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

[hope61]

My first thoughts are that the children are able to make peace with their Father and they all learn to forgive. While children may lie, angry ex'es falsely accuse, overzealous/inept procescutors ruin the innocent; what about the millions of children and those connected to them that have had their lives ruined by a pedophile? Two months ago I learned my 16 yr. old granddaughter had been molested at 9 yrs. by a cousin 6 yrs. her senior, and again at 13 yrs., by her uncle, at least 20 yrs. her senior. Two weeks ago, I found out my daughter was more than just "inappropriately touched" decades ago by her step-father, the father of her brother. Last Wednesday, my 9 yr. old, step-granddaughter told me he fondled her when "he thought I was asleep" on more than one occasion. Friday, I filed formal charges against him. You can not know the pain this causes. I would rather be wrong than sorry.

[ShakeYourComplacency]

Thank you so much for your story.

It's unfortunate that there's so many other deniers on this thread, all up in arms over one guy in jail and not a peep about the millions of lives ruined. Not to mention the kids that don't return, who end up dead after the abuse.

Your thoughts about the story were mine as well, that the children wanted to make peace with it and forgive, and they really didn't remember all of it when they were 9.

Thank you for your story about the many instances of sexual abuse you've encountered in your family. It is so common.

I tried to save one kid a few years ago, to no avail. The 2 year old girl was put in a closet by a bigger boy. She managed to tell her mother, in an innocent way. The mother first was angry, but then didn't want to make waves, and the neighbors babysat...who would she turn to if she turned them in? Besides, the mom said, she doesn't have a UTI, and she's ok. Unbelievable. I actually called the hot line. I also tried to get the day care provider that they shared together alerted, when I heard the boy was pulling aside other kids. But the provider did nothing, because she was an immigrant and didn't fully have her license or something with INS, so she didn't want to report anything.

[MikeRdg]

sorry hope61, your family is facing such a painful life challenge to over come. It is a horrible betrayal
when this happens within families. I understand also the difficult decision which you have had to make, as well as the painful realization. I wish you and your children well in the recovery process. Sexual abuse can go through many family members and through many generations until it is confronted and steps taken to put an end to the damaging behaviors.

[hope61]

Thank you for your thoughts....

[Nina28]

True, there are an overwhelming amount of REAL case compared to the false accusations assisted by corrupt law enforcers. Statistically, every 1 out of 4 girls will be sexually molested or assaulted.

We are not doing good at educating our children early before self esteem and child abuse sets in and are failing at providing safe social programs to protect the innocent - Accused and ALL.

[Khirad]

More prevalent than many would like to believe. Yours sounds just. Downright heartbreaking, actually.

All the more important for cases like yours that they are not undermined by cases like this and the Duke imbroglio.

[Gmoney1]

Sources are considered fact witnesses by the media - the media spreads those source stories - the public decides on guilt based on the source stories - and BAM - if you're innocent the life of the accused is ruined regardless of the what the justice system finds -

[MikeRdg]

I will agree with you the press does go off of source stories and if the reporter is on the take, has been influenced, gets their information from the bar, is a plant for a crooked prosecutor a source story can be completely wrong.

I understand state papers are expecially pron to influence of who ever is in political power.

[motoGpifupleez]

The phrase "beat down" comes to mind when thinking of all those responsible for ruining that mans life, and that includes the children.
Any lie told to imprison someone should be punished with equal time to the liars.
I'll hold my breath waiting for these scumbags to be held accountable.

[Feanor]

And will there be any consequences for Sharon Krause? doubtful

[oceanofconsciousness]

She's got some bad karma coming back on her some where some day. Wonder how many other cases she swayed with her manipulation?

[roch20]

This also reminds me of "The West Memphis Three", where judges, prosecutors, state police, etc. .., has become "famous" and are viewed as "heroes." Eventually, these people got higher grades, some are being promoted in some cases, even ran for office in Congress, Governor or State Senates! It's disgusting! And in many cases, prosecutors are aware of the defended innocence, yet prefer to remain silent! We know that this is the way the courts system has worked in this country for decades, but still, there is no reason to be so shameless! It's despicable!

