Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / In the Valley of Sin: "Child victim:" I lied, Dad never molested me!

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In the Valley of Sin: "Child victim:" I lied, Dad never molested me! · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:06
Speaker 1: The apple capital of the world, Wanatchee, Washington. As I've
0:12
Speaker 1: said before, nothing but apple orchards and green trees and
0:17
Speaker 1: blue sky as far as the eye can see. Seems
0:20
Speaker 1: like the perfect place to raise your children. Or not.
0:24
Speaker 1: One of the biggest child sex rings scandals alleged to
0:30
Speaker 1: have exist, possibly in our country's history. How did all
0:34
Speaker 1: of this go down? And Wanatchi? Or did it where
0:46
Speaker 1: we left off? The Doggets and the Robertson's are behind bars,
0:53
Speaker 1: four parents, mom, dad, mom dad, the Dogget family and
0:59
Speaker 1: the robbers and family totally torn apart. What happens next?
1:07
Speaker 1: Did the whole case start with the voice of a
1:10
Speaker 1: single person. I know everybody has their own truth, but
1:13
Speaker 1: I know what my truth is. Do you feel like
1:17
Speaker 1: you've ever had the chance to tell your story? Not really, No,
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Speaker 1: nobody really wanted to listen to what I had to say.
1:25
Speaker 1: And do you want to? Yes? My name's Donna Everett.
1:35
Speaker 1: My name is Donna Everett and it starts right there.
1:39
Speaker 1: As you will recall, the Nacci child sex investigation started
1:44
Speaker 1: with Detective Perez, Bob Perez Foster daughter that daughter with
1:52
Speaker 1: us now Donna Everett also joining us today, Tom Grant
1:58
Speaker 1: award winning journalist, co executive producer of In the Valley
2:02
Speaker 1: of Sin, and you can find him at doctor Thomas
2:05
Speaker 1: Grant dot com. Doctor Elizabeth LOFTUS Distinguished Professor, joining US
2:11
Speaker 1: University California. Leading human memory expert, author of The Myth
2:16
Speaker 1: of the Repressed Memory. Catherine Lyon, author of witch Hunt,
2:21
Speaker 1: A True Story of social hysteria and Abused justice. Former
2:25
Speaker 1: public defender in Pierce County, Washington, and frank Jenny Special
2:30
Speaker 1: Guests joining US Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Franklin County Prosecutor
2:35
Speaker 1: and the Winnati sex srine cases. First to you, Donna,
2:39
Speaker 1: how did it occur that you became the foster daughter
2:43
Speaker 1: of Bob Perez, the investigator. I was taking from my
2:50
Speaker 1: school and was told that I was going to be
2:53
Speaker 1: put to CBS office, and that's when Lucy pres came
2:56
Speaker 1: and picked me up a TBS office Bob Perez's wife. Yes,
3:01
Speaker 1: and before that your parents were who by Dylan and
3:10
Speaker 1: Harold Everett. They Everett's end up being arrested, do they not, Yes,
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Speaker 1: they did. What do you remember of that? I remember
3:24
Speaker 1: when I was living with Bopararez, we were supposed to
3:28
Speaker 1: be reunited back to my family. I think it was
3:31
Speaker 1: like a week before we were supposed to be united
3:34
Speaker 1: back into my family. Bob, we were on our way
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Speaker 1: to school. I was on my way with Bopararez to
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Speaker 1: school and he just popped the question, has your parents
3:45
Speaker 1: ever sexually molested you? How old were you? Donna? I
3:49
Speaker 1: think I was nineteen at the time, And I told
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Speaker 1: him no at first, and then he's like, oh, well,
3:55
Speaker 1: we'll talk about this when you get home from school.
3:58
Speaker 1: And did you after we came home from the school,
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Speaker 1: That's when it all. She's like, well, I know it happened.
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Speaker 1: I know that your parents such molested you. And then
4:09
Speaker 1: that's what it all starving And at this time, had
4:13
Speaker 1: your parents already been arrested? Yes? And what were the
4:17
Speaker 1: charges against your parents? Oh? No, I don't think they
4:20
Speaker 1: were arrested yet, not until like the next day or
4:22
Speaker 1: the next couple of days after that. And what were
4:25
Speaker 1: the charges leveled against them, such a molestation? You and
4:29
Speaker 1: your sister Melinda went to live with a Paris family
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Speaker 1: after your dad, Harold and your mom Ideala were removed
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Speaker 1: from the home for abuse and couldn't take care of
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Speaker 1: all the children. When you got home that day from school.
