Liars are usually clever — you have to give them that. And one of the things the really smart ones know how to do is to use the last lie you caught them in as a basis for getting you to believe the lie they are currently telling. Douglas Wilson
We have seen that the elders of Christ Church, Moscow, documented a falsehood in their meeting minutes by recording that serial pedophile Steven Sitler was arrested for his crimes, when he was not. We don’t know why the Kirk elders discussed a complete fiction during their meeting, and we do not know if they adopted this prevarication in real time or if they amended their minutes at a later date to include the lie. We only know that they created an official written record for an event that never occurred.
On November 19, 2015, Doug Wilson retracted the fabrication that Sitler had been arrested, when he informed Rachel Shubin that “Steven [Sitler] was never arrested.” However, Mr. Wilson did not tell Rachel why he believed that Sitler was arrested in the first place. He took that story off the record and replaced it with an alternate, which brings us to another remarkable discovery in The Shubin Report.
When Doug Wilson corrected the narrative about Sitler’s non-arrest, he offered this explanation it its stead:
“Steven was never arrested. Shortly after the victim’s father reported him, Steven contacted the authorities here and said he was going to cooperate fully, and did he need to come down? They said no. That means that he wasn’t arrested until his sentencing.” (Shubin Report, page 14)
Rachel Shubin checked Doug Wilson’s new story with Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson and with the records manager for the Latah County Sheriff’s Office. Both of them denied Mr. Wilson’s account. Here are Rachel’s words from pages 14–16 of The Shubin Report:
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A. My email to Mr. Wilson, 11/19/15, and his response the same day:
RS: From looking at the record, it seems like Sitler left around 4:00pm and wasn’t back for maybe several hours, and the first time the Dad talked to you was in the evening. Do you know where Sitler went that afternoon (the 10th)? Was he with you? Did you meet with him before he left for Colville on the morning of the 11th maybe?
DW: I do not recollect meeting with Steven at all before he went back to Colville. Since it was a while ago, I just talked to Steven about it, and he doesn’t remember meeting with me either. Unfortunately, he doesn’t remember where he went when he was not at home, but it was not with me. He went somewhere the late afternoon he was confronted, spent the night back at home, and then left about 9 am the following morning. He thinks he may have stopped somewhere like Bucers on the way out of town, but doesn’t remember exactly. He says he got to Colville by early afternoon.
Steven corrected me on one mistake I made in our HOH meeting. Steven was never arrested. Shortly after the victim’s father reported him, Steven contacted the authorities here and said he was going to cooperate fully, and did he need to come down? They said no. That means that he wasn’t arrested until his sentencing.
B. Fact-checking with [Latah County Prosecutor] Bill Thompson by phone on 11/23/15:
RS: In an email Doug Wilson sent me recently, he said this:
Shortly after the victim’s father reported him, Steven contacted the authorities here and said he was going to cooperate fully, and did he need to come down? They said no. That means that he wasn’t arrested until his sentencing.
If Sitler had contacted authorities in Latah County sometime in March (or at any time during the investigation period) offering to cooperate and to come down to Latah County, is this something that your office would have a record of? If so, do you have such a record?
BT: That’s not ringing a bell with me. It would be unusual for a law enforcement agent to say, “No, we don’t want to talk to you” and I don’t recall at this point in time at what point his attorneys became involved or not. I just simply don’t remember.
RS: I can’t find any record at all of Sitler making a statement to law enforcement. Is that correct?
BT: I believe that’s correct, yes.
RS: Why was he never interviewed by police?
BT: Well, because he had an attorney who wouldn’t let him talk to the police, which is frankly not at all uncommon. If an attorney is involved in a case like this, no attorney in his right mind would let his client talk voluntarily to law enforcement because he would just be giving evidence that could be used to support potential charges against him. . . .
