Lewd conduct suspect on lam
SANDPOINT — An accused child molester is the subject of a $250,000 arrest warrant after failing to show up at his trial in 1st District Court on Monday.
Stephen Robert Reiling was present during a pretrial hearing last Thursday, but was nowhere to be found when jurors were about to be picked to decide the lewd conduct case against him.
The $50,000 bond Stephen Robert Reiling had been free on while the case is pending is being forfeited.
Reiling’s defense counsel, Frederick Loats, told the court on Monday that he was surprised by his client’s absence and had no information about his whereabouts.
“I can’t offer an explanation, but hope he has a valid excuse,” Loats said.
It’s not unusual for a defendant to fail to show at a hearing in a criminal proceeding. However, court officials said a defendant’s absence at trial is extremely rare.
Verby, who’s been on the bench since 2003, said in court that he’s never had a defendant fail to appear for trial. Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall said he’s never seen it happen either.
A pool of 70 jurors were summoned to the Bonner County Administration Building to decide the case against Reiling, a 54-year-old retired U.S. Air Force pilot who lives in Sagle.
A larger jury pool was assembled because lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor is an offense that carries the prospect of a lifelong prison sentence upon conviction. The larger pool enables attorneys to be more discerning about which jurors should be selected to hear the case.
Along with inconveniencing the jury pool and the alleged victim, who flew to Idaho from out of state to testify, Reiling’s absence cost the county nearly $1,500 it spent summoning jurors and compensating them for their time and traveling expenses if they had to drive more than 30 miles.
Reiling molested a girl in 2003, when she was about eight years old, a criminal complaint alleges. Reiling allegedly made incriminating statements when he was questioned by a sheriff’s detective.
Loats moved for those statements to be suppressed at trial, arguing that his client’s will was overborne by coercive interrogation techniques employed by Det. Tony Riffel.
The court disagreed.
“Based on the totality of the circumstances, it is determined that any incriminating statements made by Mr. Reiling during the course of his interrogation and questioning by Det. Riffel were voluntary and not the product of police coercion,” Verby said in a Nov. 28, 2011, decision.
Although Reiling allegedly stated he was “glad to get this off my chest” when he was questioned, the defense succeeded in thwarting the state from referring to those remarks at trial as a “confession.”