By: Mark Fitzgerald The openly gay owner of a northern California weekly was arraigned last week on charges of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old male, in a case that has unfolded over the summer with some unusual twists -- including a front-page column by the owner that names the youth.
Daniel Webster, the 38-year-old publisher and editor of the
Pioneer Press in Fort Jones, was arraigned Sept. 10 on three felony counts of sodomy with a person under the age of 18; two felony counts of oral copulation with an under-aged person; and one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor by allegedly providing him with marijuana and a prescription drug. Webster did not enter a plea. A hearing on whether Webster should be tried on the charges was set for Oct. 15.
Webster's attorney, Clyde Blackmon, said the judge at the arraignment ordered Webster not to publish in the
Pioneer Press the name of the alleged victim, as he did earlier in the summer or the names of his immediate family members. In a telephone interview, Blackmon declined to comment on the substance of the charges, saying only he expected Webster to remain free on his own recognizance.
Webster himself wrote at length about the allegations in the July 9 edition of the
Pioneer Press. According to an account by reporter Kimberly Bolander in the Redding, Calif.,
Record Searchlight, Webster said that the teenager made sexual advances to him, which he resisted. Webster named the teenager, who was 17 at the time of the alleged sexual contact, but has since turned 18. The column said the youth worked at a bed-and-breakfast that Webster operates.
The Redding daily quoted Webster as linking the allegations to his paper's criticism of the Siskiyou County District Attorney's Office -- and saying he had been expecting trouble for the past five years: "By virtue of my being gay, I figured that if they're going to try to get me, this is the way they're going to do it."
County Assistant District Attorney Tim Pappas fired off a press release in response, recusing his office from the investigation. "This decision was made in order to avoid even the appearance of unfairness since Webster has made it a career to use his newspaper to attack this office," the release read in part.
The California Attorney General's Office filed the charges against Webster.
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