Reporter Charged With Stalking Subject

By: (AP) A reporter who recently published an account of being raped as a child and said he pondered killing his alleged attacker was arrested on charges of stalking the man.

David Holthouse, 33, whose account was published last month in the alternative weekly Westword, was arrested at his home Saturday in Broomfield, allegedly because he had asked a friend to watch the alleged rapist's home.

Holthouse said Monday that his friend was arrested on suspicion of stalking, and Holthouse was arrested on the felony stalking charge when he went to bail the friend out of jail. Holthouse said he believes the article he wrote led to his arrest.

"Any charges against me are essentially charges of thought crimes," Holthouse said.

Police said the case was under investigation and they could not offer details.

In the May 13 Westword story, called "Stalking the Bogeyman: Coming to Grips With the Killer Inside Me," Holthouse described being raped at knifepoint at age 7 in 1978 by the teenage son of his parents' best friend. Holthouse's family lived in Anchorage, Alaska, at the time.

In the story, reproduced on the newspaper's Web site, Holthouse wrote about buying an illegal gun and planning to kill the man. The account does not identify the alleged attacker.

"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.

He wrote that he changed his mind after his parents found out about the assault.

Instead, Holthouse wrote, he met the man in Denver last month, when the man apologized and said Holthouse was his only victim. The alleged rapist has not been charged.

When asked if her client raped Holthouse, lawyer Sidney Billingslea said the story in Westword was "fairly accurate" and that her client was 14 years old at the time.

Holthouse said his mother sent letters to the alleged rapist's neighbors in Broomfield last week warning them of the man's past. Fearing retaliation against his parents, Holthouse said he asked a friend to watch the man Friday. Holthouse and the friend were arrested.

Holthouse said he has "absolutely no intention" of harming the man. But, he said, "I was seriously considering doing him harm at one time."