Executive Summary
On December 23, 2015, the Court granted Steven Sitler permission to reestablish contact with some of his victims and their families, if these people so desire; and the Court also ordered that the parents of these victims do not have to inform their children — the victims — that Steven Sitler molested them as a precondition of reestablishing contact.
Caveat
The Court made this decision during an “off-the-record in-chambers conference,” which means it was not recorded and there are no minutes. The Court also sealed its decision as well as all of the documentation submitted by Team Sitler. Therefore, we have to reconstruct the findings of the conference based on the facts stipulated in the State’s documentation.
Stipulated Facts
- The Court called an “off-the-record in-chambers conference”; it did not hold a “properly noticed hearing.” The record does not identify the judge in this conference; we do not know if Judge Stegner presided.
- The Court held this conference to modify condition #19 of Steven Sitler’s probation, because Sitler requested access to some his victims and their families, presumably on their behalf. The condition used to state:
“The Defendant shall have no contact of any nature whatsoever with his victims, or with the immediate families of those victims until, otherwise authorized by his supervising probation officer.”
- The Court held the conference even though it knew that Sitler’s probation officer could not attend because she was out of state.
- The State argued that Sitler’s victims have a right to know that he molested them before he reestablished contact, but the Court ruled against the State:
“the Department of Correction initially took the position that there should be an affirmative requirement that victims who perhaps are not currently aware of their victimization (by virtue of young age at the time of being victimized, unconscious to the act by virtue of being asleep, etc.) must know that they were victims in order to provide truly ‘informed consent’ to contact. The State recognizes that the Court declined to adopt this requirement during the course of the off-the-record telephonic conference on December 23, 2015, that led to the subsequent order.”
- The Court amended condition #19 of Sitler’s probation. It now says:
“The Defendant shall have no contact of any nature whatsoever with his victims, or with the immediate families of those victims, unless that victim or that victim’s family desires to have contact with the Defendant and that desire has been made know in writing to the Idaho Department of Probation and Parole or this Court.”
- Steven Sitler’s probation officer notified him that he could reestablish contact with some of his victims and their families, if those families filled out the proper paperwork:
“Per the Court’s order dated 12/23/15 you will be allowed contact with victim or victim families that provide documentation in writing that they wish to have contact with you. . . .”
- Victim families must complete this application to reestablish contact with Sitler.
Conclusion
Apparently, the legal question that came before the Court was if the State can require parents to inform their children that they were victimized by a pedophile before compelling those children to reestablish contact with the pedophile. And apparently Idaho code does not contemplate this circumstance, so Steven Sitler prevailed. Two days before Christmas the Court ruled that he could be with his victims without them knowing what he did to them, as long as the victims’ parents agree. Thus far, the parents of four victims have consented.
In the big picture, Steven Sitler and his enablers continue to systematically pick off his restrictions, one at a time, wherever they find a hole in the law. They appear bent on normalizing the pedophile despite his diagnosis, and they appear equally bent on conditioning everyone around him to accept him as normal. First, Pastor Doug Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, reintroduced Sitler into the kirk despite his failure to evidence repentance. Then his marriage. Then his child. Now his victims. Everyone must receive Steven Sitler as normal.
In this particular circumstance, these parents, like all the other victim families, refused to cooperate with the investigation into Sitler’s crimes and helped build the stonewall of silence that shielded Sitler from accountability in the first place. Now they exacerbate their children’s molestation by forcing them to be with the man who raped them without so much as telling them what he did.
Steven Sitler is a psychopath; no one expects him to feel shame or remorse. But what can be said about parents who would violate their children’s trust like this? How can it be that parental wishes have more value than sharing with the young adults the story of their molestation and identification of their abuser. Neither the state, the court, the parents and certainly not Steven Sitler own the bodies and minds of these victims. These children, some approaching adulthood, should be respected enough to be fully informed to make contact choices (or no contact) for themselves. Hiding this information from them at the very time their abuser may use the interaction to reminisce about his late-night visits to their bedrooms is obscene.
But as we have learned to expect, this is life in the Kirk.
This is stone cold nuts. What the hell??
Somebody needs to appeal for an FBI investigation into this shit. This should be investigated as human trafficking, because these kids are being abused at the hands of their parents who are willfully and neglectfully making them accessible to a pedophile.
