04-16-2005, 06:12 PM
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#22 (permalink)
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Easy Rider
Location: Moscow on the Ohio
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A lot of posters here are advocating castration, life imprisonment or death for convicted sex offenders. Doesn't it bother anyone that quite a few of these people are innocent? Just a quick search found dozens maybe hundreds of cases like the one quoted below. Before we start chopping peoples balls off, shouldn't we make an effort to clean up the justice system in this country?
Quote:
Jury finds city, county negligent in child sex ring case
A Spokane County jury yesterday found the city of Wenatchee and Douglas County negligent in the now-discredited 1994-1995 Wenatchee child sex ring investigations, awarding $3 million to a couple who had been wrongly accused in the inquiry.
"To me the closure point was actually 1998. With ...everybody being freed from jail. Finally our character and reputations were restored and these people (police and prosecutors) were exposed."
In 1994 and 1995, Perez and Child Protective Services caseworkers initiated a series of investigations in Wenatchee that resulted in 43 people charged with 27,726 counts of child rape and molestation against 60 children.
Roberson came under investigation in 1995 after he began criticizing Perez's investigations and the arrests of two parishioners, Harold and Idella Everett, a poor, developmentally disabled couple. The Everetts, parents to the two foster children making accusations while living under in Perez's supervision, served five years in prison before they were released when their case was overturned in September 1998.
The investigation initiated by Perez and forwarded to Douglas County investigators, eventually named a wide range of people including a state social worker who once had questioned his methods.
Though he is a central figure to the cases, Perez, who left the Police Department several years ago, was not called to testify in the recent civil suit.
All 18 people convicted in the investigations he initiated have since been released, their convictions overturned or agreements made to plead guilty to lesser and usually unrelated charges.
In February 1998, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published "The Power to Harm," a series of articles exploring the conduct of police, lawyers, social workers and others involved in the investigations.
A month later, a special fact-finding judge appointed by the state court of appeals, Whitman County Superior Court Judge Wallis Friel, began hearing the first of several appeals. Perez's investigations began to unravel amid evidence of bungling by police and prosecutors, conflicts of interest involving a judge, and inept defense counsel.
At least 14 civil suits involving people who went to prison are pending.
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