Walled Lake Schools to pay parents in dismissed rape case

A West Bloomfield couple charged in a rape prosecution that crumbled for lack of evidence will receive $1.1 million from the insurance carrier for Walled Lake Consolidated Schools.

The company negotiated the payment just three weeks before the lawsuit filed by Julian and Thal Wendrow was scheduled to go to trial.

West Bloomfield police arrested the Wendrows in December 2007 after a school aide helped their autistic daughter, who can't speak, type a statement accusing her father of repeated rapes and her mother of ignoring the attacks. The statement was written using facilitated communication, where the aide guides the child's fingers over a keyboard.

The method has never been approved for courtroom use and critics insist the aide was the true author of the writings, either consciously or subconciously.

"We felt it was a responsible thing to do," the couple's lawyer, Deborah Gordon, said of the settlement.

The district admits no wrongdoing under the settlement.

"The District reached the resolution at the direction of its insurer and third-party insurance administrators, and the resolution was fully funded by the insurer," the district said in a statement. "The district's only out-of-pocket cost was a $50,000 deductible; the same deductible applicable to any other civil action filed against the district and covered by the district's insurer."

The girl continues to be educated in the district and officials declined further comment.

The settlement brings to $3.75 million the couple has collected in the case.

The insurance carrier for West Bloomfield police paid the Wendrows $1.8 million in 2010. Earlier this year, the State of Michigan agreed to pay $850,000 to settle claims made against the Michigan Department of Human Services.

The only remaining defendant is the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office. Trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 8.

The Wendrows claim their lives have been permanently damaged by the criminal case. Julian Wendrow spent 80 days in the Oakland County Jail before prosecutors dropped the charges for a lack of evidence.

Thal Wendrow spent five days in jail before being released with an electronic monitoring device attached to her leg.

When they were arrested, their daughter, then 14, was taken into protective custody. The couple's son, then 13, was interrogated by a detective who tried to get him to confirm the rape accusations by saying police had videotape of his father raping his sister.

Police never had such a tape and the boy insisted he never witnessed any attacks.

Contact John Wisely: 313-222-6825 or jwisely@freepress.com