former DNR writer charged in Oregon
Brent Finnegan -- January 28th, 2008
From The Mail Tribune in Southern Oregon: former DNR political reporter, Andrew Scot Bolsinger, is scheduled for a pretrial hearing to face charges for first-degree rape and sodomy. According to the article, he has also “been named the defendant in a number of lawsuits involving several local businesses of which he was an owner or part owner.”
Bolsinger covered local politics at the DNR 2000 – 2003. He also served as DNR city editor, and has written a book.
The crime is alleged to have occurred eight years ago, even before ASB’s stint in Harrisonburg. Such allegations usually have little corroborating evidence and are notoriously difficult to prove, especially when levied against public (although local) figures. I know nothing about the case, of course, other than what you have linked us to. I trust that, if ASB is acquitted, “you will have the decency to clear [his] name with the same publicity with which you have now besmirched it.”
(I just wanted to use that quote.)
Yep. I have feeds for this, and will follow up when I hear something.
I also intend to follow up on the Peter Gelderloos story, but the last I heard, Gelderloos was out on bail, and received special permission from a judge in Spain “to leave the country for two weeks for a book tour in the United Kingdom.”
Weird, he was my neighbor in a duplex for a year when he moved here.
Isn’t there any type of statute of limitations on something like this? I thought there was a seven year rule.
Callie, the statute of limitations on a criminal charge is a matter of state law. I am unfamiliar with Oregon law on this issue, but I do know that there is no statute of limitations on felony charges in Virginia.
This blog has some info about Oregon’s limitations.
Thanks for the link, Joe. The blog you link references the statute of limitations for a civil suit arising from the alleged rape. I followed a few more links to the Oregon criminal code which appears to set the statute of limitations in this situation at when “the victim attains 30 years of age.”
Cook,
I have to admit I didn’t read it carefully, and should have prefaced my preceding comment with “for further reading.” Thanks for finishing my homework for me.
From today’s Mail Tribune (emphasis mine)
I’ve talked with several local (Harrisonburg) media people about this over the past couple of days, one of whom told me that this “complainant” moved here to the Valley with Bolsinger and she actually worked in a local media outlet. Anybody else here this?
ASB has been fired by the Ashland Daily Tidings.
It sounds like the real story here is his business trouble. The sex charges — whether legit or false — drew attention to shady accounting.
The Mail Tribune has a lengthy story about it.
New development:
Additional charges against Bolsinger:
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080315/NEWS/803150312
Another ASB update:
“Investigators said Friday that it could take “months and months” to ferret out whether the series of unpaid debts and folded businesses of former Ashland Daily Tidings Editor Andrew Scot Bolsinger amount to theft and racketeering charges or should be chalked up to bad business deals.”
FYI: Andrew Scot Bolsinger apparently jumped bail.
Update: ASB found:
just curious is anyone found out about the decision of his bail agreement.
Another development.
Follow-up: Bolsinger was sentenced to 20 months in prison:
Fascinating: A right-wing newspaper that’s seen two out of six city editors in the past twenty years charged with sex crimes involving children. I wonder how they feel reporting such crimes against other people.
I wouldn’t call the DNR a right wing paper. Though as a city council member and mayor, wasn’t there anything you could do to influence the style of reporting?