Our church immediately recognized the limits of ecclesiastical jurisdiction and the lawful jurisdiction of the civil authorities in this, and turned it over to them. This entire process has been a textbook case of scriptural cooperation between church and legal authorities, with us providing spiritual counsel to those involved. Douglas Wilson

Pastor Doug Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, wrote these words on June 6, 2006, to describe the collaboration between Kirk & state in the matter of judicially processing serial pedophile Steven Sitler. Law enforcement described it differently. For example, the sheriff’s department said that victims refused to talk:

3/15/2005 to 5/17/2005 Attempts to interview additional victims go without fruition. (Public Information Officer Jennifer L. McFarland, Latah County Sheriff’s Office, June 7, 2006)

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson echoed the Sheriff’s Office in three different interviews with the press:

We are now aware, through Mr. Sitler’s mandatory self-disclosure as part of the psychosexual evaluation process, that there are other victims of Mr. Sitler. None of these victims or their families have otherwise come forward although they have all been contacted and advised of the defendant’s disclosures. (NewWest, July 4, 2006)

“The Sitler case is unique because evidence we had through the investigation was extremely limited. It was limited to only one family of victims. There were a number of families who declined to cooperate with any investigation or participate in any of the restitution requests we had,” he said.

The law says there must be more than just a confession for a charge, and the other ways of gathering evidence were not working, Thompson said. In return for disclosing all his victims so they could be offered assistance, Thompson said, it was agreed Sitler would face only one charge of lewd conduct.” (Moscow-Pullman Daily News, October 10, 2015)

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson told the Daily News in October the state discovered multiple victims through self-disclosures by Sitler but, due to limited cooperation from victims and their families, only one could be prosecuted. (Moscow-Pullman Daily News, December 30, 2015)

What does Doug Wilson think “a textbook case of scriptural cooperation between church and legal authorities” looks like? This is how the actual legal authorities involved with the case answer the question: “without fruition,” “None of these victims or their families have otherwise come forward,” “a number of families who declined to cooperate with any investigation,” and “limited cooperation from victims and their families.”

This “textbook case of scriptural cooperation” between Kirk & state probably accounts for Steve Sitler’s demeanor.