Child Abuse and the Law - False Accusations Of Child Sexual Abuse

The willingness of people to believe children's accusations of sexual abuse has varied greatly since the mid-twentieth century. At one time, people were simply unwilling to believe that sexual abuse of children was happening or happening with any frequency. Once society accepted the fact that child sexual abuse was occurring, responses to accusations of child sexual abuse went from disbelief to almost total acceptance by the public. In the 1980s and 1990s, when daycare workers were prosecuted for alleged child and ritual abuses, some experts, claiming children do not lie about these things, further contributed to the belief that predators were everywhere. In the aftermath of the numerous convictions of abusers, some of which have been overturned and others have not been resolved, medical and legal experts have learned many things. They acknowledge that child sexual abuse indeed occurs and children may not tell for various reasons. Experts have also found that some child witnesses are reliable, while others are not. Authorities have since developed better interviewing techniques of child witnesses.

Child Molestation Conviction Overturned after Twenty Years

On May 4, 2004, John Stoll of Bakersfield, California, was exonerated after serving twenty years for alleged child molestation. Stoll, two men, and a woman were accused of operating a sex ring involving sodomy, group sex, and pornography in 1984. The group was accused of sexually molesting six boys, ages six to eight. The children were never medically examined, and authorities did not find child pornography or any physical evidence to support the charges. During the trial the defense was not allowed to bring up the fact that the investigators asked the children leading and suggestive questions. In court the children gave conflicting testimony. Nonetheless, the defendants were convicted.

In dismissing the case against Stoll, Judge Lee P. Felice of the Superior Court of California (Kern County) stated that the investigators used manipulative questioning of the children, forcing them to give false testimony. Four of the six accusers, all adults in 2004, testified that the investigators' persistence during interviews caused them to recount false stories of molestation. A fifth witness indicated he could not remember the interviews. Stoll's son, six years old at the time he testified, still insisted his father molested him. Stoll claimed his ex-wife influenced the boy's testimony because of a bitter divorce. In the 1980s in Bakersfield, authorities prosecuted eight alleged sex rings, consisting of thirty people, for child molestation. Twenty-two convictions have since been overturned.

Suing Child Protective Services

In June 2000 the Washington Supreme Court, in Tyner v. the State of Washington Department of Social and Health Services, CPS, ruled that CPS could be sued for negligent handling of investigations (No. 67602, Supreme Court of Washington). In 1993 David Tyner III was accused by his wife of sexually abusing their four-yearold daughter. The couple was in the process of a divorce. CPS did not uncover any abuse but continued to prohibit the father from seeing his children. Tyner sued CPS for mishandling the investigation. The court held that "CPS owes a duty of care to a child's parents, even those suspected of abusing their own children, when investigating allegations of child abuse." The court reinstated a jury verdict of more than $200,000 against the department.

Suing the Police

In September 2000 the Washington Supreme Court, in the first court ruling of its kind, unanimously ruled that the police can be held financially liable for negligence in child abuse investigations (Rodriguez v. City of Wenatchee, No. 69614-4, Supreme Court of Washington). The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Pastor Robert Roberson, his wife, and others accused of child molestation in Wenatchee, Washington. The Washington Supreme Court reinstated the $30 million lawsuit brought by the defendants.

The case started in 1994 when a nine-year-old foster child was placed in the home of Bob Perez, chief sexcrimes investigator of Wenatchee, Washington. The following year the girl told her foster father about being sexually abused by her parents. After the parents were convicted, the child made allegations of a sex ring involving the Robersons and forty-three adults since 1988. Based on the girl's testimony and that of her thirteen-yearold friend and a former member of Roberson's church, the pastor, his wife, and nineteen others were arrested on 27,726 counts of sexual abuse against sixty children. In December 1995 the Robersons were acquitted. In 1996 Perez's foster daughter recanted, denying her sexual abuse allegations and saying that Perez had pressured her. Her friend had also recanted her testimony.

On August 3, 2004, approximately ten years after the Wenatchee sexual abuse cases first surfaced, another civil lawsuit filed by those falsely accused reached the Court of Appeals of Washington. In Roberson v. Wenatchee (No. 21777-9-III), the appeals court unanimously upheld a lower court ruling, directing the city of Wenatchee to pay a fine of $718,000 for withholding information about investigator Robert Perez from persons who had sued the city after they were acquitted.