Long Interview Summary Part 3 (My opinions/reactions in parentheses)
Starting about 20 minutes:
- The Reporter asks SP "When an officer from Greeley knocked on your door here in Twin Falls with a Twin Falls Deputy, did that surprise you, did that shock you?"
- SP answers: Yeah! They had, had conversations before that. On Apr 8th a detective with the Greeley Police Dept had called and talked to SP's sister-in-law in Arizona. The detective told SP's SIL that SP's name was all over the Jonelle Matthew's case;
- The detective asked the SIL if SP was mentally ill. She said "what?" and gave the phone to SP's brother;
- SP's brother is an ex-San Bernardino County Deputy Sheriff;
- The detective said the same thing to the brother; SP's brother told the Greeley detective that SP has no mental problems, "he's eccentric but he's not crazy"; (SP is having a good long laugh over the idea of LE thinking he is mentally ill)
- SP's brother "naturally" called him to tell him and SP called the Greeley Police Dept, he looked up the number on their website, he called and left a voice message for the detective.
- SP said in the voice message that his "family has a long history of homosexuals and hellfire and brimstone Baptists" and back in 1946 he had an uncle who was arrested on a consensual homosexual charge and killed in police custody. SP's family is very divided on this and on SP's past. SP asked the detective not to contact his family.
- About 2 hours later SP got a call from the District Attorney's office in Weld County. The call hung up so SP called the phone number back and a lady answered "District Attorney's Office" SP then hung up on her. Then the same number called SP back again and it was the Greeley detective.
- It was obvious to SP that he was "on voice box" and other people were in the room. He could hear papers shuffling and papers being passed
- The Greeley Detective asked SP about it and SP said he didn't know anything. (I'm assuming by "it" he means the Jonelle Matthews case)
- Then the Greeley Detective asked SP about his relationship with RW? (the man who dropped Jonelle off at her house that night-- I'm not going to post his name) and SP said it was a very bad relationship but that was in 1978 or 1979, it was years before then.
- The Greeley detective said he wanted to come to Twin Falls and interview SP about RW and the people in the church.
- SP replied that without a lawyer present he wasn't going to-- the Greeley police charged him with date rape and with 20 misdemeanors -- SP told the detective: "You're scary people."
- SP said he admitted to the detective he has a homosexual background, but he's not going to talk without an attorney present; the detective called SP's attorney and they did some back and forth; SP's attorney said "we're going to have some ground rules here and all that stuff" but the Greeley Police Dept wouldn't go along with that. "That was the end of that."
- The Reporter asks for clarification of the date and SP says all the back and forth with detectives happened on Apr 8th of this year.
- Then SP says on Aug 16th or Aug 15th all of a sudden on his intercom he gets a call and somebody is at his front door; it was the Greeley Detective on his intercom and at his door.
- SP was surprised and said to the detective "You were told not to talk to me."
- SP thought the police couldn't talk to him if they had been told to talk to his attorney.
- The Greeley detective said he wanted to talk to SP and he had another Greeley Detective with him. There were not any Twin Falls police with them. SP said he wanted to call his attorney, he called his attorney who said "don't talk to them."
- SP asked his attorney to talk to the police on the phone. The Greeley detective supposedly asked on the phone what law says they can't try to talk to whoever they want to talk to. They handed the phone back to SP and the other detective got really close to SP and said "We need to talk to you,"
- SP said it was "really intimidating" like "that old school good cop bad cop".
- One detective was studying SP really closely as it was the first time he had ever seen him in person; the other detective's card said he was "a gang something." (SP finds this really funny for some reason and is laughing)
- The detective got right in SP's face and said he needed to talk to him and SP said "Please don't contact my relatives anymore."
- SP talked to the detectives again about his uncle being killed and said he "didn't want to get into this," and "If you have anything to say to me, talk to my attorney." (I noticed that SP's nose is very itchy throughout this, just an observation he is also VERY repetitive throughout this story)
- One of the detectives got in SP's face again and started spitting through gritted teeth saying "Steve I need to talk to you right now."
- SP said "It's like really arrogant, like a bar room brawler," SP says the police wanted to talk in his living room but he wasn't going to bring them into his living room with them spitting on him;
- SP says he told the detectives they could "work out a deal" with his attorney; Then one of the detectives pointed his finger at SP (SP demonstrates this in the video) and said "If you need a deal then you get it," in response to that SP said he wasn't talking anymore and he turned and walked away. (Very strange-- it sounds to me like police were trying to say they would offer him a deal but SP took that as aggressiveness or accusatory?)
