Judges Question Need For Grand Jury Sex-Ring Investigations Could Be Subject Of Probe

A visiting judge should decide whether a grand jury probe of Wenatchee’s child sex-ring investigations is warranted, Chelan County Superior Court’s three judges say.

The probe is being sought by the Concerned Citizens for Legal Accountability, a local group questioning the tactics and motives of authorities investigating two loosely organized sex rings.

Twenty-three people have been charged. So far, 15 have been convicted or pleaded guilty, one has been acquitted and one case was dismissed. The rest are pending.

The Chelan County Commission, which late last month received petitions signed by 1,900 people, had asked the judges for their input. The petitions called for an investigation and expressed concern that some people may have been falsely accused and some victims’ allegations may have been the result of coercion or coaching.

“A visiting judge would eliminate all reasonable doubts about the integrity of the process,” the judges - T.W. “Chip” Small, Carol Wardell and John Bridges - said in a letter to the commission sent Wednesday.

The judges said a grand jury probe would cost at least $25,000, and advised the commissioners to decide how much they are willing to spend before they ask the state to appoint an outside judge.

The judges’ letter also raised questions about the people who signed the petitions.

“There seem to be a lot of names of people we see in court, people who have either been accused of crimes or convicted of felonies,” Small said.

“And there are also people who signed who live in El Paso, Spokane, Brewster, Seattle… . There’s even one whole set of signatures from Quincy that seem to be written by the same person,” he said Wednesday.

“I don’t get the impression that these people are representative of the community.”

Cherie Greenfield, chairwoman of the citizens’ group, dismissed those concerns.

“The major weight of signatures came from common people, just everyday, Joe Blow, hard-working people. I don’t know who they are, and if they have an ulterior motive, I wouldn’t know about it,” Greenfield said.

Elaborating on the judges’ concerns about the petition effort, Small also noted close ties between some of the citizen group’s leaders and people accused or convicted of sex crimes.

For instance, he said, Greenfield wrote a letter to Wardell last month offering to serve the prison time of a couple convicted in April of raping a young girl.