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?"

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1994 Olympia Kiwanis Members List
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By Bart Potter The Olympian Sept. 15, 1990
Candidates cite bench qualifications
Both candidates for Superior  Court judge cite their experience as trial lawyers as key reasons they should be elected to the nonpartisan position.

Richard D. "Cork" Hicks, 47, and W.T. "Tom" McPhee, 44, are vying for the position to which McPhee was appointed 10 weeks ago by Gov. Booth Gardner. Hicks has been a Thurston County court commissioner and juvenile court judge for six years.

"I've seen some attempt to characterize me as someone who's just done a little juvenile law and family law," Hicks said. "My experience is at least as broad and in some cases is more broad than my opponent."

"I come with a unique perspective," McPhee said. "That is, coming out of a private practice where the efficiency and quality of your work determined whether you sunk or swam."

Hicks has been a labor lawyer in a large firm, been a tax lawyer in major corporate cases on behalf of the state Attorney General, has argued in U.S. District Court and all three state appeals courts, has had a case go to the US  Supreme Court and argued several cases before the Washington Supreme Court, he said.

He defended Michael L. Pimentel in his first-degree murder trial for the shooting of The Evergreen State College student Elisa Tissot, his ex-girlfriend. Hicks lost the case when Pimentel was convicted, but the case, he said, led to the Domestic Violence Act and the Anti-Harassment Act.

Despite 15 years experience in front of judges, Hicks says his experience as a judge is even more important. "What sets me apart is you don't get this experience in 10 weeks," he said. "I know it took me somewhere between nine months and two years to really become a competent jurist, and in talking with other judges I find them making the same remarks." The Superior Court judgeship is the next logical career step, Hicks said. "It's my craft," he said. "When I left private practice to become a juvenile court judge ... I found that not only do I have the skills and experience to be a judge but it was the part of the law profession that I was drawn to."

McPhee said he has tried nearly every type of case in nearly every court level in 17 counties and the federal courts. He came to Olympia in 1969 as a trial lawyer for the then namect Department of Highways out of the Attorney General's  office. In 1973 he was selected to take over Gerry Alexander's private pragtice when Alexander became a Superior Court judge. He is running for the seat in which he currently sits, he said, "because I think I can make a difference to the community where I've lived. "I want to do that, so being a judge is one way I can accomplish something positive."

He has enjoyed his duty on the bench so far, McPhee said. "Every day is interesting and challenging," he said. "I've had this overlay of the campaign, so it's been extremely busy." The campaign, especially door-to-door campaigning, he said, has made him glad he has a race to run. "I really have met a lot of people," he said. "I think I have a much better sense of what the community expects of us than if I had not gone through the process." 

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 people were involved with an "active collaboration with evil". The OKBR staff was apparently actively involved in long-term molestation and sadistic abuse of these kids. The Kiwanians and their friends could/should have stopped the abuse.

google is the best search engine, and you can make a detailed search of just this site.

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OKBR people statements to the Wa. St. Patrol(informative, professional, evasive, amusing)
Here's a long summary of the Wa.St.Patrol O.K.B.R report
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Olympia Kiwanis Attorneys & Judges and/or Politicians.
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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

There were many obvious and long-term warnings about the 1970-94 child abusing Olympia Kiwanis Boys Ranch.