[Vision2020] shamelessness [including an escape]

Sat Jun 10 17:43:04 PDT 2006

A thank you to Jennifer for supplying at least partial answers to the questions presented to her.

Before commenting on the most astounding revelation found in her answers, I should point out that I have not criticized the LCSO in this matter.  Two of the reasons appear below.  But first:

Several months ago Sheriff Wayne Rausch courageously and openly spoke of his personal experiences with the general subject at hand in a column in the Daily News.

I do not have any direct knowledge of any LCSO members' feelings on the Sitler case.  However, based on Sheriff Rausch's column, I will hazard the following guess:

Neither Sheriff Rausch, the able detectives on his staff who are experts in this area, Jennifer, nor most other LCSO officers are at all happy about:

1.    How a pedophile was allowed to escape Latah County jurisdiction by those who appear to have had a statutory duty to prevent it, and thus the LCSO was prevented from bringing its expertise into the investigation of horrific crimes committed in Latah County, and forced to investigate other attendant sexual abuse allegations without the direct assistance of Sitler.

2.    That despite the fact that an application for a felony warrant was applied for by an LCSO officer, Sitler apparently was footloose and fancy free in Stevens County, Washington for months after being caught in the act here before returning, a sweetheart plea agreement in pocket.  Who knows what he did while free in Stevens County?

3.    That a serious pedophile was given only one year of jail time, with most of it to be served in the county jail.  Note that we are not talking about an eighteen year old boy who slipped his hand up the skirt of a seventeen year old girl.  We are talking about an egregious serial pedophile who confessed to numerous child molestation episodes in three different states!

4.    That now this serial pedophile is now allowed unescorted out of the Latah County Jail to drive about in three counties in two states.  Saundra, Terry, and Keely have already discussed the absurdity and the public peril attendant to this excursionary freedom.  More importantly, Terry and Saundra have discussed the fact that Sitler's website contained photos until very recently suggesting that Sitler's compelling sexual interest in and sexual proclivities toward children are unabated.  Apparently unabated despite Cultmaster Wilson's assurance to the court and now the public that Sitler has confessed and repented, and therefore is no longer a threat.  [Note that these photos apparently were still there after his conviction with the plea bargain conditions, his stay at Cottonwood, and the beginning of his sojourn at the Latah County jail.  I wonder if this is a violation of his probation in some way?]  

If the general tenor of this guess is wrong, I invite anyone from the LCSO to tell us so.

Also, does anyone know if the Latah County Prosecutor brought forth the facts about Sitler's online photo exhibition of children and possibly samples therefrom to Judge Stegner during the plea bargaining, sentencing, and the sentence restructuring processes?

Astounding Answer from Jennifer:

On what date did Sitler first confess his pedophilic acts to local law enforcement authorities?
Sitler was not interviewed by local law enforcement authorities (local=any law enforcement agency in Latah County)

Sitler was either caught in the act and/or confessed.  Why wasn't he held by those who caught him or heard his confession (and/or their several agents) until local law enforcement agencies could place him in custody?  

That and how he escaped Latah County jurisdiction is one of the great mysteries in this case.  Enabling a suspect in a felony case to escape seems to me to be a serious matter.  Perhaps I am very naive, but such enabling would appear to be a crime.  

That Sitler escaped prevented the very able investigators from the LCSO from working this case.  Instead, personnel from an out-of-state county (and one not known for its law enforcement precociousness) worked the case and supplied the Latah County prosecutor with the material used to develop and to negotiate this wonderful plea bargain http://www.tomandrodna.com/CR_2005_02027/Plea_Agreement.pdf.

Further, once Sitler escaped from Latah County, why wasn't he extradited back so that the LCSO could work the case with its experienced and skilled investigators?

It's nice that the ovine, obedient boys of the Wilson & Family's Cult & Cash Machine are now flooding us with posts on various sports -- an effort to drown out our concerns with the Sitler miscarriage of justice and its attendant perils to the community.  

Perhaps, it is too much to expect these playful boys to appreciate in perspective the seriousness of children being sexually defiled multiple times by a male member of their cult -- male supremacy, you know.  

But one might expect them to be a little concerned about the obstruction of justice that occurs when someone caught in the act and/or who confesses to a felony is allowed to escape local jurisdiction.  One might also expect that they might put their bowling balls down long enough to wonder what kind of general deterrent one year of jail time with excursionary privileges is for serial pedophilia.

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

(208) 882-7975
waf at moscow.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Jennifer McFarland 
To: 'Art Deco' ; 'Vision 2020' 
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 9:29 AM
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] shamelessness

All:

I will answer as may of these questions as I can with the information I have in the case file.  Court records and prosecutorial records must be gathered from those entities.  This will be my last posting about this case; I simply do not have time to do the job of an investigative reporter, court clerk, and secretary in addition to my duties at the Sheriff's Office.  I suggest if you are truly interested in this case you take the time to gather the court documents yourself and base whatever opinions about this case off of those rather than off anecdotal comments from parties not involved in the case.  I once again must note that decisions about charges and sentences are not made by law enforcement.   

