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February 26, 2010 in City
Spokane sex offender’s history revealed in proceedings
Ronald Reo Timm is led into court Thursday in the Spokane County Courthouse for his civil commitment trial. Timm is a sex offender who has admitted to molesting 24 victims.
(Full-size photo)
A jury will decide next week whether Ronald Reo Timm will ever get out of state custody. But the question remains: How does someone molest 24 children in Spokane over a period of two decades and essentially remain out of public view?
The answer, according to prosecutors and Timm’s own admission, is that he sought his prey in broken homes and bought their silence with toys and candy.
“I would have children spend the night … and set them up for victimization,” Timm said in an interview taped for court proceedings. “How can I put this? Kids like adults unconditionally. What I’m trying to say is they were not as likely to say no.”
According to court testimony, Timm befriended single mothers who struggled financially. He provided rent, paid other bills and ingratiated himself until the mother would allow him to baby-sit her little girls as their “special father.”
Of the 24 children he claims to have molested, all were between the ages of 3 and 7 and one was a boy. A couple of the victims were part of his immediate family.
Assistant Attorney General James Buder, who – along with colleague Tricia Boerger – is attempting to civilly commit Timm as a sexually violent predator, said Timm remained out of the public eye through careful manipulation of his victims.
“He definitely has a pattern to his offenses,” Buder said. “He identifies young women who have young children and he gains their trust. And then he offends. Children trust adults unconditionally and that’s why he targeted them.”
Buder said he could track Timm’s offenses back to 1975. Timm first was convicted in 1989 of first-degree statutory rape. Then in 1996, Timm pleaded guilty to first-degree rape of a child and received a 10-year prison sentence.
During those years, Timm wasn’t exactly anonymous, said Jerry Keller, a former Spokane Police detective who investigated the 1996 case.
“He was a person of interest in several cases during that time,” said Keller. “He was just very smooth … very smooth.”
In 20 years of investigating sex crimes, Keller said he saw many cases where offenders would go after mothers to get access to their children.
“There are several that stand out,” Keller said. “This was one of them.”
Before his scheduled release in 2006, the state started its legal effort to civilly commit Timm as a sexually violent predator.
During the preparation of that case, Timm told investigators that his problems began in grade school where he would lift up girls’ dresses and pay other girls to undress for him on the playground. That evolved into molesting, which broke up his first marriage.
Sally Neiland, the state’s sex-offender treatment supervisor, testified Wednesday about her interactions with Timm as he sought out counseling in prison.
Neiland described how Timm would approach his victims after bedtime.
“The majority of his offending occurred in the context of baby-sitting,” Neiland said. “He listened to the rhythm of their breathing to determine their level of sleep. It was his belief that they wouldn’t be harmed and they wouldn’t be able to tell on him.”
A 63-year-old grandmother, the legal guardian of one of the girl victims, said Timm was able to charm his way into her daughter’s life even though the family knew he was a sex offender from the 1989 conviction.
“The grooming process was amazing to see,” the grandmother said. “The first time I noticed it, he bought (the girl) a little toy saxophone. He would get on the floor and play with her and try to teach her how to play. I remember my husband and me saying, ‘We don’t see any problem.’ He was able to convince adults.”
But then the grandmother was baby-sitting her 3-year-old granddaughter when the toddler began complaining how “Daddy Ron” hurt her private areas.
“I freaked out. I confronted (the girl’s mother) … and she said (the girl) complains about that all the time,” the grandmother said.
The grandmother took her daughter to the courthouse and obtained a restraining order against Timm. But it expired two weeks later and the daughter eventually allowed Timm to return to the home where he lived off-and-on for another three years.
“Money,” the grandmother said, explaining how Timm got access. Her daughter “was a single mom on welfare. She was struggling. He helped her buy food and pay expenses.”
Keller said he recalled interviewing Timm before his arrest in 1996. Timm described living in the home with several small girls as a test because it was like “fantasy land.”
“Then months later I learned what happened to” the girl, Keller said. She “didn’t have a chance.”
The girl is now 19. She attended the opening statements of Timm’s trial, but was not called to testify.
“Oh my, I can’t even begin to say all the harm it’s done her,” her grandmother said. “She keeps it all bottled up. She says she doesn’t want to remember because she knows it would explode … and she wouldn’t be able to handle it. I detest him. There are no words for it.”
It was that girl’s image which further contributed to Timm’s problems.
Neiland testified that she learned during her counseling that Timm might be hiding something in his cell.
A search revealed that he had a picture of the girl and photos of several other victims. The cache included birthday cards and children’s drawings. Timm also had somehow been able to contact state agencies to learn where his biological children had been placed in protective custody.
“I’m an old man. I don’t need more trouble,” the 59-year-old Timm said on tape. “I don’t need to make any more victims.”
Buder asked Timm why, then, he had pictures of his victims in his prison cell while he was undergoing counseling.
“That’s my family,” Timm said.
Closing Geiger: Wise or worrisome? 
ChefGus/ John Olsen on February 26 at 6:03 a.m.
“Old Man” or not He will re offend… until he dies… john
Orange on February 26 at 6:14 a.m.
