Editorial Cartoonist Don Stroot weighs in on the Sutton matter.

Oooo. I'm not sure what's worse. The sarcasm, or the snake/reptile reference. (from the Black Hills Pioneer)

Comments

Anonymous said…
The senate hearings were just the beginning, folks...
Anonymous said…
and having done less than a school district would do with a teacher in the same situation--we so deserve it!
Anonymous said…
The only group that deserves more disdain than the Senate (for not expelling Dan Sutton) is the group of voters who re-elected him last November.
Anonymous said…
You think they're going to go after him criminally, anon 10:05?
Anonymous said…
Bad taste all the way around.
PP said…
Okay guys, I've killed 3 comments, don't make me have to lock this post down because of speculation that's going somewhat too close to the line.

Unless there's information that shows a criminal investigation is ongoing (which I'm not aware of), any criminality is done with, as well as the senate hearing.
Anonymous said…
More victims you say. As I recall, the other victim dreamed it up and was not called as a witness. Wonder why. very compelling evidence. took a whole year to dig that one up. what next. should I direct my question to the wiese family since they are obviouly the ones blogging their hearts out.
Anonymous said…
pp: why don't you call Larry Long's office and see if they will confirm or deny any ongoing investigation? Seriously. That would put to rest some of the speculation, either way. And I for one would like to know.

And BTW, anon 12:16, I'm not from the Wiese family. I've never even met any of them. And I think Sutton is guilty.

And if you're so eager to "out" anyone who disagrees with you, why don't you identify yourself? You're hiding behind the anon label just like everyone else.
Anonymous said…
57% of District 8 is very proud to have Dan representing them in Pierre. I am so tired of whomever on this blog continues to throw the bone of other victims. (I'm speculating the Wiese's) I believe if there were other victims out there they certainly would have surfaced by now. The investigation into Dan Sutton has or was open for the better part of a year. I really wish people would understand how powerful these unfounded rumors and allegations really are. Why doesn't everyone just wait and see what happens and stop falsly accusing Senator Sutton of "other victims" until that is in fact proven because until it is it is no more than viscious rumor.

PP-- I don't know what kind of posts you expect to be put up when you have a editorial cartoon like that on your site. I think you are just fueling the fire with stories and cartoons such as this, so to say you are going to shut down comments, I guess I just don't understand why you would even put something like that cartoon on your site if you didn't want controversial posts. There has to be better news out there than that, one would think!!
Anonymous said…
Bewildered,
"I've never even met any of them. And I think Sutton is guilty"

Why the distain for the folks that voted for Dan Sutton? They knew all about this long before the election and know ALL of the folks involved. I think that in itself is rather telling...
Jolee said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said…
Bewildered... I think mostthe voters of district 8 who voted Senator Sutton back into office would very much disagree with you, the voters obvisoly thought about the way they voted because they voted out Gerry Lang and voted in Russ Olson, they didn't just check the democrats straight across the ticket....they THOUGHT about the way they voted even with the allegation very well known in the district...in my opinion, that says a lot about the people of district 8 questioning the truthfulness of the accuser and his accusations
Anonymous said…
You got to love people like william, who say they don't know nothin, but still think he is guilty. take your brain for a walk, it needs the exercise.
Anonymous said…
gee william, where did you go. I thought your blog entry was a classic. a classic example of the un-curious mind.
Anonymous said…
anon 1:04 that's hilarious!! Maybe that's why William hasn't responded is he's out walking his brain!! ha ha!! And in response to 8:59 don't you think if they were going after him criminally they would have done it already?? If (Long, DCI) only the evidence they presented in Pierre is . The entrapment phone call and notes under furniture, they will be laughed hysterically out of a court of law!!
Anonymous said…
I'm having flashbacks to Junior High. Is this what the Sutton/Weise issue has reduced us to? Pissing matches that don't accomplish anything? Surely we can do better than this.
Anonymous said…
I agree. Grow up already, and let time settle this issue for all of us. Whatever the truth is, it will undoubtedly come out in the long run.
Anonymous said…
Anon 1:04, 1:08, bugger
If you'd bothered to read the entire thread you might have noticed I was addressing Bewildered's comments at 12:28 and included his quote at the top...
Anonymous said…
pp: is there any way you can check to see if the investigation is continuing?
Anonymous said…
sorry William...I really do apologize, I see that now. Can you guys believe Anna Nicole Smith Died?? Craziness!!
Anonymous said…
I'm in District 8. First of all, I am not a member of the Weise famiy and don't know Sutton or Weise; this is a big district, don't forget.

