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Klassen (2002)
Klassens await their
day in court: A decade after the child abuse charges, they are
getting a chance to clear their names
Jason Warick, Saskatchewan
News Network, Saturday, November 02, 2002
Photos by Greg Pender
Kari Klassen fell crying to
the floor of her Red Deer home. Her husband Richard begged RCMP
officers not to let social workers take away their two small
children.
Their pleas were useless. The
police rounded up Kari and Richard -- along with 11 others --
and charged them with sexually abusing three Saskatoon foster
children.
The children -- an 11-year-old
boy and his nine-year-old twin sisters -- had told police that
Richard, Kari and others had them forced them into bizarre satanic
rituals, had made them eat human eyeballs and feces and have
sex with animals.
The Klassens knew they were
innocent of the incredible claims, which made the injustice of
having their own children torn from their home that much harder
to bear.
 "I
started screaming, 'They're ours! You're not going to take them!'"
Richard Klassen recalled in a recent interview.
"They were ripping our
whole lives apart. That's a hurt that will never leave,"
Kari says.
The couple's six-month-old
baby boy and their two-year-old girl were placed in a car with
social services workers. The Klassens were put in a police cruiser.
The caravan drove to the neighbourhood
swimming pool to pick up their eight-year-old daughter. It then
moved on to other homes, picking up more suspects and their children,
too.
"I told them mom and dad
were going on a holiday. How do you tell something like this
to an eight-year-old?" asks Richard.
"The older kids were looking
out the back window of the car at us as they drove away."
- - - -
The arrests were made July
10, 1991. The day marks the beginning of an ordeal that destroyed
the lives of the Klassens and the other families who were charged.
The sensational case was dubbed the Scandal of the Century.
But there was no satanic cult,
no ritualistic abuse. It was actually the young boy, Michael,
who abused his two younger twin sisters while they were in foster
care.
In the past couple of years
the children, now in their twenties, have all stated publicly
that they lied to investigators. And they claim prosecutors have
known the truth for much longer.
They say they told prosecutors
early in the case that the strange stories were all lies.
 Eventually
the prosecution abandoned the case. Richard Klassen soon began
the battle to clear his name and the names of others who'd been
implicated. His fight, now a decade old, first started with putting
up posters in downtown Saskatoon and staging lonely protests
in front of the Spadina Crescent courthouse to try to shed the
false label of child abuser.
None of the other people charged
wanted to be identified in this story.
Klassen was even charged by
police a couple of times because he continued to launch vociferous
public attacks against those who he says wronged him.
During this time, Klassen also
launched a $10-million lawsuit, alleging malicious prosecution
against him and the other adults.
Now, against huge odds, preliminary
examinations of witnesses have begun and the trial is scheduled
for next fall.
Though he has only a Grade
7 education, Klassen is acting as his own lawyer and is holding
his own. He's successfully fended off three attempts by government
and private lawyers to have his lawsuit thrown out.
Klassen says police, Crown
prosecutors, and therapists knew the foster children were lying
and charges should never have been laid.
"(The Crown) had no evidence.
They had no case," he says.
"A lot of damage was done.
Things will never be the same."
- - - -
During a recent interview at
a downtown Saskatoon restaurant, Klassen and his wife recounted
the many traumatic moments of the past 11 years.
The charges came just as Klassen
was straightening out his life.
Born and raised in Saskatoon,
at age 16 he began drinking heavily and started getting in trouble
with police.
He was sent to jail for four
years for armed robbery, getting out in 1980. A year later he
met Kari in Saskatoon and they soon married.
His last conviction was for
impaired driving in 1985. None of his offences had anything to
do with children or sexual assault.
Klassen wanted to leave his
life of crime, but finding work wasn't easy.
"Things were tough for
a guy with a criminal record. We were living on social assistance,"
he says.
He established a painting company
in Saskatoon with a partner in 1986, but there wasn't a lot of
business. Three years later, they took the business to Red Deer
and they soon landed their first big commercial painting contract.
Meanwhile, Kari and Richard
celebrated the birth of their third child.
"We were feeling pretty
good. Red Deer was beautiful. The business was just getting off
the ground," Klassen says.
"I wasn't concerned about
my past anymore. I wasn't drinking."
But in June 1991, the Klassens
were contacted by Brian Dueck, then a corporal with the Saskatoon
city police. The couple was stunned when Dueck told them they
were accused of child abuse. A few weeks later, Dueck came to
Red Deer and interviewed the Klassens at the RCMP depot.
