manaco@whidbey.net
The Olympia Washington Kiwanis members and their friends have cost the Washington State taxpayers over $50 million dollars (so far), because of their willful ignorance of long term, merciless and well known, child abuse that occurred at the Olympia Kiwanis Boys Ranch.
October 2006 note: This Olympia Kiwanis stuff is old news. I've left this information on the web, because I like the thought that someone will say to one of these Kiwanis friends or members: "Grandma, (Grandpa), are you still friends with those Olympia Kiwanians?"
Back to the 2011 or 2009 or 2007 or 2005 or 2003 or 2001 or 1999 or 1997 or 1995 or lbloom.net State of Washington Employees Salaries List
1994 Olympia Kiwanis Members List
2007 Thurston County employees list (pop 207,355)(1,332 employees)(includes gross & overtime wages, hire date)
2005 Thurston County employees list (pop 207,355)(1,257 employees)(includes hire date)
2002 Thurston County employees list (pop 207,355)(1,569 employees)
2002 Port Of Olympia employees list (pop 42,514)(40 employees)
2009 Oly Evergreen St Col employees list (938 employees)
Olympian Newspaper 2010 Thurston employees list
2006 Olympia School District employees list (Includes Benefits)
2002 City of Olympia employees list (pop 42,514)(685 employees)
Olympian Newspaper 2010 city of Lacy employees list
2002 City of Lacey employees list (pop 31,226)(226 employees)
2009 South Puget Sound Com Col employees list (1,001 employees)
Name search of Wash. State voters includes our addresses (and birthdays)
Name search of Wash State Court filings Traffic, Criminal, Civil, Domestic, Juvenile Offender, and Probate/Guardianship
Back to the beginning OKBR Home Page(http://lbloom.net/indexok.html)
Until Oct 1999, I believed that the Kiwanians and their friends were guilty of careless neglect or callous indifference. After hearing frightening audio depositions from some of the abused kids, I now believe that these Thur Co citizens were involved with an "active collaboration with evil." According to these depositioned kids, (which was not contradicted by Kiwanian attorney Don Miles), the OKBR staff was involved in long-term molestation and sadistic abuse of these helpless children. DSHS, Olympia, & the Kiwanians criminally ignored the warning signs and then justified their inaction by claiming ignorance. Many of these inattentive judges, lawyers, & politicians want your vote for re-election.
google is the best search engine, and you can make a detailed search of just this site.
There were many obvious and long-term warnings about the 1970-94 child abusing Olympia Kiwanis Boys Ranch.
Back to the beginning Nancy Gassett Page
STATEMENT OF NANCY GASSETT ON November 28, 1995 95-687
I am Sergeant Glenn Cramer of the Washington State Patrol, Internal Affairs Section. The date is December 3, 1995. The time is 8:30 p.m. This is a statement of dictation notes from an interview Lieutenant Dan Eikum and I conducted on November 28, 1995 at 5:30 a.m. We met with Sergeant Nancy Gassett of the OPD.
Sergeant Gassett told Lt. Eikum and I she conducted a criminal investigation concerning a rape
that occurred at the OKBR involving ----- in July of 1992. She said she went to
Jim Powers of the Thurston County Prosecutor's Office to ask for a search warrant. Gassett
thought she had probable cause based on her review of the behavior logs from the ranch. When
she contacted Powers, who told her she wanted to discuss the facts and circumstances of her
case off the record and run it by the judge first. She said she and Powers went to
Judge
McPhee. She explained what she wanted, and what her probable cause was. Powers explained
what Gassett had told her to McPhee, Judge McPhee felt a search warrant would be too
intrusive into the OKBR. He also said a search warrant, if ceased any records, would impair the
function of the ranch. Judge McPhee indicated that a subpoena would be a better tool, and
instructed Powers to write a legal memorandum. Gassett said at the time she was a fairly new
detective so she felt intimidated with the personalities involved with the ranch and the Kiwanis
She felt no one wanted to believe her once she started the investigation and uncovered the
evidence of physical and sexual abuse going on at OKBR. After talking with two of the ranch
staff members, Jeff Patinode and Kenneth Swinehart she felt the physical and sexual abuse was
prevalent. She contacted Lieutenant Clark Taylor of the OPD who was her supervisor of the
detective unit. Taylor told her it was very important that she stay focused on her case
concerning the sexual crimes she was investigating.
Gassett went on to tell Lt. Eikum and I that she had worked with George Hartwell in the past. She felt an obligation, because of what was going on at the OKBR, to make sure she notified CPS. She contacted Hartwell and gave him her entire case file. Her investigative report along with statements, and told him to be sure he kept it to himself. It was for his purpose only, being a DSHS case worker, and for his investigation. It was shortly after she'd given her investigative file to Hartwell that she received a threatening letter from Jerome Buzzard. In the letter he attacked her and her motives for investigating the physical and sexual abuse at the OKBR. By some of the quotations in his letter she got the impression he had access to her investigative file. it wasn't until later that she had talked to Ed Putman, when she discover Hartwell gave her entire investigative file to Van Woerden. She was very upset. This was a confidential report, the criminal case file was still on going, and she'd given the file to Hartwell because the law requires that reports be given to CPS.
