20 years later, kids say Dad didn't really molest them after all

Clyde Ray Spencer, a former police officer in Washington state, was convicted of molestation charges after his own children, then 9 and 6, testified against him. The kids are grown up now, and they've helped free Spencer by saying the abuse never happened. (They instead say the investigating detective pressured them into saying what the police wanted to hear.)

Comments

[Sasquach]

Wait, so they're saying that once someone said "child molestation," the truth became a secondary concern? No way...

[Searching]

Why did they wait 20 years? They could have gotten their dad outta jail 10 years ago. Or better yet, just told the court the same thing they just told police?

[James Hart]

One reason? The kids had always been told that blackouts prevented them from remembering the abuse. It took them a while to agree that nothing had really happened.

[Keith G. in P.V.]

This was the "fad" of the time. Johnny Pervertseed skipped around the country planting horror-story and child-abuse-story seeds. Quack psychology, quack police work, quack interrogations, quack prosecutions. Each story was more sensational than the last. Satanic rituals were often part of the story.

Even when the allegations and accusations and interrogation techniques fell apart, prosecutors fought to keep people in prison.

There is nothing new under the sun.

[ghost]

Keith G. in P.V.,
I agree.

This type of "witch hunt" was a crime in it's self. No only did it hurt innocent people...it took away from the actual cases of child abuse and child sexual exploitation.

[Lance]

Gotta wonder who started the ball rolling in the first place. Did the lady detective have a grudge against this guy for some reason or was mom trying to gain a tactical advantage in a divorce? This type of situation is probably more common than we know.

[KC Cicero]

In divorce work, we used to refer to the "mandatory child abuse allegation" in those days.

Really law enforcement was crazy. You were a monster if you did not believe that children would never lie about such a thing, but if the kids said nothing happened, they were in denial. Folks went to prison over "recovered memories". some are still there. Sadly, once these scumbag psueodoscientists & sicko cops got through with these kids, some of the kids WERE "victims" who believed completely in events that had not happened.

These were our Salem witch trials.

[gee]

I recently watched a documentary about a famous abuse case the brought about the imprionsment of several adults. Years later, the children came forward to say that nothing happened.

Now adults, the children recounted some of the interrogation techniques that caused them to tell false stories (mind you, they were 5,6,7 years old at the time):

They were told that if they didn't tell what happened, other children would get hurt.

They were told that no one would get in any trouble if they told what happened.

One man remembers as a 6 yr. old, he just wanted to go home. The investigator told him that he could go home when he showed them where he was touched using a doll. He said it was easy to see what they wanted, so he just started pointing to body parts. Again, he'd been told no one would get in any trouble.

Ridiculous . . .

[gary]

I like that "Salem withch trials" - I think that same group of people moved on to promoting the fear of Y2K - rememeber that one; thousands of people will die on operating tables, planes will fall out of the skies, massive power outages, no food, no drinking water and on and on....and if you don't agree with us then...well guess what? Y2k came and went so they moved on to the next hysteria, Global warming; thousands of people will die......and if you don't agree with us...

[Why So Socialist?]

It sounds like it's time to waterboard those two to get them to change their stories back again. Sometimes advanced interrogation techniques are the only way to get to the truth that is required of witnesses.

[John]

My guess is the dad did molest them - now the kids are grown up, no longer afraid of daddy and are tired of the stigma of being an abused child.

I sure as hell wouldn't let him anywhere near my daughter!

[kl]

The detective that talked the kids into lying should do 20 years.

[John]

"the detective that talked the kids into lying" - just curious, did he talk them into continuing to lie for the past 20 years?

[Treb]

How accurately do you remember 5 years old?

[lotusfrommud]

I wonder, what if there really is global warming? I wish I knew a way to find out, God knows we can hear anything.

[Kate]

People look at the hard evidence that ice core samples have provided. As for the battle of experts, you might wonder why an "expert" that testified that tobacco is not harmful is the same "expert" that opined there is no global warming. Go ahead check the facts.