Caseworker George Hartwell says he was made a scapegoat for abuse at the home. By Mindy Chambers The Olympian Aug. 8, 1997
The only state employee fired in connection with the Olympia Kiwanis Boys Ranch scandal has been reinstated by the state Personnel Appeals Board. Even if the Department of Social and Health Services appeals  the ruling to the courts, George Hartwell will get his job back pending the outcome of any appeal.

"I'm elated," said Hartwell, a caseworker whose clients included boys who lived at the now-closed Olympia group home for juvenile delinquent boys. Hartwell says he was made a scapegoat by a department desperately seeking someone to blame for the events at the ranch.

The home, operated by the Olympia Kiwanis Club under contract with DSHS, was closed in 1994 after years of investigations into charges that older residents sexually abused younger ones. Although, no one has been successfully prosecuted for events at the ranch, several of its former residents have been awarded more than $16 million in settlements from the state and insurers for the ranch and the Kiwanis Club.

When they fired him just under a year ago, DSHS officials said Hartwell gave a 1992 Olympia Police Department report to ranch officials that helped them defend themselves against charges of wrongdoing. Hartwell denied seeing the report, and the Personnel Appeals Board concurred. The board also found no basis for DSHS' contention that Hartwell lied when questioned by the Washington State Patrol during its 1995 investigation into the ranch. After that probe and one by the state Attorney General's Office began, the state House of Representatives appointed a special committee to examine what had happened. Hartwell said Thursday that DSHS was feeling legislative pressure to blame someone for what happened at the ranch, and he was the one. When he was fired,  Hartwell was making just under $40,000 a year. He will get back pay and benefits when he returns to work.

Rosie Oreskovich, assistant secretary for DSHS' Children's Services Administration, said the department will reinstate Hartwell, but that it still believes its actions were correct, based on information from the patrol and its own investigation. Now, she said, the Attorney General's Office will review the case and see if there are any grounds, for appeal.

Below is an e-mail I received from a former Olympia, Washington resident.

From: ~~~~~~~~@aol.com
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.

From: louis a bloom manaco@whidbey.net
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

manaco@whidbey.net