[Khirad]

Echols, especially, is a tragedy. Such a bright young man.

[plzchuteme]

Every time one of these cases comes to light, it makes it that much more difficult to investigate and prosecute truly guilty parties and allows some who are guilty to go free. There was a small town in my state where allegations of organized and pervasive sexual child abuse were brought to light. It was investigated by an ambitious and reckless County Attorney who, by the time she was finished, had implicated nearly every adult and child in this town. After accusations, indictments, trials, and destruction of individuals and families, it was shown to be a huge fraud perpetrated by this wacked-out County Attorney complete with every one of the bogus tactics used to incriminate innocent people. The investigation read like a text book of what not to do. Tremendous damage was done and the charges were dropped but not until many lives were ruined. I have always suspected that there may have been a perpetrator or two who were guilty but never prosecuted because of the errors of this ambition blinded dishonest prosecutor. Any one who was prosecuted based on investigation by this Detective Krause probably has grounds for appeal whether guilty or not. Where is the justice in this.

[swanie]

There is too much weight give to the cops and DAs, and what do they do? They LIE, WITHHOLD EVIDENCE, and in general, CORRUPT the system.

An excellent report on how badly biased the criminal justice system works is shown in a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report http://books.nap.edu/catalog/12589.htmll) that throws into doubt much of the so-called forensic evidence used in courts across the country, including ballistics, fingerprints, and most other areas of forensic science.

A truly scary report, as it is clear there are possibly thousands of people in prison who are truly innocent, and our system is the cause.

And, please, try reading without all of the biases we bring to the table.
.

[swanie]

Two of the comments in the executive summary of the NAS report are:

"Testimony based on faulty forensic science analyses may have contributed to wrongful
convictions of innocent people. This fact has demonstrated the potential danger of giving undue
weight to evidence and testimony derived from imperfect testing and analysis. Moreover, imprecise
or exaggerated expert testimony has sometimes contributed to the admission of erroneous or
misleading evidence."

and

"The fragmentation problem is compounded because operational principles and procedures for
many forensic science disciplines are not standardized or embraced, either between or within
jurisdictions. There is no uniformity in the certification of forensic practitioners, or in the accreditation of crime laboratories. Indeed, most jurisdictions do not require forensic practitioners to
be certified, and most forensic science disciplines have no mandatory certification programs.
Moreover, accreditation of crime laboratories is not required in most jurisdictions. Often there are no
standard protocols governing forensic practice in a given discipline. And, even when protocols are in
place (e.g., SWG standards), they often are vague and not enforced in any meaningful way. In short,
the quality of forensic practice in most disciplines varies greatly because of the absence of adequate
training and continuing education, rigorous mandatory certification and accreditation programs,
adherence to robust performance standards, and effective oversight.".

[MikeRdg]

That small town would not have happened to have been Lehi, Utah?

Lehi had some other strange things going on. The LDSer did a Halloween thing at the church, where the kids were taken to a church parking lot to treat or treat, people meet up at the church parking lot and gave candy to the kids out to the their car truck, kids came home with DRUGS, as I recall cocaine.

[filo]

This is a sad sad case.

[Khirad]

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 me.th 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 really into victims' rights. 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.

[Tena]

This trend has got to stop. We've gone from taking kids accusations with a grain of salt to believing every damn wild story a kid comes up with and it ruins men's lives completely.

This is crazy. Kids lie for their own reasons and we believe them regardless anymore. I've known two men who were completely innocent who spent their entire life savings defending themselves against false charges from young girls who got mad at them and made this stuff up.

One of the men killed himself - kids are not saints. They lie. And we treat these men like they are guilty regardless and it's the wrong approach. All the way around -

[CigarGod]

This is very common behavior of jilted women.

I don't believe any but the extremely very young could "forget" violent abuse....or any abuse, for that matter.

[MikeRdg]

It is NOT a common behavior of jilted women -- what is with making such a hasty generalization?

[ShakeYourComplacency]

"This is very common behavior of jilted women."

