Kids recant abuse claims after dad jailed 20 years

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Former Vancouver police officer Clyde Ray Spencer spent nearly 20 years in prison after he was convicted of sexually molesting his son and daughter. Now, the children say it never happened.

Matthew Spencer and Kathryn Tetz, who live in Sacramento, Calif., each took the stand Friday in Clark County Superior Court to clear their father's name, The Columbian newspaper reported.

Matthew, now 33, was 9 years old at the time. He told a judge he made the allegation after months of insistent questioning by now-retired Clark County sheriff's detective Sharon Krause just so she would leave him alone.

Tetz, 30, said she doesn't remember what she told Krause back in 1985, but she remembers Krause buying her ice cream. She said that when she finally read the police reports she was "absolutely sure" the abuse never happened.

"I would have remembered something that graphic, that violent," Tetz said.

Spencer's sentence was commuted by then-Gov. Gary Locke in 2004 after questions arose about his conviction. Among other problems, prosecutors withheld medical exams that showed no evidence of abuse, even though Krause claimed the abuse was repeated and violent.

Despite the commutation, Spencer remains a convicted sex offender. He is hoping to have the convictions overturned.

Krause declined an interview request from The Columbian in 2005 and could not be reached Friday, the newspaper reported.

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Both children said that while growing up in California they were told by their mother, who divorced Spencer before he was charged, that they were blocking out the memory of the abuse.

They said they realized as adults the abuse never happened, and they came forward because it was the right thing to do.

Prosecutors aren't yet conceding that Spencer was wrongly convicted. Senior deputy prosecutor Kim Farr grilled the children about why they are so certain they weren't abused, and chief criminal deputy prosecutor Dennis Hunter said that if the convictions are tossed, his office might appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Matthew Spencer said his father had ruined the relationship with his mother and he had faults, "but none of them were molesting children."

Friday's hearing paved the way for the state Court of Appeals to allow Spencer to withdraw the no-contest pleas he entered in 1985 and have his convictions vacated. Both children had previously filed statements with the appeals court, but the judges required the hearing to ensure their new testimony held up under cross-examination.

Spencer, 61, hugged his son and daughter afterward while a dozen supporters cheered.

"For so many years, nothing went right," he said. "When things keep going right, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop."

The hardest thing about his ordeal was missing his children, he said.

"They were my life, and they were taken away from me," he said. "I could serve in prison. ..."

His voice trailed off, and his son came up for one more hug.

Comments

[Diogenes08]

Who runs the acceptance of comments on weekends? I post reasonable comments and they disappear.

[Durango]

Ditto.

The more time you spend writing them the less likely they are to appear.

[shespeaks]

Double ditto. And it isn't just weekends.

[Diogenes08]

It happened again! My post was up for a few moments and then vanished! I posted an entirely reasonable comment 5 minutes ago, and the tally shows no pending comments.

[donia1970]

I understand that they were children when this happened; however, it's unexcusable that the girl waited this long to come clean. What was the boy's problem in waiting? This man has my upmost respect - but because of the long wait to clear me - at this point I would consider myself "childless." Sorry.....

[NedroidPrime]

Almost sounds like their mom was pushing hard for it. The charge had to start somewhere...

It's good they are coming forward now though. Better late than never

[MikeRdg]

If you re-read the article, it son states the father had ruined the relationship between the children and the mother, that the father had his flaws, but not sexual abuse. In the son's statement, it indicates there was some kind of abuse going on ---- mental or whatever the father must have been doing. The dad could have been playing some kind of mind game with the kids to get them to turn on their mom, and something could have backfired on him.

[Chaimirija]

Mom was having an affair with the Krause's boss

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009456102_recantabuse11m.html

[mjeffn]

It is a sad reality of our society that there are some things where the mere accusation of something is enough to ruin a man's life forever regardless of innocence or outcome of a trial. The justice system is meaningless once an accusation is made by virtue of the fact that even if found innocent by a jury of his peers, the accused life is forever ruined. That these men often choose to end their life is not hard to understand.

After becoming divorced in my early fifties, I was wisely advised by an acquaintance to not date women with underage children. That this is reality in our society is not good for single parents or their minor children, regardless of gender.

Middle aged single men need to exercise caution with respect to whom they choose to become intimately involved with.

[kempis]

Actually, gays and lesbians also have to be wary of potential false child sexual abuse allegations. I learned the hard way that insecure, "nonhomophobic" straight people can assume that you're abusing their child if you're gay.

[Darthwave]

Good point I guess the ax can swing both each way. The downside is that it makes just that much harder for single moms and dads to date.

[Khirad]

On such an emotional thread, I just wanted to comment as a native of Vancouver. Been back a few times in the past four hours. None of my reposts got through pending. I said nothing controversial. I'm fed up.

[NedroidPrime]

I understand man. Seems like just about all my posts go pending

[Eduardo333]

Horror stories like this are actually fairly common. Prosecutors frequently convict people who are innocent of the crime they are charged with. The truly disgusting thing is that those that conspire to pursue this false convictions rarely are brought to justice themselves. It seems obvious in this case that evidence was withheld and the children were manipulated. Such actions should lead to prosecuting of the prosecutors, but I have never seen this happen.

