SCRIPT: Those Were Our Children 2/99

BRIAN ROSS

None of this, none of the questions about suspect truck drivers' licenses or questions about the driver of the truck in their accident was known to Scott and Janet Willis. Until there began a series of late-night phone calls.

REVEREND SCOTT WILLIS

They would call anonymously and tell us that they knew some things that we needed to know. (Commercial Break)

REVEREND SCOTT WILLIS

You don't go a day without remembering the kids.

JANET WILLIS

We were a very, very close family. And we had a lot of fun. We had a lot of goof-around time.

REVEREND SCOTT WILLIS

Just watching them play. Those common things are very, very precious. And I wish I had listened more, wish I had spent more time with them.

JANET WILLIS

The abrupt cutting off of all our hopes and dreams was just, I remember thinking to myself that all I had worked for, and all -- you know, frankly having nine children was a lot of hard work, and I loved it. I loved being a mom. But I thought to myself it was all a waste.

BRIAN ROSS

More than four years after the accident that killed their six children, there are still a lot of lonely days for Janet and Scott Willis and a constant fight against anger and bitterness.

JANET WILLIS

You know, as this has unfolded, it's a struggle to not get bitter. It's a struggle as we see that there was, in some cases, deliberate wrongdoing, it is more difficult.

BRIAN ROSS

Wrongdoing that started to come to light for the Willises in the anonymous late-night phone calls about how the driver of the truck in their accident allegedly got his license.

JOE POWER, ATTORNEY

It took me less than a half hour to realize that it stunk.

BRIAN ROSS

Joe Power, a lawyer hired by the Willis family, started handling the anonymous phone calls and then a bundle of documents that soon showed up.

JOE POWER

The documents outlined hundreds of payoffs that were made to certain individuals -- people with clout, names of contributors to Mr. Ryan's campaign, trucking companies, driving schools.

BRIAN ROSS

Including contributions from the first of several trucking companies Ricardo Guzman worked for. Both the trucking company and Guzman, who still has his license, would not agree to appear on 20/20, and both have denied any wrongdoing. But the Willis family lawyer says he can prove an unqualified Guzman was pushed through the CDL licensing process.

JOE POWER

He's a poor immigrant who came in here, and I believe the evidence will show, through clout and payoffs, got his CDL.

BRIAN ROSS

The documents and phone calls soon led the Willises' lawyer to focus on this woman, Marion Seibel, a former assistant manager at the secretary of state's licensing office where Guzman got his license. Seibel, who has since been fired on unrelated charges, is now at the center of the truck licensing scandal. And that is your signature?

MARION SEIBEL, FORMER LICENSING OFFICE EMPLOYEE

This is my signature. That's my signature.

BRIAN ROSS

It was Marion Seibel who signed off on Guzman's license test, but she claims she has no memory of the man, and both she and her supervisor deny allegations they ever helped anyone cheat on a test.

MARION SEIBEL

There's no way. No way.

BRIAN ROSS

But even so, Seibel says she was routinely under pressure from what she called "downtown" to pass people who weren't qualified to drive a truck.

MARION SEIBEL

That's the way I felt about it. Because why would you call and holler at me afterwards or when I called down there and said that the person didn't make it, and I know there was a couple of times where they went to another office, and we looked up on the computer, and the person passed at the other office.

BRIAN ROSS

Seibel says she wouldn't be a scapegoat for anyone in all this and told 20/20 that she even received a handful of phone calls directly from George Ryan's secretary.

MARION SEIBEL

I had gotten calls from George Ryan's secretary.

BRIAN ROSS

You did?

MARION SEIBEL

Yes.

BRIAN ROSS

Telling you what?

MARION SEIBEL

We have a person, and we want this person run through today.

BRIAN ROSS

From George Ryan's office?

MARION SEIBEL

Yes, from his secretary.

BRIAN ROSS

Governor Ryan, a Republican, says the focus on the licensing scandal is all the work of the Willises' family lawyer, who is active in Democratic politics. But Seibel's allegations about Ryan's office take the case far beyond just the Willis accident. You've met her.

GOVERNOR GEORGE RYAN

I don't know who she is. No. I've never met her.

BRIAN ROSS

You have never met her?

GOVERNOR GEORGE RYAN

Never met her.

BRIAN ROSS

Ryan's press secretary first agreed to schedule an interview with the governor and then canceled, telling 20/20 we would have to find Ryan in a public place to ask him any questions, which is just what we did -- starting with Seibel's allegations that his office, his secretary had called to push certain people through to get their truck driver's licenses.

GOVERNOR GEORGE RYAN

Well, I just don't believe that. She is, I think, under investigation herself. She's been fired. We fired her some time ago and, you know, these people make all kinds of accusations.

BRIAN ROSS

So she's just making that up?

GOVERNOR GEORGE RYAN

I would guess that she is. I've never talked with her. Don't know her.

BRIAN ROSS

But Seibel produced three different photographs of Ryan with her. Ryan meets lots of people as a politician, but Seibel says two of these photos were taken at special events honoring select state employees who had raised the most money for Ryan by selling tickets to campaign dinners and golfing events.

MARION SEIBEL

This was taken at the restaurant where we were invited after the ticket sales.

BRIAN ROSS

So this is sort of a "thank you" from George Ryan.

MARION SEIBEL

Right. And it says, "To Marion with best wishes, George."

BRIAN ROSS

How much money did you raise in selling these tickets?

MARION SEIBEL

It was 80-something thousand dollars, like close to like $80,000, $82,000.

BRIAN ROSS

That you raised for George Ryan?

MARION SEIBEL

Right.

BRIAN ROSS

And Seibel says she kept copies of everything, which she showed us, going back five years because, she says, she wanted to make sure her bosses gave her the salary increases she says she had been promised for raising money.

Was it your idea to raise the money from the truck driving schools and the trucking companies?

MARION SEIBEL

No. I was given those names. I was given names, check, you know, contact this one, contact that one.