Appellate judges ordered a new trial today for Spokane man convicted in 2009 of being a sexually violent predator because the note he wrote, detailing his desire to rape, kidnap and dismember a woman, was never communicated to anyone and thus did not meet the required legal definition of a threat.

 As part of the elements to qualify him as a sexually violent predator, the state must show that convicted rapist Shawn D. Botner committed an “overt act” toward committing another sex crime. Because of the decision Tuesday, Botner is expected to face another trial to determine whether he will remain in state custody indefinitely.

Read the rest of Tom Clouse's story here.

Past coverage:

Aug. 25, 2009: Sex offender's fate rests with jury

BOISE - Notorious multiple murderer Joseph Duncan was back in a Boise courtroom on Friday morning, as lawyers and a federal judge wrangled over setting a date for a new hearing into whether Duncan was mentally competent when he waived appeals of his triple death sentence for torturing and murdering a 9-year-old North Idaho boy.

Duncan, brought to Boise from federal Death Row in Terre Haute, Ind., his hair close-cropped and graying and wearing a baggy white T-shirt, left all the talking to his attorneys on Friday morning. But in December of 2010, he submitted a hand-written, two-page letter to the court saying he now wants to appeal after all.

Read the rest of Betsy Z. Russell's story here.

A state social services employee arrested on child pornography charges April 17 has been indicted by a federal grand jury.

Darrell J. Rogers, 51, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to two counts of distribution of child pornography. The charges carry five years to 20 years in prison and registration as a sex offender if convicted. 

Rogers, a married father with no criminal history, was allowed to leave jail a few days after his arrest after undergoing a mental health assessment.

A prosecutor said the material federal agents downloaded from Rogers, who licenses foster homes for children, is some of the worst he's encountered in his 36 years of practicing law.

A state social services employee accused of distributing child pornography must undergo a mental health evaluation before he can leave jail, a judge ruled today.

A federal prosecutor said the material distributed by Darrell J. Rogers, who licenses foster homes for children, is some of the worst he's encountered in his 36 years of practicing law.

“This is not normal child pornography,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Earl Hicks said at Rogers' bail hearing in U.S. District Court. “This is child pornography that is very disturbing.”

The material includes a video of a 3-month-old girl being raped by an adult male, Hicks said.

“This is not like trading baseball cards,” Hicks said. “What kind of person would have an interest in this?…Most people are disgusted by it, and most people would ask 'what's wrong with this person?'”

Rogers, 51, is a married father of two with no criminal history. He's lived in Spokane his entire life and has worked for the state Department of Health and Human Services since 1995. Family, friends and coworkers attended his hearing; some left afterward in tears.

Distributing child pornography carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison for each image.

U.S Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno will review Rogers' mental health evaluation. Rogers and his wife must pay $25,000 bond to secure his release from jail. If he is released, Rogers will be confined to his home and must wear an electric monitor. Firearms that FBI agents found in his home during a search on Tuesday must be removed.

Imbrogno called the conditions “perhaps about as stringent as they get for this type of charge,” she said.

Hicks cited Rogers’ employment as a person in a position of trust with children as further reason for a mental health evaluation.

“He's leading a double life, in effect,” Hicks said.

A DSHS spokesman said Rogers will be reassigned to a position in which he does not have contact with children if he's released from jail pending the resolution of his case. Imbrogno said she'll decide if Rogers can be employed after reading his evaluation.

Rogers has been in the Spokane County Jail since Tuesday, when FBI agents arrested him at his home in the 7100 block of North Westgate Place in the Indian Trail area in north Spokane and seized a computer containing sexually explicit images of children.

The FBI began investigating him in February after an agent in Maryland downloaded child pornography from an Internet Protocol address linked to Rogers' home.

The material features the infant and children up to six years old, Hicks said.

Rogers told the FBI the material was on a computer in the guest bedroom when questioned, Hicks said.

Rogers also told investigators he'd never hurt a child and would contact authorities if he knew of someone who was. He said he wasn't sexually attracted to children but was “trying to figure out” child pornography.

Hicks said Rogers' response was typical “even from people who have been diagnosed as pedophiles.”

“I'm not saying Rogers is; I'm saying that's a typical response,” Hicks said.

He called the assertion that viewing and distributing child pornography doesn't harm children “bunk.”

“Fifty-one-year-olds creating generations of pedophiles. If we look at the facts, that’s what happens in a lot of circumstances,” Hicks said.

Public defender Matthew Campbell said a mental health evaluation isn't necessary and said Rogers is not a danger to the community. “He has no criminal history,” Campbell said.

