By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Prosecutors yesterday charged Morton resident Steven R. Moulton with kidnap, assault and molestation in connection with the alleged attack of an 8-year-old boy a in public restroom in Castle Rock.
Moulton, 22, was arrested on Saturday at the ball field during a baseball tournament for boys.
Steven R. Moulton
It’s the second time he’s been found in a public restroom stall with a child.
Moulton has been free on a pending case in Lewis County, that occurred in a Morton park in June of last year.
He has yet to even be arraigned in the Lewis County case, as attorneys are waiting for a competency evaluation from Western State Hospital which has still not been conducted.
Moulton has previously been found not competent due to a developmental disability.
He remains held in the Cowlitz County Jail on $250,000 bail.
According to the probable cause statement filed in Cowlitz County Superior Court, the family friend who took Moulton to Castle Rock told police he went to check on Moulton who didn’t return from the bathroom for several minutes, and he heard two voices coming from a locked stall.
One was a young boy crying for help and the other he recognized as Moulton, Wayne Nelson told police.
The probable cause statement doesn’t indicate any information about how the two ended up in the bathroom together. The statement offers the following allegations:
Nelson ordered the door open and saw a boy sitting in the corner with blood on his mouth and looked to his right and saw Moulton.
The child’s grandfather, Ronald Highfill, told police he went to check on his grandson when he realized he hadn’t returned from the restroom.
Highfill said his grandson was straightening his pants, crying and ran to him.
Highfill told police the boy told him Moulton pulled down his pants, pushed him to the floor and choked him
The statement says Moulton put his mouth over the boy’s mouth and bit him there.
The statement also says someone was left with teeth marks from a bite on the arm, but it’s unclear who.
Nelson told police he was watching Moulton because Moulton’s mother was at the hospital with Moulton’s father.
An arraignment in Cowlitz County is scheduled for Tuesday.
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said today they are watching the Cowlitz County case closely.
Moulton has been free on a $25,000 signature bond since he was charged in Lewis County late last year, but local prosecutors could ask a judge to increase that, according to Meyer.
The child in that case told authorities Moulton covered his mouth with his hand and punched him twice in the face.
There was no evidence of sexual assault, prosecutors said at the time, so they charged him with burglary; for unlawfully entering or remaining in a building with the intent to commit a crime.
Meyer today described some of the reasons Moulton wasn’t required to post any bail in Lewis County, noting the case was started last year, before he became the elected prosecutor.
Moulton was summoned into court, appeared when he was required and then appeared again when he was supposed to, Meyer said.
It was also based on his lack of criminal history, he said.
The specific charges Moulton faces in Cowlitz County are first-degree kidnapping with sexual motivation, first-degree child molestation and second-degree child assault with sexual motivation.
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Read “Suspect in park restroom attack arrested again” from Monday July 11, 2011, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
The reason Moulton has not had a competency hearing is because as the public demands more and more cuts to budgets from the legislature, all agency budgets receive less funding, thereby, cutting more and more staff from places such as Western State Hospital where many evaluations are done or eliminating funds to private local providers to do the evaluation. The waiting line for these types of evaluation for competency hearings gets longer and longer as the number of people with cognitive deficiencies increases through better diagnosis and no development of programs, training, or services in local communities for people with these conditions. The police departments have become the first responder for dealing with any cognitive, mental health, addiction issues as laws increase to make more actions by people with these issues criminal actions. Consequently these people end up in the criminal justice system instead of being community problems. It always comes down to a county or state’s (residents) willingness to spend the money to aleviate these problems in ways other than jail.
Why has Mr. Moulton not had a competency hearing after 7+ months, and why is our county “watching” while another county proceeds on a more recent crime?