Satanism is opposed child abuse, but local cops in Idaho want people to think the exact opposite
Earlier this week, an Idaho county sheriff’s office published a press release to Facebook about the conclusion of a criminal investigation and prosecution of a 22-year-old man. The man pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a child, and he was expected to be sentenced to 12 years in prison. All of this is pretty standard.
One sentence, however, certainly was not.
In November 2023, the Valley County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, Internet Crimes Against Children Unit. They passed on information about an individual they identified as someone who was likely in possession of child pornography while residing in Valley County
Valley County Sheriff’s Detectives began investigating the case and eventually identified the suspect as Jason W Russell a 22-year-old resident of McCall. In February, detectives served a search warrant on Russell’s residence in McCall and took him into custody. Numerous files of very disturbing child abuse and child pornography were found in Russell’s possession during the investigation. Russell is a member of the Idaho chapter of The Satanic Temple.
On Friday, 06/14/2024, as part of a plea agreement calling for a twelve-year prison sentence, Russell pled guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a child and will be sentenced in Fourth District Court on September 20, 2024, at 9:00 A.M.
“Protecting our children is one of our top priorities, and we will not tolerate any form of child sex crimes in our communities. We will continue to aggressively investigate those who prey on our children,” Sheriff Kevin Copperi.
Valley County Sheriff’s Office Facebook post 6/24/24 at 9:39 am
“Russell is a member of the Idaho chapter of The Satanic Temple,” they said. Which is definitely a choice, isn’t it?
Now, we hate The Satanic Temple with an intensity and complexity very few will ever appreciate, and even we think it’s incredibly fucked up for a law enforcement agency to just drop some dude’s supposed religious affiliation in the press release about the guy’s child sexual abuse material (CSAM) plea deal.
Apparently the Valley County Sheriff’s Office agreed — or was made to agree — because the next day, VCSO updated their announcement about it to remove that little tidbit about Mr. Jason W Russell, 22, of McCall, Idaho.
This is one of the most viscerally disgusting crimes a person can be accused of, and this law enforcement agency apparently thought it was necessary that “The Satanic Temple” was also implicated in the offense yet did not think it was necessary to explain how they determined this association or explain how it was relevant. Perhaps, “Well, you know how those Satanists are,” was the whole justification in their minds.
(DOB: 8/21/2001)
Something that may not be obvious to a neutral reader: is it even true that Jason Russell was a Satanic Temple Idaho member?
The answers is, “Probably not.” That was an extremely small group, like a dozen people. The few members in it actually voted to leave the national org at the end of May 2024. (For anyone who hasn’t been paying attention, yes, The Satanic Temple has been imploding again.)
To the question, “Was that Jason Russell a ‘member’ of The Satanic Temple in some more general way?” the answer is, “Maybe?” If you buy hot sauce from TST or just give them your email address for their newsletter, boom, you get counted as a “member” for TST press releases and lawsuit filings.
This is the downside of the Temple’s membership inflation strategy: you are claiming association with a ton of people you probably don’t actually want to claim.
But it’s also entirely possible that reactionary Christian law enforcement just did that thing where parents call every video game console a “Nintendo,” and the cops saw a Baphomet figurine on a table or “leviathan”/sulfur symbol on a handkerchief then said, “That’s one of them Satanic Temple people.” A commenter on that Facebook press release said that “the only affiliation he [Russell] had with the Satanic Temple was apparently a couple pictures of him with fake horns on.” We obviously have no idea until more information is released, if ever it is.
[QS note – the photo posted by the Facebook commenter seems to be of a guy completely unrelated to this case, not closely resembling Russell in age or appearance. Also, on July 5, the Idaho Statesman reached out to local law enforcement to get an explanation about the Facebook post and Russell’s connection to TST.]
Steve Gorski, the detective on the case, said the man had a membership card with his name on it and stickers, and said he was a member of the Idaho chapter. He was knowledgeable about Satanic Temple, Gorski said.
The membership cards are available for purchase on the Satanic Temple’s website for $35, and the check-out process does not appear to ask the purchaser whether they are actually a member. Gorski said he had not tried to see what it took to get such a card.