Campbell said prosecutors have not opposed pre-trial release in other child pornography cases, but Hicks said the cases didn't involve three month olds being raped by adult males.

A state social services employee who licenses foster care homes was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of child pornography possession.

Darrell J. Rogers, 51, is in the Spokane County Jail without bail after appearing in U.S. District Court Tuesday afternoon. FBI agents arrested him at his home in the 7100 block of North Westgate Place in the Indian Trail area in north Spokane, where he lives with his wife, Kim Rogers, 49.

Kim Rogers also is a social worker with the state Department of Social and Health Services who specializes in finding homes for children who are wards of the state. Her husband licenses those homes, a neighbor said.

Darrell Rogers told FBI agents his wife had nothing to do with the child pornography they were investigating, according to court documents. The FBI began investigating Rogers in February after an agent in Maryland downloaded child pornography from an Internet user in Spokane.

The material includes children as young as approximately three months old being sexually assaulted by men and women.

Darrell Rogers was a social worker for 10 years beginning in 1995, said Thomas Shapley, DSHS spokesman. He began licensing foster homes in 2005, Shapley said.

Rogers is barred from entering his workplace, and his computer access has been locked. Should he be released from jail pending the resolution of the case, “we've already prepared an alternative work assignment for him where he would not have any contact with children,” Shapley said.

FBI agents say Rogers admitted Tuesday to using Internet file sharing programs and said no one else in the home, including his wife and two sons, would have used the screen names associated with the explicit material.

“Agents asked if he knew of any really bad people who he traded with that specifically harmed children,” according to court documents. “Rogers responded that he did not know of anyone who was abusing children, and had he known he would have reported it.”

Rogers told federal agents he had had no sexual interest in the material but was “trying to figure it out,” documents say.

“When asked about how long he had an interest in child pornography, Rogers stated that he did not know, and that he would never touch a child, and would never molest children,” agents wrote.

Rogers is due back in court Friday for a hearing to determine if he can be allowed out of jail on bail pending trial.

A Spokane Valley man was sentenced Monday to four years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography.

Jonathan Stocker, 30, was indicted September after a May 31 federal search of his home found 24 videos and images of children engaged in sex acts, according to court records.

Stocker is not in jail and is being allowed to self report to federal prison. A sentencing memorandum described him as a man who “pays his taxes and his bills and lives modestly.”

“He has no history of abuse of children and in fact, his friends and family who have children, report that he acts appropriately,” according to the memo prepared by his public defender. “There is no indication that Mr. Stocker presents a danger to anyone.”

Stocker was prosecuted under the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Harrington said in a news release.

  

A Moody Bible Institute student who hoped to teach a man she met in Mission Park about God was instead groped and asked to smoke marijuana, according to Spokane police.

Officers say 40-year-old John L. Sanders continued acting inappropriately after his arrest by repeatedly asking two female Spokane police officers to have sex with him.

Sanders told the officers he hoped they would strip search him and repeatedly made kissing sounds at them, according to court documents.

The officers had arrested Sanders on a warrant March 16 after the bible school student told them she'd walked to the park to relieve stress and saw someone trying to get her attention. She was not wearing glasses and “assumed it was someone from her acting class or her church,” according to court documents.

When she realized she didn't know the man, the woman said “she felt she might have an opportunity to minister” to him, according to documents.

The man then touched her breast and asked her to smoke marijuana with him, she told police. The woman tried to leave, but the man kissed her on the lips, grabbed her and made inappropriate comments and noises.

Officers responded to the park and arrested Sanders on the unrelated warrant.

A detective assigned to follow up realized Sanders was arrested for a similar incident in downtown Spokane on Aug. 22. Sanders pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault and was credited for 51 days served in jail.

The victim identified Sanders from a photo montage on Wednesday, and he was booked into jail on a felony charge of indecent liberties.

A Hayden Lake man is to spend more than six years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.

Charley Brigham Leighton II, 41, also is to be on probation for 15 years, forfeit the computer and media used in the crime and register as a sex offender under a sentence imposed today in U.S. District Court in Coeur d'Alene.

Investigators seized computers from Leighton's home in August 2010 that contained pornography images of children. Leighton told investigators he'd downloaded more than 1,000 images in about a year, according to court documents. He pleaded guilty in October.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said the images depicted children from Missouri, Georgia, Connecticut, Michigan, Florida, Washington, France, Germany, Brazil, Belgium, England and the Netherlands, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

“Obtaining and possessing child pornography sexually exploits the children who appear in these heinous images again and again and again,” U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson said in a prepared statement.  “Mr. Leighton’s lengthy prison sentence sends a strong message that Idaho law enforcement, prosecutors and courts well understand that protecting our children against those who would exploit them is a critical criminal justice mission.”