- SP told his attorney about it and after thinking about it over the weekend, on August 19th, which was a Monday, SP called the Twin Falls police...because he had told the Greeley detective that he was willing to take a lie detector test, he was willing to take a voice stress test...
- SP called the Twin Falls Police Dept Aug 19th and offered to give his DNA.
- The Twin Falls detective who had been in communication with the Greeley police asked SP if he was willing to voluntarily give his DNA and SP said, yes because he thought he would save Idaho taxpayers and Greeley, CO taxpayers a lot of money if he just gave his DNA.
- SP asked the Twin Falls detective if he was recording their conversation and the answer was yes;
- SP said "aren't most cold cases solved these days through DNA?"
- SP said he would give his DNA and they could put his DNA in CODIS and then we're done with it.
- SP went in to the Twin Falls police, the detective swabbed SP's mouth on both sides, said "you're free to go" and SP left.
- This was on Aug 19th and SP was thinking "this is the end of it. There'll be no more."
- Then on Sept 4th about 9:30 in the morning SP got a call from the Twin Falls detective saying that when they took his DNA, there was some paperwork that should have been filled out that he didn't do.
- SP asked the Twin Falls detective if he had an "ulterior motive" and what was going on.
- The detective replied that SP needed to come down to his office by 10 o'clock to do paperwork.
- SP asked a second time if the detective had an ulterior motive and "his voice went up again the second time when he said no."
- SP told the detective he needed to shave and shower and he would be there between 10:30 and 11 AM.
- SP shaved, showered and called his attorney who said not to go to the police office but to come see him in his office and if the police have paperwork they can send it to him and SP can do it in the attorney's office.
- SP pulled into his attorney's office and two "unmarked minivans" pull in; cops come out with full SWAT team, with rifles standing there pointing at him; SP was standing by his car door looking at them; it was "total shock and awe, if they wanted to catch me off guard they succeeded,"
- The cops asked if SP had any guns on him, SP said no. The cops asked if they could search him; the cop searched SP, nothing there. The cop asked for SP's cell phone and car keys and SP gave them.
- Then the cops hand SP a warrant for his phones and computer and also a search warrant (the warrants were on two pieces of paper).
- SP gave them the codes to get into his place and the police searched it.
- The police took the CD disks from his son's funeral.
- The police took papers, they took pictures of SP's family.
- The police took his tax things, they took stuff that has absolutely nothing to with-- (he cuts himself off and doesn't finish this sentence but it's implied that he means nothing to do with Jonelle's case).
- SP told the police that the only two things that he owns today that he had when he lived in Greeley is his SS card and "a dull letter opener". (I hope LE found the letter opener.)
- "They took a lot of stuff", SP says he is amazed and wonders why they don't do things "the easy way" and serve him with Grand Jury Testimony, they could have a Grand Jury impaneled in Greeley, CO and with technology ask him to testify at the Twin Falls courthouse over a screen; SP says he could be under oath and answer all the questions they want. (This is really convoluted thinking again. I can't figure out why he thinks that a Grand Jury would be easy? If he is willing to testify, why not go to the police with his attorney and offer to answer their questions?)
- SP says he doesn't understand this "Little Hitler" type way of dealing with it, why they are doing this. (Um, it's called following the law? They served search warrants. They didn't throw SP in a death camp. He wasn't even arrested. )
- SP says he is "a 68 year old man with trifocals" and all these police come at him, if they are trying to make it easy for SP to talk to them this isn't the way to do it.
- SP has been told that there are 300,000 missing kids in the US; SP says "if that's true, if these are the police methods that they are using, no wonder they are not caught..." (Not caught? Is this another slip of the tongue? Not all the missing kids cases are murder cases but SP seems to only being thinking that way)
- SP says the one thing that no one seems to want to know about is what he was told by his FIL, that it was a cop who came to him; SP didn't ask his FIL which cop but there were "city employees" in the church that she (Jonelle) went to.
(I think that is where I'm going to have to stop again, this takes us up to about 36:20 in the video. Hopefully I can finish the interview in my next installment here. This is really painful to listen to. MOO.)