[Vision2020] Sitler case

[Art Deco]

Keely,

Thank you Keely for your most insightful post.  And a huge thank you to Cultmaster Wilson for giving us such a sterling demonstration of what an artfully clever con artist he is, and why he brings to mind the old joke:  "How can you tell if Cultmaster Wilson is lying?  See if he is breathing."

Many years ago in another jurisdiction I had a conversation with a veteran law enforcement officer who related an experience she had as a rookie.  It went something like this (name changed):

When I was on the force just a few months, an APB was received for a felony suspect.  While on foot patrol, I saw someone who matched the given description.  I approached and asked the suspect if he was Rudolf Benson.  He denied it vehemently and quite convincingly.  But I was pretty sure he was the suspect and didn't want to make a mistake since in those days female officers were held to a much higher standard.

As we were talking, the suspect spit on the sidewalk.  I then informed him that he had broken a law, that I was going to cite him, and that he was required to show his identification.  He tried to bolt, but I was prepared, able to restrain him, and then call for backup.

When he was finally in custody, a check of his identification showed he was indeed Rudolf Benson.  Since lying to a police officer was a further crime, he was asked why he lied.  His response:

"I didn't lie.  My name is not Rudolf Benson.  It is Rudolf Weldon Benson."

A disingenuous lie.


Another example, this one from observation of part of a criminal trial:

On cross-examination the defendant was asked if there were several other persons present when X occurred.  The defendant replied, "No."  The prosecutor appeared to accept this statement completely at face value.  However, at various points during his examination the prosecutor slyly asked if such and such a person was present when X occurred.  The answer was always, "Yes."

After the last of these answers, the prosecutor asked, "You have now named six persons who where present when X occurred.  Yet you denied at first that there were several other persons present when X occurred.  How can both statements be true?"

The defendant replied, "Six other persons is not several.  There would have to be seven other persons present for there to be several."

I am sure that this disingenuous lie was an important factor in the minds of the jury when deciding about the credibility of the defendant.  He was convicted after about 10 minutes of deliberation.


The above are examples of the kind of disingenuous lies that the Cultmaster sometimes tells.  In Keely's words:

"It is disingenuous for Wilson to take refuge in the literal truth that Sitler was not a member of Christ Church.  While he didn't, apparently, enter into a membership covenant with the Kirk, he worshipped there regularly, is in the directory as a part of the Kirk community, lived in a Kirk-family boarding house, attended NSA, and was considered a part of the ministries and fellowship of Christ Church.  That he didn't cap it all with a membership ceremony is irrelevant."

Further, several of the Cultmaster's minions/employees testified under oath at an IBTA hearing that NSA, etc were all part of the Christ Church ministry.  The document I clipped showing Sitler's membership in the set of Christ Church congregants was entitled the Christ Church Address and Telephone Directory. 

Keely's analysis brings to mind the old saw:  If it walks like a duck, quacks like..., etc, it is a duck.

Again, I caution anyone, especially vulnerable members of the cult, about taking the Cultmaster's words at nominal value, and especially in such a revolting, revealing case as the one at issue.  The Cultmaster is a world class flimflammer trying to save his reputation, power base, and economic engine.


What is also quite diabolically clever is his question to me about where I got the number 120 (see below).  Notice that he didn't deny that 120 was the correct number.  Here's the clever part: he must have some idea what the actual number is because he alleges that Sitler confessed to him (at least some of) his acts of pedophilic debauchery of children.

Wilson knows an approximate number from these confessions.  He has not revealed it public.  He might argue that his "confidential" pastoral relationship with Sitler would not permit it.  But since Both Wilson and Sitler have already discussed certain aspects of these confessions in public, it would appear that they have waived the privilege of confidentiality, at least legally.


Wilson is one of those charming people that many believe without critical effort or examination.  For me, if he said it was raining, I would hold out my hand and look up at the sky.  Carefully.  Stay tuned and/or go to www.poohsthink.com for more insight into some of the Cultmaster's flimflammery.