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Speaker 1: What happened? Harold removed from the home for abuse and
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Speaker 1: couldn't take care of all the children when you got
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Speaker 1: home that day from school? What happened? Remember sitting at
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Speaker 1: the table with him and Lucy Perez and him just
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Speaker 1: scolding me that he knew that I was sexually molested
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Speaker 1: by my parent and what was Lucy doing? She was
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Speaker 1: just it and that listening to the whole thing. Take
5:15
Speaker 1: a listen to this, Like, I know that you've been
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Speaker 1: sexually molested, and I was sexually molested, but it was
5:21
Speaker 1: not by my parents. And he's like, I know your
5:24
Speaker 1: parents did it. And he tried to tell me that, oh, well,
5:28
Speaker 1: your sister Melinda already told me. And I told him, no,
5:32
Speaker 1: we were never sexually abused. And he said, I know
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Speaker 1: that you were involved in the church, and I know
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Speaker 1: other kids have said it already, that you guys have
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Speaker 1: all been sexually molested. To Catherine Lying, An author of
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Speaker 1: Which Hunt True Story of Social Hysteria and Abused Justice,
5:48
Speaker 1: isn't that where the entire case originates from? Bob Perez
5:54
Speaker 1: and his Van Foster daughter Donna Everett, Yes, that that
5:58
Speaker 1: was really the sore of the whole theory of the
6:03
Speaker 1: sex abuse within Onnachi Valley, and it was weird, definitely.
6:09
Speaker 1: I could tell you a little bit more about the
6:11
Speaker 1: law of surrounding this if you want to hear it
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Speaker 1: that basically there's been a incentive for every state, all
6:18
Speaker 1: fifty states could get additional funding if there followed certain
6:24
Speaker 1: methodology in terms of interviewing children. And essentially what it
6:29
Speaker 1: came down to is that if they want this matching money,
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Speaker 1: they really have the incentive to try to follow the rules.
6:37
Speaker 1: And the rules include not accepting statements that were made
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Speaker 1: in denial because it was considered in fact that denial
6:45
Speaker 1: and that itself was a symptom of abuse. And so
6:48
Speaker 1: the repeated interrogation and so on was actually encouraged by
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Speaker 1: this body of law starting from the belief of the
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Speaker 1: abuse and confronting the child that their belief it had happened,
6:59
Speaker 1: and just being relentless in pursuing that theory. So a
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Speaker 1: lot of cases came out at that time, and this
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Speaker 1: one was certainly symptomatic of that. Wow to Frank Jenny,
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Speaker 1: definitely prosecuting attorney there in one NATCHI it sounds like
7:14
Speaker 1: quite the catch twenty two. If you say yes, I
7:18
Speaker 1: was molested, there's an investigation. If you say no, I
7:21
Speaker 1: wasn't molested, there's going to be an investigation because that's
7:24
Speaker 1: considered a sign of sex abuse. If you say no,
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Speaker 1: I wasn't molested, I mean, at the very get go
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Speaker 1: with Donna saying that didn't happen. Isn't that a fatal
7:34
Speaker 1: flaw in a case? But they don't want agree that
7:37
Speaker 1: there was ever anything a fall pattern along goals of
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Speaker 1: lines and as far as something being necessary to obtain funding,
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Speaker 1: that was never anything that ever entered into consideration. When
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Speaker 1: you hear Donna speaking, now, does that change? I mean,
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Speaker 1: how does that affect your thinking as you look back
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Speaker 1: on the prosecution. You know, it's very difficult. I don't
8:04
Speaker 1: know how much of this Donna remembers, but the first
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Speaker 1: time I ever met her, she and a CPS worker
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Speaker 1: and I met in a conference room at the CPS office,
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Speaker 1: and Donna had her teddy bear with her, and when
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Speaker 1: I started to talk to her about the events that
8:24
Speaker 1: happened at the Pentecostal church, which is the case I
8:28
Speaker 1: was working on, she just hid behind her teddy bear
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Speaker 1: and then wouldn't talk. And the first time I met
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Speaker 1: her she wouldn't say anything at all about what had happened.
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Speaker 1: And this was after she had already given statements to
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Speaker 1: the police and arrest has been made in those cases.
8:46
Speaker 1: And at first I didn't know if she it was
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Speaker 1: just traumatized by the events and wasn't willing to talk
8:55
Speaker 1: about them or or what you know. But I at
9:01
Speaker 1: that point didn't know where things were going to go
9:03
Speaker 1: with the prosecution, because this was a case where she
9:06
Speaker 1: would definitely have to be testifying as a witness. It's
9:11
Speaker 1: time went on, she did begin to say more things
9:14
Speaker 1: about what had happened and opened up a little bit
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Speaker 1: about it. But really, and until the time we actually
9:21
Speaker 1: got to court in the case and involving the defendant,
9:25
Speaker 1: Hannah Simms, I honestly didn't know whether she would be
9:28
Speaker 1: able to testify about the things that had happened. Frank,
9:33
Speaker 1: let me ask you this. You're saying you didn't know
9:36
Speaker 1: it all the way up until the time you went
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Speaker 1: to trial, if she would be able to testify. But
9:42
Speaker 1: did you know as you went into trial that she
9:48
Speaker 1: had said affirmatively that she had been molested. Did you
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Speaker 1: ever hear her say that she did she did to
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Speaker 1: you in meetings with myself and others, not just with
10:02
Speaker 1: myself alone, but you did with your own ears. Hear
10:06
Speaker 1: her say that that's correct. Yes, Climb stories with Nancy Grace.
10:19
Speaker 1: Donna Everett. I know this is incredibly painful, and I
10:25
Speaker 1: want you to keep in mind that everything that happened
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Speaker 1: happened when you were very very young and haven't been
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Speaker 1: taken away from your parents and questioned and questioned and questioned.
