Rachel Dolezal’s campaign to state her case continues. After saying on The Today Show that she identifies as black, Rachel cast more doubt about her ethnicity by telling NBC Nightly News “there’s been no biological proof that Larry and Ruthanne are my biological parents.”
She added, “I definitely am not white. Nothing about being white describes who I am.”
Meanwhile, parents Ruthanne and Larry Dolezal also continue to speak out — and it seems the issues within the family go far beyond Rachel’s racial identity. They told People this week that Rachel initiated a sexual abuse case against brother Joshua Dolezal in 2013, relating to events that allegedly happened in 2001 or 2002.
“That is all a malicious false lie,” Ruthanne said. “[Rachel] is the one who initiated it. We know it is not true.”
According to the police report and search warrant affidavit, Joshua is accused of sexually abusing a female sibling when she was six or seven. The accuser, now 20, said she came forward in 2013 because “Joshua Dolezal has a one year-old daughter and [victim] does not want the daughter to be victimized.” She said she previously told her adopted mother Ruthanne, but she “did not believe [victim] and told [victim] to stop telling lies.”
Speaking to People this week, Ruthanne said Joshua wasn’t home from college when the abuse allegedly happened.
“I was a stay-at-home mother and very attentive to the kids because of her disorder,” she said, referencing the accuser’s “reactive attachment disorder,” a condition in which a child cannot bond with a parent and “seeks to cause trouble in the family.”
Ruthanne added, “I never left her at home with our son or anything like that.”
Ezra Dolezal, one of Rachel’s adopted siblings, said he sides with his parents.
“It’s more false statements. It’s a really horrible situation,” he said. He claimed Rachel initiated the case to seek revenge on Josh for going against her when she was seeking custody of another adopted sibling. “Josh called Rachel out on that and told her it was wrong what she did, taking my parents to court over my brother, and Rachel didn’t like that. Basically Rachel has been constantly trying to get at Josh since then.”
When the allegations were brought forth, Joshua was a college professor in Iowa. According to court documents, he was interviewed by a Missouri social services caseworker who said “there was no basis for the allegations.” He will stand trial in August in Colorado, where the family lived in 2001 and 2002.