C. Fact-checking with the Latah County Sheriff’s Office, whose purview the case was originally under. I mailed in a public information request to the Latah County Sheriff’s Office on 1/17/16 asking for this:
“Defendant: Steven Sitler — The initial report for this case was filed on 3/11/05, and LCSO was notified that Sitler had retained an attorney by 3/15/05. I’m looking for anything between those dates indicating that Sitler contacted LCSO and offered to come in and give a statement and whether or not the offer was accepted.”
On 1/26/16 I received a response from the Sheriff’s Office Records Manager, Deanna Vance:
Subject RE: public record requests — Sitler and Wight
From Deanna Vance
To [Rachel Shubin]
Cc ‘Bill Thompson’
Sent Tuesday, January 26, 2016 10:00 AMMs. Shubin,
My name is Deanna Vance and I am the records manager for the Latah County Sheriff’s Office. I have been working with Bill Thompson on your public records requests regarding Steven Sitler and Jamin Wight. I have reviewed our file of the Sitler case and do not see that he attempted contact with anyone here at our office between the dates you have listed.
If there is anything further I can assist you with, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Deanna J. Vance
Records Manager (Shubin Report, pages 14–16)
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Two witnesses from Latah County deny Douglas Wilson’s claim that Steven Sitler contacted law enforcement to “cooperate fully” and “come down.” Sitler did none of these things, just as he was never arrested. Doug Wilson fabricated both whoppers, one upon the other, and fed them to Rachel Shubin like she was a schmo on the CREC Review Committee. More specifically, Doug Wilson acted exactly as he described here:
Liars are usually clever — you have to give them that. And one of the things the really smart ones know how to do is to use the last lie you caught them in as a basis for getting you to believe the lie they are currently telling.
And Doug Wilson is living proof of his own dictum.
It will be interesting to see if the CREC investigation asks such obvious/relevant questions. And to see if the answers change yet again.
An obvious problem with churches that become busine$$e$ is that the money they rake in soon far outweighs the righteousness of the leadership. It is a sadly repeated story- money and power trump some helpless peon errr congregant any day of the week.
(See visual to the right on the moscowid home page- Doug Wils Inc for clarity on the busine$$ aspect)
World magazine recently ran a story on a sex abuse trial against Trinity Broadcast Network. TBN vs. 13 year old girl. Three guesses- who was pilloried?
The 13 year old’s lawyer was seeking “remuneration to help her cope and develop relationships going forward.” Three guesses, “yes” or “no,” Did she get remuneration?
The 13 year old’s lawyer said, “They are willing to sell the purity of a child to keep their image intact.”
Insert “Moscow CREC” for “they.” Same old story.
Terri,
When you mentioning an article, please provide a link so we may evaluate the information ourselves.
@Wayne: Found it here — Courtroom storm: A flood of lawsuits involving TBN and members of the Crouch family continues into a fourth year
Strangely, Wilson was a guest on TBN’s Praise the Lord (writing the words makes me cringe) with guest host Kirk Cameron. I watched the vid. He neglected to mention his policy of victim blaming in sex abuse cases.
For anyone interested, Wilson’s segment begins around 1:33:45. FWIW, Kirk Cameron makes me want to throw up. He needs to be punched repeatedly in the face. And Doug Wilson needs to be kicked repeatedly in the nuts with a steel-toed boot.
“The 13 year old’s lawyer said, “They are willing to sell the purity of a child to keep their image intact.””
This, more than the money, in my experience, is the crux of the issue. They are willing to engage in and/or endure all manner of evil, especially bearing false witness and theft, in order to “not damage the message”. An appropriate response is what the board of Vision Forum did. “We’re shutting it down.” Of course now that Doug Phillips paid money to make the abused girl go away, he denies all the accusations leveled against him, even after admitting to them previously. IBLP’s board finally suspended Bill Gothard. Only took them 30 years after the initial accusations against him. The stuff he did, and the stuff others did that was covered up . . . . He could give graduate courses, although these folks in Moscow seem to be doing pretty well on their own.
Wayne- Saint Google.
The article appeared in the April 30, 2016 World Magazine, “Courtroom Storm.” We get hard copy.