[Chaimirija]

as are horror stories of rape victims getting abused again on the stand

[Khirad]

Checked back after two hours. No post. Tried again an hour ago. Nada. Let a Vancouverite speak, H_P! For the third time:

Okay, in the city infamous for Tonya Harding sightings at dive bars, since the few years I've left there's been a ferryboat crash story, a senior care scare (a few miles from my old home), a standoff and sh00tings involving m.3.t.h. blocks away from where I went to High School, and now this. It makes me feel so proud to be from The Couve. Seriously, it ain't that bad. I love my hometown.

I'm as into victims' rights as any functioning, empathetic person is. But, when the crime involves this, even when you're absolved - you can never erase the taint - he's still trying to get unregistered?! Some get off we suspect are probably guilty, but I imagine there's more stories like this. The punishment for fraudulently and maliciously accusing someone of this class of crime should be relative to the punishment that the accused would incur.

[ShakeYourComplacency]

Great. Tell a 7 year old boy or girl that they're going to go to prison for life if it's determined that their claim is false. Or tell a mother that if she calls the police on her husband and the kids don't back up her story, she'll go to jail. See how many people step forward after that.

THEY HAVE THAT RULE IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES, fool! That's Sharia Law you're advocating!!!

[NedroidPrime]

No, he is advocating for consequences for bearing false witness. That does not make it sharia law, you f00|.

If it turns out the mother instigated this, and essentially ruined this mans life, should there be no consequence? Even if it is established that she did this knowing that it was a lie?

There needs to be consequences for lying like this. Especially when the penalty is so great. Though maybe we could make it the decision of the accused.

From the story though, it was also prosecutor misconduct.

[Diogenes08]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a fairly important set of Christian laws, The Ten Commandments, that covers Khirad's suggestion? It deals with a concept called 'false witness', and the punishment is eternal hellfire.

[Sean Tisdall]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perjury :

"Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the matter lied about would affect the outcome of the case."...

"Perjury is considered a serious offense as it can be used to usurp the power of the courts, resulting in miscarriages of justice. In the United States, for example, the general perjury statute under Federal law defines perjury as a felony and provides for a prison sentence of up to five years. In the United Kingdom the penalty for perjury is a prison sentence of up to seven years, however prosecutions for perjury are rare."

Yes, good old common law, not sharia. At any rate they'd decline to prosecute the then seven year old when they could hit the lawyer for:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subornation_of_perjury

Subornation of perjury is a crime. It is also an offense for which an attorney can be disciplined, disbarred or jailed. Subornation is the circumstance where an attorney gets, or allows, another party to lie. If an attorney makes a false representation in court, that is also a crime and he could be subject to similar punishment as subornation.

I'm tired of seeing bias against the accused in the name of empowerment. It stinks just as bad coming from the left as it does from Nancy Grace.

[Durango]

Repressed memory was always a crock.

The problems for humans is not being able to forget, not repressing memory.

Just like the children say.

I remember seeing a show on television that was frightening. They had a five year old. They asked the kid if he remembered going into the basement and getting his finger caught in a mouse trap?

The kid answered truthfully. No, it didn't happen.

They came back a week later and asked the kid the same question. Not only did the 5 year old remember. he began filling in details.

Kids at that age are just beginning to use their imaginations. Which is wonderful.

But in the hands of the wrong interrogator can be catastrophic.

[peterg76]

Does this mean Sharon Krause will be charged with child abuse?

[Diogenes08]

I saw an advertisement for a movie in passing recently having to do with kids and bachelors. What stuck in my mind was a flash of a scene where a kid, in the course of an innocent conversation, loudly says something to the effect of "no I don't want to pull my pants down".

How many kids saw the movie and got the message that you can control any adult simply by using this phrase?

The writer, producer and director should be ashamed, and sued by any victim of this tactic!

[dmack]

This is horrible. Those adults took this long to come clean? Fine they were children when they made the false claims, but the male child has been an adult for 15 years, and he waits until his father has spent nearly 20 years in prison? If he had stepped up when he was 18, then his innocent father would have only done 10 or 11 years. Its still a long time, but not as long as 20 years. He could have said something when he became a little more aware, like age 13. His innocent father could have only done 4 or 5 years. Bottom line, why did he wait? This man has essentially lost his most productive years of his life. I hope he is somehow compensated.

[FortuneTeller]

Unbelievable...the kids are not to blame...try going after Sharon Krause and the over-zealous prosecutor. They need to answer for this travesty.

[capricorndevil]

no one is blaming the children. it's just puzzling why they didn't come forward before in their adult years.

[Nina28]

IN All cases were their is a recantation in sex crimes it is due to the crooked cops within the ranks. During the Polly Klaas case detective brow beat the girls (including Polly's younger sister) who witness their friends kidnapping at knife point in her own bedroom. For three days they wanted the girls to believe Polly age 12, ran away with her boyfriend.