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Speaker 1: Take a listen to Donna. From there, it went to
10:45
Speaker 1: the neighbors and then other people's homes and asked me, oh,
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Speaker 1: do you know this person? How do you know that
10:52
Speaker 1: person who lives there? And if I would tell them
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Speaker 1: if I knew who they were. There was one guy
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Speaker 1: that he was actually outside when we pulled up, and Wellsley,
11:03
Speaker 1: do you know him? And I didn't know who that
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Speaker 1: I was, but I remembered the saying that I was
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Speaker 1: actually abused by am Yes to Donna Everett joining us
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Speaker 1: and speaking out about her role in the Wenatchi prosecutions,
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Speaker 1: often called the Wenatchi witch Hunt. Donna Everett, when you
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Speaker 1: look back on the so called parade of homes, this
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Speaker 1: is when I don't really feel right about calling him
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Speaker 1: your foster dad. But this is when Detective Bob Perez
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Speaker 1: was acting as your foster dad, and he got you
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Speaker 1: in the car, and you guys drove and drove and drove.
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Speaker 1: It's been called the Parade of homes often or the
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Speaker 1: hit parade, many different the drive Vice Hadden, many names.
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Speaker 1: What happened during in that car? During that drive, Donna,
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Speaker 1: all I really remember is we rill to almost everybody's house.
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Speaker 1: That it started at my mom and dad's house eight
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Speaker 1: thirty eight Chemist Street, and it ended up the Pentecostal
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Speaker 1: Church of God. Donna, I've got to ask you, did
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Speaker 1: these molestations happen? No, they did not. I was actually molested,
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Speaker 1: but not by anybody that was in the Sex Street.
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Speaker 1: When were you molested, dear? I was still when I
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Speaker 1: was living with my mom and my dad, my sister's
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Speaker 1: at boyfriend Moore. Did you ever tell Perez you were
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Speaker 1: not molested that by the people he was accusing, only
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Speaker 1: by your sister's ex. Yes, And what would he say?
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Speaker 1: He told me I was waiting, Donna, Why did you
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Speaker 1: tell people like Frank Jenny? And my experience, most prosecutors
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Speaker 1: are good. Yes, there's some bad ones, but generally they're
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Speaker 1: good people trying to do right. Why did you? First
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Speaker 1: of all, I'm really surprised there would be a group
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Speaker 1: setting where you have a child in a group setting
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Speaker 1: with a lot of adults talking about how they were
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Speaker 1: sex molested. I find that very uncommon, having tried many,
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Speaker 1: many child molestation cases. But that said, why did you
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Speaker 1: continue to tell the story you were molested? Because I
13:31
Speaker 1: was physically tied to tables, I was putting cold bows,
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Speaker 1: I was I had handhoused to tables. I was just
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Speaker 1: locked in the basement until he got Barbara's got the
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Speaker 1: answers he wanted from me to Tom Grant Award winning
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Speaker 1: journalist weight In Well, I am extremely proud of Donna
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Speaker 1: for coming forward and saying this. I mean, she has
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Speaker 1: a family of her own now, she's she's living, you know,
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Speaker 1: a good life with their community and her church, and
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Speaker 1: she's just really impressive now. And and I feel so
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Speaker 1: sad that when she was placed in foster care with
14:16
Speaker 1: this detective that that she was. I feel does she
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Speaker 1: end up with him? I mean, it is own clear
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Speaker 1: to me how she ended up with him, but I
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Speaker 1: think that, um, you know, this is one of the
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Speaker 1: mysteries of Whennachie is that the Child Protective Services and
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Speaker 1: the detective, the detective crew, like Perez, we're working together
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Speaker 1: to um to try and uncover something that actually wasn't there,
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Speaker 1: and they pursued it to all ends, including persecuting and
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Speaker 1: the children that were in their care too. Doctor Elizabeth Loftus,
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Speaker 1: Distinguished Professor, University California joining us. Yea, doctor Loftus, It's
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Speaker 1: just very hard for me to imagine the guilt that
15:03
Speaker 1: these children, not just Donna. We say kick started the
15:07
Speaker 1: whole thing. It was kick started by Perez, and Donna
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Speaker 1: was his tool the way I see it. But there
15:15
Speaker 1: are other children in addition to Donna. It's not just
15:17
Speaker 1: her children that were essentially made to blame their mothers
15:23
Speaker 1: and fathers and others of sex raping them, sex molesting them.
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Speaker 1: And even when they tried to recant, nobody would listen.
15:35
Speaker 1: The guilt of carrying that around your whole life. I
15:39
Speaker 1: sent my mom and dad to jail wrongly. That is crippling, Nancy.
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Speaker 1: I couldn't agree with you you more. And when I
15:49
Speaker 1: listened to Donna talk about her experience, I know from
15:53
Speaker 1: my work on a number of these cases that lots
15:56
Speaker 1: of bad things were going on with these kids, not
15:59
Speaker 1: taking no for an answer, reinforcing claims of abuse, refusing
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Speaker 1: to accept denials. But this is the first I've heard
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Speaker 1: about cold baths and other tactics that may have also
16:13
Speaker 1: been going on. I mean, as you know, my mother
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Speaker 1: lives with me, nine year old mother. My dad's passed away,
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Speaker 1: and the thought that I could have ever caused them,
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Speaker 1: even a moment's trouble or harm, would just be crippling
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Speaker 1: to me. The fact that Donna Everett has the backbone
16:36
Speaker 1: along with the others to say this did not happen.
