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magicvalley.com
Dietrich deal closes case Victim’s deposition leaves questions about locker room assault ALEX RIGGINS
ariggins@magicvalley.com
DIETRICH — In a fiery, emotional court hearing Friday, the parents of a black, mentally disabled football player stormed out when a defense attorney accused them of fabricating the sexual assault of their son to pursue a $10 million lawsuit. John R.K Howard, 19, was sentenced in Twin Falls County District Court to three years of probation and 300 hours of community service on a charge of felony injury to a child. The judge also granted a withheld judgement, meaning the conviction could eventually be dismissed. The victim and his family, who are also pursuing a civil case, say Howard, other football players, coaches and the school led a racist campaign of hatred against him. They have garnered support from people around the nation who see the case as a gross injustice — a slap on the wrist for a privileged white teen who preyed on a disabled teammate from the only black family in town. But Howard and his lawyers say there was no rape or assault and claims of racism are blown out of proportion or made up entirely. “The racist stuff, it’s not there,” Howard’s defense attorney, Brad Calbo, told the Times-News. “They’re absurd allegations ... this has all been blown out of proportion for the pursuit of money.” New details, some made available Friday and others recently obtained by the newspaper, paint an even more complicated picture of what happened that October in a high school locker room. And both sides — the victim and his supporters, the accused and theirs — say the evidence supports their case.
Statements on tape
The central argument presented by Calbo on Friday was that a recorded conversation from May 19 showed the victim
recanted his accusations and blamed the entire matter on his parents, who fed him lies in order to seek a $10 million civil lawsuit. The conversation was recorded by football coaches Mike Torgerson and Rick Astle just six days after they were named as defendants in the civil lawsuit. Several of the victim’s friends and teammates were also present. Voices on the recording are repeatedly heard telling the victim how much they love him, and how he needs to tell the truth. “The town of Dietrich should not have to suffer for this,” the victim said on the recording, obtained by the Times-News. “It was never my intentions. It was just all them, all my parents … I was fed lies and I said it and I signed it because I was pressured.” Later in the recording, the victim says, “It’s always been about the money. It’s always been about the $10 million.” And Howard and the others who were charged? “I love those guys,” the victim said. “Those guys shouldn’t be charged, I don’t think they should, with any of that.” The victim says in the recording he lied under oath while testifying during a court hearing. He says his father told him that once they won the civil suit, they’d move to the Bahamas. But just last week, in a deposition taken Feb. 17, the victim takes back what he said in the recording and explains that he lied to his football coaches and friends. He told them what they wanted to hear because he wanted his friends back, he said. “All that stuff, I just made up,” he said of the recording. “I just started telling a bunch of just lies because I wanted my friends back ... My friends were super important to me at the time ... I felt like I needed to have them, like they were going to be with me forever.” So he went to the school to play basketball with his former friends, he testified, then started telling them what they wanted to hear.
DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS
John R.K Howard (facing left) embraces defense attorney Ira Dillman after his sentencing hearing Friday at the Please see SENTENCING, Page A6 courthouse in Twin Falls.
Judge: Assault not racially motivated
AG’s office releases Dietrich documents TIMES-NEWS
TWIN FALLS — The Idaho Attorney General’s office took the unusual step of immediately releasing all of its investigative paperwork in the Dietrich High School assault case within hours of John R.K Howard’s sentencing hearing Friday. The agency released more than 300 pages of investigative materials showing interviews with dozens of witnesses, teachers, parents, administrators and coaches, along with detectives’ notes, statements from football
players and hundreds of phoned in and mailed complaints from the public against the attorneys and judge in the case. The documents contain no major bombshells but offer a deeper look into the details of how authorities investigated. Again and again, investigators heard from students who described a culture of harassDREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS ment on the Dietrich High School John R.K Howard takes a seat football team where players rouduring his sentencing hearing tinely “dry humped” each other. Friday at the courthouse in Twin Please see DOCUMENTS, Page A6 Falls.
ALEX RIGGINS
ariggins@magicvalley.com
TWIN FALLS — District Judge Randy Stoker said the locker room attack of a black, mentally disabled Dietrich football player was not racially motivated despite evidence that white players and coaches called him “fried chicken, grape soda and Kool-Aid.” Stoker made the comments Friday during a sentencing hearing for a defendant in the case who has been accused in a civil complaint of racially bullying the victim.
Dairy investigated for polluted water MYCHEL MATTHEWS
mmatthews@magicvalley.com
SHOSHONE — Manure water appears to be flowing from faucets in homes northwest of town, and investigators are probing whether a nearby dairy is be to blame. Tap water from 20 homes within the area of concern is being tested for contaminates. Officials are awaiting results. But one agency has received a positive test result for e-coli bacteria and chloroform.
The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Idaho State Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency are investigating reports that 4 Bros. Dairy, owned by brothers Andrew, Jerome, Clement and Louie Fitzgerald, pumped manure mixed with floodwater into the Milner-Gooding Canal. “The dairy had a large influx of runoff that flowed into the canal. That runoff was incidental (to the flooding),” said
Lynn Harmon, manager of the canal system that runs from the Milner Dam to Gooding. “But there was material (intentionally) pumped into the canal (by the dairy). Harmon said he ordered the dairy to stop pumping into the canal and then notified the Department of Agriculture and the Lincoln County Sheriff ’s Office. Sheriff Rene Rodriguez sent deputies
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Please see JUDGE, Page A7
Test your water Lincoln County is urging homeowners within a 10-mile radius of 720 North and Eight Mile Road to have their water tested. Water-testing kits can be picked up at the Lincoln County Community Center, 201 S. Beverly St., in Shoshone. Testing is done at Magic Valley Lab, 210 Addison Ave., in Twin Falls. Results are usually available within 48 hours. The courthouse will be open Saturday if folks want to pick up a free testing kit. The lab cost is $16, but the county will reimburse those in the designated area if they show their receipt.
Please see DAIRY, Page A7
If you do one thing: JuMP Co. presents the production of “Annie Jr.” at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Canyon Ridge
High School auditorium, 300 North College Road W., Twin Falls. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children.
He appeared unaware of the racist tropes commonly used to stereotype African Americans. “In my view, this is not a case about racial bias,” Stoker said of the charge against John R.K Howard, 19, of Keller, Tex. Jeanetta Williams, president of the NAACP Tri-State Conference of Idaho, Nevada and Utah, scoffed at Stoker’s comments that those specific foods are not racially charged.
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