Background
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) sends cybertips to the 59 nationwide ICAC Task Forces on a daily basis. Cases are also sent to the FBI, ICE, or US Postal Service depending on the perceived original jurisdiction of the case. The sad case described below was the result of tips sent to the Seattle, Washington ICAC Task Force in 2003.
Seattle Washington ICAC
In 2003, the Seattle, Washington ICAC Task Force received a NCMEC cybertip accompanied by two unidentified images of a boy being abused. The initial report indicated that the possessor of the images used the screen name, "fosterdad". The source of the images was determined to be a computer in Tacoma, Washington.
The case was first received and documented by the Seattle ICAC and then sent to their Tacoma affiliate for investigation. Seattle is the statewide recipient and clearinghouse for incoming NCMEC cybertips and has a computer virtual private network connection with NCMEC for the purpose of receiving incoming complaints.
In this case, Seattle preserved their case assignment log indicating that they sent the investigation to Tacoma. Washington state law requires that cases of child abuse must be reported to the Washington Child Protective Services agency. The NCMEC Cybertip in this case was not reported to the Washington CPS.
A conscientious and dedicated NCMEC analyst was alarmed by the images and contacted Tacoma PD to follow-up on the first report. The analyst was advised by a Tacoma detective that the images were not prosecutable. It was later leaned that the detective may have been less than truthful in this statement.
Then, a few months later, in a second cybertip, additional images from the same offender were reported to NCMEC. The second cybertip report was more thoroughly investigated by the Tacoma detective and in March, 2004 the offender, Ronald Young, a state-certified foster-parent, was arrested. It was discovered that he had molested several of his foster children over a long period of time and had photographed them and shared the images via the Internet. The same Tacoma detective who handled the original investigation also handled the subsequent arrest. He was initially lauded as a hero for his work on the case and later vilified after the initial delays were uncovered.
Washington Lawsuit
In 2006, a victim’s rights attorney filed suit on behalf of the foster children against Tacoma PD, Seattle PD, and Washington Child Protective Services. The suit alleged in part, that there was deliberate indifference in failing to investigate the original cybertip. CPS was sued for failing to investigate the background of foster-parent Young.
Washington Damages
Recognizing their difficult positions, Tacoma PD and the State of Washington CPS quickly settled with the plaintiffs. Although the Seattle ICAC had documented the fact that they sent the case to Tacoma - Seattle also paid. City of Seattle attorneys recognized that if they did not settle they would be the only defendant left in front of a jury that would likely be looking for someone to blame.
Total payout was reported as 10.5 million. The City of Seattle / Washington ICAC Task Force paid 1.9 million of the total. The Seattle ICAC Task Force now has the policy of notifying CPS on all of their investigations and an improved policy for following up on the cases they receive.
Key Points
The Washington situation is a tragic reminder to those investigative agencies who dismiss child pornography investigations as trivial that there are true victims behind the images, and that those victims may have lawyers. Child pornography is not just one picture of a baby in a bathtub that was created overseas and circulates the Internet among a few pedophiles who do not live in your city. It is a big problem, it cannot be ignored, and improved law enforcement efforts are needed.
Due to the high workloads and limited resources available for Internet crimes against children throughout the United States it is possible that a case similar to the one in Washington will occur, or has already occurred in other jurisdictions.
Recommendation
Law enforcement agencies must recognize that unlawful images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors are serious crimes worthy of significant investigative efforts and the devotion of increased resources.
Selected News Reports from the Washington Case
The following reports from various news sources begin with a story that describes the fine work of the Tacoma, Washington ICAC investigators.
Detectives Add High-Tech Tools to Law Enforcement Arsenal
05/07/04. By Jeffrey M. Barker. Seattle Post-Intelligence Reporter
Tacoma - In a Police Department office here lighted largely by computer-screen glow, two detectives chase technology. They're helping law enforcement catch up with the gadgets that now pervade our daily lives: the Internet, digital cameras, computer chips that are found in everything from cell phones to a car's engine. Just a few years ago, police ignored or fumbled with those things. In many places, they still do.