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Speaker 1: I lied. It doesn't matter that they were forced to lie.
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Speaker 1: There were children encouraged to lie. To stand up and
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Speaker 1: say that and speak the truth. That's impressive, Donna Everett.
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Speaker 1: A lot of people can never admit they do anything
17:00
Speaker 1: wrong ever. And you have to understand when we're talking
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Speaker 1: about this, Donna, my children are thirteen right now, and
17:08
Speaker 1: I consider them to be very naive. A right I
17:11
Speaker 1: shelter them if someone arrested them, took them away and said,
17:15
Speaker 1: the only way you can get back to your mother
17:17
Speaker 1: and fathers if you say this, I think, let's say it.
17:19
Speaker 1: Even though they knew it was a lie their children. Guys,
17:23
Speaker 1: I want you to take a listen. We're talking about
17:26
Speaker 1: the so called tour of homes where Detective Perez took
17:31
Speaker 1: his new foster daughter, Donna Everett, all around town, asking
17:34
Speaker 1: her to blame people and point out people at the
17:36
Speaker 1: age of about nine years old who had sex molested her.
17:40
Speaker 1: Take a listen to this. She tells this story about
17:44
Speaker 1: how they do the wild thing in various places. There
17:48
Speaker 1: would be fifteen or twenty adults, at least fifteen children.
17:52
Speaker 1: When we got there, they took four kids upstairs, the
17:54
Speaker 1: parents took them. The rest of them. The kids had
17:56
Speaker 1: to stay downstairs and watch a sick movie. The people
18:01
Speaker 1: in this movie we're doing sex. It was a sex movie.
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Speaker 1: Pastor Abbie did the welding at the church. The adults
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Speaker 1: undressed and got any line and took turns with everyone.
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Speaker 1: It was touching things, the loud thing, and we had
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Speaker 1: to touch them too. My grandpa touched us with his
18:21
Speaker 1: hands on my privates. He put his finger inside of me.
18:24
Speaker 1: He also touched me with his privates, it went inside
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Speaker 1: of me. He made touch his private with his hand.
18:29
Speaker 1: This just seems crazy, absurd. Straight to Tom Grant, that
18:35
Speaker 1: you're hearing the co executive producer in the Valley of Sin,
18:38
Speaker 1: doctor Thomas Grant. It does seem far fetched to me,
18:44
Speaker 1: only because it's extremely rare, and I think Frank Genie
18:49
Speaker 1: will agree with me on this. The deputy prosecuting attorney
18:52
Speaker 1: in that jurisdiction, to see a group of adults molesting
18:58
Speaker 1: a group of children, especially when there are mothers involved
19:05
Speaker 1: in the molestation, Tom, that's almost unheard of. It is.
19:10
Speaker 1: It was many of these things that were Bengalas were
19:13
Speaker 1: absurd on their face, and when you tried to, you know,
19:16
Speaker 1: when you talk to other people who were supposedly there,
19:19
Speaker 1: you got entirely different stories. And the children did not
19:23
Speaker 1: even agree on what their story was. The stories were
19:26
Speaker 1: being focused through one detective in cooperation with Child Protective Services,
19:32
Speaker 1: to drive a narrative that that was crazy. And my
19:36
Speaker 1: opinion is the children knew they were telling stories that
19:39
Speaker 1: were crazy, and that's why they didn't expect people to
19:42
Speaker 1: believe them. Climb Stories with Nancy Grace to Donna Everett,
19:55
Speaker 1: the child of Harold and Idella Everett, one of five,
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Speaker 1: he became the foster daughter of Bob and Lucy Perez,
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Speaker 1: Detective Perez. When you look back on these statements, where
20:08
Speaker 1: did that idea come from that the pastor in the church,
20:12
Speaker 1: with a whole group of adults, men and women, fathers
20:15
Speaker 1: and mothers, would do something called the wild Thing where
20:20
Speaker 1: basically the adults would molest the children in the church.
20:23
Speaker 1: Where did that fantastical story come from? Bob Paros is
20:26
Speaker 1: the one that came up with the wild Thing. There
20:30
Speaker 1: would be constantly days but we would just he would
20:34
Speaker 1: just sit there and like in the morning to gore
20:37
Speaker 1: school or after school that he would just sit there
20:39
Speaker 1: and tell me, Oh, this is how I want you
20:41
Speaker 1: to see this happen. And it was an every day thing.
20:45
Speaker 1: Did you ever get to see your parents doing all
20:48
Speaker 1: of this? I did not. When did you finally see
20:52
Speaker 1: them again for the first time? I believe I was
20:57
Speaker 1: sixteen or seventeen when I ran away from my group
21:02
Speaker 1: home that I was in in Spokane, Washington. Why were
21:05
Speaker 1: you put in a great home because I was called
21:08
Speaker 1: a difficult child and nobody suppose that I wasn't able
21:12
Speaker 1: to be in a Fosse home. Nobody could handle me.
