THIS IS THE CLASSIC DEFINITION OF WHAT IS “SELECTIVE PROSECUTION” OR “PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT”-
Dateline- Sherwood, Oregon Last updated April 25, 2017
(Published: October 3, 2016)
Year Passes with No Word About Filipino Priest
Who Bob Hermann Monster Let Skip the Country
After Being Caught by Victim Manufacturing Child Porn in Sherwood Church Bathroom!
(Includes strong language and explicit descriptions of sex)
Before reading this article, try to imagine that the accused person in this case was not a priest but instead the branch manager of a local restaurant (or a college professor) who had been caught by one of his young male employees (or students) placing a camera in the men’s room just above the toilet. A bathroom that he knew underage male employees and customers of all ages were regularly using, regularly. Then lied to the victim’s parents about an alleged ongoing police investigation and conveniently lost the camera…
Would the restaurant manager have been likely arrested, immediately?
Meanwhile, the same Washington County prosecutors are instead using the county jail’s isolation dungeon to “torture” poor and disabled accused defendants in order to get them to agree to what are coerced plea bargains:
(“See 3 Americas: 42 Days in Hermann
Monster’s Isolation Dungeon and the Coerced Plea Bargain”)
http://www.wolfewatch.com
So, since the corporate media won’t (or isn’t allowed to) ask the right question, I’ll ask, how in hell was Father Israel Bien, a priest formally with St. Francis Catholic Church in Sherwood, able to leave the country before being arrested for manufacturing child pornography, despite having been caught in the act by one of his victims, a fifteen-year-old boy.
According to police records, after urinating, and presumably after the boy had sufficiently shaken off the urine from the end of his penis, the boy noticed a strange object attached to the wall, waist high. In other words, directly in front of his crotch, mounted on the wall behind the toilet. The camera was about eighteen inches away from his exposed penis when he noticed it.
After notifying his father, who notified the priest, Israel Bien, the boy and his father learned it was a camera, disguised as an outlet.
Father Bien claimed at the time to have no knowledge about how the camera got there in the men’s room, and promised them that he would notify police right away. At some point before police became involved, almost a month later, both its memory chip and later, the camera itself, disappeared.
Despite that the camera was discovered on April 26, 2015, it was over three weeks before the priest reported it to Sherwood law enforcement, on May 20, 2015, but was not arrested. During this time, Father Bien repeatedly told the victim and his parents that he had been in regular contact with Sherwood police. On May 19th, Father Bien suddenly confessed to the insistent parents that he had not actually contacted police since the camera had disappeared from his desk. ‘Reporting to police would bring
unfavorable dispersions on both him and the catholic church, which “wouldn’t be fair’, he explained!”
The determined parents refused to accept this explanation and threatened to report the matter to police themselves if the priest did not. The following day, May 20, 2015, Father Bien contacted the police and made a brief statement, but denied any personal knowledge about how the camera got into the bathroom-
However, it is what happened next that raises serious questions about whether law enforcement and the Washington County Prosecutors may have deliberately, or negligently, allowed the priest to avoid facing justice for manufacturing child pornography in their county.
First, law enforcement and prosecutors failed in their professional responsibility by not charging him with at least one felony, for manufacturing child pornography, and by not seizing Father Bien’s passport.
After Bien left the country, police told the media, from the beginning the priest was considered to be “a person of interest”. Because, along with losing the camera and its memory chip, the priest failed to promptly report what is obviously a sex crime to law enforcement, knowing that many minors had used the bathroom where the camera was found and were likely also victimized.
The police said the priest looked guilty because for several weeks he told the concerned parents an elaborate lie about his ongoing conversations with law enforcement.
One would think this fact should have been more than enough evidence to motivate the DA to give the case some serious attention then apparently he did.
For example, the DA should have quickly obtain a court order to seize the priest’s passport, if he refused to turn it over, willingly. Yet in this sexual abuse case Washington County Prosecutors, Bob Hermann and Paul Maloney, always seemed to do the very minimum required on behalf of the victims.
On the other hand, the boy’s father deserves high praise for not letting the matter drop and doing what the police seem to be unwilling to do (sit down with the boy right away and try to identify the camera and manufacturer). The boy’s father’s diligence eventually led to the discovery that Father Bien had purchased the camera online in March 2015, and had apparently two days later mounted the high quality video camera, with a built in motion control sensor, behind the toilet at waist level.
A reasonable person would assume that the catholic priest had very likely been using the camera for over a month to film any one who used the men’s bathroom, including dozens of underage boys, many of whom were the church’s alter boys.
The parents and the victims must be wondering, why did the Washington DA only charge Father Bien with a misdemeanor, when this is clearly a felony under both state and federal law — manufacturing child pornography.
This does seem very odd from an office who claims to care so much about children. As most criminal defense lawyers in Oregon know, Bob Hermann has a reputation of always over charging any one who is poor, disabled or a racial minority. He says this is so that he can plea them down to the appropriate charge. Yet once again, Hermann fails to hold a person of prominence accountable in the same manner, by deliberately under charging Father Bien and failing to seize his passport while police were investigating.
Were the necessary elements present to warrant issuing a felony warrant any time before June 30th, when the priest slipped out of the country? It certainly does appear to be the case, yet Hermann waited until late August before filing any charges, long after the priest had disappeared from Oregon.
Do you remember the Washington County criminal case against Beaverton teacher, Logan Storm, allegedly involving child pornography? The evidence in that case was far less convincing than this–
His case involved possessing a flash drive that included still shots of his students mixed in with pics of child pornography he had allegedly downloaded from the Internet.
Despite evidence that his ex-girlfriend and a neighbor she was involved with may have set him up by planting a “well-orchestrated” flash drive in his desk, along with some of the exculpatory evidence police collected coming up missing, Storm was convicted in Washington County by bob Hermann.
