James W. Stivers
1435 DeSmet Rd.
DeSmet, ID 83824
May 6, 2010
Douglas Payne
Benewah County Prosecutor
701 West College Ave.
St. Maries, ID 83861
Dear Mr. Payne:
I am a Republican candidate for state senate in our legislative district.
A couple of my campaign supporters have intercepted email messages between individuals who have been hostile to my candidacy. One of the individuals has been published in the St. Maries Gazette-Record. While I have largely ignored their vilifications for some time, there is evidence that these people wish to go further and abuse the judicial process to influence the outcome of the election.
You may be approached – or perhaps you already have – with a criminal complaint against me accusing me of “soliciting to commit bigamy” or some such thing, which these parties believe will result in my arrest, an action they hope will cause me further embarrassment. It is hard for me to quite grasp the legal theory behind all of this (I wonder how many married men through the centuries have promised marriage to their mistresses), but these people appear to be serious and they are persons of influence in the community.
Should you yield to public pressure “to do something,” you would not be the first prosecutor to have put expediency above principle. I would like to believe that you are an honorable man and I have no reason to believe otherwise, but I must advise you that I do have an attorney and we are carefully monitoring the situation. Should this matter take on the nature of a witch hunt, I would hope that you would use your office to quell their misguided zeal and insist that they take their case to the voters where it belongs.
Respectfully yours,
James Stivers
Cc: Robert Kirts, County Sherriff