Weekly editorial recap
WEDNESDAY
UNACCEPTABLE INACTION
Justice delayed may be justice denied, but sitting on a potential lewdness investigation for more than a year could itself be deemed an act of criminal complicity.
According to an account in Sunday's Review-Journal by Mike Blasky, a Clark County School District employee is suspected of streaming from his office computer webcam to a viewer he thought was a 13-year-old girl live images of himself masturbating. The "girl" was actually an adult working on a sting operation for the Iron County, Utah, sheriff's office in an effort to catch child molesters.
That was a year ago. To this day, the employee, accounting coordinator Darren Boyett, 45, remains on the job. No charges have ever been filed. In fact, no information has ever been given to Clark County prosecutors, who would be the ones to file such charges. ...
School Police Chief Filiberto Arroyo told the newspaper he believed a federal agency was handling the investigation, but he could not say what agency that might be or even if the case remained open. Arroyo was quoted as saying his office could not do anything about the alleged crime because the communication crossed state lines. ...
Boyett certainly deserves the customary presumption of innocence until the evidence can be aired in the proper jurisdiction and he can offer a defense.
Does the school district's inaction thus far make it an accessory after the fact of sorts? Might any investigator or supervisor who knew of the allegations, but did nothing, be accused of misprision, which is the crime of knowing about a crime and failing to report it?