21:14
Speaker 1: I want to go to Frank Jenny, also speaking out today.
21:18
Speaker 1: Frank was a Deputy prosecuting attorney in Franklin County, Washington.
21:24
Speaker 1: Frank what was your reaction when you first heard of
21:31
Speaker 1: saw these cases? When I first heard of these cases,
21:35
Speaker 1: you know, I'm talking specifically now about the ones in
21:38
Speaker 1: Douglas County that I worked on, everybody was keptival at first.
21:44
Speaker 1: I heard about this from a detective Way who was
21:49
Speaker 1: with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, Detective Perez that told
21:55
Speaker 1: him that he believed that there was a what he
21:58
Speaker 1: called a storefront church East Wenacci where all of the
22:03
Speaker 1: adults would would take the children into a back room
22:07
Speaker 1: after the services were completed and have sex with them.
22:12
Speaker 1: And the detective Wagon at first was very skeptical of that.
22:17
Speaker 1: And well, yeah, I mean, I'm not saying that molestations
22:21
Speaker 1: don't happen in a church, because they have. They have
22:23
Speaker 1: happened in churches. Yeah, but this setting where you've got
22:28
Speaker 1: a group of unconnected parishioners or congregants all agreeing to
22:36
Speaker 1: molest children, including mothers. Look, and I say that no
22:42
Speaker 1: offense to fathers, but typically a child molester is a male.
22:46
Speaker 1: So to see mothers and fathers molesting little children at
22:49
Speaker 1: the church, I find that really hard to believe, So yes,
22:52
Speaker 1: I would have been skeptical. So then what happened, Frank
22:55
Speaker 1: The next thing I heard about a week ten days later,
22:59
Speaker 1: we see the phone call from the detective Perez had
23:03
Speaker 1: from Detective Wag. From Detective Wag with Douglas County, I
23:08
Speaker 1: want to know about the possibly getting a search warrant
23:11
Speaker 1: for the church building. And I asked him when I
23:15
Speaker 1: was this the storefront church you were telling me about that?
23:18
Speaker 1: The detective Perez wanted you to investigate and said that
23:22
Speaker 1: it was and I asked him, well, now, when we
23:26
Speaker 1: talked about this before, you were very skeptical as to
23:29
Speaker 1: whether anything was ever going to come of that has
23:32
Speaker 1: something changed? And well, what had changed was is that
23:36
Speaker 1: that a woman had confessed to taking part in these
23:40
Speaker 1: sex orgies of the church, and that woman was Linda Miller.
23:45
Speaker 1: And once Linda Miller had had confessed, and then everybody
23:51
Speaker 1: accepted that as a fact, that started believing it was
23:54
Speaker 1: real because Linda Miller allegedly confessed. That's correct, that's correct.
23:59
Speaker 1: That was the attitude at that time. Well, I can
24:02
Speaker 1: say that adding a little bit of credibility to get
24:04
Speaker 1: one of the parents actually confessing to your knowledge, Tom Grant,
24:09
Speaker 1: how does Linda Miller fit into this? Linda Miller was
24:13
Speaker 1: she was trying to run with her children to Canada
24:16
Speaker 1: because she was so afraid of what was happening when
24:18
Speaker 1: Ante and that she would be arrested. They picked her
24:21
Speaker 1: up north of win As she brought her back, she'd
24:23
Speaker 1: been awake for almost twenty four hours before that she
24:26
Speaker 1: made this confession, and she was repeatedly questioned and then
24:30
Speaker 1: and then she basically signed whatever Detective Prez wandered her design.
24:35
Speaker 1: And she said later on that it was it was
24:37
Speaker 1: all his words, that he was putting the words therefore,
24:40
Speaker 1: and she she recanted very shortly thereafter, but it was
24:44
Speaker 1: too late. She recanted after that, but it was too light.
24:48
Speaker 1: Listen to this. There's you know who are than twenty
24:52
Speaker 1: places listed here. They're following other locations and in some
24:56
Speaker 1: instances the names of the persons living at those locations
24:59
Speaker 1: at the time. With that the sexual abuses occurred. Nine
25:07
Speaker 1: oh five Kashmere Street, Donna's former residence Ferry Street, Man
25:15
Speaker 1: known as Charlie five fifteen Marjo Street and one Natche
25:22
Speaker 1: Friends of the Everetts. Twenty one Kashmere Barbara Garis and
25:28
Speaker 1: children eight ten Kashmere Street, Christine Hughes seven oh nine
25:34
Speaker 1: and a half Medhouse Street. Donna describes the mother as
25:37
Speaker 1: fat with black hair, and then at some point, Donna
25:41
Speaker 1: Everett starts pointing out places where men in black robes.
