Angry Sheriff Pulls Plug On Arrasmith Jail Interview

Sun., July 23, 1995

Associated Press

Sheriff Ron Koeper angrily pulled the plugs on camera crews from the “CBS This Morning” program as they were conducting live interviews with accused killer Kenneth Arrasmith in the jail and an Arrasmith supporter on the second floor of the Nez Perce County Courthouse.

“At 4 o’clock this morning, my patience wasn’t too good,” Koeper said later Friday.

The sheriff said he was not trying to interfere with Arrasmith speaking to the media. “It just got carried away,” he said.

Arrasmith, 44, of Sunnyside, Wash., is accused of shooting Ronald and Luella Bingham of Clarkston, Wash., on May 17 outside a Lewiston auto repair shop. He faces a trial on two counts of first-degree murder in November.

The case is drawing national attention because Arrasmith and his family are using his defense as a platform against child sexual abuse and the justice system’s seeming inability to keep molesters away from children.

At the time of the murders, the Binghams were under investigation on allegations they raped Arrasmith’s 15-year-old daughter. Since their deaths, defense attorneys claim at least 17 other sexual abuse victims of the Binghams, dating back nearly 20 years, have come forward.

“CBS This Morning” had permission to interview Arrasmith at 4:15 a.m. for live coverage for East Coast viewers. And arrangements also were made, without his knowledge, Koeper said, for the network crew to conduct an interview on the first floor with an Arrasmith supporter whose 1984 rape sent Ron Bingham to prison for 18 months.

Somehow that interview ended up on the second floor, just outside the court clerk’s offices. Koeper said that posed a security risk, so the plugs were pulled.

“I had enough. As far as I was concerned it was a jeopardy to the jail and they were all done,” he said. “They shouldn’t have been in the courthouse anyway.”

People watching “CBS This Morning” saw the interviews cut short without an explanation.

The syndicated program “A Current Affair” previously interviewed Arrasmith from the jail.

But Friday’s fiasco left the sheriff rethinking allowing cameras in the courthouse.

“I’m sure we’re going to be a little more restrictive than we’ve been in the past,” he said.

“My big concern is security.”

The ABC news magazine “20/20” is scheduled to interview Arrasmith in the jail on Tuesday. Koeper said “that’ll probably be the last one.”

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