"I denied any involvement.
We weren't afraid of anything," Klassen says. "The
lawyer assured us everything was OK and there was nothing to
worry about."
The allegations were so bizarre,
so strange the Klassens assumed nothing would come of them.
But within a few weeks the
police were at their door, telling they were under arrest, putting
them in police cruisers, making them hand their children over
to strangers.
Eleven others were arrested
and charged.
While in custody, Klassen didn't
see Kari for six days, and didn't see his kids for more than
a week. They were eventually released and got their children
back.
Things were far from normal,
however. Word of the child abuse charges spread quickly through
Red Deer, and the Klassen family became virtual prisoners in
their own home for the next 18 months, fearing harassment if
they went out.
The painting business folded.
No one else would give Klassen a job.
"We went into complete
seclusion. We didn't leave our house. We never went to restaurants.
No children were allowed to come and play with our kids,"
Klassen recalls, while tears well in Kari's eyes at the memory.
The case wound its way through
the courts. A trial was scheduled for February 1993.
But on the eve of the trial,
Klassen's father Peter agreed to plead guilty. He already had
a previous conviction from years earlier for abusing children.
In exchange for his guilty plea in this case, all charges against
Richard Klassen and the others were dropped.
"I was under pressure.
I felt I had no alternative. I figured I'd take the fall and
relieve (the other adults) of this," Peter Klassen said
in an interview. He would spend the next four years in jail.
Even though the children have
recanted, his conviction is still on the books.
After the plea bargain, prosecutors
didn't declare the others innocent. Klassen believes they could
have at least announced there wasn't enough evidence to proceed.
What they said was that the
children were too traumatized to testify. This remains the official
stance of the Justice Department.
"I don't think there's
a concern they were telling different stories. It's that they
simply weren't able to stand up to do it again," says Justice
Department lawyer Don McKillop, who represents some of the people
Klassen is suing.
Richard Klassen says the way
the charges were disposed of left the impression he and the other
adults charged were guilty anyway.
He decided to prove his innocence
in public. He moved his family to Saskatoon and began putting
up posters around the city, picketing in front of the court house,
among other aggressive tactics. A Web site was even dedicated
to discussing the case.
Klassen harshly criticized
various officials, often focusing on the fact that the foster
boy at the centre of the case -- Michael -- had continued to
abuse his sisters, even while Klassen and the others were facing
their criminal charges.
Police charged Klassen with
defamatory libel in 1994. But he defended himself and was found
not guilty.
But the case and his very public
crusade to clear his name were taking their toll. His children
were getting teased at school, so the family moved to Harris,
southwest of Saskatoon. But when no children came to their door
at Halloween, they knew their reputation had followed them.
The Klassens were frequently
threatened, and rocks were thrown through their windows on more
than one occasion.
They arrived home one night
to find their cupboards and walls full of paint. "Kiddie-Humpers"
and other epithets were written in several different colours.
Another move was inevitable.
They went to Altona, Man., where Klassen had other family.
"I decided to give up
my public campaign at that point. I was scared. My kids had suffered.
I felt guilty," he says.
Klassen found work as a painter,
Kari was employed at a local jean factory.
Then in 2000, following an
in-depth StarPhoenix feature, the CBC program Fifth Estate broadcast
Klassen's story to a national audience.
Energized, Klassen moved with
his family to Outlook, an hour south of Saskatoon, and again
dedicated himself to clearing his name -- this time through the
courts.
- - - -
Klassen, a former con who never
finished elementary school, is only months away from a trial
where he can force the police and prosecutors who handled his
case to publicly explain their actions.
During his legal odyssey, which
has been financed by various relatives, he's demanded and received
thousands of pages of documents on the case -- counsellors' notes,
lawyers' memos, transcripts of the initial interviews with the
foster children.
Klassen steadfastly believes
Justice Department officials will soon have to admit defeat.
In June, Saskatoon police Sgt.
John Popowich received a $1.3-million settlement and Justice
Minister Chris Axworthy offered a personal apology for Popowich's
prosecution on bogus ritual child abuse allegations in Martensville.
Axworthy called it the "first
in a series of settlements" in the infamous Martensville
case, which saw several police officers and a home daycare operator
from the town charged with abusing children who'd been left at
the home for babysitting.