Unbelievable, but true. Polly's father detailed this during a TV interview with Nancy Grace. Why officers do this is beyond me. For the detectives that do this they should serve hard time in prison for obstruction of justice and for those that are tempted to shove cases like these under the rug out of spite or lazyness, I blame the Police Commissioners and Supervisors for not educating their team.

[MikeRdg]

Crooked cops, crooked prosecutors, crooked judges.

[MikeRdg]

plzchuteme - the small town was Lehi, Utah.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/ra_rep04.htm

Elder Glenn Pace, a member of the presiding bishopric of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the time, wrote a letter to other leaders of the LDS church. He said that he knew of 60 SRA survivors, and estimated that there were up to 800 in Utah. He wrote that those responsible for the child abuse conspiracy included "members of bishoprics, LDS [Mormon] bishops ... and members of the Tabernacle Choir." Also in 1991, a University of Utah Medical Center psychologist said that there were 366 SRA victims being treated by therapists in Utah.

OREM — Lehi police have launched an investigation to find out how a vial with cocaine residue ended up in a child's Halloween sack Monday night.
"Obviously there's a huge concern if there's someone out there distributing (drugs) to a child," Lehi Police Lt. Jeff Swenson said. "But right now we have no leads at all on this case."
Nearly 70 vehicles were at a "trunk-or-treat" event at an LDS church parking lot near Cabela's in Lehi. The Halloween activity allows children to go from car-to-car to get candy instead of the typical door-to-door approach.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,635158053,00.html

[Nina28]

I'm still waiting for JUSTICE in the Infamous LDS Pedophile Haven Case. The victims, most all young girls returned back to the cult having no cult deprogramming safe houses to reside and no where else to go. This particular "church" took in millions, the leader having personal assets worth millions - ALL TAX FREE. It's time we regulated religious orders and treat them like the Corporations they are once they hit a certain level in pure profits.

This order was on the radar for YEARS before the bust. It's on the back burner now, still open for business. If it was a radical Islamic mosque preaching and praising terrorists acts pulling in lots of donations. You can be sure they'd be in Gitmo, each and every member.

[MikeRdg]

On thing is for sure the LDS Church is a PEDOPHILE HAVEN. They protect their pedophiles who are priesthood holders to the hilt -- even ones caught abusing their sons/daughters/ grandchildren several times. AND they attract men who are abusive to begin with -- and their does not need to be SRA involved, plain old childhood sexual abuse-- people who speak out they try to destroy.

[MikeRdg]

LL" TAX FREE. It's time we regulated religious orders and treat them like the Corporations they are once they hit a certain level in pure profits"

On this group I agree with you, they need to be taxed,

[FortuneTeller]

Detective Sharon Krause has a lot to answer for this isn't the only family she screwed up. If I was one of the kids in any of her 'cases' I would want a face-to-face so she could explain her over-zealous behavior. She was a cop not a doctor. Her interview techniques have since been discredited. She is a CRIMINAL responsible for destroying the very children she claimed to 'save' sleep well Fraulein Krause.

Excerpts from the wrongful conviction of Lynn Malcom.
...Krause then conducted a lengthy interview with Jennifer, who repeatedly denied that her mother abused her.
...Despite Jennifer's denials that her mother had abused her, and despite the failure to unearth any incriminating evidence during the search, Detective Krause elected to promptly remove Jennifer from her home...

# THERE IS A CONSENSUS AMONG THE RELEVANT LEGAL, MEDICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERTS THAT COERCIVE AND SUGGESTIVE INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES CAN ENGENDER FALSE AND UNRELIABLE EVIDENCE.
# Dangerous and Improper Interview Techniques Have Produced False Charges Leading to the Promotion of Multi-victim, Multi-Perpetrator Child Sex Abuse Cases. Multi-Perpetrator Child Sex Abuse Cases.

[Khirad]

Been pending way too long. Let a native Vancouverite speak, H_P!

Okay, in the city infamous for Tonya Harding sightings at dive bars, since the few years I've left there's been a ferryboat crash story, a senior care scare (a few miles from my old home), a standoff and shootings involving m.e.t.h. blocks away from where I went to High School, and now this. It makes me feel so proud to be from The Couve. Seriously, it ain't that bad. I love my native town.

I'm as into victims' rights as any functioning, empathetic person is. But, when the crime involves this, even when you're absolved - you can never erase the taint - he's still trying to get unregistered?! Some get off we suspect are probably guilty, but I imagine there's more stories like this. The punishment for fraudulently and maliciously accusing someone of this class of crime should be relative to the punishment that the accused would incur.

[KingKrub]

MikeRdg... I think you meant contentious.My brother in law did time for accusations his ex made against him which were later proven false.

[MikeRdg]

Yes, I did mean contentious ----

I realize there can be false allegations, I know women can lie, as well as knowing men can lie.-- no pure gender. Myself I rather look at personality types, vs. gender. Evil can come in a three piece suit and tie or a dress.

[Nina28]

Sex Crimes are hard enough in court on real victims. But to have a legal system that allows for such lazy and slack corruption of justice makes for these rare cases to over shadow and degrade the multiple epidemic of assaults against women and children.