No it isn't. Why would you say that? Most women, and men too for that matter, want to get out of a bad situation, cut their losses and go. However some people who leave relationships do get vindictive, but gender obviously has nothing to do with that - look at the OJ case.

It's bizzare to me that you would write such a statement. Your profile on Huffpo states that you "coach women's sports" enjoy the company of "smart and beautiful women" and you "speak out forcefully for women." You wrote that, not me.

What's scary is that whatever team it is that you coach, probably some kind of girls high school team,...the members have no idea what trash you write on the internet. Not only stuff against women like this, but ridiculous stuff like talk of a zionist threat and western propaganda.

It's frightening to click on other poster names here, too. Clicking on another, posts immediately popped up about Israeli jews using the Holocaust as an a universal pass to commit atrocity, and atheism, and how all churchs in america should be "shut down" because they're terrorist training centers. And then I wonder...can "burn down" be far from "shut down?"

Lastly, your ridiculous statement that kids cannot forget violent abuse is a dangerous lie. The majority of kids who are abused forget at least some part of the abuse. It's normal, it's a survival mechanism.

[ywcachieve]

I am sick of these evil mothers who lie on their exes and in the meantime ruin their childrens lives, making them think their father violated them. This is so common it is disgusting. It is so cruel.

Ruining their childrens fathers life, and their childrens lives in the process. I think when this happens the mothers should be prosecuted.

[MikeRdg]

There are fathers which lie also.

this quote tells somethings was going on.

"Matthew Spencer said his father had ruined the relationship with his mother and he had faults, "but none of them were molesting children." ----- there some type of abuse was happening for this to occur..

[dmack]

You can't be serious.

[Khirad]

But not necessarily se.xu.al. Whole different ball game.

[overcat]

And how exactly do "faults" amount to "some type of abuse"? In the real world, it's a pretty long stretch, but apparently in your mind, the two are interchangeable descriptions.

Maybe it's about your desire to believe that this man MUST be guilty of SOMETHING - perhaps the notion that a father could be wrongly accused and convicted of abuse threatens the often advanced idea that abuse accusers never lie?

It just bugs you that it may come to light that this guy could've possibly been railroaded by adult women manipulating children, perhaps you'd rather keep him imprisoned?

[ThomasMc]

The prosecutor should be sentenced to 20 years, no parole.

[NoMoFearNoMoHate]

False claimants should be held to the same sentence as their would-be victims.

[SwingingFromCenter]

This exposes a HUGE flaw in our system of "justice". All a jil.ted woman has to do is levy the accusation of this sort of thing and, whether it's a lie or not, it will completely ruin the main. This is obviously one of the more extreme cases since it included some collusion on the part of the DA and ma.nipulation of the kids to back up these claims, but it's becoming all-too common in a spli.t for a woman to de.stroy a man using this sort of tactic.

Now, that being said...these "kids" sure took their sweet time coming forward on this.

[MikeRdg]

sexual abuse is sensitive , and does happen--- I read somewhere the more continuous the divorce, there is a high occurrence of sexual abuse with the children in the family ---- to take off the board all claims of childhood sexual abuse are false is plain wrong. Children who are abused often do not come forward for years later, as is seen in the religious communities -- well into adult years, in families it can take years for children to come forward.

Are there false claims of sexual abuse. I am sure there is.
Is there Childhood sexual abuse --- I know there is.

Mothers have been falsely accused of domestic violence evil hubbys wanting to take all the goods etc.

No gender is exempt from evil people being in t.

[MikeRdg]

don't forget Richard Gardner in his testimony at UofM trial stated he believed pedophilia was normal-- so people can be weird.

[primordialsoup]

If one defines pedophilia as being attracted to someone under 18, I would contend that that is normal. The term "jailbait" came into being to describe that phenomenon.

[ReasonableBill]

It took them this long? These "kids" are losers.

[dmack]

Amen. What the hell took them so long?

[Symphysodon]

Let this serve as a warning for all you divorced Dads out there. This is an all too common tactic during ugly divorce proceedings. As we all know, in these kinds of accusations Men are guilty unless proven innocent.