I’m going to go vomit now.
In the least someone needs to notify CPS.
I’d say the state of Idaho has thoroughly demonstrated its ineptitude and negligence in this matter at this point. Get the feds involved.
The civil authorities (at least some of them) are not so hostile as Wilson pretends. Sure they are waging war in Moscow, and not everyone loves them there, but ultimately, I don’t think the values of these judges (in the cases of both sex offenders) are necessarily that far from Wilson’s own.
This judge surely shares Wilson’s lack of concern for weak, insignificant people, like child victims. Why worry about their well-being when there’s a (male) sex-offender to show leniency to?
As always, it sucks to be powerless.
The Kirk is a cult, and cultists are people who have lost their reason and their consciences. They have yielded themselves fully to the cult leader. I’ve been reading about Jonestown lately, and this is exactly what happened there. Men let Jim Jones sleep with their wives, and it became normal. They heard Jim Jones over the PA system all night long, and it was normal. They gathered more than once to practice a mass suicide, and it was normal. Everything — no matter how bizarre — was normal. They were conditioned and they accepted it.
When the end came and the poison Flavor-Aid was made ready, there were some people who objected a little. The audio of the mass suicide is online — listen to it. A few dissented, but it was futile. In the end, they died. And even now, there are Kirkers who are questioning what is happening. But the voice of Doug Wilson reigns. And if Kirkers stay, they consent.
Thank you for your continued documentation of the madness in Moscow. You are correct when you say that Doug Wilson is normalizing pedophilia. Hopefully some Kirkers will hear you and get out.
I wonder if the paperwork the families have to fill out is confidential.
I wonder who is driving this? What does Sitler really gain from it? What do the victims’ parents gain from it? The one that gains the most is Wilson. The more the judicial system liberalizes the terms of Sitler’s probation, the more legitimate Wilson’s past actions regarding Sitler appear.
Where are the victims’ families from again? Who is Sitler’s lawyer again? Where do they worship? Oh. Yeah.
Do we agree it sounds like someone has convinced these people there was never any real molestation?
Molestation, plagiarism, whatever. It’s all relative in Dougtopia. Relative to what does or does not serve Doug.
Frank , True, you said it’s a cult. But unfortunately that now cult started in a Calvinistic state of doctrine. I have watched over the years this movement become very power, pride and money hungry, twisting Gods Word into their own image. An image that destroys good women and ruins children in many different ways. Many of these sheep started out with good intentions, really wanting the things of God, women looking for men to lead them to the things of God but were sadly manipulated into zombies that can only follow because of the great fear of displeasing God. This is what happens, the beginning of the end result when we as women give up the truth that someday we as an individual will stand before a Holy God to give an account of our deeds. Our husband or pastor will not be standing with us. We as women are called to be Bereans, to HUMBLY search out a matter in Gods word for ourselves. We are told to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, not fear of man whatever office he holds in our lives but fear of a God who can kill the body and the soul. This truth has been robbed from us in this cultish movement and now men are all powerful, seeking after and legitimizing every evil desire, pornography is now “Every Mans Battle”, real women can’t meet their needs so now children will have to be sacrificed on the alter of self gratification. All lost do to sheep both men and women not daily eating at the Masters Table.
Mike, who benefits the most? of course Sitler does! That’s what’s really driving it all because he WILL revictimize whoever he can and then he will be there when they have children of their own and the kirk says now you must let him molest them as well, all in the very false name of a false church a false god, who has been made in Doug Wilsons image.
No Doug, this has nothing to do with the Corinthians church this has everything to do with a long time false gospel that you and others like you created.
“Any victims will need to provide written documentation that they wish to have contact with you as well before we can approve that contact. These individuals do not need to be told they are victims but do need to provide documentation before we will allow contact per the Court order.”
Now how is it you can get “written documentation” from a minor child? And if the victims are all adults hopefully they will have the wherewithal to ask exactly why their written permission is required for them to have contact with another adult, possibly a fellow church member. I suspect at some point these adult victims will discover the truth (after all, they can google “Steven Sitler”) by putting two and two together. At that point some families will undergo some major implosion as these victims discover their true victim status. I’m hoping this will be the Kirk’s undoing.