25:46
Speaker 1: So we're having sex with children this place there, in
25:52
Speaker 1: that place there, and that place there, three or nine
25:55
Speaker 1: Hawthorne Street, there would be fifteen or twenty adults seven
25:58
Speaker 1: or eight Third Street would line up and take turns
26:01
Speaker 1: having sex with the children. Ramona Street, Robert Devereaux's House,
26:05
Speaker 1: eleven h seven Westwood, Linda Miller's apartment. To think that
26:09
Speaker 1: all of these people would somehow engage in a conspiracy
26:13
Speaker 1: neighbors to molest a lot of their own children in
26:18
Speaker 1: a group orgy setting, I've actually never seen a case
26:23
Speaker 1: like it, Frank Jenny, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, Franklin County. When
26:27
Speaker 1: did you first start suspecting this wasn't real? I mean,
26:31
Speaker 1: Linda Miller says Perez told her she did not sign
26:34
Speaker 1: the confession, her children would be taken away from her.
26:38
Speaker 1: You know. As it start to actually interview the witnesses
26:43
Speaker 1: in preparation for the trial, more and more I began
26:48
Speaker 1: to have some concerns about it. As sim was mentioned earlier,
26:53
Speaker 1: a lot of the statements just didn't didn't seem to
26:56
Speaker 1: add up. And also there were any number of witnesses
27:03
Speaker 1: that I had no idea existed at the time the
27:05
Speaker 1: charges were first filed that supported the defendant's version of
27:10
Speaker 1: the events, and uh, you know, some of those witnesses
27:14
Speaker 1: were quite credible or came across that way. So as
27:21
Speaker 1: we got closer and closer to the to the trial,
27:24
Speaker 1: I began to have some concerns about it. And then
27:28
Speaker 1: I also talked to some other people with the knowledge
27:33
Speaker 1: of these cases. Of I remember John Henry Brown, who's
27:38
Speaker 1: I'm Nancy, you're from your product. I'm sure you're familiar
27:41
Speaker 1: with that name, but he's well known defense attorney here
27:45
Speaker 1: in the Northwest. He had been representing a applied in
27:50
Speaker 1: Land County in one of these similar cases. He came
27:55
Speaker 1: up listened to the opening statements in Hannah Sims trial,
28:00
Speaker 1: and after that he came down to my office and
28:04
Speaker 1: he and I talked. He and I get along pretty well,
28:07
Speaker 1: even though he's he's a defense attorney. Yeah, he expressed
28:14
Speaker 1: concerns to me about these cases and I could could
28:18
Speaker 1: tell it was more than just a defense attorney. Being
28:21
Speaker 1: a defense attorney, I could tell he actually did have
28:25
Speaker 1: some concerns about these cases. And that was one of
28:28
Speaker 1: the things that got me thinking more and more that
28:31
Speaker 1: there might be some problems with these cases. Now, that
28:35
Speaker 1: was while Hannah Sin's trial was actually going on, of course,
28:38
Speaker 1: but you know, I thought about that more and more
28:41
Speaker 1: as time went on, but she still went forward with
28:44
Speaker 1: the cases with with that one trial, we did, yes,
28:47
Speaker 1: exactly climb stories with Nancy Grace to Catherine Lyon, author
29:02
Speaker 1: of a witch Hunt, Katherine, you're hearing that Linda Miller
29:08
Speaker 1: says Perez told her if she did not sign the
29:10
Speaker 1: confession she would lose her children. I would do, I think,
29:13
Speaker 1: almost anything to keep my children. Well, yes, as would I.
29:19
Speaker 1: But yeah, that was exactly what. Then. It wasn't just
29:23
Speaker 1: Linda Miller. This was the pattern they had to confess
29:27
Speaker 1: to keep their children, which ironically was the opposite. And
29:30
Speaker 1: the children are also told they had to say it
29:33
Speaker 1: happened if they wanted to go back to their parents,
29:36
Speaker 1: and neither one is just entirely you know, at Catch
29:40
Speaker 1: twenty two, nobody can possibly resist that kind of pressure
29:44
Speaker 1: and I also wanted to point out that these kids,
29:46
Speaker 1: it wasn't just what the police were doing, but it
29:52
Speaker 1: was also what the mental health professionals were doing. These
29:55
Speaker 1: kids without with barely any exception, were sent to phine
30:00
Speaker 1: Crest Mental Hospital in Gordolaine, Idaho, where they were garcerated
30:04
Speaker 1: there and repeatedly question and told that it happened, and
30:08
Speaker 1: they knew it happened, and those people were aware that
30:10
Speaker 1: there were groups of people involved in this, and so
30:14
Speaker 1: the combination of therapy, case workers and police was just
30:19
Speaker 1: overpowering to the kids. And these kids were damaged, seriously
30:24
Speaker 1: damaged by this refusal to accept the truth. We know
30:28
Speaker 1: that Linda Miller, who added a similar credibility to all
30:34
Speaker 1: of these child sex molestation claims in her confession. When
30:39
Speaker 1: you have one of the accused adults actually confessing to
30:43
Speaker 1: all the molestations, suddenly the case seems to have some
30:48
Speaker 1: skin on the bones. But I want you to listen
30:51
Speaker 1: to this. I asked Miller what happened after the adults
30:54
Speaker 1: were finished with the children, and she said, we would
30:57
Speaker 1: give them donuts, chocolate, milk, and cupcakes, all kinds of
31:00
Speaker 1: stuff like that. It just seemed like no one would
31:04
Speaker 1: have confessed to something like that unless it were true.