Wayne A. Fox
1009 Karen Lane
PO Box 9421
Moscow, ID  83843

(208) 882-7975
waf at moscow.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "keely emerinemix" <kjajmix1 at msn.com>
To: <deco at moscow.com>; <deveryone at potlatch.com>; <alajr at lmtribune.com>; <pemerson at lmtribune.com>; <cclohessy at lmtribune.com>; <vision2020 at moscow.com>; <jfisher at lmtribune.com>; <alford at dnews.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 11:58 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Sitler case


> It is disingenuous for Wilson to take refuge in the literal truth that 
> Sitler was not a member of Christ Church.  While he didn't, apparently, 
> enter into a membership covenant with the Kirk, he worshipped there 
> regularly, is in the directory as a part of the Kirk community, lived in a 
> Kirk-family boarding house, attended NSA, and was considered a part of the 
> ministries and fellowship of Christ Church.  That he didn't cap it all with 
> a membership ceremony is irrelevant.
> 
> It's this kind of splitting of hairs that makes Wilson look less than 
> sterling of reputation.  Same with saying "we" reported the offenses.  In 
> truth, Wilson directed the family to report.  Good for him.  But most 
> pastors would have recognized their legal, if not simply moral, obligation 
> to report it for themselves.  That Sitler had a lawyer with Kirk 
> connections, a pastor who was involved in counseling both victims and 
> offender and who wrote a letter asking for the judge's mercy in sentencing, 
> and that Wilson was the first person the family went to -- a pastor, not the 
> police -- is all curious to those on the outside.  It's hardly paranoia or 
> shamelessness that makes it so, at least not on the part of the questioners.
> 
> keely

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Douglas" <dougwils at christkirk.com>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 11:40 AM
Subject: [Vision2020] Literacy and Math


> Visionaries,
> 
> Wayne Fox and I differ on many substantive things, as the whole world 
> knows. But the issues regarding his post below are not in that category, 
> having more to do with basic literacy and basic math.
> 
> 1. At the very beginning of the directory that Wayne Fox cites, the 
> following statement appears. "This directory includes members from both 
> churches and those who attend on a regular basis, /but are not yet 
> members/ . . ." (emphasis added). NSA students regularly retain their 
> membership in their home churches, as was the case with Steven Sitler. 
> His name was in the directory because it is an address and phone 
> directory, not a membership list. Thus, my statement.
> 
> 2. In the math category, I have no idea where Wayne could possibly have 
> gotten the figure of 120 victims. This is not said as a defense of 
> Steven's activity -- if there had been only one victim, he should be 
> right where he is today, which is in jail. But Wayne still needs to reel 
> it in.
> 
> Douglas Wilson




> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Art Deco" <deco at moscow.com>
> To: <deveryone at potlatch.com>, <alajr at lmtribune.com>,        "'Paul Emerson'" 
> <pemerson at lmtribune.com>, <cclohessy at lmtribune.com>,        "Vision 2020" 
> <vision2020 at moscow.com>,        "Jim Fisher" <jfisher at lmtribune.com>,        
> "Nathan Alford Daily News" <alford at dnews.com>
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Sitler case
> Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 10:47:09 -0700
> 

HTML is necessary to view the graphics in this post.

Bill,

Thank you for posting this story.  There are a number of comments that it invites.  I will limit myself to two.

1.    Cultmaster Wilson says: "Sitler was not a member of Christ Church."

Two graphics follow:  The first is the heading of the document from whence the second comes.  The document is a now dated Christ Church Membership Directory.  The second graphic shows the part of the page where Steven Sitler's membership is shown.

[Images omitted on re-transmission.  The actual title of the document is the Christ Church Address and Telephone Directory.]

Of course, those of us familiar with Cultmaster Wilson of the Wilson & Family's Cult & Cash Machine know that he is a pusillanimous, but not always careful liar.   I suggest that readers ascribe to his public comments on this and the Jamin Wight case (including those he has so graciously deigned to rejoin V 2020 to make) the same degree of truthfulness and ingenuity as his above comment about Sitler's membership in his cult.


2.    What's is far more egregious for the community than Wilson's to-be-expected lies is the sloppy journalism, editorial placement, and story captioning practiced by the Lewiston Mourning Tribune.

Was it too much to ask of reporter David Johnson to check the accuracy of the statements of Wilson, a big-time known liar, especially statements about Sitler's cult membership?  Apparently, it was.  Accuracy by the Tribune with respect to reporting on the cult's activities and pronouncements have never been much of a priority when it comes to Wilson's machinations.  I guess that accurate, unbiased reporting is too much to ask of Johnson when it comes to the Cultmaster.  I hope that there nothing more than cupidity at work here.

Although Johnson's report notes in passing that:

"According to court records, Sitler told authorities of numerous other sexual assaults he committed with children here and in Stevens County,...",

the caption on the story is "Church officials say rumors about sex offender are 'ludicrous'".  The story it self is placed on page 4 of the Northwest section.

Let's put this in perspective:

A pedophile is reported by on Johnson to have "told authorities of numerous other sexual assaults he committed with children here and in Stevens County,...".  This child molester has allegedly confessed to sexually abusing about 120 children, including several in the cult family he boarded with while attending New Saint Andrews.  This is not a front page story?  Are not the children helplessly debauched and their families the real victims, not Whinny Wilson and Atwood whose "sufferings" are the focus of the news story?