But they are the pieces of evidence detectives now need to convict criminals. Take, for an example, Ronald Harold Young, the Key Peninsula foster father charged in March with 44 counts of child rape, molestation and exploitation. He was found at the end of a cybertrail that included anonymous Internet bulletin boards, search warrants of Internet service providers and seizure of hard drives and cameras. It was a trail blazed by Detectives Richard Voce, 46, of the Tacoma Police Department and Greg Dawson, 45, of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department. The two make up the county's computer crimes unit.
"I don't have a computer science degree," said Dawson, a former Army aviator who bought his first computer - a Commodore 64 - in 1982. "I just wanted to play games -- flight simulators and things like that." Computers crowd his office. Connecting cables hang from walls. A child-pornography case brought Dawson to computer detective work. The case involved a man who took his hard drive filled with illegal pictures to a computer store for maintenance.
Same story for Voce. "I did a couple cases that just pushed me in this direction," he said, sitting in his dark office, hunting and pecking on his keyboard. Hanging on the wall behind him, a fake street sign reads "Pervert Parking Only." "He's what we call a natural," Dawson said of Voce.
Voce said that before 1999, he didn't know much more about computers than the average person who has one at home. Now, he teaches a three-hour class on computer crime at the local police academy. The class covers the rise of identity theft, fraud cases, proper seizure of a computer - all stuff that had never been discussed before during basic police training.
In most police departments across the country, the trail would have gone dead long before reaching Young, said Frank Clark, a former detective who works with the Pierce County Prosecutor's Office and started the computer crimes unit here. He also founded Computer Technology Investigators Northwest, a cooperative that helps train detectives and puts them together with private-sector computer experts.
When Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg -- then the county's prosecutor -- hired Clark away from a pioneering computer crime unit in Fresno, Calif., computer evidence here wasn't being properly investigated. "They (Pierce County detectives) were seizing a number of computers," Clark said. "They just didn't know what to do with them."
He said most departments simply don't have officers trained in computer forensics. And because of that, fraud and child pornography - the bulk of what Voce and Dawson deal with - are going unaddressed. The Seattle Police Department does not staff any full-time computer detectives.
The only full-time computer forensics lab in this state, other than Pierce County's, is run by the Washington State Patrol. Clark said departments should have at least one computer detective for every 200,000 residents. "If you gave me five people tomorrow, I could keep them busy, and more," Dawson said, adding that once detectives are trained to look for computer crimes, they find more and more.
On the flip side, just because many cities are not looking for the crimes, and therefore not prosecuting them, it doesn't mean they don't have a high-tech crime problem. "If I don't have a drug unit, I don't have a drug problem in my town. The same can be said of high-tech," Dawson said. Clark agreed, saying Pierce County doesn't have more fraud and illegal pornography cases than other region -- "we just work 'em."
The Pierce County/Tacoma lab gets about 40 tips annually like the one that led to Ronald Young, the detectives say.
And Dawson and Voce said there are more people out there who are able to commit crimes from the mostly anonymous comfort of their homes, rather than having to seek out child pornography in dark alleys and through regular mail. "The Internet is a wonderful, wonderful tool," Dawson said. "But it's got a dark side -- it's a delivery system that wasn't there just a few years ago."
Detectives investigate bomb threats, which often are made through e-mail; improper use of private companies' computers; check fraud; and identity thefts. Dawson and Voce also help other detectives on more traditional cases. In a homicide, for example, a death threat or other evidence might be found on a computer.
That's the kind of slip-up that might not be found in the course of non-computer police work. "But you can afford to be stupid right now," Dawson said, "if there are no cops out there to catch you."
Reporter Jeffrey M. Barker can be reached at 206-870-7852 or jeffreybarker@seattlepi.com
Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/172341_vprofile07.html
Online Postings Describe Struggle with Sexual Urges
03/31/04. Mike Carter, Michael Ko and Jonathan Martin. Seattle Times staff reporters.