That case and Klassen's --
which has also been called the "Foster Child Case"
-- are almost identical. In both instances, police laid dozens
of charges against people accused of abusing children as part
of satanic cults.
Both occurred in the early
1990s, when hysteria over devil worship reached its peak.
But the Klassen case is different
in one crucial aspect: the three children who made the allegations
against Richard, Kari and the others have all admitted that they
were lying.
When Popowich got $1.3 million
and an apology, Klassen thought the government would soften its
stance towards him.
But just days later, the government
continued its offensive against Klassen, asking a judge for the
third time to throw out his lawsuit. Klassen realized the fight
to clear his name was far from over.
In a remarkable speech to the
court, as he fought desperately to keep his years of work from
being tossed aside, Klassen convinced the judge to let his lawsuit
continue. Immediately afterwards, a spent Klassen wept with relief
in the courtroom as his supporters embraced him.
"We've got a strong case
and we're going to prove it one way or another. A lot of damage
was done," Klassen says.
The Justice Department lawyer,
McKillop, says he'll continue the government's defence against
Klassen and the other 11 people who are suing.
Peter Klassen cannot be part
of the suit because he pleaded guilty
"My instructions haven't
changed on this file," McKillop said in an interview outside
the courtroom after the latest ruling in June.
Klassen has started questioning
potential witnesses behind closed doors as part of the pre-trial
process.
"This is finally the day
in court I've waited for. Questions are being answered. I want
to prove they were wrong and I didn't do any of this," Klassen
says.
The court process is intimidating,
he admits, especially for someone with so little education.
"I'm scared to death in
there. I could never have seen myself doing this, but I am.
"But I'm getting a chance
to show the truth. Justice will be done."
- - - -
Many officials, including Crown
prosecutor Matthew Miazga, are refusing to talk about the case
while the lawsuit is ongoing. Therapist Carol Bunko-Ruys, who
worked with the children and is also named in the lawsuit, could
not be reached.
One person who did comment
was Dueck, who has since been promoted to superintendent. Speaking
publicly for the first time on the case, Dueck says that Klassen's
"vigilante" campaign has taken a toll on him, his family,
and the Saskatoon Police Service.
"It certainly hasn't been
pleasant. A lot of things have been done that you guys have no
idea, to me or to my family, that border on the insane,"
Dueck says.
The Klassens and other plaintiffs
have every right to take legal action, he says, but they've gone
far beyond that with a postering campaign, a Web site, and other
measures to denounce Dueck and others involved.
"Having this hanging around
for 10 years is ridiculous. I would love to get it cleared up,"
Dueck says.
Many officers have said they'd
have investigated the case the same way, Dueck says.
"It could have been anybody
who took the file. Put yourself in that position. What do I have
to gain?" he said.
Dueck says he can't talk about
any specific aspects of the case because of the various lawsuits
under way, and referred those questions to his Regina lawyer.
"It isn't that I don't
want to talk. Gosh, it'd be great to sit down and frankly discuss
this whole situation, but that's the advice I've been given.
That's what I've stuck to," he says.
Dueck's lawyer, David Gerrand,
wouldn't comment.
McKillop, the Justice Department
lawyer, noted that a judge believed the testimony of the children
when they testified against their birth parents and the mother's
friend and the allegations were every bit as strange.
The judge convicted those adults,
although it was overturned by the Supreme Court. One of the reasons
was the lack of credibility of the children's stories.
McKillop says his clients,
"like everybody else, are anxious to see this lawsuit get
to an end."
His clients deny every allegation
made in the lawsuit, and are countersuing Klassen and the others
for defaming them.
- - - -
The three children whose allegations
brought the full force of the legal system crashing onto the
Klassens are now adults. Michael, and his younger twin sisters
Kathy and Michelle, all openly admit that they weren't abused
by Richard, Kari or Peter Klassen, nor any of the other people
involved in the lawsuit. There was no satanic cult, they say.
The boy, Michael, was troubled
from a very young age. His parents were deaf and mute and the
age difference between them was large. Their marriage was troubled
and they struggled as parents.
When Michael was just seven
years old, he was already touching other children sexually and
inviting his teachers to have sex with him.
The Saskatchewan Department
of Social Services had placed all three children in foster care
by 1987. The new parents were not told of the problem behaviour
by the children. The inappropriate behaviour soon resurfaced.