What a fucking wonderful community-minded newspaper!  Perhaps it is not important to them to publicize this matter so as to alert the community of possible past and future perils, not important to try to find out how this rampage of debauchery resulting in insidious harm to children could have continued so long undetected by authorities.  Perhaps it is not important to them to try to at least get a hint about the possibility of other similar crimes incubating, hatched, and/or thriving in the same cult environment.  Do they think those in the local criminal justice system have acted properly in this case?

And what about the cult's prime Grimfriar ministerial student Jamin Wight, who was recently convicted of having sex with a 14 year girl (10 years his junior) also in a cult home where he was boarding during his Grimfriar ministerial training in the Wilson & Family's Cult & Cash Machine?  I guess that's not news either.

Doesn't this splendid newspaper make you want to..., well never mind.


Wayne A. Fox
1009 Karen Lane
PO Box 9421
Moscow, ID  83843

(208) 882-7975
waf at moscow.com


> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Bill London
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 3:37 PM
> Subject: [Vision2020] Sitler case
> 
> 
> In my recent post about the Sitler case, I incorrectly implied that no local 
> media had opened this story.
> 
> In fact David Johnson of the Lewiston Tribune wrote a piece (reprinted 
> below) that appeared today.
> 
> I urge anyone who has more information about this case (information that 
> will help resolve these issues of Doug Wilson's reputation and decisions) to 
> contact Johnson at deveryone at potlatch.com or at (208) 883-0564.
> 
> BL
> 
> ------------------
> 
> Lewiston Tribune June 7, 2006
> 
> 
> By DAVID JOHNSON
> of the Tribune
> 
> 
> 
> MOSCOW -- Christ Church Pastor Douglas Wilson and Roy Atwood, president of 
> New Saint Andrews College, Tuesday denied rumors a sex offender was harbored 
> by the church and his crimes hushed up.
> 
> "Ludicrous," Wilson said of the allegations that were being spread on the 
> Internet.
> 
> "He was a student," Atwood said of the convicted child molester, "and the 
> instant the case came up he admitted to it and he was expelled immediately."
> 
> Steven J. Sitler, 21, is serving one year in the Latah County Jail and will 
> be on probation for life after confessing last year to one felony count of 
> lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under the age of 16, according to 
> court records.
> 
> Sentencing Judge John Stegner of Moscow said Sitler could face life in 
> prison if he violates any of the many probation conditions placed on him.
> 
> According to court records, Sitler told authorities of numerous other sexual 
> assaults he committed with children here and in Stevens County, Washington. 
> Stegner said Sitler's confessions are unusual among sex offenders and 
> figured in the probation sentence.
> 
> And contrary to rumors, Wilson said, rather than try to protect Sitler, he 
> convinced him he needed to tell the truth about, not just his sins, but the 
> crimes he committed. Wilson said he is aware of numerous other potential 
> victims, all children and some of them part of the Christ Church community.
> 
> "As long as justice was being done, we didn't want the victims, who were 
> children, to suffer," Wilson said of his and Atwood's decision to not go 
> public with the situation. He said the case is a matter of public record and 
> anyone could look at the file. Many of the details, however, have been 
> ordered sealed by Stegner.
> 
> Sitler was not a member of Christ Church. But the congregation, Wilson said, 
> was made aware of the situation. Likewise, Atwood said, he immediately told 
> NSA students that Sitler had been expelled for serious violations of the 
> law.
> 
> Sitler's attorney, Dean Wullenwaber of Lewiston, declined comment about the 
> situation. According to court records, he and Latah County Prosecutor 
> William Thompson Jr. reached a plea agreement based, in part, on Sitler's 
> willingness to tell authorities of other crimes he committed. Thompson could 
> not be reached for comment.
> 
> Authorities in Stevens County, according to records, agreed to not pursue 
> prosecution as long as Sitler continues to meet his probation requirements 
> in Idaho.
> 
> In addition to being registered as a sex offender, Sitler must undergo 
> treatment and be closely monitored by probation officers for the rest of his 
> life, according to court records.
> 
> Wilson and Atwood said the Internet entries that began appearing Tuesday on 
> blogs and the local Vision 2020 community bulletin board here are most 
> likely from people who continue to attack the church and college on a number 
> of political fronts.
> 
> "These people are taking a tragedy and using it to advance a petty political 
> agenda," Wilson said.
> 
> "This is the kind of thing that they try to make political mileage out of 
> and that is almost as reprehensible as the act," Atwood said.
> 
> ------
> 
> Johnson may be contacted at deveryone at potlatch.com or at (208) 883-0564.
> 
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