Police say a Pierce County foster dad charged with molesting and photographing young boys in his care posted messages in an Internet newsgroup catering to Christian pedophiles, saying he struggled "minute by minute" with his urges and describing himself as a "boylover that has devoted my life to boys and introducing the love of Christ to them."
Tacoma Police Detective Richard Voce yesterday confirmed that 41-year-old Ronald Harold Young used the Internet identity "Homeanon" to write of his battle with his sexual urges for children, and counseled other struggling pedophiles in a "Christian" forum on religion and their pedophilia.
Young also used that identity to post dozens of pornographic photographs in another pedophile-oriented newsgroup, police said. Many of the pictures were of his foster children, and some were so graphic that they offended others in the group. Young, a licensed foster parent, was arrested last week at his house in Home, on the Key Peninsula, and has been charged with 30 counts of first-degree child rape, eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and six counts of first-degree child molestation. Voce said detectives believe the pseudonym Homeanon refers to Young's residence in Home, as well as his desire to remain anonymous.
According to some members of his family, Young became "super-religious" in recent years, right around the time he applied for and received a foster-parent license from the Department of Social and Health Services.
On Dec. 1, 2003, Homeanon joined a debate in a "Christian" pedophile newsgroup over whether there is biblical justification for pedophilia or homosexuality. "Married for over 20 years, I still find boys attractive in a lustful way and can only remove those thoughts with praises to our loving God," he wrote. He concluded, after a lengthy analysis, that "homosexual desire is unnatural because it causes a man to abandon the natural sexual compliment God has ordained for him — a woman."
In another posting Jan. 16, Homeanon responded to a pedophile who opined that a man who has sexual urges for children should confront his temptations. "I do not think an alcoholic should hang out in a bar, a boylover probably should not take on a Boy Scout troop without examining his true motives," Homeanon wrote.
Charging papers state that the first pornographic photos of some of the six foster children in Young's care — clearly showing a sex act — were posted to the Internet by Young under another identity, "fosterdad," on Sept. 10, 2003, more than two months before he posted his missive on the Christian forum.
On Sept. 16, 2003, Homeanon appeared in another newsgroup that caters to pedophiles. A few days later, he wondered in that newsgroup "how safe is this. to post or not to post. That is my dilema. Much to lose."
About every six weeks, Homeanon posted a series of photographs, some with a theme and many of sex acts between men and boys, or other degrading acts involving children.
In several of the postings, Homeanon wrote that he hadn't taken the pictures. "Please note that I have only posted these Beautiful pictures and that I DO NOT know these boys," he wrote Dec. 2, 2003.
The charges against Young state that police have recovered the camera that took the photographs and have identified Young and some of the foster children in the photographs. Homeanon's appearance in one group created quite a stir. While many of its members urged him to keep posting new photographs, a few took offense at some of the more graphic photographs.
In a posting in February, one group member complained about a photograph that appeared sadistic. "I posted that pic," responded Homeanon, who added that the "photographer would NEVER hurt this boy."
Voce, the Tacoma detective, said Young "may be telling the truth" about a longtime battle with sexual urges. Homeanon and the photographs appeared late last summer, Voce said. Young, he said, found solace in the pedophile newsgroups. "It's common that people like this will seek validation. And what better place to find it than among those with similar likes and dislikes?" he said.
Richard Packard, the president of the Washington state chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, reviewed some of Homeanon's writings. He said the use of religious language shows an attempt to create a moral justification for behavior Young knew to be wrong. "To me, it's indicative that there is a struggle and an awareness of the wrongfulness. His use of the term 'boylover' is a frequently used term among homosexual pedophiles to pasteurize their behavior, to turn it into something that's kinda nice," he said.
Efforts to treat offenders rise or fall on their willingness to abandon the religious moralization, Packard said.
