State Pursues Criminal Charges In Ok Boys Ranch Case

Attorney General Christine Gregoire will ask the state Supreme Court to restore criminal charges against three people accused of failing to protect troubled boys in their care at the now-closed OK Boys Ranch.

Gregoire’s office plans to file written arguments Monday with the high court challenging Superior Court Judge Daniel Berschauer’s ruling that post-traumatic stress disorder does not constitute bodily injury under the state’s “criminal mistreatment” statute - the law used to charge the former officials.

Under Berschauer’s ruling, the three defendants cannot be prosecuted under existing law.

“We say post-traumatic stress disorder constitutes bodily injury under the statute,” Greg Canova, assistant attorney general handling the case, said Thursday.

But lawyers for the three defendants contend the statute is far too narrow and vague to accommodate the state’s case, and Berschauer agreed.

Canova said he expects the high court will agree to hear arguments in the case next fall.

The defendants are Thomas Van Woerden, founder of the Olympia group home and its director from 1971 to 1993; Collette Queener, an assistant director and later director of the home; and Laura Rambo Russell, the home’s longtime head counselor.

All were charged with criminal mistreatment, a second-degree felony. They were accused of failing to protect boys at the ranch from abuse between 1988 and 1994.