31:10
Speaker 1: So why did you sign him at the end? First
31:13
Speaker 1: of all, I didn't think he was ever going to
31:14
Speaker 1: let me out of that room, and because he threatened
31:18
Speaker 1: me that I'd never seen my children at Kenna and
31:21
Speaker 1: he would make sure of it. Straight back out to
31:23
Speaker 1: Tom Grant. Award winning journalists formerly with k R E. M.
31:29
Speaker 1: Miller eventually recanted during the trial of a Sunday school teacher,
31:35
Speaker 1: Hannah Simms, who worked at Robertson's Church. After Linda Miller
31:41
Speaker 1: recanted explaining why she ever signed the confession to start with,
31:45
Speaker 1: the jury told the prosecutor they thought none of the
31:49
Speaker 1: cases should go forward. Shortly after that, Frank Jenny with
31:56
Speaker 1: us Today had a falling out with his boss and resigned.
32:01
Speaker 1: What do you make of her recantation, Tom Grant? Why
32:04
Speaker 1: weren't Why didn't all the cases stop right then? Well?
32:08
Speaker 1: They had, They had gone so far and so many
32:11
Speaker 1: people were prosecutor as child you know, protective services people,
32:16
Speaker 1: that police were so deeply invested in it that for
32:19
Speaker 1: them to stop then would have been an admission that
32:22
Speaker 1: they were wrong and the person they were after was
32:25
Speaker 1: not Hannah Sims, who they lost lost the case against.
32:29
Speaker 1: They were after Pastor Robbie Robertson and his case was
32:34
Speaker 1: coming up next. And I think if they would have
32:36
Speaker 1: given up then and said stop it, that they would
32:40
Speaker 1: have been it would have been setting themselves up to
32:42
Speaker 1: look like they were stupid all along. Yeah. I always
32:46
Speaker 1: compare it to asking a judge that just presided over
32:49
Speaker 1: a jury trial to grant emotion for new trial because
32:52
Speaker 1: of all the errors in the trial that he just
32:55
Speaker 1: presided over. That's never going to happen. So when you're
32:59
Speaker 1: in it so deep, I guess is what you're saying
33:01
Speaker 1: and you realize maybe you have television, you can't realize
33:05
Speaker 1: what you're doing is wrong. To frank Jenny There, Deputy
33:10
Speaker 1: Prosecuting Attorney Franklin County, Washington, did you ever try to
33:15
Speaker 1: stop the prosecutions. Well, here's here's what happened. First of all,
33:21
Speaker 1: you mentioned with the jurors said Ahamed Sims case. They
33:26
Speaker 1: actually said that to the judge that it's customary in
33:30
Speaker 1: that jurisdiction for the judge to meet with the jurors
33:34
Speaker 1: after the trial. The jurors actually volunteered the fact to
33:39
Speaker 1: Judge John Bridges that they didn't think the other cases
33:44
Speaker 1: you should go forward. And he of course explained to
33:48
Speaker 1: them what his role was as a judge and unless
33:51
Speaker 1: it's something that's emotion before the court, that it is
33:56
Speaker 1: properly before him for a consideration. That wasn't something that
34:00
Speaker 1: he had authority unilaterally to do, but he would convey
34:04
Speaker 1: that to the prosecutor. Steve Clem, the colected prosecutor, talked
34:13
Speaker 1: to Judge Bridges. In fact, I think Tom was down
34:16
Speaker 1: in the office talking to me at the time that
34:19
Speaker 1: Steve was upstairs talking to the judge. Judge Bridges conveyed
34:23
Speaker 1: that to Steve Klem, and then he and I talked
34:30
Speaker 1: about that later, and then I told him that I
34:34
Speaker 1: really did have some concerns about the cases and that
34:38
Speaker 1: I think the way I put it, wouldn't break my
34:41
Speaker 1: heart to dismiss the other charges that were sending. And
34:48
Speaker 1: then we were other ones that we had beending in
34:50
Speaker 1: Douglas County were the ones against pastor and missus Robertson,
34:54
Speaker 1: and there was also a case against gentleman name of
34:57
Speaker 1: Bill Davis, who was a bus driver for the Right Right.
