06-01-2004, 06:48 AM
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#30 (permalink)
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Darth Papa
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Followup: This week the author of this article was arrested for stalking the rapist:
Quote:
Reporter is accused of stalking man
By Sean Kelly
Denver Post Staff Writer
Post / Helen H. Richardson
A Westword reporter who wrote a cover story confessing to temporarily planning the murder of a man he says raped him in 1978 was arrested over the weekend on suspicion of felony stalking.
David Holthouse, a writer at the Denver-based alternative weekly, was arrested Saturday in Broomfield and is free on bond.
Holthouse, 33, said Monday he was arrested after a friend followed the alleged rapist and staked out his home. But Holthouse said he believes he was arrested because of the story he wrote.
"Any charges against me are essentially charges of thought crimes," he said.
Broomfield police on Monday said the case remained under investigation and they could not provide details.
In the Westword cover story, published May 13, Holthouse described how he planned to kill the man - even going so far as to buy an illegal gun and stake out his house.
"I was going to watch him writhe like a poisoned cockroach for a few seconds, then kick him onto his stomach and put three bullets in the back of his head. This time last year I had a gun, and a silencer, and a plan," Holthouse wrote.
But in the story, Holthouse said he had a change of heart after his parents learned of the assault, which happened when he was a 7-year-old boy in Alaska. Instead, Holthouse wrote, he met the man on the 16th Street Mall last month.
The man, he said, admitted to the assault and apologized, claiming Holthouse was his only victim. The Denver Post is not naming the alleged rapist because he has not been charged with any crime. His phone number was disconnected.
Alaska-based lawyer Sidney Billingslea said she represents the man accused in Holthouse's article.
When asked if her client raped Holthouse, she said the story in Westword is "fairly accurate," except for the age of her client. At the time of the incident, she said, her client was 14, not 17 as the article implies.
Billingslea said she believes no criminal charges or civil filings are ever likely against her client because the statute of limitations has run out.
Holthouse said that despite the criminal charge against him, he has "absolutely no intention" of harming the man.
But, "I was seriously considering doing him harm at one time," he said.
In the story, "Stalking the Bogeyman," Holthouse recounts being savagely raped at knifepoint at age 7. It was 1978, and Holthouse was living with his parents in Anchorage.
The teenage son of his parents' best friends took him into a basement bedroom. There the teenager forcibly raped him, Holthouse said.
"I had no words for what was happening, no concept of 'rape' or 'sex.' I just knew that I was terrified and in pain," Holthouse wrote.
The Westword story was picked up by two Alaska newspapers, including the Anchorage Daily News.
And last week, Holthouse's mother sent letters to the man's neighbors in a Broomfield housing development. The letters warned of the man's past, Holthouse said.
On Friday, saying he was fearful the man would retaliate against his parents, Holthouse asked a friend to watch the man and make sure he did not travel to the airport.
His friend, identified by police as Nelson Guanipa, 29, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of stalking. Holthouse said he went to Broomfield to bail Guanipa out of jail and was arrested himself.
Westword editor Patricia Calhoun said Holthouse likely is the paper's first reporter arrested after a story was written. She said Westword stands by the article.
"The story has resulted in an unbelievable outpouring of letters and e-mails from people who also were sexually assaulted as children," Calhoun said. "That's confirmed our original decision to run the story."
Holthouse is scheduled to appear in court July 1 to be advised of charges. He said he worries he may face additional charges; stalking alone carries a penalty of up to eighteen months.
"I thought the story was more important than any legal risk to myself," Holthouse said of his decision to write the article.
Does he still feel that way?
"Absolutely."
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