“I don’t know how they run their membership or meetings. … All I know is that he said he was a member, and we have his ID card with his name on it sitting in the evidence room,” Gorski siad. “I’m kind of taking him at his word.”
Gorski said the videos the suspect possessed were terrible and disturbing, and the man was trying to find groups online and in-person he thought might share his interests. He thought Satanic Temple might be one of them, Gorski said.
There is no investigation into the Satanic Temple or that religion, the detective said.
Regarding the Sheriff’s Office social media post, Gorski said he would have liked to see more of an explanation of what he called the nexus between the case and the Satanic Temple, which can help serve as a deterrent.
“I think it’s a way for groups to internally police themselves,” Gorski said. “… They’re in a unique position to come across troubled individuals … before they reach the level where law enforcement gets involved. And that, again, that goes for just about any group, any religion.”
Carolyn Komatsoulis, Idaho Statesman “‘What is the relevance?’ Idaho sheriff’s office post about sex offender irks Satanists” (July 5, 2024)
So take the rest of the original version of our article as purely a thought experiment if the facts of the situation had been different.
However, let’s go all the way and assume charitably that the Valley County Sheriff’s Office’s initial press release was 100 percent accurate (meaning on June 25 they removed the reference sentence for no reason). Was it standard operating procedure for this agency to identify folk’s religious affiliation?
Sure fucking wasn’t.
Suspect arrested on murder charges in Donnelly shooting.A Valley County resident is in custody following the fatal shooting yesterday at a home in Donnelly located on Loomis Lane.
Chuckaya Joseph Mount, a 48 year old male of Donnelly, was taken into custody yesterday by Valley County Sheriff’s Deputies and booked into the Valley County jail on murder charges. He will be arraigned this afternoon at the Valley County courthouse.
The victim, a 65 year old male also of Donnelly, succumbed to his injuries at the scene of the incident. His name is being withheld until next of kin can be notified.
Jan. 30, 2024 press release
On February 12, 2023, a 31-year-old Valley County man, Nicholas Gatchell, was convicted of two counts of sexual exploitation of a child for possessing child pornography. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison and will be eligible for parole after serving a minimum of one year in confinement. Mr. Gatchell will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.
The arrest of Nicholas Gatchell was the result of a joint investigation between the Idaho Attorney General’s Idaho Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force and the Valley County Sheriff’s Office.
“It is important for folks to know that it is nearly impossible for possession of this material to go undetected by law enforcement,” said Valley County Sheriff, Kevin Copperi. “When local law enforcement receives tips or leads from ICAC regarding the possession or distribution of this material, we are committed to tracking down the perpetrators and holding them accountable for perpetuating this horrific crime against innocent children,” he said. “Everyone involved has demonstrated exceptional professionalism and works tirelessly to ensure the safety and well-being of our communities.”
“The mere possession of images depicting the sexual exploitation of children, even when the possessor does not create, distribute or induce the creation of the image(s), is a felony punishable by up to ten years in the State Penitentiary,” said Brian Naugle, the Valley County Prosecutor. “For those that think that living in a rural community will shield them from capture for possessing these types of images, this case should serve as a very stark warning. My office, along with the Valley County Sheriff’s office will continue to work closely with the ICAC task force to find, charge, and ultimately convict people who possess these horrifying images that perpetuate the sexual abuse of children.”
Feb. 15, 2024 press release
Suspects arrested on Lewd Conduct charges.
Detectives from the Valley County Sheriff’s Office investigate two former Cascade residents on allegations of Lewd Conduct with a minor child. Through this investigation, detectives were able to obtain arrest warrants for 57-year-old Frank Leming of Ontario, Oregon and 44-year-old Shy John of Boise, Idaho.
Leming was located in Ontario, Oregon and transported to the Valley County jail; he is set for arraignment on April 12, 2024, he has been charged with one count of Lewd Conduct with a Child under the age of sixteen; felony, bond is set at $500,000.
John was located in the Boise Valley and transported to the Valley County jail; she is set for arraignment on April 12, 2024, she has been charged with one count of Aid & Abet Lewd Conduct with a minor; felony, bond is set at $500,000.
