By: Mark Fitzgerald Prosecutors intend to retry Daniel Webster, editor and publisher of the weekly Pioneer Press in Fort Jones, Calif., on felony charges of molesting a 17-year-old male, Webster's attorney has confirmed.
Earlier this month, Webster was acquitted of two felony charges -- one count of oral copulation and one count of sodomy -- by a jury in Siskiyou County (Calif.) Superior Court, and was convicted of a misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The misdemeanor charge alleged Webster gave marijuana and prescription drugs to the 17-year-old, who worked at a bed and breakfast the publisher owned in the northern California town of Etna.
Jurors could not reach a verdict on four other felony sex charges. Webster will be retried, probably in September, on those charges, his attorney, Clyde Blackmon, said during a telephone interview Tuesday.
"The jury hung on four counts. They were split 11-1 and 10-2 for acquittal," Blackmon said. He declined to comment further on the case.
The charges against Webster unfolded with some unusual twists last summer. Webster wrote about the allegations in a front-page column that continued on three pages of the July 9 edition of the Pioneer Press. In the column, Webster named the youth, who was 17 at the time of the alleged incidents but had turned 18 by the time of publication.
Webster, who is openly gay, wrote that the youth was also "openly gay," and made sexual advances, which the publisher resisted. "It wasn't easy drawing the line with him, as I live a life where I haven't had sex with anyone for six years and had resigned myself to this being my lot in life," Webster wrote (E&P, Sept. 15, 2003).
Blackmon said Webster is scheduled to be sentenced on the misdemeanor conviction at a June 21 hearing.
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