FORKS — Two longtime Forks foster parents are awaiting arraignment Friday on child-sex abuse charges after a 14-year-old girl they were caring for said she was repeatedly raped over five years.
David B. “Barney” Allen, 47, was in the Clallam County jail on $75,000 bail Saturday on charges filed Tuesday in Clallam County Superior Court that he committed second- and third-degree child rape and first-degree child molestation.
His wife, Irma P. Allen, 57, was in jail Saturday on $25,000 bail on charges of third-degree child rape, third-degree child molestation, second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and tampering with a witness.
The Allens allegedly used their position of trust to commit the offenses and engaged in an ongoing pattern of abuse, according to the charges.
The rape charge against Barney Allen includes a special allegation of sexual conduct with a victim in return for a fee. He allegedly gave the girl an iPhone, an iPod, Dum Dum candy and $30 in return for sex.
The girl called the gifts “hush things” in an interview with a detective.
The Allens’ conditions of release include no contact with six minors identified by their initials in court documents who lived in the couple’s home and with any child under 18 under any circumstances.
The three girls and three boys are in the custody of state or Quileute tribal child welfare officials, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Matthew Roberson said Thursday.
The Allens were raising the children — the maximum number allowed in a foster home — in an 1,800-square-foot, three-bedroom Chuckhole Way home they have owned since 2001, the same year they became foster parents.
Allen, a Jefferson Transit bus driver since June 2014 whose route is in the Forks area, has been put on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the case, General Manager Tammi Rubert said Wednesday.
The alleged abuse of the girl occurred mostly in his bed between May 31, 2015 and May 30, 2016; Jan. 1- June 30, 2019, and Aug. 1-Sept. 3 2020, according to the charges.
“For five years, he kept this young lady from coming forward,” Roberson said last week before Judge Brent Basden set Barney Allen’s bail.
“[He] and his wife would threaten her from seeing her sister or breaking up the family or the manipulation of gifts,” he said.
“He has taken care of the most vulnerable among us. The allegations are that he betrayed that trust.”
Harry Gasnick of Clallam Public Defender, representing Allen for his first appearance, said Allen denied the allegations.
The couple was arrested Sept. 17.
The probable cause statements for the Allens gave the following accounts of the girl’s allegations:
She said Barney Allen molested and digitally raped her, asking her to go on birth control, which she refused to do.
He and his wife slept in different rooms. The girl’s bed was in Barney Allen’s bedroom.
“She barely slept in her loft bed and mostly slept in Barney’s bed with him for most of her seventh and eighth grade,” the statement said
When she told Irma Allen that she was being abused, “Irma told [the girl] not to talk about it because she would lose everything,” including her sisters.
“Irma has told [the girl] this a lot over the last few years and it has made [the girl] feel guilty.”
The alleged abuse came to a head Sept. 8-12, when a visit to the Allens’ home by a woman who had been their foster child led to their arrest.
A girl living with the Allens told the woman a camera was hidden in an alarm clock in her bedroom. Irma Allen cut the wires and smashed it.
“Barney said it was there to record and catch the kids if they snuck electronics into their rooms,” according to the statement.
The alleged victim told the woman she was being abused by the Allens and that “they wanted her to lie about everything.”
The woman, who has been interviewed by authorities, confronted Irma Allen, recording a conversation with her during which she told Allen to report the abuse to police.
Irma Allen called Peninsula Communications Sept. 12 to say that her husband “had been having sex” with the girl.
Barney Allen told sheriff’s Detective Brandon Stoppani that about four or five months ago, the girl said they could have sex if he bought her an iPhone.
He “touched her some, and it was like, what am I doing?” he said in the probable cause statement.
The charges against Irma Allen were for alleged incidents that occurred between Jan. 1, 2018-Sept. 3, 2020; July 1-Sept. 3, 2020, and Aug. 1-Sept. 3, 2020.
The alleged victim was 9 when Barney Allen sexually assaulted her in a tent pitched at the Chuckhole Way home.
“It was reported, but nothing happened because Irma and Barney told her to lie,” according to the statement.
“Irma told [the girl] that she could get whatever she wanted and to just scam Barney,” the girl said, alleging Irma Allen made that suggestion “many times.”
Irma Allen allegedly became jealous of the girl, treating her like she was having an affair with her husband
The girl was interviewed Sept. 18 at the Quileute Tribe’s Department of Human Services after tribal officials told authorities the alleged victim had more information about the case.
“One time, Irma and Barney told [the girl] together that the touching was gong to stop,” the girl said in the interview.
Recently, while Irma and the girl were in the house, “Irma put her hand under [the girl’s] bra,” the girl said.
Irma Allen denied sexually touching the girl and threatening her with a knife or that she knew of sexual contact between the girl and her husband.
The Allens are among 91 foster parents in Clallam and Jefferson counties and more than 5,000 in Washington state, Debra Johnson, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families said last week.
There were 15 confirmed cases of child sex abuse in foster homes, child care and residential juvenile rehabilitation facilities in 2019, she said. Statistics provided last week did not include specific totals for counties or settings in which they occurred.
“Based on information from our [Child Protective Services] license division, there is less than 1 percent of sexual abuse that has occurred in foster homes,” she said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