Both subjects remain in custody.
Sheriff Kevin Copperi expressed his appreciation for the hard work his detectives devoted to this case. “Even though this crime occurred more than five years ago, the detectives working this case didn’t let that deter them. They kept working the case until we were able to gather enough evidence to present to the grand jury for charges. If not for their determination and perseverance, this case could easily have become just another one of the many unreported and uncharged cases of sexual abuse of a child.”
April 2, 2024 press release
If anyone can find an earlier references where they arrested somebody and said, “John Doe was a member of St. Whoever’s Episcopal Church,” please share to correct us.
Of course, there are times when religion is relevant. For example, a Catholic priest abusing children in his parish makes it doubly relevant to the public because the priest is a prominent public figure in that position as a religious leader and also used that position to hurt children.
However, there is no indication that’s relevant here, and it’s frankly difficult to imagine how it could be given the usual organization of local TST branches and of Satanism more generally.
Again: who hates The Satanic Temple more than us? Nobody hates The Satanic Temple more than us. Watching TST’s national org self-destruct in completely foreseeable and predictable ways (because we foresaw and predicted it) has been like celebrating a fucking birthday every day for a month and a half now.
A local law enforcement agency doing this — naturally spawning dozens of rightwing media stories about — is still fucked up.
Sometimes people root for bad things happening to The Satanic Temple because, well, “Scientology for Mall Goths” certainly deserves it. But this sort of thing has nothing to do with why The Satanic Temple is actually a horrible, abusive religious organization that’s dangerous to its own members and everything to do with Satanic panic bullshit. TST’s owners are literally profiting off of playing the role of Washington Generals in the culture war, but they aren’t the ones most likely to face the consequences of it. Like we said, The Satanic Temple of Idaho functionally doesn’t even exist anymore, and the immediate reaction to this press release was for local rightwing groups to start literally defaming a completely different group of people: Satanic Idaho.
If Satanic Idaho people have it in them to pursue a legal case, being targeted in this way is almost definitionally under the “defamation” umbrella. But that’s years of legal work down the road, and in the meantime they have to deal with reactionary Christians who sincerely believe that “pedos,” “chomos,” etc., lie outside the normal protection of society and deserve to have violence visited upon them, and can justify it by saying, “You know how those Satanists are.”
This is not a joke, and it’s not an abstraction. Dark Star Magick in Portland just this week got targeted with an arson attack apparently designed to destroy it entirely.
That Portland book shop is affirmatively antifascist and opposed to the worst elements of Satanism! They have a talk by Spencer Sunshine scheduled about Satanism and the Alt-Right for Aug. 13, even.
Everybody who’s a Satanist — hell, everybody even vaguely occult or likes a goth aesthetic — is in danger of being targeted for stochastic terrorism when Christian Nationalists and fascists take to the chum the cops toss out like this.
We should all call it out and be against it.
To our knowledge, all mainstream Satanic traditions oppose child abuse, either explicitly like Church of Satan’s Eleven Rules of Earth (“Do not harm little children”) or implicitly like the Six Pillars of Global Order of Satan (“Respect the inviolable body, autonomous will, and sovereign right of every individual to guide their own life and being”). The Satanic Temple’s Seven Tenets have their flaws but yeah, “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone” counts, too.
By contrast, reactionary Christianity loves “clobber passages” about queers being bad, but they’ve really got to stretch to find where “abusing children” — including sexually — is not acceptable since that doesn’t really come up in the Bible, and “spare the rod, spoil the child” is explicit wisdom. If cops were consistent about this and not just dedicated reactionaries following their own biases of hating religious minorities, then certainly most of the time they would be talking about members of Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal, etc., churches abusing children. The hierarchical belief that children’s bodies and wills are not their own but subservient to “elders” is easy to turn to even worse ends than what is typical and accepted by those sorts of denominations.
So should every arrest or conviction list out somebody’s religious affiliation? Clearly not. Clearly that would be a bad and wrong solution to this. Pluralism is sometimes (often?) the exact worst solution to a problem of unfairness, even.
Unfortunately, you should expect this to get worse, not better, in the near future.
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