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.
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STATEMENT GARY TABOR December 27, 1995 95-687
I am Sergeant Glenn Cramer of the Washington State Patrol, Internal Affairs Section. The date is December 28, 1995. The time is 11:50 p.m. This is a statement of dictation notes from an interview Lieutenant Dan Eikum and I conducted on December 27, 1995 at 1:30 p. m. We met with Gary Tabor who is an Assistant Attorney Prosecutor for Thurston County.
Tabor indicated that in either September or October of 1992, Thurston County Prosecutor, Pat Sutherland, asked him to review a case that the Olympia Police Department had prepared concerning the OKBR staff and their failure to report physical and sexual abuse. He felt Sutherland appointed him because he was second in command at the Thurston County Prosecutor's Office and because the case was politically sensitive. Tabor then corrected himself saying that maybe news worthy was a better word. He went on to elaborate saying that news worthy meant that it was common knowledge about the feud going on between the OKBR and the Olympia Police Department. Sutherland did not want to alienate the Olympia Police Department so he asked Tabor to review the case. He indicated that in October of 1992, he and Sutherland met with Chief John Wurner of the Olympia Police Department and Reiko Callner. He referred to Callner as Reiko Cushman. He prefaced his coment that he had a different recollection of what had occurred at that meeting and said he has talked to Reiko about this. According to his recollection of the meeting, he and Sutherland asked Reiko because she had such knowledge of the case, if she would prosecute it for their office. He said Reiko replied that she was too busy.
It was shortly after that meeting when he drafted a memo. We showed him the memo dated October 2, 1995, outlining guidelines he wanted the Olympia Police Department to do involving this investigation. Also not too long after that meeting, Pat Sutherland, who was a member of the Kiwanis Club, arranged a meeting with Tabor and members of the board of directors for he OKBR. He remembered a woman by the name of Jane Skinner and a man by the name of Bob Van Schoorl. He thought Don Ernst may have been at the meeting too. During the meeting they asked Tabor about obtaining a copy of the case report the Olympia Police Department had filed. He told them they would have to get the permission of the suspect Tom Van Woerden before the Prosecutor's Office would release it. Tabor sighted his authority to release the reports under RCW 10.97 which states that police reports can be released by the Prosecutor's Office to the victims. He said shortly after that meeting he received a call from Van Woerden indicating he had his permission to release the Olympia Police Department reports to the board of directors. Tabor indicated that it was his responsibility to copy the reports and make sure they got to the board of directors. He thought he gave them to Pat Sutherland and he knows that Bob Van Schoorl received the reports. He was fairly certain that Sutherland was the one who gave the report to Van Schoorl. Tabor told us that he had talked to Van Schoorl, who was the president of the Kiwanis Club at the time, prior to this meeting. Apparently Sutherland had talked to Van Schoorl about the investigation and told him that he should find out what was going on. He also suggested that Van Schoorl get the police reports. Sutherland was concerned about the management at the OKBR and felt that the board of directors needed to know what was going on. Sutherland had told Tabor that the Kiwanis Club was a separate entity from the board of directors and the OKBR. He also told Tabor that he thought Van Woerden had been a wonderful administrator of the OKBR in the early years. However, in the recent years he felt that Van Woerden had "fallen a sleep on his watch."
Tabor said after he'd reviewed the case and there was an agreement to have Van Woerden removed, he thought they had won a victory at the Prosecutor's Office. After all, that was there main goal because they felt he was a poor administrator. Tabor said prior to releasing the report he had not received permission from Collette Queener or Laura Rambo. He admitted that Queener and Rambo were suspects in the case as well as Van Woerden. We asked him when the board of directors inquired about getting a copy of the Olympia Police Department report, if they had thought about referring the board of directors to the Olympia Police Department and have them release it. He said what normally happens in that case the Olympia Police Department would refer it back to them saying it was up to the prosecutor to release it.
Tabor said that he wrote the decline letter on February 24,1993. He thought he had received I a call from Jean Soliz approximately two weeks prior to that , but he wasn't positive. He said the name Jean Soliz did not mean much to him at the time. However, he thought she was the one who talked to him about the corrective action that DSHS had taken concerning the OKBR, and also that they had an agreement about Van Woerden stepping down. Tabor told Soliz that he also had negotiated this agreement with Jerome Buzzard, Van Woerden's defense attorney.
Tabor went on to tell us again that it was his responsibility to copy the police report that ultimately went to the board of directors. He also thought that he had made another copy for Buzzard. We asked him if it was a normal practice to release a report while there was an ongoing investigation. He said he had done this many times before. He's done this particularly in vehicular homicide cases where he's released a report prior to a charging decision or prior to going to trial if he feels releasing the report will not jeopardize his criminal case.
Tabor went on to tell us that when he'd made the decision for the declining, he felt there was probable cause, however he felt the win ability of the case was slim. He did not envision Collette Queener becoming the director of the boys ranch. When he heard she had become the director, he was sorry to hear they had chosen her. He assumed that the board of the.directors, after reviewing the report, would have recognized that she was a potential suspect and would have taken that into account prior to making any decision about moving her to to this position. Tabor told us that when he met with Wurner, Wurner thought the OKBR should not be closed down, but they needed to be more cooperative and possibly a change in management. Wurner had communicated to them that the Olympia Police Department had lost confidence in the management of the OKBR.
Going back to Van Woerden giving permission, we asked Tabor if prior to releasing the report if he ever consulted or discussed the matter with the Olympia Police Department. He said he was not sure, but he thought he probably discussed it with Daryl Noble because he had discussed several items of the case with him. We asked Tabor about the letter that was written to the Attorney General's Office to Christine Gregoire by Pat Sutherland in 1994. He said he wrote that letter in the name of Sutherland. He feels there has been undo criticism by people, particularly the news papers.
