Posted on 01/25/2007 3:29:10 PM PST by Kaslin
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A Statehouse scandal in which a lawmaker is accused of fondling a page has transfixed South Dakota, with many people following the case on TV and the Web as if it were a Hollywood reality show.
Sen. Dan Sutton, 36, is accused of groping the young man last year while the two shared a motel room at the start of the youth's weeklong stint in the Legislature. The young man was 18 at the time.
The South Dakota attorney general and other law enforcement agents investigated the allegations and made no arrests. But a Senate committee accused Sutton of sexual misconduct and planned to wrap up investigative hearings Thursday.
Austin Wiese, now 19, testified that Sutton, a longtime personal and family friend, touched his genitals through his shorts as the two slept in a king-size bed last February.
"He laid his hand on my stomach for 30 seconds and I was just shaking. He moved his hand down," said Wiese, now a college student. He said he jumped out of bed, pretended to have a cell phone call and fled the room.
While it is The Associated Press' policy not to identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault, Wiese's name was used in the public hearing, which was carried live on the Internet, and has been circulated by other media in the state.
Sutton has denied fondling the young man but acknowledged that he might have shifted in the bed and inadvertently touched him.
"I didn't do what Austin is claiming that I did," Sutton testified. "I loved Austin like a son, a son that I never had."
The nine members of the panel will make a recommendation next week to the full Senate, which will decide what, if any, action to take. Lawmakers could censure, discipline or expel Sutton.
Nearly every TV station in the state has covered the hearings, and South Dakota Public Broadcasting has offered live audio on its Web site. The state's largest newspaper, the Argus Leader of Sioux Falls, posted frequent online updates from the hearing room.
Sioux Falls TV station KELO has run live video from the hearings on its Web site. News Director Mark Millage said 750 viewers can log on at any one time, and people have complained because the link is maxed out.
"It's a soap opera. There's no question about that," Millage said.
David J. Law of radio station KWAT in Watertown said his call-in show Thursday drew many comments on the Sutton hearings. And callers seemed to know a lot of details, indicating they are listening live or reading news accounts, he said.
In a state with a population of only 750,000 people, the story is a tangled web involving people with political, business and family connections stretching back for decades. The Sutton and Wiese families have been friends for years.
Asked why the young man might have made up the allegations, the senator suggested that they might be tied to the page's father, Dennis Wiese, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for governor last year.
Sutton, also a Democrat, said the elder Wiese might have wanted to get make sure he did not enter the race. Or, he said, the allegations might be connected to a troubled business venture in which a development corporation led by Sutton lent money to the business led by Wiese.
Was just going to say. WHat party is he in? How obvious is that!
He's not likely to ever have a son if he keeps playing with little boys.
"Austin Wiese, now 19, testified that Sutton, a longtime personal and family friend, touched his genitals through his shorts as the two slept in a king-size bed last February."
18 and 36 yr. olds in a bed together?
What the h*ll are people doing?
Guilty.
LOL...that was the FIRST thing I noticed! As a matter of fact...that is the ONLY reason I looked at the thread. Research, to see if my hypothesis holds up. And it does.
I was looking for party affiliation. Thanks for pointing that out!
Saucey IMs and your a Repub., you are outta here. Grabbing a kids "buddies" and your a Dem, no worries.
The son he never had sure lucked out.
I did notice. I was looking for his party affiliation and had to read the entire article. Had he been a Republican, that fact would have been included in the title.
"Grabbing a kids "buddies" and your a Dem, no worries."
He'll be a hero.
Roger that.
Wiese, now a 19-year-old college student, testified Wednesday that Sutton had moved next to him on a king-size bed they were sharing in a Fort Pierre motel room during last year’s legislative session. Wiese said Sutton fondled his back, hips, buttocks and finally his penis.
Sutton repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, despite dogged interrogation by Sioux Falls attorney Jim McMahon, hired by the Senate to handle the case.
McMahon first questioned why a senator would share a bed with a high school page when there was a hide-a-bed in the room.
“You thought it was appropriate to climb in bed with your page?” McMahon asked.
Sutton said he didn’t think it was
inappropriate. “At that time, he was like a nephew, like a son to me and my wife,” he said.
“So it was OK to do that?” McMahon asked.
“I’ve traveled with young adults several times and shared a room,” Sutton said.
“You felt that night when you got in bed with Austin that that was all right.”
“I had no concerns.”
Sutton is in the insurance business, and he also works as a substitute teacher and has frequently taken students on trips out of town.
McMahon also questioned Sutton about a cell-phone conversation, secretly taped by Austin Wiese, in which Sutton appeared to admit to fondling Wiese.
“I’m sorry,” Sutton tells Wiese on the tape. “Shoot, I’m sorry. If I did, I am …. God, I’m sorry.”
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/01/25/news/top/news02.txt
Um...I think I see the good senator's first mistake...
Heck, he may just understand that if he supported abortion, he'd have a much smaller victim pool.
If it had been a republican, the headline would have been "Republican embroiled in teen-sex scandal". Since it was not, most naturally assumed the story was about a Democrat.
I'd say it's a sad state of the media, but it's actually become so predictable that the average person sees the bias even before the first sentence is finished.
And that skepticism is a good thing.
yup..classic its a democrat if it isn't mentioned in the headline story...
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