DSHS spokeswoman Kathy Spears said the agency would not comment on Young's case or release records until the conclusion of police and DSHS investigations, which could take several weeks. Spears said DSHS does not have the manpower to monitor Internet activity in its 6,300 licensed foster homes.
Meanwhile, records show that Ronald Young's stepfather was involved in a child-molestation case in 1989. Harold Young pleaded guilty to two counts of child rape in Skagit County Superior Court and was sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison.
Police and prosecutors said Harold Young raped his two step-granddaughters (the children of Ronald Young's older sister) between January 1988 and January 1989, when the girls were 11 and 7 years old. At the time, Harold Young and his wife were managing the Skagit Valley Mobile Manor, a mobile-home park.
"He used his status as a grandfather and then scared my daughters with his threats if they told me or anyone else," the girls' mother wrote in a statement filed with the Skagit County prosecuting attorney in December 1989. "It has left a lasting effect on me and both my daughters. They will have to grow up with this haunting them, and I feel it will keep them from leading a normal adult life when it comes to marriage and children."
Roy Jamison, who has lived at the Mount Vernon mobile-home park for 17 years, said that he knew the Youngs and that Ronald took over as manager at the park for a couple of years after Harold was arrested.
Ronald Young's mother, who lives in Alabama, said her husband's case has "nothing to do with Ronald."
Seattle Times staff reporter Christine Willmsen contributed to this report. Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com
Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20040331&slug=foster31m
Child-Sex Case Jolts Family, Small Community
3/27/04. The Seattle Times
Tacoma - Ronald Harold Young, the Pierce County foster parent charged yesterday with 44 crimes of child pornography and rape involving six boys in his care, gave his family the impression that taking in broken children was his personal "ministry."
Young, 41, became "super-religious" about two years ago, said his 25-year-old niece, who only gave her first name as Bev. She said Young presented himself as "a good, God-fearing Christian of all things, super foster dad."
For most of his adult life, he told family members he was an atheist, said a woman who identified herself only as Young's sister and Bev's mother. One day, she said, "he started wearing a cross and preaching." Neither Young's sister nor his niece knew what caused the transformation. About that time, in July 2002, Young and his wife received a license to become foster parents.
Young said little yesterday before pleading not guilty in Pierce County Superior Court to child rape, molestation and sexual exploitation of a minor. He is being held on $2 million bail in the Pierce County Jail.
In charging papers, Pierce County prosecutors said that by September 2003, Young was engaging in sexual acts with the six boys, ages 5 to 7, taking hundreds of digital pictures and sending them all over the world via the Internet.
In fact, tips that sparked the investigation came from Europe and the United States. Investigators overseas found child pornography originating from the Tacoma area under the e-mail address fosterdad@hotmail.com. The e-mail address was connected to Young, who was arrested about 7:15 a.m. Thursday.
Young has had at least five other foster children who no longer lived at his home, and detectives are talking to them about whether they were victimized. Prosecutors said Young has contacted foster children after they've left his care.
The attorneys believe the boys, who lived with Young from December 2002 until three weeks ago, were molested. Young has no known criminal history. Pierce County sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer said investigators last night were trying to determine if Young previously went by a different name and had been charged or convicted of a sex crime under that name.
Young spent at least the past five years in Home, a sleepy community in northwest Pierce County in the middle of the Key Peninsula. Neighbors said Young raised two of his own boys. One is in the Air Force, and the other still lives in the area. Jane Coby, a cashier at the Home Country Store, recalled that Young came by about once a day to buy cereal and milk.
Young used to be a contractor, but recently, he was a full-time foster parent who did odd jobs. State officials say foster families are paid $366.31 to $514.95 per month for a child whose needs are average.
