Judge To Decide Gag Order By Friday Arrasmith Publicity Jeopardizes Fair Trial, Prosecutors Argue

A judge will decide by Friday on prosecution requests for a gag order and for a jury selected outside Nez Perce County to consider first-degree murder charges against Kenneth D. Arrasmith.

The former Asotin County, Wash., sheriff’s deputy goes to trial Nov. 6 for the May 17 slayings of Ronald and Luella Bingham of Clarkston, Wash. They were shot outside a Lewiston auto shop.

Arrasmith, 44, of Sunnyside, Wash., has not admitted to the killings, but has accused the Binghams of sexually torturing his teenage daughter. Asotin County authorities knew about the allegations but did nothing to stop the Binghams or rescue his daughter, Arrasmith contends.

Several women who say the Binghams also abused them have come forward in support of Arrasmith. They have portrayed the Binghams as sexually depraved monsters who had been taking advantage of troubled girls for years.

Prosecutors contend it may be impossible to find an impartial jury in Nez Perce County because of extensive publicity on the case. So they want a gag order imposed on Arrasmith, his attorneys and potential witnesses.

“If there is anything we can do to stop this, it might help,” Michael Kane, a Boise lawyer and former deputy attorney general serving as a deputy Nez Perce County prosecutor, said Tuesday during a hearing before 2nd District Judge Ida Rudolph Leggett.

To illustrate his point about media coverage, Kane presented Leggett with a number of newspaper articles, letters to the editor and tapes of television broadcasts, including the nationally syndicated “Montel Williams Show” and the ABC news magazine “20/20.”

While the media attention has reached national proportions, Kane said the most concentrated publicity has been in the Lewiston-Clarkston area.

So he and Nez Perce County Prosecutor Denise Rosen also want the jury for Arrasmith’s trial to be selected in another county.

“We want to try the case in a setting where the victims have not been vilified and where the names Arrasmith and Bingham are not on everyone’s lips,” Kane said.

But Leggett questioned what would be gained by picking a jury from elsewhere in Idaho since all parts of the state have been exposed to the media coverage.

Defense attorney Craig Mosman argued against the motion, saying Arrasmith also has been portrayed in a negative light at times but that he has confidence the people of Nez Perce County can decide the case fairly.