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November 18, 2004
Families file claim in child-sex-abuse case
By Jennifer Sullivan -- Seattle Times staff reporter
Families of seven youths who say the children were raped and sexually abused by their foster father have filed a multimillion-dollar claim against the Department of Social and Health Services and other related state agencies.
On Tuesday, Ronald Young, 41, pleaded guilty to eight child-sex-abuse charges. Had Young not pleaded guilty he would have been prosecuted on 54 counts and could have faced up to life in prison, said Deputy Prosecutor Rosie Martinelli.
While Martinelli says she can only prove that six children were victimized by Young, Tacoma attorney Erik Bauer says seven children in Young's care were abused.
In claims filed this year, the families have demanded the state pay them $3.5 million to $5 million for each child's suffering, said Bauer, who is working on the civil case with Tacoma lawyers Jack Connelly and Tom Balerud.
"They sure didn't deserve this. They didn't do anything," Bauer said about the victims, who range in age from 6 to 14. "Essentially the state messed up when they selected a serial child rapist as a foster-care provider. They [the state] should have been able to pick up on this."
Young, who last lived in rural northwest Pierce County, and his wife received a license to become foster parents in 2002.
In September 2003, Tacoma police were notified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about possible child pornography coming out of Tacoma and being posted on the Internet. Police tracked Young through his e-mail address, according to charging papers.
When investigators talked to two of the children, boys who lived with Young, they said Young had had sex with them and that he had photographed some sex acts. One of the boys told investigators that Young said that if they told anyone about the abuse they wouldn't be able to visit with their families, according to charging documents.
"They're going to be victims their whole life. It's the worst possible thing that could happen to a child," said Pierce County sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer. "He is somebody who needs to be locked away forever."
When sentenced Jan. 14, Young faces 26 years to life in prison for two counts of child rape, four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of dealing in depictions of minors and one count of child rape.
Martinelli is recommending that Young receive 26 years in prison. Had Young's case gone to trial, he would likely have gotten no more than 26 years in prison, Martinelli said.
Because of a technicality which could have jeopardized his case had it been presented to a jury, prosecutors let Young sign off on a plea agreement that encompassed just eight charges, she said.
When searching Young's property, a Tacoma police officer who wrote the first search warrant didn't indicate the county where the crimes occurred. Because of this error, the warrant and all other warrants could be contested in court, Martinelli said.
After Young's arrest, his relatives described him as a "super-religious" person who presented himself as "a good, God-fearing Christian" and a "super foster dad."
Relatives said that for most of his adult life, Young was an atheist.
Then all of a sudden, said another relative, he "started wearing a cross and preaching."
Posted by Nealus at November 18, 2004 01:02 PM
Comments
How do you go about creating a case to sue a family who may have fostered children that were molested by the biological children of the family. Also do you think it is proper to take somthing like this to court or deal with things in your own "questionably legal" way. after a lifetime of horrifying memories and being haunted constantly by the thought do you think its right to have to go through the emotions in a courtroom where the perpatrator may not recieve justice or just end the torment on your own. Because when you think about life in prison will never be as bad as life in horrifying memories. YOur thoughts please-
Posted by: tom at December 5, 2004 12:27 AM
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