Linell Warnes, another cashier at the Home Country Store, said Young was "very nice, very quiet, very well-mannered. He was always correcting (his boys) firmly: 'No, you can only get one thing.' 'No, you don't behave like that.' "
Unrest in Home, court
But few people in Home had sympathy for Young yesterday. Many wished him harm or said he should die. Young's sister said his family "is not standing by him." "I don't want none of it, he's a sick bastard," she said. "What we have to say is he's very sick and we don't condone it." Young's niece, Bev, was so upset after the court hearing yesterday that she charged at Young's wife in the crowded hallway. Bev, who was restrained by her mother, accused Young's wife of wrongly supporting him.
retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Young_Ronald_483770550.aspx
The Stranger
03/31/04. David Schmader. Index Newspapers, The Stranger (weekly column).
Speaking of sex crimes and cyberspace: Today brought some fascinating background to the case of Ronald Young, the 41-year-old Key Peninsula foster father charged last week with 30 counts of first-degree child rape, eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, and six counts of first-degree child molestation.
Today the Seattle Times reported on the spooky postings left by Ronald Young over the years on the Internet. Tacoma police have confirmed that Young used the name "Homeanon" to write of his battle with his sexual urges for children and to post photographs of sex acts between men and boys. According to the Times, Young's anguished testimonials took place primarily in newsgroups catering to Christian pedophiles, with "Homeanon" (detectives believe the pseudonym refers to Young's residence in Home, WA, and his desire to remain anonymous) detailing his "minute by minute" struggle with his urges, and characterizing himself as a "boylover that has devoted my life to boys and introducing the love of Christ to them." More disturbingly, "Homeanon" also posted dozens of pornographic photographs, many featuring Young's foster children, sometimes in settings so graphic they reportedly offended other pedophiles in the newsgroup.
Ronald Young remains in a Tacoma jail pending $2 million bail.
Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=17762
Child Abuse Tips Gain Priority for Tacoma and Seattle Police
07/10/08. Stacey Mulick. TheNewsTribune.com
Tacoma and Seattle police have started making changes in how they handle Internet child abuse tips after issues with their policies surfaced in a lawsuit involving eight boys whose foster father sexually abused and photographed them.
Allegations about how the departments handled the abuse tip were part of the lawsuit, whose $11 million settlement was announced Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Tacoma City Council approved payment of its portion of the settlement – $7.6 million.
Basically, the departments are strengthening their processes for tracking the tips they receive so they’re quickly reviewed and passed on to the appropriate agencies. Among the changes:
• Tacoma police now have a written policy on how tips on Internet child sex crimes are received, logged and assigned to a detective.
• Seattle police have a more efficient way to track when they send tips to other police agencies.
“We are very saddened for the victims and disappointed about our performance in this case and have taken every measure to avoid this from happening again,” Tacoma Police Chief Don Ramsdell said Wednesday. Tacoma police also are conducting an internal investigation of how detective Richard Voce handled the case, which was not begun for at least two months or as many as five after the department received the abuse tip.
Voce, a member of the computer crimes unit, remains on duty. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but in 2004 he told The News Tribune that his heavy caseload prevented him from investigating the tip sooner.It’s a “systemwide issue, and there are a lot of moving parts to it,” Ramsdell said. “It’s very complicated, and these cases are very complex.”
Photos Posted on the Internet
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of eight boys sexually abused and photographed in 2003 and 2004 by their foster father, Ronald Young, in his Key Peninsula home. Hundreds of photos were posted on the Internet. Young later was convicted and sentenced in the case.
In the lawsuit, attorneys for the boys, who were between 5 and 12 at the time, alleged Seattle and Tacoma police officers failed to follow state law by not reporting the suspected abuse to the state Department of Social and Health Services.
The suit also claimed that Tacoma police failed to act quickly on the tip. As the case sat untouched, the boys continued to be abused. Tacoma police “did act on it but did it very, very slowly,” said Jack Connelly, an attorney for the boys. “The problem with this case is everyone sat on it and nobody was acting very quickly.”
In addition to the $7.6 million Tacoma has agreed to pay to settle the suit, the City of Seattle will pay $1.9 million and the state $1.5 million. The state has paid $500,000 on behalf of Young’s wife, Wendy, who was accused of negligence for failing to be a proper foster parent.
