Child-sex case jolts family, small community

TACOMA — Ronald Harold Young, the Pierce County foster parent charged yesterday with 44 crimes of child pornography and rape involving six boys in his care, gave his family the impression that taking in broken children was his personal "ministry."

Young, 41, became "super-religious" about two years ago, said his 25-year-old niece, who only gave her first name as Bev. She said Young presented himself as "a good, God-fearing Christian of all things, super foster dad."

For most of his adult life, he told family members he was an atheist, said a woman who identified herself only as Young's sister and Bev's mother. One day, she said, "he started wearing a cross and preaching."

Neither Young's sister nor his niece knew what caused the transformation.

About that time, in July 2002, Young and his wife received a license to become foster parents.

Young said little yesterday before pleading not guilty in Pierce County Superior Court to child rape, molestation and sexual exploitation of a minor. He is being held on $2 million bail in the Pierce County Jail.

In charging papers, Pierce County prosecutors said that by September 2003, Young was engaging in sexual acts with the six boys, ages 5 to 7, taking hundreds of digital pictures and sending them all over the world via the Internet.

In fact, tips that sparked the investigation came from Europe and the United States. Investigators overseas found child pornography originating from the Tacoma area under the e-mail address fosterdad@hotmail.com. The e-mail address was connected to Young, who was arrested about 7:15 a.m. Thursday.

Young has had at least five other foster children who no longer lived at his home, and detectives are talking to them about whether they were victimized. Prosecutors said Young has contacted foster children after they've left his care.

Tom Balerud and Erik Bauer, the attorneys representing the birth family of two of those boys, brothers who are 13 and 10 years old, said the boys were being examined yesterday at a Tacoma hospital. The attorneys believe the boys, who lived with Young from December 2002 until three weeks ago, were molested.

Young has no known criminal history. Pierce County sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer said investigators last night were trying to determine if Young previously went by a different name and had been charged or convicted of a sex crime under that name.

What's ahead for children

The Department of Social and Health Services, which oversees the foster-care system, learned of the allegations Thursday, according to Liz Dunbar, the agency's deputy secretary.

"All the caseworkers were shocked when the children were removed from the home," she said. "There were not red flags in this case. Assuming this person is a pedophile, it's difficult to predict this. It's not like they wear a scarlet letter."

The children were immediately pulled from the home and placed with temporary foster parents. Siblings were not separated. A court will decide where the boys go next.

Dunbar defended the agency's actions in the case — from the family's initial screening to become foster parents, to their training and the caseworkers' supervision.

"I think we have a good process," she said. "It's hard to say at this point what we could have done to predict this and prevent it. ... We obviously will look at what more we can do, but this is a very rare case. It's a horrific case, but it's a very rare case."

Young spent at least the past five years in Home, a sleepy community in northwest Pierce County in the middle of the Key Peninsula. The commercial center is a half-mile patch looking out over Henderson Bay. There's Lulu's Home Port Restaurant and Lounge, a few churches, a service station, a post office, a laundry and the Home Country Store. Nearby are horse farms and feed stores.

Many people praised the area's peace and quiet. But Cristi Watson, director of Key Peninsula Community Services, said she knows of at least 32 sex offenders who live along a 10-mile stretch that includes Home.

"Most of the people who come out here are hiding from things," Watson said.

Young lives in a large green bungalow at the top of a little hill, near the end of a one-lane road that turns muddy when it rains. A young man at the house yesterday declined to talk about the charges.

Neighbors said Young raised two of his own boys. One is in the Air Force, and the other still lives in the area.

Jane Coby, a cashier at the Home Country Store, recalled that Young came by about once a day to buy cereal and milk. She said he almost always had the younger boys in tow, and he let them pick out treats.

Young used to be a contractor, but recently, he was a full-time foster parent who did odd jobs. State officials say foster families are paid $366.31 to $514.95 per month for a child whose needs are average.

Linell Warnes, another cashier at the Home Country Store, said Young was "very nice, very quiet, very well-mannered. He was always correcting (his boys) firmly: 'No, you can only get one thing.' 'No, you don't behave like that.' "

Unrest in Home, court

But few people in Home had sympathy for Young yesterday. Many wished him harm or said he should die.

Young's sister said his family "is not standing by him."

"I don't want none of it, he's a sick bastard," she said. "What we have to say is he's very sick and we don't condone it."

Young's niece, Bev, was so upset after the court hearing yesterday that she charged at Young's wife in the crowded hallway. Bev, who was restrained by her mother, accused Young's wife of wrongly supporting him.

Melvin Byrd, pastor at the Port Orchard Church of Christ, where the Youngs began attending about a year ago, said he's confident Young's wife "knew absolutely nothing." Police are investigating whether she had any knowledge of the alleged crimes; she is not a suspect. She didn't talk to reporters yesterday.

Byrd said the Youngs always brought a gaggle of foster kids with them to church.

"As soon as we saw them with all these little boys, it was an interesting sight," Byrd said. "We admired them and appreciated them for what they were doing."

Once, Byrd said, he was pleased to see the couple bringing a foster child's mother to church. "We thought it was a great success story," he said. "We had no hint of anything like this."

The boys showed no signs of abuse, Byrd said. "They seemed very precious, very ordinary. Amazingly, they were quite outgoing. Often, they would come up to me or my wife and say hi.

"It amazes me," Byrd continued. "How could he feel secure that those boys would not talk about this?"

According to Mary Meinig, director of the state Office of the Family and Children's Ombudsman, children often keep abuse secret. "Kids are even more vulnerable in foster care," she said. "This isn't their parent. This is somebody unknown to them. (They think) if I do tell, what even worse thing might happen to me?"

But Bill Grimm, an attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, which is suing DSHS on behalf of foster-care kids in an unrelated Whatcom County case, said there should have been clues for the agency. He said Washington standards call for a caseworker to visit a home once every 90 days — which isn't frequent enough to get to know a kid or a home. "We should be visiting no less than once every 30 days," he said.

Michael Ko: 206-515-5653 or mko@seattletimes.com; Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com