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January 21, 2010 in City
Attorney alleges ranch director paid for witness’ silence
An unexpected witness may testify that former Morning Star Boys’ Ranch director Joseph Weitensteiner had him procure boys for sex and then gave the witness money years later to keep it quiet, according to a motion Thursday in the first sex-abuse trial against the ranch.
The dramatic revelation in the lawsuit by Kenneth Putnam came outside the presence of the Superior Court jury when Judge Kathleen O’Connor demanded to know why Putnam’s attorney had called an unscheduled witness three weeks into proceedings.
That witness is Michael Clarke, a former boys’ ranch resident who is currently an inmate at the Airway Heights Corrections Center on a conviction of first-degree theft.
Putnam’s attorney told the judge Clarke informed him Friday that in 2006 Weitensteiner allegedly paid Clarke $2,000 in exchange for Clarke not revealing that he groomed and procured other Morning Star boys to have sex with Weitensteiner. Clarke told the attorney, Tim Kosnoff, that those encounters took place in a nearby farmhouse, owned by the ranch, where Weitensteiner lived in the late 1970s.
Under questioning by Kosnoff on Wednesday, Weitensteiner denied giving money to Clarke, but said he had presided at Clarke’s wedding. On Thursday, Weitensteiner denied that Clarke had procured boys for him. But the reason for those questions wasn’t revealed until later Thursday.
Morning Star’s attorney, Jim King, protested the admissibility of Clarke’s testimony and the potential new line of evidence, saying it was a violation of trial management and “a whole different trial.”
If Kosnoff wants to present such a case, “let him take it to the prosecutor,” King told O’Connor. “We don’t think Clarke has any place in this trial.”
Kosnoff told the judge “nothing could be more central to this case” than Clarke’s expected testimony. He said he can produce a witness who saw Weitensteiner hand Clarke an unsealed envelope containing the cash.
O’Connor ruled that Clarke would appear before her Monday morning and she would hear what he has to say, without the jury present, before ruling on the admissibility of his testimony.
In other testimony Thursday:
•Weitensteiner denied grooming Stephanie Miller for sexual contact. Miller, a transsexual who was born Carl Smith, is a former resident of the ranch who has filed a separate lawsuit against Morning Star claiming to have been sexually abused there.
•Under questioning by Kosnoff, Weitensteiner had difficulty recalling whether the ranch had a written policy regarding allegations of abuse.
•Putnam, 34, testified that he had been molested by Weitensteiner and a counselor, named Doyle Gillum, who is now deceased.
Putnam said Gillum came into his bedroom late at night and fondled him while he was under the influence of medication given to him by the ranch to control his bed-wetting.
He said he reported the incident to a supervisor, but that a week later Gillum again entered his room at night and began molesting him until Putnam slapped the counselor. Gillum “punched me so hard in the chest I couldn’t breathe,” Putnam said.
•He also testified that Weitensteiner molested him on the priest’s 27-foot powerboat on Lake Coeur d’Alene where the priest took him and another boy in the early 1980s.
While Putnam, who was 10 or 11 years old, was lying down seasick, he said, Weitensteiner pulled down his shorts and touched him until the boy kicked Weitensteiner in the face, jumped overboard and swam to another boat. The other boater returned Putnam to Weitensteiner, who said the boy was mentally ill.
That night Weitensteiner took the boys back to his home at St. Patrick’s Parish where he was pastor and again molested him, Putnam testified. Putnam recounted that Weitensteiner told him, “Nobody is ever going to believe you. Look who you are, an orphan. Nobody ever comes for you.”
•He said Weitensteiner later fondled him again when he forced the boy onto his lap behind the wheel of the priest’s car. Putnam was later taken from Morning Star Boys’ Ranch and placed in a foster home in Chattaroy.
•King declined to cross-exam either Weitensteiner or Putnam. Both will be called as witnesses when the defense presents its case, probably next week.
Rights panel poorly understood 
Liberty_Bell on January 21 at 3:20 p.m.
It just never ends in Spokane Vote Lisa Brown!
RCW 9A.72.120
Tampering with a witness.
(1) A person is guilty of tampering with a witness if he or she attempts to induce a witness or person he or she has reason to believe is about to be called as a witness in any official proceeding or a person whom he or she has reason to believe may have information relevant to a criminal investigation or the abuse or neglect of a minor child to:
(a) Testify falsely or, without right or privilege to do so, to withhold any testimony; or
(b) Absent himself or herself from such proceedings; or
(c) Withhold from a law enforcement agency information which he or she has relevant to a criminal investigation or the abuse or neglect of a minor child to the agency.
(2) Tampering with a witness is a class C felony.
twoandthree on January 21 at 6:40 p.m.
If I was King, I wouldn’t want someone testifying about the grooming and payoffs..
He may not be an ethhical lawyer but he’s not a stupid one.
“a whole new trial”? nope just a more honest one.
Better entertainment than skating.
skeugster on January 21 at 7:52 p.m.
The trial Day 3, a Bomb is Dropped see http://www.washcourts.com/?p=166
Dazzeetrader11 on January 21 at 11:12 p.m.
Always seems so odd that there is no evidence…just testimony
the no one can corroborate. It’s always about the money….and lots of it. Attack the dead priests who cannot speak for themselves. Have the author of this article bring up a defrocked priest …and do a story full of unsavory innuendo.
Worse!.. have the commenters convict the Ranch even though not one of them knows the evidence nor has been to court to watch and listen…like I did today..(I’m here visitng parents).
Grow up people. Some things may have been done wrong but the courts will tell us.
Liberty_Bell on January 22 at 7:12 a.m.
No the Courts won’t Daisy?
Have you ever studied up on the Judges In Washington State?
An interesting model shown best in yesterdays trial, and Judicial Misconduct Commission hearings in Olympia?
Kind of like the Male Prostitution Ring, in the Pierce County Court, lead by the Judge of the Superior Court?
It’s super duper, on the Superior Court too, pedophiles in action Judge Height likes em young too!
I suppose all those DSHS cases costing the State Hundreds of Millions, over the last few decades of incompentance, after the tip toe thru the tulip crowd decided that liberalism, needed to go to the priests hood too!
One step foward for a Republic, One step back for democracy@!
Liberty_Bell on January 22 at 7:27 a.m.
Just like the Catholic’s eh Daisy, “it’s always about the money.” Thats why they have so much of it, stealing it for Jesus! Explaining the Catholics 2000 years ago!
“Jesus said, Though shall not commit murder, Though shall not committ adultry, Though shall not steal, Though shall not bear false witness…the rich man will hardely enter the Kingdom of Heaven…”
Whoops, troubling for the Pope, thinkin you can buy your way to heaven???
allabout on January 22 at 10:21 a.m.
I do think being in the court room and watching for one’s self is a good way to form an opionion. I know it has got to be better than forming one from reading or watching TV.
If we all form opionions and have knowledge based on our own observations, that knowledge will serve us better than that of which we read in the paper or watch on the news.
Whether you believe what you hear on the news or read in the paper about anything, it is the “sources” opinion that is underlying in the writing -