A judge still must approve the settlement; no hearing has been scheduled.
Police Notified in 2003
The case began in September 2003 after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found sexually explicit photos that had been uploaded on the Internet by someone with a computer in the Tacoma area. The center told the Seattle Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that the person who posted the photos used the names “fosterdad” and “homeanon.”
At the time, the Seattle task force was the clearinghouse for such tips in Alaska and Washington. The nine-member task force, created in 2001, passed tips to the appropriate law enforcement agencies for further investigation. In the Young case, Seattle police contended they sent the tip to Tacoma police in September 2003. Tacoma police said they received it in December 2003. No records confirm when it was sent and received.
Voce, who is assigned to a joint computer crimes unit with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, didn’t start investigating the tip until February 2004, after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children contacted Tacoma police directly.
Investigators obtained search warrants and arrested Young, a state-licensed foster parent, in late March. The boys were removed from his home. Young later pleaded guilty to eight crimes related to the case. He was sentenced in April 2005 to 26 years in prison.
A lawsuit against the state on behalf of the victims was filed in 2005. Seattle and Tacoma were added in December 2006.
Policies Reviewed
After Tacoma was added to the lawsuit, the Police Department hired outside consultants to review its policies for handling the Internet crime tips and to make recommendations. “We didn’t have a clean process” for handling the tips, Ramsdell said Wednesday.
In March, Tacoma police commanders met with the consultants and, based on their input, put a new written policy in place. Under it:
• Internet tips are routed through a supervisor, who logs them, reviews them and assigns them to a detective.
• The supervisor also monitors the progress of the investigation.
• Both the detective and supervisor are responsible for alerting state social workers to possible child abuse allegations.
“We do that to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks and to ensure that these are the done way they should be,” Ramsdell said.
The Seattle Police Department and its Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force also has made changes. The task force now is a six-member team of Seattle police officers responsible for taking the tips and doling them out to agencies in Washington only. It now forwards tips using certified mail. “Our record keeping wasn’t what it should have been,” Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has developed software that tracks tips as they are forwarded to law enforcement agencies for investigation. Seattle police also plan to talk with the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about whether any other steps need to be taken. They also will be meeting with state Department of Social and Health Services officials to “see if there are better ways for the agencies to communicate,” Whitcomb said.
Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268. blogs.thenewstribune.com/crime
Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://www.thenewstribune.com/331/v-lite/story/409021.html
Tacoma, Seattle Settle Foster Father Abuse Lawsuit
Tacoma -The cities of Tacoma and Seattle have agreed to settle a lawsuit over the sexual abuse of eight children in foster care for a total of $10.5 million. The cities were added as defendants to a lawsuit filed in 2005 in Pierce County Superior Court against the state Department of Social and Health Services.
The state agency was accused of failing to adequately screen Ronald Young before licensing him as a foster father and then of failing to properly monitor children in his custody. Young pleaded guilty in 2004 to multiple counts of child rape and sexual exploitation of a minor and was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison.
The Tacoma City Council on Tuesday approved a $7.6 million payment to settle the lawsuit. The remaining $2.9 million would come from Seattle. The settlement is subject to approval by a judge. Tacoma is paying the larger share because it had the greater exposure, City Attorney Elizabeth Pauli told The News Tribune newspaper.
Young's wife, Wendy Young, was added as a defendant at the same time as Tacoma and Seattle, and a $500,000 settlement in her case was reached in February, court records show. Wendy Young was accused of negligence for failing to provide proper foster parenting but not of participating in sexual abuse.
The state licensed the Youngs as foster caregivers in July 2002. They cared for 11 children until Ronald Young's arrest, and sheriff's officials said Young abused at least eight of the boys. At the time of his arrest, Young was staying home with the children while his wife worked as a baker in a grocery store.
