Firefighters put on suspension

Two firefighters from the Timberlake Fire Protection District were suspended with pay after a computer technician discovered sexual images on computers belonging to the Athol-based fire district late last month.

The firefighters are Monty Aarestad and Greg Hunts, fire district officials said Tuesday.

An independent party is conducting an investigation, said Sam Scheu, chairman of the district’s board. “We’re trying to figure out who accessed what and at what times,” Scheu said Tuesday.

Scheu gave five computer hard drives and a computer disc to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department on March 27, after a computer technician reviewing the hardware discovered “questionable material that may contain minor children,” according to a sheriff’s report.

A sheriff’s detective who reviewed the discs found pornography but determined that none of the images was of children, sheriff’s Lt. Kim Edmondson said. The department closed its investigation, Edmondson added.

The independent investigation arranged by the fire district has nothing to do with child pornography, said the fire district’s attorney, Larry Beck.

Sheriff’s Deputy Tim Leeder wrote in his report that he reviewed the disc and found “thumbnail photographs, advertisements and title bars from pornographic Web sites.”

“The photographs were pornographic in nature and contained what appeared to be nude adult males and females performing sexual acts,” Leeder wrote in the report. He said the images appeared to be “saved Internet pages,” possibly from a temporary Internet files cache.

Scheu said he was relieved to hear the Sheriff’s Department didn’t find child pornography on the computers. He said the department’s computer use policy prohibits “illicit material.”

“I’m hoping for as good and as clean a resolution to this as possible,” Scheu said. “It will be up to the five members of the board to deliberate and try to decide what to do.”

The fire district, which employs six paid firefighters, hired two temporary firefighters to fill in while the investigation is under way.

“We’re trying to give everybody due process, be fair and impartial and try to do this thing the right way,” Scheu said.

Scheu said the fire district has been without a chief since September. Applications were accepted last fall but there were “no suitable applicants,” he said.

The district’s five-member board of commissioners recently decided to reopen the position. Scheu has assumed some of the chief duties temporarily.

Timberlake Fire Protection District includes 85 square miles, including Athol, Bayview, Chilco, parts of Bonner County and Silverwood Theme Park.