A Spokane man is wanted in North Idaho for allegedly sexually abusing a child.

Chad Andrew Radden, 21, is being sought on a $40,000 warrant in Kootenai County for sexual abuse of a minor under 16, as well as a probation violation warrant in Washington.

Radden has felony convictions in Spokane County for property crimes and is awaiting trial on a car theft charge that he was arrested on in December.

Radden was arrested in October 2010 for an alleged car-prowling and window-breaking spree in Spokane Valley.

Anyone who knows where Radden, 6-foot-1 and 170 pounds, is now is asked to contact the North Idaho Violent Crimes Task Force (208) 665-1471.

Reward money is available. Tipsters can remain anonymous.

Radden is one of several people wanted on a felony warrant spotlighted this week by the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department. Read more at Dave Oliveria's Huckleberries blog.

A 23-year-old man scheduled for trial this month on child pornography charges is wanted by Crime stoppers after skipping a court hearing.

Richard B. Griffith is charged with possessing and distributing the illicit material via the Internet.

Spokane police searched his apartment in the 5200 block of South Ferrall Court on May 18 after tracking child pornography that had been posted on a file-sharing website.

The website's administrator alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children of a photo uploaded by Griffith, according to court documents, and the center notified Spokane police.

Griffith told police he posted pictures on he website and “may have had some cloudy judgement,” according to court documents. He said he was “probably high at the time,” police said.

A no-bail warrant was issued for Griffith's arrest Jan. 20 after he missed a pre-trial conference on Jan. 13.

Griffith, 5-foot-7 and 190 pounds , last gave a home address in the 1000 block of Slide Creek Road in Colville, according to Crime Stoppers.

Anyone with information on his current location is asked to cal at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or submit tips online.

A sex offender considered likely to reoffend is living as a transient in Spokane County, the sheriff's office announced today.

Kevin Duane Musgrove, 33, was convicted of first-degree child molestation in Spokane County in 1993. His victim was a 3-year-old boy. Musgrove was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Musgrove also has juvenile convictions for two counts of fourth-degree assault with a sexual motivation.

He is a level 3 sex offender, which is the classification considered likely to reoffend.

Musgrove is not wanted by authorities, but the sheriff's office wants the public to be aware of his presence.

Musgrove is required to check in with authorities every week because he has no permanent address.

Spokane County's sex offender registry is available here.

A 41-year-old Rathdrum man will serve up to life in prison for three counts of lewd conduct with a minor under a sentence imposed Wednesday.

Frank D. Marks will serve at least 30 years before he's eligible for parole, Kootenai County 1st District Judge Benjamin Simpson ordered.

Marks had sexual contact with three juvenile victims over a period of seven years, according to the Kootenai County Prosecutor's Office.

All three testified at his trial. A jury convicted Marks Aug. 12.

Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh, who tried the case, said the sentence was appropriate given that Marks continues to deny any inappropriate conduct.

“His adamant denials eliminate the possibility of rehabilitation,” McHugh said.

A child molestation suspect who escaped a manhunt in the Sagle, Idaho, area Tuesday is wanted by Coeur d'Alene police.

Nathaniel R. Howell, 32, ran from police through the woods in the 1500 block of South Sagle Road about 3 p.m. after he saw the officers while visiting relatives nearby.

Howell is charged with four counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child and five counts of sexual exploitation.

Howell is 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds with hazel eyes and blonde hair. Anyone with information on his location is asked to call Coeur d'Alene police at (208) 769-2320.

A Coeur d'Alene man will spend five years to life in prison for lewd conduct with a 14-year-old girl, a judge ruled this week.

Nicholas James Ryan, 32, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison with eligibility for parole after five years. He'll serve the sentence the same time as a sentence for contacting the girl after his arrest despite a court order prohibiting the communication.

Ryan was sentenced by Kootenai County District Judge John Mitchell. He pleaded guilty on Oct. 31. He has three prior felony convictions for drugs, according to the Kootenai County Prosecutor's Office.
In a prepared statement, Prosecutor Barry McHugh praised the work of the Coeur 'Alene Police Department and Deputy Prosecutor Josh Studor.

McHugh said the sentence “was appropriate given the defendant's post-arrest conduct indicating a desire to continue an illegal and immoral relationship, and his efforts to coerce the victim to lie about the relationship.”
  

A soldier is accused of transporting child pornography from Spokane to Kuwait while on duty with the military.

