Eastside Journal -- Glad It's Over

Glad it's over: Kathy Tonkin, formerly of Kirkland, who hired a cult "deprogrammer" to get her 18-year-old son out of a Bellevue church, will probably not be charged with any crimes following this week's acquittal of the deprogrammer on unlawful-imprisonment charges.

"The victim does not want us to charge his mother," said Joe Wheeler, deputy Grays Harbor County prosecutor. "In a week or so, we'll sit down and figure out whether to do so."

Wheeler said he was surprised by the jury's verdict on Rick Ross after two hours of deliberation. "I'm certainly glad this case is done," he said.

Jurors in the case against Ross, in which he was accused of keeping Jason Scott for several days in 1991 against his will in a Grays Harbor house to dissuade him from his membership in Bellevue's Life Tabernacle Church, said prosecutors had not proved Ross participated in restraining Scott.

Two other men in the case, Mark Workman and Charles Simpson, like Ross, of Arizona, were sentenced Tuesday to 30 days in jail after pleading guilty last week to reduced charges of coercion.