Gassett received a call from Ken Swinehart. Swinehart said, during a staff meeting he heard direct quotes he'd given her. These quotes were put into her statement, so the only way these people could have known was to have seen her case file. She said she called Hartwell to confront him. Hartwell said he felt the OKBR had a right to the report because they were counselors, and specifically Van Woerden. Gassett said she was very upset with Hartwell and due to his frequent interaction with Van Woerden and the OKBR, she felt he had a deeply vested interest. She was surprised that Hartwell's attitude was defensive. He appeared to be in an advocate role for the OKBR. Apparently he felt he was one of their care givers. The report she gave Hartwell was given to him in an envelope marked confidential.
Gassett felt the OKBR was a big hole that money kept coming into. She didn't see any evidence of where it was being applied to the kids. She said services to the kids were non-existent, there didn't appear to be any programs for structure, and there wasn't any training for the staff. She'd also heard this from Swinehart and Pat Welter. Gassett also felt Van Woerden recruited kids with the highest cost as a way of making money.
Going back to the time period when she asked for the search warrant, we asked her if she felt there were any outside influences that may have come into play with the decision concerning the search warrant. She felt politics definitely played a role. Then she told Lt. Eikum and I that Powers did not do any moving with out conferring with the Judge. She doesn't have any evidence, but thinks the Judge may have spoken to Patrick Sutherland or Gary Tabor about what was going on. She felt Powers was more than willing to get a search warrant. In her opinion, Powers was a gentle person. However, she didn't think he'd be willing to but heads with Sutherland, thereby would graciously follow any instructions Sutherland gave. She does not know whether Sutherland gave him instructions concerning this case, although, she feels either Sutherland or Tabor contacted Judge McPhee to express their concerns about a search warrant at the OKBR.
In Gassett's deposition taken earlier by the plaintiffs attorney, on page 59 line 20, she indicates a meeting with Jeff Lane, a board member. We asked her if she knew who Jeff Lane was. She indicated she knew him as an OKBR board member of the directors, but she did not know him personally. She went on to tell us that Chief Wurner wanted the board of directors for the OKBR to know in depth the problems occurring at the ranch. She knows Chief Wurner told Lane specifically about the problems.
Gassett said she went to a meeting with Chief Wurner and the Kiwanis Board of Directors for the OKBR. She said the meeting was a very closed mouth meeting. She felt everyone was very cautious because they were afraid to ask questions. Although they were cooperative on the surface, they were afraid of being sued because of the liability. Gassett told us that the meeting with the Kiwanis Club was in July or August of 1992. She indicated there were two meetings. One at Airdustrial Complex for DSHS, and the other at the Capital 5000 building. This was a joint meeting with members of the Kwanis Club, OKBR Board of Directors, and DSHS. Gassett sensed there must of been a connection between the Kiwanis Club and DSHS that caused the OKBR to remain open. She indicated that the OPD recommended the home be closed.
Again, Gassett went back to the search warrant. She told Lt. Eikum and I that nothing like this has ever happened before. She felt there was something more going on with Powers when he had to run it by someone. Emphasizing again, she thought it was Sutherland or Tabor. She made the comment wondering if the average citizen would have been treated the same as the OKBR.
Gassett went on to tell us she felt CPS had a different agenda than law enforcement. Their emphasis was putting families back together by allowing the child to go back into the home even if it facilitated the abuse to the child. In her opinion, CPS did not protect the children. We asked her if there were case workers she could identify who had this type of attitude--not protecting the children. She named Randy Hart, Sandy Hart, and George Hartwell. She said she knew of instances where they had gone to great lengths to get a brutalized child back into the home where they were unprotected.
Gassett said she knew Miriam Madison, and in her opinion, Madison did not know what was going on with the laws. She characterized Madison as a weak supervisor who had no idea about the problem at the OKBR. Gassett did not know Steve Ennett or Eric Bailey. Gassett told us Mark Redal and Jim O'Neill wanted information about what was going on at the ranch and were eager to find out. She thought Redal was eager to find out because his boss, who's office is in Seattle, wanted to know.
Gassett said that sometime in September of 1992, during the time she was promoted, Chief Wurner and Reiko Callner went to Sutherland and recommended that charges be filed. She indicated that Sergeant Noble continued the case because it hadn't closed. Sergeant Noble did the follow-up investigation because she felt there was probable cause for an arrest. The main focus was on the rape occurring at the OKBR.
She indicated she knew of a letter that Putman had written. She could not remember who it was that told her, but it may have been Putman himself. This was a big deal for DSHS because this letter went above Redal into the DSHS administration.
Gassett felt the efforts of the OPD and herself to close the boys ranch was a loosing battle. In July of 1992 a stop placement order was put into effect by someone at DSHS. The OKBR not only stayed open, but they started placing children there six months later. Gassett didn't feel there had been any improvements. She went on to tell us, after the ranch finally closed, it changed management. The Director, Charles Shelan, is just as politically connected as Van Woerden. The OKBR, now called "Our House" is still having some of the same problems.