He felt that the news papers were getting their information from Richard Kelly who is representing the boys about their previous involvement with the case in 1992 which Olympia Police Department investigated. Tabor said there was nothing they could do or say to stand up to the criticism where anybody would believe they did not have a conflict of interest. That's when they decided to write this letter to the AG's Office and ask if they would prosecute any case, and also that they review their 1992 case to see if they had done their job.
We went back to the meeting that Tabor and Sutherland had with Wurner and Reiko Cullner. We asked him if he had any recollection of a discussion regarding a conflict of interest. He said they did not discuss that, however he does admit that his version, the Chiefs version, and Cullner's version of the meeting differ. We asked him when he reviewed the case from the Olympia Police Department, if there was any consideration of asking for a search warrant rather than a subpoena duces tecum. He said no because many times when they just wanting documents that a subpoena duces tecurn is the tool to use. He admitted there was a balking of Buzzard as far as providing documentation. He said later on he did provide a search warrant to OSI investigators, but that was more on a health hazard. He indicated that normally a search warrant is sought when evidence may be destroyed. Gassett simply wanted documents and Powers assisted her in attaining them. Tabor said the information Gassett was seeking was particularly about two boys who were going to be handled in the juvenile court. Tabor indicated that Pat Sutherland was not a trial attorney, and many times when it came to criminal cases where there were press releases Tabor would write word for word what Sutherland was to say. Then he told us that he'd hope that Sutherland wouldn't deviate from that.
We asked Tabor if there was any thought by his office or any discussion with Sutherland to let the police department investigation run its course. After a decision had been made on whether to charge Van Woerden, Queener, and Rambo, then release the report to the board of directors. He said they never thought of that. He said Sutherland gave him a little bit of history on the Kiwanis and the OKBR when he said the two entities were separate. He said the Kiwanis had lent the name to the boys ranch. Tabor also emphasized that Sutherland thought that giving the Olympia Police Department report to the board of directors they would be able to see how bad things were and that a change in management needed to be made at the OKBR.
We asked Tabor what was different in the present case in which the AG's Office charged Van Woerden, Queener and Rambo (A.K.A. Russell), compared to the information he had when he reviewed their case in 1992. He said he only had information from reading the news papers and that he saw the charging document the AG wrote. After reading the paper he came to the conclusion that he didn't have the history of the others who were injurious in 1992 and was not aware there were other instances of sexual abuse. When he made his decision not to charge Van Woerden and negotiated that he just step down, he didn't realized at that time that DSHS had negotiated the release of Van Woerden. He also indicated that he was not aware of DSHS's lack of corrective action. He knew instances of consensual sex between boys who were the same age and not more than four years older had been reported, but he felt this was not a crime although it was inappropriate. It established a pattern or a history of sexual abuse or permissiveness of sexual behavior which would have been helpful for him in making a decision. He also indicated that one of the issues being a deterrent to the case was a systemic issue about a conversation that one of the staff members at the OKBR had with a DSHS employee (Madison) about the sex going on. He said the DSHS person concluded that it was consensual sex. Again, he said it was not a crime, but DSHS should have done something. They should have been monitoring the situation more. He later learned that the situation at the OKBR as far as the boys having sex, they attempted to have more monitoring by having someone upstairs during the sleeping hours and they eliminated sleep overs.
He said after he made the decision to decline charges against the three, he later heard the more trouble a boy had the more money the ranch got from DSHS. He felt that someone within DSHS should have been dealing with the issues and monitoring the situation more at the ranch. In Tabor's opinion, he felt the attorney for the kids "milked" the system for every ounce of sympathy he could get for them. He thought some of the boys obtaining millions of dollars were sex offenders and should have been supervised more closely, but he wasn't sure if they were victimized.
Tabor said the management at the OKBR was out of touch and in his opinion, they needed to cooperate with the Olympia Police Department. He heard Van Woerden had a charmed aura about him. He felt that Sutherland thought Van Woerden was not doing the people any good and needed to be removed. Tabor told us he did not need to defend Sutherland. Again, he said in reality Sutherland was not a trial attorney, and it was up to Tabor to supervise the day to day operations of the Thurston County Prosecutor's Office. He said Sutherland never influenced his decision, although he occasionally briefed Sutherland about the OKBR criminal investigation. He would usually just say "it's not coming together' or "I don't know if we can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt." Sutherlandwould reply "I wish people could see that Van Woerderi was not doing any good", and "they shouldn't have him in that position."
Tabor concluded our conversation by saying there was probable cause that Van Woerden, Queener, and Rambo failed to report abuse. However, he said it was a very difficult case to prosecute, and the chances of the prosecutor's office winning were very unlikely. He felt the ultimate goal was to change the management at the OKBR and to have someone there who would be more cooperative in working with the Olympia Police Department. Prior to making this decision final, he called Wurner of the Olympia Police Department and told him what he was thinking. He said Wurner told him that was alright. He admitted that Chief Wurner had a different recollection of their conversation and said that Wurner later has told people that whatever the prosecutor decides is what he would go along with. However, Tabor remembers when he consulted with Chief Wurner and asked him specifically for his input, Wurner agreed that having Van Woerden step down was the best decision to make.
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.
I ran for Wash St Treasurer against former Olympia Kiwanian, and current St. Treasurer Mike Murphy on Sept 19, 2000. I got (76,738) votes. I plan on running against a Thurston County Olympia Kiwanian in (2002). Here's some campaign letters, newspaper articles, e-mails and my responses.
There were many obvious and long-term warnings about the 1970-94 child abusing Olympia Kiwanis Boys Ranch.
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
e-mail--- welcome
here's some e-mail questions, comments, and my replies