What is really troubling to me is the way they are chipping away at the legal protection for the victims. Right now it’s just Idaho, but it is setting a legal precedent for the rest of the country. At some point there is going to be a predator with the money and enablers to go to the Supreme Court and these rulings in Idaho will be used to strike down both federal and state laws that protect children.
Once that is done, they move to the statutory rape laws and then there is nothing to stop them from going for children whose parents give their consent.
I don’t blame the judge for his ruling. There are no laws to prevent it just like there are no laws prevent a pedophile from marrying. There isn’t anything he can do that would stick. I don’t Idaho or any other state for not having iron clad laws. Up until now it would have never in my wildest dreams occurred to me that someone would marry a pedophile knowing he wanted kids. Knowing his full history. It never crossed my mind that the non pedophile’s parents, church or friends would have supported this craziness. Never. As a mother, I cannot wrap my head around protecting someone who would hurt my infant son. (Especially since my own son is currently an infant).
But now that we see what is happening, we all need to start calling on our law makers to enact air tight laws preventing pedophiles from marrying. From having contact with victims without their written consent. The parents cannot give it for them. The victims need to give in writing that they are aware of what happened to them when they give the consent.
As bad as this is, my understanding from sitting in court is slightly different than your summary and even worse in that it makes the Court a party to further victimizing survivors.
At question, as I understood the defense’s argument and court’s comments, was *four* survivors who are no longer minors and who may not be aware (for whatever reason) that they were sexually abused by Sitler. Consent for contact was previously given by the parents/legal guardians when the survivors were minor children — my notes indicate that consent for contact for at least some of the four survivors was given by their parents/legal guardians back in 2009, and Sitler has had ongoing contact (presumably in the presence of a “chaperone”) with those survivors since.
Now that those *four* survivors are no longer minors unable to make their own legal decisions and are no longer subject to parental decision-making, the State’s initial position was that those survivors needed to express their *adult* consent to have contact with their abuser.
The sticky wicket, according to Team Sitler, is that due to long-ago parental decisions to *withhold* the fact that the survivors were sexually abused by Sitler, requiring consent (as is typical in cases where there are surviving victims) from those now legal adults to continue contact with Sitler would disclose to them that they had, in fact, been sexually abused.
Judge Stegner made it clear he thought that would be “bad law.”
Thus, the parental/legal guardian consent for contact that was given *by others* when those survivors were minors was determined by the court to be sufficient even though those four survivors are now adults.
That’s what I got from the hearing.
I think what’s “bad law” is the Court playing ANY role in concealing from now adult survivors who are now no longer subject to parental decision-making the fact that they were sexually abused by Sitler.
Note: it’s possible that more than four survivors of Sitler’s sexual abuse have reached majority; as I understood it, at issue in the recent status hearing was four now adult survivors who have had ongoing contact with Sitler through parental/legal guardian consent given when they were minors.
That ruling will also apparently apply to any additional Sitler survivors who subsequently reach majority from here on out when consent for contact was given by their parents/legal guardians while they were minors.
All of that begs the question of what kind of parent would hide from a child the fact that he/she had been sexually abused by a fixated pedophile, and what kind of parent, knowing that their child had been sexually abused by a fixated pedophile, would consent to ongoing contact with the deviant?
Pardon me while I go puke my guts out yet again over the horror that is Sitler.
Saundra, you were in court for this particular discussion/ruling?
Claire, yes I was in court for this status hearing, as well as for many/most of Sitler’s court appearances since 2006.
Of course the victims’ parents didn’t tell them. That would allow them to someday recognize the abuse and consider themselves victims, and based on Doug’s rants and the women freed site, victims are more insufferable than child rapists. (Not as insufferable as dykes or biddies or day old doughnuts [read this appalling, gasp-worthy story for the origin or that phrase], but still pretty insufferable.) This illustrates just how twisted the Wilson clan’s view of women is.
Doug Wilson has created a world where there are no victims, and offenders are meticulously restored. Just keep propping up Sitler as a poster boy for redemption via the Kirk enterprise, and everything will be fine.
Doug is a sort of Predatory Pope who will grant indulgences to whom he will. He holds the keys to the kingdom.
I read that Credenda Agenda article by Ben Merkle. The Wilson clan, which includes sons in law and extended family, all imitate Patriarch Doug in their writing style. And they proudly call it “wordsmithing.”