Jason D. Talbott, 33, pleaded not guilty today to four child pornography charges in U.S. District Court in Spokane. He was allowed to stay out of jail awaiting trial and will reside in Denver, Colo., where he is stationed with the military, according to court documents.

A federal grand jury indicted Talbott Nov. 16 on charges of receipt, possession, distribution and transportation of child pornography, as well as a forfeiture charge that calls for him to relinquish a computer, an external hard drive and a digital book reader.

The charges allege Talbott receiving child pornography in Spokane Valley between June 21, 2005, and April 21, 2009, and possessing the material until March 16. He's accused of distributing the pornography between August 2010 and November 2010, and of transporting a computer with explicit images on it to Kuwait in December 2010.

He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Talbott's release conditions require him to stay away from minors unless another adult is present. He's prohibited from accessing the Internet unless he's required to do so by the military.

According to the Daily Mail, Talbott was identified by federal authorities after he contacted a fake website that advertised children for sex. The website was an undercover Internet sting operation designed by the Department of Homeland Security but has since been shutdown, the newspaper reports.

A 26-year-old Rathdrum man will spend at last seven years in prison for sexually abusing a minor.

Justin Scott Savage was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison with eligibility for parole after seven for lewd conduct with a minor under 16, sexual abuse of a child under 16 and two counts of injury to jail.

1st District Court Judge Fred Gibler sentenced Savage, who pleaded guilty in September. Savage has previous misdemeanor convictions for theft, drugs and burglary, according to the Kootenai County Prosecutor's Office.

Sheriff's spokesman Major Ben Wolfinger said the injury to jail charges stem from Savage damaging the jail on several occasions.

A 41-year-old Hayden Lake man pleaded guilty Monday to possessing child pornography.

Charley Brigham Leighton II faces up to 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and lifetime supervised release when he's sentenced Jan 30 by U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge in Coeur d'Alene.

A grand jury indicted Leighton in September after the North Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force searched his home on Aug. 26, 2010, and seized computers containing pornography images of children. Leighton told investigators he'd downloaded more than 1,000 images in about a year, according to court documents.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said the images depicted children from Missouri, Georgia, Connecticut, Michigan, Florida, Washington, France, Germany, Brazil, Belgium, England and the Netherlands, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

“Children are our society's most precious resource,” U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson said in a prepared statement. “The federal, state and local law enforcement officers who make up the North Idaho Crimes Against Children Task Force work cooperatively and use every available tool to protect children from online predators.”  

  

A convicted rapist who went back to prison because he continued to communicate with young girls is now living as a transient in Spokane County.

 Joseph M. Hamilton, 33, was released from prison in January 2008 after serving time for violating his parole on a first-degree rape conviction from 1997.

His victim was a 5-year-old girl. Hamilton is a level 3 sex offender, which is the classification considered most likely to reoffend.

He is not under supervision by the Department of Corrections nor is he wanted by authorities, but the Spokane County Sheriff's Office wants people to be aware of his presence.

A registry of Spokane County sex offenders is available here.

A 70-year-old Stevens County man who recently pleaded guilty to child rape has been indicted by a federal grand jury for producing child pornography.

James Ernest Guinn, Jr., is in jail awaiting sentencing in Stevens County Superior Court and arraignment in U.S. District Court, where he was indicted last week on charges of production of child pornography, transportation of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

Guinn is accused of producing child pornography with a young girl between August and November 2010, and of transporting child pornography from California to Washington in 2006.

Investigators found child pornography dating back to the 1960s and on several kinds of media, ranging from digital images in computer files, to video footage and 8 mm movie film, according to the Stevens County Prosecutor's Office.

Guinn faces up to 30 years in federal prison if convicted. He's to be arraigned in Spokane on Oct. 6. He already faces 93 to 123 months in state prison after pleading guilty to first-degree rape of a child Tuesday in Stevens County.
  

A Spokane man is accused of molesting a 10-year-old girl his girlfriend was babysitting.

Dewitt Allen “D” Harrelson, 46, is in jail on $10,000 bond after appearing in Spokane County Superior Court Friday on a first-degree child molestation charge.

The girl told a Stevens Elementary School counselor about the alleged contact, which she said occurred in late 2009 and early 2010 at her babysitter's home when the babysitter wasn't present.

Court documents say the girl's father was “expressed rage and anger” toward Harrelson and “expressed resentment that child molesters were frequently treated too leniently by the criminal justice system.”

Harrelson later told officers that the girl's father had hit him in the head with an ax handle but he didn't call police, documents say.

Charges were filed April 1; Harrelson was arrested on Thursday.