Prosecutors said Young posted pornographic pictures of his foster children, ages 5 to 12, on the Internet. The photos were traced to Washington state in September 2003 by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which notified Seattle police, Tacoma lawyer Jack Connelly said.
Investigators in Seattle were legally obligated to notify state Child Protective Services within 24 hours, Connelly said in 2006, but instead sent the information to police in Tacoma after determining that Young was from Pierce County .
Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson said a police officer on duty at the time the information was received "failed to recognize the serious nature" of it, so the case was not immediately investigated. More than five months later, in early March 2004, Tacoma started a criminal investigation and Young was arrested on March 25, 2004. Anderson said Tacoma has improved its process for handling reports of sexual abuse, but a detailed investigation is continuing. "The lesson we have to learn is that we always have to be vigilant about children, and this underscores it," he said.
Information from: The News Tribune, http://www.thenewstribune.com
Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008041776_apwafostercareabuse1stldwritethru.html
Seattle Settles Foster Care Abuse Lawsuit
07/10/08. Associated Press
Tacoma – The cities of Tacoma and Seattle have agreed to settle a lawsuit over the sexual abuse of eight children in foster care for a total of $10.5 million.
The cities were added as defendants to a lawsuit filed in 2005 in Pierce County Superior Court against the state Department of Social and Health Services. The state agency was accused of failing to adequately screen Ronald Young before licensing him as a foster father and then of failing to properly monitor children in his custody.
Young pleaded guilty in 2004 to multiple counts of child rape and sexual exploitation of a minor and was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison.
The Tacoma City Council on Tuesday approved a $7.6 million payment to settle the lawsuit. Another $1.9 million would come from the city of Seattle and the remaining $1 million would come from the state of Washington. The settlement is subject to approval by a judge. Tacoma is paying the larger share because it had the greater exposure, City Attorney Elizabeth Pauli told the News Tribune newspaper.
Young's wife, Wendy Young, was added as a defendant at the same time as Tacoma and Seattle, and a $500,000 settlement in her case was reached in February, court records show. Wendy Young was accused of negligence for failing to provide proper foster parenting but not of participating in sexual abuse.
The state licensed the Youngs as foster caregivers in July 2002. They cared for 11 children until Ronald Young's arrest, and sheriff's officials said Young abused at least eight of the boys. At the time of his arrest, Young was staying home with the children while his wife worked as a baker in a grocery store.
Prosecutors said Young posted pornographic pictures of his foster children, ages 5 to 12, on the Internet. The photos were traced to Washington state in September 2003 by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which notified Seattle police, Tacoma lawyer Jack Connelly said.
Investigators in Seattle were legally obligated to notify state Child Protective Services within 24 hours, Connelly said in 2006, but instead sent the information to police in Tacoma after determining that Young was from Pierce County.
Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson said a police officer on duty at the time the information was received "failed to recognize the serious nature" of it, so the case was not immediately investigated.
Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://www.spokesmanreview.com/local/story.asp?ID=252307
Father of Sex-Abuse Suspect was Abuser: State had no Sure Way to Know That About Accused Child Rapist
03/30/04. Jennifer Langston and Rugh Teichroeb. Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporters.
Mount Vernon - The father of a man who now faces more than 30 counts of child rape involving foster sons in his care was himself a child rapist, according to court records.
Fifteen years ago, Harold Edgar Young pleaded guilty to second-degree child rape after two of his granddaughters accused him of sexual molestation, prompting residents of the mobile-home park he managed to draft a petition to keep him away. Court documents in the case also say Harold Young may have molested his own stepdaughters.
State child-welfare officials said yesterday that they could not discuss Harold Young's son, Ronald Harold Young, who was charged last week in Pierce County with raping his foster children. The case, they said, is under investigation. Nor would they say whether they knew about his father's conviction.
But it is clear that if child-welfare officials knew about the conviction before licensing Ronald Young as a foster parent, he, his wife or someone else close to the family would have had to tell them. The state does check the criminal background of prospective foster parents, but depends on those people to tell them about other parts of their lives that court checks wouldn't reveal. The state has no authority to delve into the criminal background of the families of prospective foster parents.