On what date did Sitler first confess his pedophilic acts to local law enforcement authorities?

Sitler was not interviewed by local law enforcement authorities (local=any law enforcement agency in Latah County)

To what agency and to whom?

 See above

Were there more than one confession to law enforcement authorities?  If so, on what dates were these made, to what agency, and to whom?

Again, Sitler was not interviewed by local law enforcement.  There are no reports from other agencies in the case file.

On what date(s) was the Latah County Prosecutor first made aware of this confession or confessions?

The PA's office would have to answer this question

Is it true that Sitler's confession indicated that he molested other children in the same family of the single victim from whence his conviction arose?

Although the detective's report alludes to having spoken to someone who mentioned Sitler had made a confession and was cooperating fully with agencies in Colville, there are no reports in the case file detailing the confession

Is it true that his confession indicates that he may have sexually molested as many as 120 children?

 See above

On what date was Sitler first arrested or a criminal complaint issued?  Was there an arrest or a criminal complaint?  Was there ever bail request or set?

The detective wrote an affidavit for a warrant of arrest that was notarized on 6/28/2005.  There is no indication in the file that an arrest warrant was issued or served

Please tells the dates of when Sitler first was jailed (including pre-conviction incarceration).

 I can only report those days he has been at the jail as LCSO.  I do not have any special access to jail or prison records in other jurisdictions.  Sitler was incarcerated at LCSO jail on 9/26/2005 after being sentenced on the felony charge.  He was released to the custody of the State on 10/3/2005.  He arrived back at LCSO jail on 2/21/2006 on an order of return.  He remains in this jail.

After his initial conviction, was he sent to the penitentiary?

 When he was released to the custody of the State the DOC and judge decide where to house the inmate.  They don't tell the Sheriff's Office that sort of detail.

When did he start his post conviction sojourn in the Latah County Jail?

 See jail dates above

Is it true that he is allowed to drive himself unescorted to both Pullman and Clarkston for "counseling?"

 By order of the judge, Sitler is allowed to do so

Is it true that he was recently allowed to go unescorted by local law enforcement to renew his driver's license?

 The only in/out comments on Sitler's jail activity record indicate being in and out for treatment four times since he has been here

Where else has he been allowed to go unescorted by local law enforcement?

 The records only indicate him being released for treatment

When he is out unescorted does he wear any kind of working electronic monitoring devices?

 Not that I am aware of

Does the LCSD intend to widely circulate posters with Sitler's photo asking for parents of other possible victims to communicate with the LCSD?

LCSO (we are an office of an elected official, not a department) does not do this in general.  As with all sex offenders, when Sitler is released, his picture will appear along with the other sex offenders.  He will be given the same treatment by law enforcement as we give all sex offenders.  Privileges like work release and treatment release are not given by jail staff or by LEOs; they are given by judges.  If Sitler were to escape jurisdiction (like Rossignol) we would send his photo out on the media circuit just as we did with Rossignol.  We do not have the money or the resources at LCSO to print and distribute flyers, posters, etc. on every case that offends our sensibilities.  

If you are outraged by the response from law enforcement in this case, I suggest you lobby the BOCC for more officers to be added to the force.  Currently we all have an average of 43 hours comp time on the books and 154 hours of vacation, each.  Our 50 sworn and non-sworn personnel collectively have accumulated 2,140.38 hours or comp and 7,666.35 vacation.  The jail is perhaps the most egregiously overworked and underpaid. 

I think there is a distorted perception, too, that I have special access to information that I do not and that I have a duty to report about certain things that I do not.  I would love to be an endless source of information for you, but I simply do not have the time or resources to get all the information you want.  I am swamped from the moment I get in the office until after I was supposed to leave-like most of our officers here, I also come in on days off to take care of details and am called at home at all hours of the night to respond to calls (without monetary compensation, often). Further, a lot of questions I am asked are about areas that are not my responsibility to report upon.  Essentially people are asking the Baker for a side of beef.  If I had an assistant to help me compile stats, records, records from other agencies or entities, and someone to help my sort that information, you'd probably be happier with the results.  However, since I do not have those people helping me it is not unreasonable to take the entities that do have the information you seek to task.

I realize I did not provide much information, but this is what I have access to with our in-house records.

--Jennifer

PIO Jennifer L. McFarland
Latah County Sheriff's Office
Public Information Officer
PO Box 8068
Moscow, Idaho 83843
(208) 882-2216
Fax (208) 883-2281
http://www.latah.id.us/Dept/Sheriff_Main.htm

Truth is the summit of being; justice is the application of it to affairs.
***Ralph Waldo Emerson

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