Michael was transferred to
a second foster home in Warman. Shortly after he arrived -- while
his sisters remained with the first foster family -- Michael
made up the allegations against the first foster parents.
In May 1990 the girls were
removed from the first home as well and reunited with their brother
in the Warman foster home.
Saskatoon lawyer Robert Borden
said this is one of the most disturbing elements of the case.
"Michael was assaulting
his sisters. The police and social workers knew. It was unbelievable,"
said Borden.
In a recent interview, Rob
Twigg, a therapist and professor of social work at the University
of Regina, said he can't imagine why officials would knowingly
keep a sexually abusive boy under the same roof as his sisters.
"I don't know how one
would justify that. The first priority should always be the safety
of the children," Twigg says.
The children's allegations
widened to include their birth parents, Richard and Kari Klassen
and others. The children were interviewed by police and placed
in counselling.
Michael says he's not sure
why he began to make up the allegations. But once he began he
says officials pressured or bribed him and his sisters to continue.
Michael and the girls lied
that the adults forced them to drink blood and urine, eat eyeballs
and roasted babies, and have sex with dogs and flying bats.
All three children now say
they think officials knew exactly what was happening as the incredible
stories unfolded.
"They knew what was going
on. They chose to do nothing about it. They looked the other
way," Michael said in an interview this fall.
The girls say they lied because
Michael threatened them.
"I felt intimidated. If
I was in a different foster home I probably would have told the
truth," Kathy, now 20 years old, says from her B.C. home.
"But they knew. They did
nothing."
In another hard-to-believe
twist in a case that has many, Klassen has befriended the three
young people. He and Michelle and Michael have gone for coffee
many times.
He often talks to Kathy, who
has a two-month-old baby, by phone from her British Columbia
home.
Klassen says he considers the
children, even Michael, victims of a dysfunctional system.
Michael dreams of opening a
nightclub. Kathy and Michelle both want to get their high school
diplomas and become counsellors for abused children.
"I feel I have experience
in that area," Michelle says.
"I'll never forget. I
want to deal with things."
But it may be a while before
Michael and Michelle realize their dreams. Michelle stands charged
with robbery with violence, while Michael is in jail because
of alleged breaches of probation and theft.
- - - -
Richard Klassen says financial
compensation is important, but the two keys are an apology and
a public inquiry.
"Do they still think we're
guilty? I want them to acknowledge this never happened,"
he says.
"It's time the government
takes responsibility. Something went seriously wrong here. Let's
look at it."
Once the lawsuit is finished,
Kari and Richard Klassen plan to leave the province. He's anxious
to spend more time with his family, time he sacrificed while
pursuing his campaign.
As the interview at the Saskatoon
restaurant concludes, he turns to his wife, who has kept her
seat close by her husband, resting a supportive hand on his knee.
"I've lived and breathed
this case from the start. I'm obsessed with clearing my name
and Kari's.
"I want people to know
what happened. But I can't wait for this thing to be over."
Kari agrees.
"This has been a major
strain. I was really afraid of what was going to happen.
"When this is over, we're
going to get a hammock and just take a break."
© Copyright 2002 The
StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
This story has been kept alive
on this website since 1998. Before we went online, we conducted
many actions in 1994 when we were
placed on gag undertakings until criminal libel charges against
us were quashed or dropped. There have been several attempts
to have
the website removed and Richard Klassen has been fined by the court because original
disclosure materials were published here. I am proud to have defied the gag order. Kathy, Michael and Michelle were able to learn
the consequences of their sessions with Dueck and Carol Bunko-Ruys and apologize to those
they lied about because the information was published here (Michelle
found the website because of one of the posters I put up which
Dueck whines about in the above article). I have also been charged
with criminal defamation and acquitted. Dan Zakreski who wrote
a feature
in 1999
and CBC's Fifth
Estate
which produced the award winning "Scandal of the Century"
relied on the website as an accurate source. The website was
up for several months before we publicized the $10M lawsuit as our initial goal
was to find and protect the Ross children. We have also published
information about the Martensville case where Popowich recently received
the settlement. We have also given considerable thought to what
would be a
fair settlement.--
Sheila
Steele, webmaster,
injusticebusters, Nov. 2, 2002
Globe
and Mail article 1995
From the University
of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law | Visit Jurist | for a whole list
of famous
trials
| or chronological prepared by Dr. Linder
| Inherit
the wind
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell