Washington Courts

In the hallway outside of the courtroom yesterday (February 3, 2010), I talked with two people - one who had been observing the trial every day, and one, a former radio talk show co-talker who was observing that day.

The radio talker was of the opinion that men engaged in sex with boys and seemed to believe that if a person said a man had come out and said a man had sex with him when he was a boy, it was probably true. She was a bit in disbelief when I said the evidence in the case, at least as far as I had understood it, did not establish that Kenny Putman had been sexually in contact with anyone at Morning Star Boys Ranch.

She seemed to be a bit uncomfortable with my observations, so I changed the subject and we talked of various pleasantries – of Mark Fuhrman becoming a counter-terrorist specialist for Fox News and that soon he would be heading off to Israel. That will be interesting, I said. (And I meant it.)

The other person I talked with said he had “at least 200 cases” of confirmed priest sexual abuse. He must be part of some sort of group against priests or the Catholic Church or someone. I have seen this man before and remember he was in the courtroom one time when I observed a hearing in the Spokane Diocese bankruptcy appeal before District Court Judge Justin Quackenbush. See this Spokesman - Review piece.

We also talked about the circumstances of man-boy sex abuse. He said it always occurred in private. I said hetero sex also takes place in private.

His point was that if people thought that such things took place in public from time to time, a person who had been sexually abused would never be able to prove his case. Consequently, if the boy, now a man, said that sex took place 20 -50 years ago, it was probably (was he thinking “must be”) true?

I did not go into his argument. I did not tell him that such events may take place in private, but that the private trysts would have to be established, could be established by evidence that man and boy actually were together alone in a private place. For example, that people saw them go into a private place.

I wanted to tell him that men and men and men and boys engage in something on a regular basis in High Bridge Park and its environs every day in good weather in Spokane. How does one know this? Because one can observe while he is walking his dogs that men and boys regularly leave their cars individually and walk deep into the park near Latah Creek and into the bushes, the same general bushes. Thus, the tryst could easily be established. What goes on at the time of the tryst may be “secret,” but the meeting would not be.

I wanted to tell him these things, but did not. I sensed it would be a waste of time. I left the man and the conversation with a shudder rising in my being. A shudder because his prejudices seem like they might be the hidden reason why people could easily get away with false claims of man-boy sexual abuse. I wondered how many false claims had been approved and paid in the Spokane Diocese Bankruptcy.

There is no evidence in this case that establishes Kenny Putnam was ever alone with Father Joe Weitensteiner or Doyle Gillum. There is no evidence, other than his statements, that he ever had sexual contact with anyone at Morning Star Boys Ranch.

There is something deeply wrong with Kenny Putman, but it has to do with the treatment he received from his mother and father, not the treatment he received at Morning Star Boys Ranch. This deeply-troubled young man is not being helped by the bringing of this action. And, he will not be helped even if he prevails.