Child Abuse Lies Put a Man’s Life in Turmoil

David Allen Ward loves children. He loves being around them, playing with them and making them laugh. Since being accused and cleared of child molesting, Ward has changed his manner out of fear that a child may again lie about him to authorities.

“I was sure I wouldn’t change toward children, but I already have,” Ward said. “I always thought all kids are nice. The reason kids are kids is because they haven’t had a chance to get screwed up. They haven’t had a chance to be adults yet. You grow into being a jerk.”

Ward, 31, was substituting as a bus driver for a migrant education program July 23 when he was accused by several children on the bus of abusing and molesting them. Ward was arrested for investigation of felony child abuse and briefly jailed.

Charges Dropped, Record Sealed

The accusing children, offspring of undocumented aliens working in the fields of northern San Diego County, told the district attorney’s investigator that they made up the story about Ward. The charges were dropped and Ward’s record was sealed Oct. 9.

“I guess if anyone ever asked me, I could say I was never arrested,” Ward said. “But everybody knows. Everybody has read something or seen something. They must be afraid to have their kid near me.”

Child abuse experts say Ward’s case is rare. For years, it was believed that children were incapable of lying about such things.

“As a rule, kids don’t lie. But they do lie,” Dr. Perry Bach, a child psychiatrist, said. “Adults need to look at themselves and how they are perceived. With the increased public awareness and the increased awareness by children of child abuse and molest, questions are going to be raised which in the past were not . . . second-guessing of motive.”

‘Not Criminal Behavior’

In Ward’s case, authorities “are satisfied it was not criminal behavior,” district attorney’s spokesman Steve Casey said.

The district attorney’s office had trouble with the case from the start. When the parents of the alleged victims refused to cooperate, the four felony counts were reduced to misdemeanors.

Police officers who investigated the case were convinced that the parents were afraid to cooperate because they were fearful their legal status in the United States would be questioned and they might be deported.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Phil Walden said the children’s stories seemed vague and sketchy. A Spanish-speaking investigator questioned the children and the children admitted lying. Ward said he thinks that the children made up the story and got others to go along with it because Ward had disciplined two children for screaming and fighting during the morning run.

“There’s a very strong tendency for kids to recant when they find out what some of the consequences are,” said Dr. David Chadwick, director of the Center for Child Protection at the Children’s Hospital and Health Center in San Diego. “As the implications of (abuse charges) become clear, it is possible that the parents influenced them. I don’t know if that’s the case here.”

Chadwick said child-abuse experts can usually determine the validity of a child’s story before criminal charges are brought.

“I wouldn’t say this could be done before an arrest is made--an officer makes an arrest on probable cause, a strong suspicion. Between probable cause and beyond a reasonable doubt, there is a big gap of certainty,” he said.

“I think if the interviews are well done, (and) a physical exam is done, it should be determined whether there is a reason for the case to go forward.”

Depressed and Frustrated

Ward has been depressed and frustrated. But he said he has never been angry with his accusers.

“I thought it was just that somebody was confused or something. I didn’t understand why this would happen,” he said. “It didn’t occur to me that somebody would be that malicious, especially a kid like that. But I guess it’s possible. People have always told me, mostly positively, that I’m crazy. Some people are, I guess, repelled that I am animated, gregarious or outgoing. That’s just the way I am. That’s the way I am with kids. If someone didn’t like it, I always thought it was their problem.”

Bach, who is the chief of child and adolescent mental health services for San Diego County, said media exposure and school instruction on child abuse have educated children better and earlier than previously.

“What happens is that as adults, we must now look at our appearance in addition to what our intent was,” he said. “Hopefully, there’s a middle ground so that adults do not become cold, distant people.”