"If someone is going to be devious and deceitful, we don't have perfect safeguards," said Nancy Zahn, who oversees the licensing of foster homes and other children's facilities for the state Department of Social and Health Services.
DSHS officials said that such information as his father's conviction would not necessarily have ruled out Ronald Young as a foster parent, although it would have prompted more questions. "You can't make the assumption that the child of a sex offender will be a sex offender," Zahn said. What occurred was hardly a secret in the Young family.
The mother of the girls who Harold Young abused had little sympathy for her brother Ronald Young at his arraignment last week. He is accused of posting hundreds of pornographic images on the Internet of himself and six foster boys engaged in a range of sexual acts.
Ronald Young, a seemingly devout born-again Christian who was studying to be a minister, and his wife began caring for abused and neglected children in their rural Key Peninsula home in the summer of 2002.
The state expanded the family's license from three to six children last year. Prospective foster parents not only undergo criminal background checks but are also asked specific questions about their family histories, including whether they were abused as children and whether any relatives are sex offenders, Zahn said. "Certainly that isn't information that we'd just ignore," Zahn said.
An applicant who is related to a convicted sex offender might still be granted a foster care license on the condition that the relative not have any access to children placed in the home, Zahn said. During the screening process, prospective foster parents also provide three personal references. One of those three references can be a relative. Those references are asked about whether the applicant has any history of domestic violence or abuse. "People are usually very forthcoming if they have any concerns," said Paula Bentz, who also works in the licensing division.
DSHS can ask applicants to undergo a psychological evaluation, parenting evaluation or even a sexual-deviancy evaluation, Bentz said. An applicant who refuses can be denied a license. But there are also limits on what DSHS can uncover during the screening process. Applicants must give their permission for criminal background checks to be done, and such checks can't legally be run on relatives who don't live in the home, Zahn said. And the screening process depends to a large part on the honesty of the applicant, she said.
Identifying pedophiles is difficult, said Lucy Berliner, director of the Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress. "We're really lousy at it. We don't have a way to do it yet," Berliner said. But she hopes DSHS re-examines its screening process in light of this incident, including looking at whether relatives should routinely be interviewed.
In Harold Young's child rape case, court documents from 1989 do not mention any relationship with a son. But two of his grandchildren, ages 7 and 11, told police their grandfather would take off his clothes and molest them. The eldest grandchild said he warned her that if she ever told anyone, she wouldn't live to see her next birthday, according to court documents. The girls' mother and two aunts described similar abuse from their stepfather after he moved into their home, according to statements in the court record from the late 1980s.
In December 1989, Harold Young entered a guilty plea in Skagit County Superior Court, despite his insistence that he did nothing wrong and that he was the target of a vendetta against him. He was sentenced to 34 months in prison and was ordered to register as a sex offender.
Roy and Carolyn Jamison, who lived in the Skagit Valley Mobile Manor in Mount Vernon, were among those who signed a petition to keep Harold Young from coming back to the manufactured home park that he and his wife managed. Residents circulated the petition after Young was charged. They said Harold Young had a low tolerance for children, constantly yelling at them for riding bicycles in the street or for setting up badminton nets in their own yards.
"There were a lot of kids at the time," said Carolyn Jamison. "We didn't want him back -- after hearing that you didn't want anyone else's kids getting molested." Harold's wife and Ronald's mother said this weekend that she and her husband started a new life in Alabama seven years ago and wouldn't comment on any prior sexual abuse accusations in the family. "We're leading a new life here," she said. "It would crush (Ronald) if the whole family was dragged into the mess."
P-I reporters Jake Ellison and Jeffrey M. Barker contributed to this report. P-I reporter Jennifer Langston can be reached at 425-252-5235 or jenniferlangston@seattlepi.com
Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/166922_fosterfolo30.html
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