Jim Powers, OKBR Statement to the Wash. ST. Patrol

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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  STATEMENT     MR. JIM-POWERS November 16, 1995,     95-687
    I am Sergeant Glenn Cramer of the Washington State Patrol, Internal Affairs Section. The date is Thursday,  November 19,1995. The time is approximately 2:00 p.m. The following notes are dictated from an interview that Lieutenant Dan Eikum and I conducted November 16, by contacting Mr. Jim Powers, a Thurston County Deputy Prosecutor, at his office.
The purpose for contacting him was in regards to his appearance representing the Olympia Police Department and Detective Nancy Gassett on July 28, 1992. His representation was due to a request for a subpoena duces tecum concerning an investigation she was conducting at the OK Boys Ranch. Powers made an application for the  subpoena duces tecum to Judge McPhee. When he made the application for the subpoena, Powers said McPhee paused then commented "oh this is the Kiwanis." McPhee instructed Powers to write a legal memorandum on the legal authority he had, meaning McPhee to grant a subpoena. Powers said he composed the memorandum. He then went on to tell us Jerome Buzzard, who was over bearing, represented the boys ranch. As Buzzard came on  strong, Powers got the impression he was trying to hide something. In his words, Buzzard used some back-handed pressure on the Olympia P. D. regarding Nancy Gassett's involvement with the OK Boys Ranch investigation.
Lieutenant Eikum asked Powers if he had been contacted by the Thurston County Prosecutor, Pat Sutherland, about anything concerning the subpoena or the case. Powers said he did not have any conversation with Sutherland or anyone in the prosecutor's office about this case. However, in his case file at his desk he showed us a letter (that we'd already seen) from Jerome Buzzard to Patrick Sutherland concerning a possible subpoena or search warrant the Olympia P. D. may be requesting. Also in the case file Powers showed us, which we read prior to meeting with him,  was a letter from  Buzzard to Nancy Gassett. Powers' impression of this letter was again that Buzzard was putting some back-handed pressure on the Olympia P. D. as well as threatening Gasseft concerning the investigation. Powers went on to tell us he felt Van Woerden hit all the buttons to put pressure on Gassett through the Kiwanis board. Not having anything of substance to put on it, he said this was more of a prediction. Powers told us the subpoena was just for records and when they received the records there weren't as many as he suspected.
    Powers was contacted by Nancy Gassett. She gave him information, and said she felt there was a pattern of physical and sexual abuse going on at the OK Boys Ranch for quite some time. Gassett was investigating a sexual assault by -----and the subpoena was a tool to have the boys ranch provide records. She also mentioned she had, through a mistake of the boys ranch, seen behavior logs indicating there was physical and sexual abuse going on.
When Lieutenant Eikum asked Powers if he felt he had enough probable cause to get a search warrant I noticed Powers appeared to be very anxious. His answer "I don't think she had enough" was a little evasive. We went further into the questioning about the search warrant  by asking " wouldn't it have been better to have obtained a search warrant if they had probable cause."  We also mentioned that with the behavioral logs indicating physical and sexual abuse going on " wouldn't it have been better to have applied for an affidavit of search warrant to go to the ranch and obtain the records rather then allow Van Woerden and Buzzard to provide records to Nancy Gassett." Again Powers was very anxious and evasive. As the conversation went on with Powers about the difference between obtaining the search warrant and the subpoena he still seemed to be anxious yet cooperative. However, his memory at that time was unable to recall the exact details on what Gassett had communicated to him.
While he was involved in the motion hearing of July 1992, he told me he wasn't aware of any connection with the Kiwanis; it wasn't until McPhee made a big deal about this motion or application for subpoena that Powers knew anything was going with the Kiwanis.
    We concluded the interview with Powers by asking him what portion of the motion documentation would Buzzard have asked to be sealed. He was not sure of what documentation had been sealed and seemed to be surprised that  any part of the motion documents had been. This concludes the conversation with Jim Powers.

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.

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OKBR people statements to the Wa. St. Patrol(informative, professional, evasive, amusing)
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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.

  • DSHS knew since at least 1977.
  • The OKBR staff certainly knew.
  • The abused kids told staff, schools, counselors, police, caseworkers, therapists, ect.., about their abuse at the OKBR, but nobody investigated.
  • Olympia Police Chief Wurner came to an Olympia Kiwanis meeting in 1986 and told the Kiwanis about the troubles at the OKBR. Chief Wurner was ignored. Maybe he should have done more, but he probably wanted to keep his job.
  • It was well know by the Thurston County courts. These kids were constantly in and out of the Thurston County legal system.
  • The OKBR was written about in the Kiwanis Komments newsletters, and the Kiwanis Board Ranch minutes.
  • All the OKBR Board Members had a legal oversight of the OKBR.
  • Were all Olympia Kiwanis Attorneys & Judges and/or Politicians uninformed?
  • It's amazing how blissfully ignorant some people were about the OKBR. You can read about their guiltlessness in some of their Washington State Patrol and Office of Special Investigation statements.
  • Here's Wa St Patrol Olympia Kiwanis member lists of 1987, 1990, 1994
  • Here is a 49 page index of 5,223 pages of documents that the WSP collected about the OKBR. Anybody can order any of those public documents by following the instructions on that page.
  • The OKBR sent kids for weekend visits to child abusers who donated land to the Kiwanis. The Kiwanians sold the land in 1993 for $125,000.
  • Can the Olympian Newspaper claim ignorance?
    manaco@whidbey.net