“I have a good hope that Steven has genuinely repented, and that he will continue to deal with this to become a productive and contributing member of society.” Douglas Wilson

The terms of probation for serial pedophile Steven Sitler prohibit him from visiting “any city park” without a state-approved adult chaperone. His terms also require him to “have an approved chaperone with him whenever he is out of his residence and . . . comply with a schedule of his activities. . .” Presumably, the words “comply with a schedule of his activities” control Mr. Sitler’s travels to & from work, because none of the other conditions address this specific routine:

(15) The Defendant shall not go to any city park, grade school, junior high or high school unless accompanied by another adult chaperone who has been previously approved by his probation officer. . . .

(18) Until otherwise approved by Defendant’s supervising probation officer or further order of the Court, the Defendant shall have an approved chaperone with him whenever he is out of his residence and will comply with a schedule of his activities which must be approved in advance by his supervising probation officer or the probation officer’s designee. . . . (Consolidation of Terms & Conditions of Probation upon Reconsideration, page 6)

This week’s Special Progress Report for Steven Sitler states:

Mr. Sitler told me he needed to report an incident that he had acted on approximately 3 weeks prior. He said he was driving from his place of employment to get lunch and happened upon what he described as a “woman in a bikini” in the front yard of a residence. He said this female caught his attention and he could not stop thinking about her. He told me after purchasing his lunch, he returned to the area he had seen the female, however she was no longer visible, he parked there and ate his lunch and continued thinking about her and hoped to meet her. She did not reappear and he drove to the area of the Moscow swimming pool, did not see anything that interested him, did not stop and continued on his way.

This report does not include an important point: there are no residential districts between the place of Mr. Sitler’s employment and a place to grab lunch. Steven Sitler works at the University of Idaho,¹ which is located less than 10 minutes away from any number of eating establishments in town. So in order for Sitler to see “a ‘woman in a bikini’ in the front yard of a residence,” he had to deviate off the normal route to a restaurant location and go out of his way into a residential area. And he had to deviate even further alongside highly concentrated residential districts to arrive at the pool.

But it does not appear that he violated the terms of his probation — at least according to his narrative. He admitted just enough to cover his responsibility to report but his admission doesn’t acknowledge any specific probation violation. The website for the City of Moscow lists the Hamilton-Lowe Aquatics Center on its Facilities and Parks page. But the pool is a “facility” and not a “park,” so Mr. Sitler did not violate this condition of his probation. And I suspect that since the terms do not stipulate the exact boundaries of his lunch routine in black & white, he will likely slide past that condition as well.

For comparison, his probation keeps him on a tight leash when he travels to his psychotherapist:

(24) Travelling to Appointments: The Defendant is allowed to travel directly to his scheduled appointments with Dr. Wilson in Pullman, Washington, and return directly home without first obtaining a travel permit from supervising probation officer if he notifies his probation officer on the Tuesday preceding the appointment. Otherwise, the Defendant must first obtain a written travel permit from his supervising probation officer. (Consolidation of Terms & Conditions of Probation upon Reconsideration, page 8)

Here is a Google map of Mr. Sitler’s “woman in a bikini” escapade. Note the residential districts:

By comparison, here is the route to & from his residence and his place of employment:

Steven Sitler has discovered a wormhole in the terms of his probation that allows him to sneak around town without breaking any specific written rule. Sure, he violates the spirit & intent of his probation, but he’s a kirker, a psychopath, and a member of the CREC — society can’t expect any better of him. Rather, we should expect him to continue gaming the system because he knows daddy’s lawyers and his pastor will defend him each time he oversteps. We should expect him to live on the edge of the law, thumbing his nose at the lawful citizens who are terrified by his very existence. In other words, we should expect him to act just like his pastor, who assured Judge Stegner, “I have a good hope that Steven has genuinely repented, and that he will continue to deal with this to become a productive and contributing member of society.”

¹ The State of Idaho sex-offender registry website lists the address for Mr. Sitler’s place of employment as “S Deakin St, Moscow, ID 83843,” which is an illegitimate address. We know he works at the University of Idaho and we know that the UI has buildings located on South Deakin Street, so we used the UI Bookstore as a point of reference for Google Maps.