35:01
Speaker 1: So you did, in fact, I mentioned it, I want
35:04
Speaker 1: to go to Tom Grant, Tom, why were they so
35:08
Speaker 1: hot to get the pastor Robert Because the pastor had
35:12
Speaker 1: been the most vocal person in the community challenging what
35:17
Speaker 1: was going on there. He knew the Everett family and
35:21
Speaker 1: he believed that there had been no abuse by the
35:26
Speaker 1: parents of the children there because he'd been in the
35:29
Speaker 1: home again and again and again, and he spoke out
35:31
Speaker 1: so adamantly that he became a target. Thank to Donna
35:35
Speaker 1: Everett joining us, the middle child of Harold and Ideala
35:39
Speaker 1: Everett's five children, the former foster daughter of Bob and
35:44
Speaker 1: Lucy Perez. Detective Perez, Donna. This has been characterized as
35:51
Speaker 1: by saying that because of you, the entire one Atche
35:58
Speaker 1: witch hunt occurred. Heard, I don't think that's true. I
36:03
Speaker 1: think it is because of Detective Perez's pride, his desire
36:10
Speaker 1: for power, his arrogance. And you were used as a
36:17
Speaker 1: child as a tool. When you hear all this discussion,
36:23
Speaker 1: how does that make you feel? I mean, I understand
36:26
Speaker 1: where is coming from, because yes, I was a child,
36:29
Speaker 1: but yes I Boparez used me as a tool. I
36:33
Speaker 1: was his target and he had this ego and I
36:40
Speaker 1: was just used for his ego. Did you try to
36:42
Speaker 1: tell people this did not happen to me. I was
36:45
Speaker 1: not molested by them. I told Katie Carroll, I told
36:50
Speaker 1: Rie Alexander, I told Connie multiple times, but nobody believed
36:55
Speaker 1: me because they were all friends. They all we did
36:59
Speaker 1: tool part He's at my house, at Bob and Lucy's
37:03
Speaker 1: house almost every other weekend. They were all. It was
37:06
Speaker 1: just like a big social thing almost every other weekend.
37:09
Speaker 1: So the Child Protective Service workers were having pool parties
37:13
Speaker 1: at Detective Perez's home. Yeah, and you were there, Yeah,
37:18
Speaker 1: Tom Grant. What did he hope to gain? What did
37:21
Speaker 1: Perez want out of all this? He became one of
37:25
Speaker 1: the best known detective in when anchie for one thing.
37:28
Speaker 1: And I think that he was a that he believed
37:32
Speaker 1: his own delusions, that he that once he got the
37:35
Speaker 1: allegation from a child or an adult that something had happened,
37:38
Speaker 1: that he believed that was the truth, and that there
37:41
Speaker 1: was no other possibility to Elizabeth Loftis, Doctor Loftus, Distinguished Professor,
37:47
Speaker 1: author of the Myth of Repressed Memory. Listening to Donna
37:52
Speaker 1: Everett today, don't you think if any of this had
37:57
Speaker 1: been true she would be able to re ember it now? Well?
38:01
Speaker 1: Don't think about awful things that truly did happen to them.
38:05
Speaker 1: They don't think about them for a long time and
38:07
Speaker 1: can be reminded of them. But given the extensiveness of
38:12
Speaker 1: these supposed acts over long periods of time and so
38:17
Speaker 1: repeated supposedly, you would think you would think that these
38:22
Speaker 1: these kids would remember if it actually really happened. What
38:26
Speaker 1: do you make the theory of repressed memories? Victim at
38:31
Speaker 1: least one in this case, an alleged victim was sent
38:35
Speaker 1: to therapy and tried to run away by the way
38:38
Speaker 1: to retrieve repressed memories of being molested, But there were
38:45
Speaker 1: no memories. That's the big problem here. The you can
38:50
Speaker 1: not think about something and be reminded of it. That's
38:55
Speaker 1: ordinary forgetting and remembering. But this idea that you can
38:59
Speaker 1: be brutalized extensively over long periods and banish this into
39:06
Speaker 1: the unconscious, there really is no credible scientific support for
39:10
Speaker 1: that memory is routinely working this way. If ever, to
39:15
Speaker 1: Donna Everett, who by many accounts started the whole investigation, again,
39:21
Speaker 1: I believe she was used as a tool by the detective.
39:26
Speaker 1: Donna Howe. Has this entire scenario affected your life even now.
39:32
Speaker 1: I mean I don't have any contact with well, I
39:36
Speaker 1: have a little contact with my brothers, but most of
39:39
Speaker 1: my family I have no contact with. I have conduct
39:45
Speaker 1: when my mom still sees in a nursing home where
39:47
Speaker 1: I live. But that's the only person that I really
39:52
Speaker 1: even talked to. Why because we were never able to
39:55
Speaker 1: commit when we were little. We weren't able to see
39:59
Speaker 1: each other. We weren't able, That is it. I think
40:01
Speaker 1: since we lost that contact, we don't have it now.
40:05
Speaker 1: Do you feel guilty at all about all of these
40:08
Speaker 1: people's lives being torn apart, children taken away from their parents,
40:13
Speaker 1: people going to jail that were actually innocent. I do,
40:19
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I know it was not
40:20
Speaker 1: my fault. To Tom Grant, co executive producer in the
40:24
Speaker 1: Valley of Sin, I don't think that these people's lives
40:29
Speaker 1: will ever be put right again. No, they won't, and
40:33
Speaker 1: including Donna. Donna has done a remarkable job of putting
40:37
Speaker 1: her life back together, and I'm the way she speaks
40:40
Speaker 1: now indicates to me an intelligence that many people might ignore.
40:46
Speaker 1: But but this has been so traumatic for everybody that
40:50
Speaker 1: they still suffer from, you know, from bad dreams and
40:54
Speaker 1: loss of a part of their life that was tremendously
40:57
Speaker 1: important and you can't replace that will come next. I
41:01
Speaker 1: almost shudder to think of it. Nancy Grace in the
41:08
Speaker 1: Valley of Sin, signing off goodbye friend,