In what was a last act of desperation, Logan Storm cut off his ankle bracelet and fled the country while awaiting sentencing. In that case, Storm was chased all the way to Mexico by federal authorities and eventually brought back to Oregon, where he is currently imprisoned.
So, back to Father Bien’s bathroom camera. Unless they were a person with a physical disability, we can assume that most of the boys and men who used this restroom were standing up when they urinated. In that case, the camera, which was mounted directly in front of their crotches on the wall, had a “perfect” shot at their genitals. Meaning, the person who planted the camera (Father Bien?) had every intention of filming them touching their genitals. As mentioned, every male learns at a very young age to shake their penis
after urinating to remove any remaining urine before returning their “manhood” to its appropriate pocket.
Would if the video’s producer (Father Bien?) edited out the sections which showed the person actually urinating, and perhaps got rid of all the shots of any one who appeared to be over eighteen, What would be left? Obviously, a film showing underage boys touching their private parts and shaking their penis’s directly into the camera. Secretly or not, intentionally filming this “act” would clearly be considered as ‘producing child pornography’ under the law. Regardless of whether or not they ever
found the original memory chip, and it makes no difference whether it had been edited by its owner, all of the elements are present to warrant reasonable suspicion of a serious sex crime having been committed against at least one minor , and likely many, many others. Yet Hermann and Maloney failed to honor their fiduciary responsibility to protect the community, once again, for some reason…
Based on my investigations of other child pornography cases, a video such as this, with approximately 200 victims (shots of young boys appearing to masturbate directly into the camera) could be worth tens of thousands of dollars on the “child pornography market”.
Then consider, many of these boys were dressed in alter boy outfits when they were filmed touching themselves. Now, the price of a film like this goes up quite a bit, among certain viewers, which would have been more than enough to pay for the $300 camera Father Bien ordered in March of 2015, with two day shipping. And remember, this camera is clearly designed for the purpose of being hidden from view, which meets the element of “intent”.
Consider, Sherwood Police and the District Attorney Bob Hermann immediately knew on May 20th, 2015 most of these details, but apparently waited months before taking any serious steps to investigate the crime, or indite the person they believed responsible.
The victim and his father found what appeared to be the same model of the camera he discovered in the church bathroom on line and quickly E mailed it to the police, who apparently did nothing with it until after the priest had already left the country (Does this story sound familiar?)–
Despite the irrefutable evidence of the priest’s deceitfulness from the very beginning, the catholic church also dragged its feet for over a month before taking any action. But finally, on June 24th, the Arch Bishop from Michigan, Alexander Sample, suspended Father Bien, and presumably notified the police. Yet Father Bin’s passport was still not requested by either law enforcement or Arch Bishop Sample. Sample told the media that he did not have the “legal” authority to take Bien’s passport. This
is true. However, did Sample ever ask for Bien’s passport, as his supervisor?
Arch Bishop Sample never did explain why the church waited thirty-five days to suspend Bien despite that the church knew of the evidence described above on May 20th. In fact, the church may have known about some of this even before the police knew.
Removing a suspected child abuser from the children they allegedly abused is a normal and reasonable precaution that any employer would be expected to take. And any evidence of dishonesty during the investigation of the allegations, where the safety of children were concerned, would be more than enough grounds for the employee’s immediate termination. Yet the church waited thirty-five days.
And then, six days after Sample suspended Bien, more than enough time for Bob Hermann to have suspected and prevented it, the Filipino priest used his passport to leave the country, never to return.
This willful incompetency by Washington County’s criminal justice system failed to take two simple steps which would have brought the priest to justice:
First, early on, request that the priest willingly hand over his passport while he is under investigation. If he had refused to give it up, get a damn court order forcing him to turn the passport over until the investigation is completed!
Second, request that the priest, who claims to be innocent, take a polygraph (I recommend Joe Garcia). Obviously, he would have failed the test, since we know now he bought the camera online in March of 2015. Along with his lies to the parents, failing the polygraph test would have been more than enough evidence for Hermann and Maloney to have brought the case before the grand jury, and to have notified the U.S. Attorneys Office (as a matter of courtesy, if not law).
Another strange fact, Hermann, Maloney and the Sherwood Police Department appear to have conspired to intentionally undercharge Father Bien with a misdemeanor, rather than the appropriate applicable felony charge, ‘manufacturing child pornography’ in the first degree, a Class B felony. Why?
Perhaps, Hermann and Maloney knew that the feds would not search for Father Israel Bien and the missing memory chip over an alleged misdemeanor. Only a felony charge would have brought federal agents into the case, who may have brought Father Bien back to Oregon…who may have revealed what happened to the chip.
No doubt, it would have embarrassed the arrogant Washington County Prosecutor, since it would certainly be asked by some during the trial “Given all of this, how the hell was this priest able to leave the country during the investigation? They had 41 days and they didn’t think to take his passport away?”
Another troubling question in this case is why didn’t the District Attorney from a county that has the highest rate of “convictions” in Oregon (which includes all of its coerced plea bargains) demand that the prosecutors file more serious charges against Father Bien, like they always do in alleged sexual abuse cases involving children? (“Sexual misconduct”? Are you serious, Bob?)
Over a year has passed since the catholic priest’s crimes were first discovered and the rug was tightly pulled over this scam. But some of us who are able to see through the smoke are “scratching our heads” and wondering how they got away with this one too? Will there ever be any sort of real justice or accountability for the victims or the community?
We know the fifteen-year-old boy was not the only victim of this sick priest!
While the civil clock ticks away, will the families of any of the boys who used the St. Francis bathroom during the months of March and April of 2015 have the courage to seek civil damages against the Sherwood Police Department, the Washington County District Attorneys Office and the catholic church?