Cleared man got $500 from ‘Jury’

Tim Schuetz said he was shocked when the Kootenai County Public Defender’s Office told him it had a $500 check for him and a letter signed “The Jury.”

The check was dated April 20, just days after a Kootenai County jury acquitted Schuetz of second-degree kidnapping charges. The 35-year-old man had maintained his innocence since his arrest last November after a brief encounter with an 8-year-old girl in Coeur d’Alene.

It was his word against that of the girl, who claimed Schuetz had tried to grab her as she rode past on her bicycle. He said he merely made an off-the-cuff remark, intended as a joke, and never touched the girl.

He spent six months in jail on $500,000 bond awaiting trial, and said he lost his job as a roofer and his room at a halfway house. Schuetz turned down plea offers from the prosecuting attorney, leaving his fate to the jury.

“We the jury feel very badly that you have had to endure more jail time when you were innocent and tried so hard to prove it,” the letter said. “We hope you will continue to do what is right and that this money will be used to build a new and better life. We wish you all the best.”

Although the letter was signed “The Jury,” Schuetz’s attorney said he understood that it and the check may have been from a prospective juror who wasn’t picked to sit on the panel.

Schuetz said Tuesday he wanted to thank whomever sent the check. He also wants to “clear his name,” he said.

Deputy Public Defender Dennis Reuter said he didn’t know if any juror who decided the case was involved. It’s the first time, Reuter added, he has heard of a defendant receiving money from an anonymous benefactor. Schuetz called police last fall after reading a news article about the Coeur d’Alene police looking for a man who allegedly tried to kidnap a girl. The girl told police she rode past the man Sept. 30 and that the man asked, “Wanna ride on the handlebars?” She said he then “brushed her left hand with his” and that she thought he was trying to grab her.

Later she told police the man asked her where she lived and said, “Come here, your mom wanted me to take you to go get this,” though it wasn’t clear what that meant.

Schuetz said he knew the article was about him, based on the description of the suspect’s clothes. He said he asked the girl if he could ride on her handlebars as she rode past on Ninth Street, but that he never touched the girl or made any other comments.

“I said it just joking around,” he said. “I got kids. I joke around all the time.”

Schuetz said he thought the girl would imagine a funny picture in her head of an adult sitting on the handlebars of a bike. Schuetz said he went on his way and didn’t give a second thought to the brief exchange – until he read the newspaper. He called police, he said, to set the story straight.

Four police officers were involved in the investigation, one handing off the case to another. Schuetz said he played phone tag with the police for nearly a month. Once an officer finally reached him, Schuetz said he went in that day for an interview.

Meantime, the girl told her school principal she saw the man near school grounds, watching her as she played with friends.

Police interviewed her a second time Nov. 7, and her recollection of the encounter was slightly different. She said the man had grabbed her pinky finger and followed her as she rode off on her bicycle. The girl also told police she hid behind a garbage can and the man walked near her, yelling for her. She said he had a friend with him, pointed at her and motioned to his friend. She also told police she got scared and ran inside a friend’s apartment, and that the friend’s mother called police.

“The argument came down to who do you believe to be the most truthful?” Chief Deputy Prosecutor Marty Raap said.

Raap said he believed the girl was telling the truth. She also picked Schuetz out of a photo lineup, he said.

The girl’s mother, Candice Priest, said Tuesday she was “absolutely amazed” that anyone would send Schuetz a check for $500.

“I’m speechless,” Priest said. “I deal with a petrified 9-year-old now who probably needs to go into therapy, and someone’s worried about him?”

She said she was “ticked” at the jury’s verdict and thought her daughter did well in court.

“I think she had a typical 9-year-old memory,” she said. “She’s going to remember things differently six months later than the actual moment of her reporting it to the officer. I think the jury saw that as inconsistencies in her story.”

Schuetz said he doesn’t believe the police did a good job investigating. He said he has talked to a lawyer about suing the Police Department.