Child Abuse Charges Bitterly Divide Town : Crime: In Wenatchee, Wash., 28 adults have been accused and 15 convicted, but many doubt allegations.

A line divides this town.

On one side are those who believe dozens of children were raped and molested over seven years by adults in two loosely organized sex rings.

On the other are those who assert that a rogue cop and obsessed social workers created a whirlpool of sexual hysteria--coaxing children into accusations and bullying bewildered, poorly educated adults into confessions.

Gov. Mike Lowry, petitioned by critics who believe the case is a witch hunt, has asked for a Justice Department review and is awaiting a decision by U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno.

Authorities say as many as 50 children were forced to have sex with adults since 1988--sometimes alone, sometimes in groups.

In the last year, 28 adults have been charged with child rape and sexual abuse. Five have been convicted, 10 have pleaded guilty. One person was acquitted, and charges against two others were dismissed. One person pleaded guilty to reduced misdemeanor charges.

The nine remaining cases are pending, including the trial, scheduled to begin Monday, of Robert (Roby) Roberson, pastor of the Pentecostal Church of God House of Prayer in East Wenatchee, where authorities say one of the rings was based.

According to affidavits from children and statements from adults who confessed participation, parents and children would gather in the church basement to sing and listen to Scripture. The adults would then order the children to undress and have sex with them, the documents indicate.

The statements further allege that Roberson, 50, used sermons to whip his flock into a sexual frenzy and once called a teen-age girl to the altar and had sex with her there, telling the faithful he was driving out the devil.

The other ring, involving three families and two unrelated men, was based across the Wenatchee River in Wenatchee. In that case, authorities say, each participant was aware of several others but probably no one knew everyone involved.

Most of the accused have little education and modest or limited incomes.

Critics contend that Wenatchee Police Detective Bob Perez, the primary investigator in the ongoing cases, frightens children into claiming abuse and threatens adults into confessing to crimes they didn’t commit. Perez does not tape the interviews.

Some adults and a few children have recanted their statements to police.

Perez referred questions to his supervisor, Sgt. Cherie Smith.

“Every female victim had physical evidence of sexual abuse, and the majority of the males did,” Smith said. “Clearly . . . it’s pretty good evidence to show that this is occurring.”

Roberson, who with his wife, Connie, faces dozens of counts of child rape and molestation, contends there is no proof that any of the children were sexually molested. He contends the charges are retaliation for his outspoken support of accused parishioners. One of them, Idella Everett, is illiterate and has an IQ of 68, well below average; Roberson questions how she could have provided the detailed confession she signed.

Roberson’s claims are echoed by supporters. More than 3,000 people signed the petition to Lowry. He and the Justice Department also were sent copies of “The Wenatchee Report,” more than 250 pages of interviews and documents purporting to show civil-rights violations in the case.

In recent months, news reporters from across the country have converged on this town of 45,000, with some of their subsequent stories raising questions about authorities’ motives and methods.

Douglas County Prosecutor Steve Clem sounded frustrated when asked about allegations that his office hasn’t bothered to look for the truth.

“The defense attorneys are using what I’m sure . . . someday in the future will be called the O.J. defense, where they sling mud, make wild accusations and see conspiracies all around them,” he said.

“There’s physical evidence consistent with the stories they [the children] tell. There’s more than one person talking about the very same things going on,” said Tim Abbey, a regional supervisor with the state Child Protective Services. “And there are a lot of confessions, and . . . many times they’re confessing to more than the kids said happened.”

Authorities began investigating last fall, about six months after the 9-year-old daughter of Idella Everett was placed as a foster child in Perez’s home. The girl, now 11, had testified in 1992 against a family acquaintance who was convicted of molesting her.

The girl told Perez her parents had molested her and her siblings, who confirmed the story. Idella Everett pleaded guilty to child rape and agreed to testify against her husband, Harold, who later pleaded guilty as well. The mother was sentenced to four years in prison, the father to 23 years.

The child then alleged abuse by others, including the Robersons. The girl has played a central role in many of the cases, testifying at six trials this year and at some 1994 sex-ring trials.

But prosecutors said before the trial began that she would not be able to testify in the future. They did not say why, but the girl underwent a psychiatric evaluation earlier this month. Concerns were raised about the strain of the trials after she lost control at home, screaming and destroying property.

“In a way, I’m almost wondering if that’s not why this little girl went off and tore up Perez’s house a couple times and that’s why she’s in a mental facility today, is because she’s tired of lying,” Connie Roberson said.

“This is what I’m praying, that she’s tired of lying and she wants to tell the truth,” she said. “But they don’t believe her that the truth is the truth.”