She said Chief Wurner did not get along with the people at the OKBR. She believed in order to solve the problems at the OKBR it needed to be completely revamped without any connections to the Kiwanis. That's when she said Charles Shelan is still connected to the Kiwanis, and feels this is a problem.
Gassett went on to tell us she knew of a canoe incident involving ----- and ------- where an act of oral sex was committed. She indicated there was documentation reference
to sexual abuse in the behavior log. She noticed a picture with --------'s arm around
------- on the bulletin board at Our House. The next time she was out visiting she noticed the picture had been removed. Gassett said the canoe incident was investigated by George Hartwell. It was never reported to the police department, and in Hartwell's report the allegations were unfounded. She said Hartwell's attitude towards the sexual activity was "boys will be boys." She felt this sexual experimentation by the boys was not normal. She'd heard this same language from staff members at the OKBR. Gassett thinks the sexual behavior was a condoned philosophy with DSHS, CPS, and the OKBR.
Gassett went on to tell Lt. Eikum and I that some of the boys from the ranch should have been institutionalized. And the developmentally disabled boys never should have been there. She felt there was a problem at the boys ranch, but Hartwell investigated complaints when one boy sexually abused another boy and he left them together.
She told us the letter from Buzzard intimidated her and steered her away from being more assertive towards the incidents at the OKBR.
Gassett said CPS was very guarded in their follow-up on the occurrences at the OKBR. After confronting Hartwell on the phone about releasing her investigative report to Van Woerden, Hartwell told Gassett he felt she was on a "witch hunt." She felt Hartwell was protective of the OKBR because her actions in this investigation were infringing on the rights of the ranch to provide services. She said the Kiwanis Club was very politically powerful, and many of the members of the Kiwanis had an impact on each other and the businesses in Olympia. Ken Swinehart told her that he was intimidated by Van Woerden's political connections with the Kiwanis. Swinehart felt if he ever got on the wrong side of Van Woerden he'd use his political power to black ball him out of employment anywhere in Olympia.
Gassett went on to tell us she was familiar with the -------- case. She indicated Randy Hart was the case worker and his lack of professionalism created a dangerous situation. He would put children back in homes with an abusive parent.
In conclusion, Gassett felt CPS' philosophy was family reconciliation and not the philosophy of providing a safe environment for children. She felt that by the time the child was released they were so severely damaged they were beyond treatment. She feels there must be something done with the philosophies and actions of DSHS to make it easier to get a child into a safe environment. Gassett thinks parents who have their children removed by DSHS should be required to go through more stringent requirements to get their children back. She also told us another problem with DSHS. There wasn't any follow-up when children were placed back with abusive parents.
Below is an e-mail I received from a former Olympia, Washington resident.
From: ~~~~~~~~@aol.com
From: louis a bloom manaco@whidbey.net
To: Louis Bloom manaco@whidbey.net
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 1999 11:34 AM
Subject: OKBR
Just came across your pages and felt the urge to respond... In the early
80's (81-83) I was at the OKBR frequently as a young kid walking to/from
school, I became friends with some of the boys. At one point a small boy
confided to
me that he was being raped by another boy in the home. The abusing boy
talked about it openly!
Days later I walked the victim to OPD where we both gave statements. Later that evening I began to receive these incredibly
threatening phone calls from a woman employee of the ranch who's name I
believe was Paulette at my home. She kept calling over and over screaming at
me calling me names. It was horrible. I thought I was helping someone.
Nothing came of it. Then all these years later, it all comes out ... one of
the boys that I had known there left as a young adult and still couldn't get
it together, he eventually killed himself. As an adult now I don't often
think back to those times but it still saddens me. All those boys that
needed a safe nurturing place to be, and how many of them were better off
for having been taken there? It's not about money. It cost these boys their
lives, their souls, their trust. Those people who knew, who didn't care,
they should feel such shame. Just my opinion.
To: ~~~~~~~@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 1999 7:30 PM
Subject: Re: OKBR
thanks for your e-mail. from what i've read, dshs, the olympia police department, and other "authorities"
didn't consider child on child rape to be against the law. it was considered
"normal experimentation". The "paulette" you mention, may have been
Collette Queener who was an assistant director at the OKBR. Collette, OKBR
Director Tom Van Woerdan, and OKBR counselor Laura Rambo Russell were
ineptly charged by Wa. St. with "criminal mistreatment for failing to stop abuse". The
charges were dismissed by Thurston County Judge Daniel Berschauer on technicalities. The lawyer who
represented Collette Queener said, (Nov. 14, 1996 Olympian), that it was a
"witch hunt", and that " a more innocent person (than Queener) you could not
have for a client. She's an ex-nun ..... I don't see how you could view her
in an evil or negative light."
I congratulate you for doing the right thing, when all those adults looked
the other way. I repeat on most pages that the " OKBR has cost the
Washington State taxpayers over $35 million dollars (so far)", because I
think most people
don't care about the kids involved, but they may care that it has cost them
(taxpayers) money.
louis bloom