guilty to fourth-degree assault, prosecutors voided the sexual molestation charges that would have branded Reed a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Sitting in court Wednesday, Reed said his belief in justice kept him going.

“I knew I was innocent,” Reed said.

His mother, Ruth Rushmore, attended the hearing and thanked Zulauf and Hollon.

“Because of them, Randy will get to lead a normal life again,” she said.

The two-year sex-ring investigation pushed by Perez and others led to an assortment of convictions and guilty pleas.

Fourteen Wenatchee residents, including Reed, pleaded guilty rather than face trial. Five others had their original charges dismissed or greatly reduced.

Another group of five defendants went to trial and were convicted of child sex crimes.

Three others - including East Wenatchee Pentecostal Church Pastor Robert “Robey” Roberson - were acquitted during trials.

In the past year and a half, more than a dozen of those convicted or who pleaded guilty have had their cases reviewed by courts or dismissed outright.

Some of them, like Reed, have agreed to plead guilty in exchange for greatly reduced charges and the chance to leave prison. That string of reversals has sent a message to Chelan County prosecutors that state appeals courts are finding significant errors and problems with nearly every case they’ve reviewed from the sex-ring cases, said Hollon.

He and Zulauf became involved in Reed’s case through the Innocence Project Northwest.

That Seattle-based group is a coalition of volunteer attorneys and social service advocates who contend the Wenatchee convictions were the result of rogue police work and failures by public defenders to represent many of those charged with crimes.

“These people are getting justice finally because they’re being helped by good attorneys who bring out the issues that should have been asked back in 1994,” said Seattle attorney Robert Van Siclen.

Van Siclen represented the Robersons in their criminal trials and in last summer’s civil trial.

He predicted another four defendants facing new trials or still in prison would soon gain freedom with help from Innocence Project attorneys.

Starting last summer, Hollon and Zulauf uncovered evidence that led them to conclude Reed was a victim of questionable methods by Perez and failure by prosecutors to hand over evidence that would have helped him prove his innocence.

In 1993 and 1994, Reed was renting a basement room from Cherie Town. When Wenatchee police arrested her in 1994, Perez said she faced more than 100 counts of child molestation, based on interviews he said he’d had with her children.

Town, who has been diagnosed as mentally retarded, agreed to testify against Reed in exchange for most of the charges being dropped against her. She eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of child rape. She is serving a 10-year sentence.

Town later recanted her testimony about Reed during an investigation into Perez’s tactics. Attorneys from Innocence Project have filed an appeal and expect to have her case reviewed soon.

Zulauf and Hollon also learned that Chelan County prosecutors had requested mental competency tests of her then 11-year-old son, who has an IQ of 49.

One test reported that the child had difficulty remembering his most recent meal, said Hollon.

“This child only accused Reed after being repeatedly interviewed by Perez,” Hollon added.

Chelan County Prosecutor Gary Risen has insisted all the cases against Wenatchee defendants were based on police reports that were gathered according to standard practices.

But he admitted recently the case against Reed had weakened because of the unreliability of the alleged victim.

Rather than drop the case against Reed, Risen insisted he plead to a fourth-degree assault - a misdemeanor with a maximum one-year sentence.

Reed and his attorneys accepted the offer and entered an Alford plea Wednesday. An Alford plea says the defendant disputes the charge but agrees he could be convicted based on the evidence.

“The important thing is Randy doesn’t have to wait for further court reviews, which could take months,” Hollon said.

In addition, he wins not just his freedom but removal of any record as a sex offender.