Pictures of victims in his cell? That has to be a violation of some sort. How can that be allowed? SIck Sick Sick.
madscientist on February 26 at 7:15 a.m.
Hang this pervert! why should he sit in jail for 30 more years living with 3 meals a day off of tax payer money??!
Hank_Tingler on February 26 at 7:55 a.m.
Steve Tucker at work. or should we say NOT at work.
Marksman on February 26 at 9:22 a.m.
Stout branch, short rope, long drop!
BigE on February 26 at 9:40 a.m.
This makes me sick, I am a father, husband, veteran, work hard, pay my taxes. In my humble opinion, this guy does not deserve to live, he is broken, will never be fixed and will cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars to support.
Tell you what, if they need someone to get rid of societies trash, call Grandpa, he’ll kick butt, Justice is Coming !!!!!!
yvonnelswan on February 26 at 2:02 p.m.
This very descriptive story of the perv’s m.o. should be put in every mailbox in the world so parents will understand the dangers. When I try to warn young mothers they think I’m thinking too negative and that nothing will happen to their child.
misjustice on February 27 at 5:43 p.m.
Pick out your prison name, pervert. You are going to be held in state custody for the rest of your unnatural life.
Unfortunately, this type of conduct is far too common. Preying on poor mothers to gain access to their children is a favorite MO of scum like him.
I have no problem paying my tax dollars to keep him behind bars until he dies. Hopefully, there will be an inmate that takes a shine to him and more…I usually do not advocate revenge or committing violence against another, but in this pervert’s case I am willing to abandon one of my core values.
Death would be too swift of a punishment. Let him worry every day that he will be the victim of rape.
I only hope and pray that his victims will have an opportunity for counselling and healing. Make that pervert pay restitution, maybe it will make it possible for those that he harmed to heal!
spunky12 on March 02 at 12:45 p.m.
Why the surprise? Molesters are full time con artists who manipulate not just the innocent victims but position themselves favorably with adults to mitigate any disclosure by their victims.
Sexual abuse of children is horrific and not just to the actual victims themselves. Caring adults are devasted when the truth comes out with guilt and remorse for not seeing what the perpetrator was doing to the child and their failure to protect the child.
Another sad but common senario occurs when the victim discloses the abuse, the adults come to the defense of the perpetrator and in turn attack the victim’s credibilty. The adults go on the offensive with either it never happend or “let’s keep this secret in the family.” In our case we were told “Lie to the authorities and pretend this never happened”. What can and does often happen next, is that the victim is no longer able to withstand this immense pressure. If the victim then capitulates to the pressure and recants, the adults either in denial and/or supporting the perpetrator then joyfully exclaim “See I told you she was lying.” - What? To get attention? Who would want that kind of attention?
In our family’s case when our daughter disclosed her abuse, led by a perpetrator family member, immediately went on the attack of the victim. The family divided into two factions; those supporting the victim and those supporting the perpetrator. What happening? Within 90 days the victim was permanetly silenced (death at age 15) as a direct result of sexual abuse by family members.
The police will tell you that while the Mr. Timm’s of the world are extremely dangerous, the one’s who are the most dangerous and under the radar, are fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers etc. Take this from experience, when the victim discloses, “believe the children” and don’t naively assume (as we did) that the adults will defend and support the victim.
You might ask, what happend to the perpetrators and were they ever brought to justice? Not!
cwiseazcougfan on March 03 at 10:37 p.m.
Everything that Thomas said is correct. I saw it play out in front of my own eyes.
It is so true that the fathers, uncles, brothers, etc are the ones who are the most dangerous. I was married to a convicted child molester for five years. His victim was his niece. You can’t automatically assume that the family leaps to the defense of the victim and leaves the perpetrator out in the cold where he deserves to be. Particularly when the perpetrator is a family member and an expert in manipulation, convincing the victim that even if they tell, no one will believe them anyway.
Don’t say it can’t happen. It can and it does…and it’s devastating for everyone when it does.
Mildlyirritated on March 04 at 2:25 p.m.
If they put half the energy into helping us mothers as they do the offenders of these crimes we might have more of a chance. We have rehabilitatation for the offenders;classes,groups where they are surrounded by their peers(others sex offenders
) and can talk freely without finger pointing and blame ‘cause they all have the same problem, People who have to listen to them and be suppotive. Of course the victims are innicent and need on going support through out their lives. But if we talk about the mothers; it’s how they are terriable. How could they not protect their child? Why not just leave? Most of us did our best to do the right thing but as you all know the grooming was not just the kids. They had to make sure the mother was beat down so far they didn’t pose a threat. I was physically and mentally attacked he did anything to keep the situation in his control. I have to live with the fact I wasn’t as strong as all you other people that are puting the blame on me too You think I just sat back and said ok do what you want. Well I tried to stand up to him but if confronted he always was quick to turn everything around. He twisted everything out of my mouth until in the end I really didn’t know what was real any more.. I felt like I was crazy. Women living with abusive men are trapped into a cycle they don’t understand and are ashamed of. Throw in men like Ron Timm and you get devastation all around. I don’t understand why I was blind and trusting but like Det. Keller said he was smooth very smooth. I only hope his children and victims all his victims can have peace.