And there were plenty of us who did not vote for him this time around; actually didn't vote for him before either. But I can only speculate that a lot of those who voted for Sutton this year would now change their vote based on the shenanigans he and his fancy lawyers pulled and the testimony itself. Remember all this happened after the election itself.

As far as criminal investigation, I don't claim to know anything there, but assume since there were no direct witnesses and no proof other than he said/he said, that criminal charges would be hard to prove.

There can still be a crime even if no criminal charges are ever able to be proven. I just don't see how any group of people could concoct a story such as this and manage to have it hang together this long and thru all their various testimonies. So therefore I believe there has to be some truth to what Weise said happened.

It will be interesting to see if Sutton has enough Teflon on himself for this to not stick when the next election cycle comes along. It might be a whole different story then.
Anonymous said…
Nonnie, you make some excellent points.

I would add that one has to wonder where Mr. Sutton's loyalty to his district was when he resigned his elected post last year, in a very obvious attempt to dodge the tough questions. Not the actions of an innocent man, in my opinion.
Anonymous said…
"Is this what the Sutton/Weise issue has reduced us to? Pissing matches that don't accomplish anything? Surely we can do better than this."

No, I'm afraid you can't. This is South Dakota we're talking about, the laughing stock of the nation, or at least the part of it that's not Alabama, Mississippi, or Kansas.

The Sutton/Weise affair is par for the course here. This blog, and its comments, represent the highest caliber thinking available in the state. That pretty much tells you all you need to know.
Anonymous said…
Long has indicated several times in the past few weeks that his investigation is ongoing.

As to Sutton's guilt, I think most people in his district thought that it got swept under the rug by the Sutton family or that a settlement got made by the Sutton family.

And what if the Brandon Carr issue had been brought up in advance of all of this as seems to have been a possibility. Too many families have been hurt and will always be hurt to see this just go away with a slap on the hand.

To be sure, this is not going away for the next year. Apparently, Long and his DCI crew must be gathering more information or he wouldn't keep saying "It's an ongoing investigation and I can''t comment on it."
Anonymous said…
Agreed. Just because this case has been open for over a year doesn't mean the investigation is over.

This is real life, folks. These investigations can take years, especially IF they involve multiple victims. Look at the investigations into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

I too have heard Larry Long state that he can't comment on an ongoing investigation. That says it all.
Anonymous said…
8:02 Wasn't Sutton teaching CCD at the Catholic Church?
Anonymous said…
Yep. Ironic, ain't it?
Anonymous said…
I don't care if a single thing happened in that bed. When an adult allows an unrelated teen into his hotel bed he doesn't deserve the public's trust.
PERIOD!
Guilty of more or not the Senate should have booted him.
And I like him--and I like the way he votes--and I am sorry for his family--but come on people--we fire coaches, teachers, even volunteer Scouting Leaders for less than this.
We deserve to be a laughing stock over this--sad.
Anonymous said…
I wonder what Rounds meant a while back when he stated that most of these problems when he was Senate leader were able to be handled out of the public eye?

Are there other cases he was aware of relating to Sutton or other pages in general that have been hurt? Male and female? Other legislators that were left to continue doing this sort of thing because it was handled out of the public view?
Anonymous said…
Just to clear things up a bit. There was never ANY kind of settlement from the Sutton family to the Wiese family. This is exactly why blogs have no credibility people make posts that are so unfounded that it is just ridiculous. Dan also was a very good CCD teacher and he took that very seriously. I think people bringing the Catholic Church into this in any way are very pathetic individuals....this has NOTHING to do with the Catholic Church!! The only thing it has to do with is the fact that Dennis Wiese went and talked to the Priest there in Flandreau and after that Dan no longer taught CCD, that's where it ends!!
Anonymous said…
Bugger, time will prove that this is not over yet...
Anonymous said…
I'm not saying it is or isn't over...maybe the Wiese's will get sued next time I don't know and you don't know either. I am just saying that there was NEVER a SETTLEMENT of ANY kind given to the Wiese family from the Sutton family. That I am positive of! So please don't post that again!! Because that is a false statement!!
Anonymous said…
How can you be so sure?
Anonymous said…
3:51 You need to reread the post about a settlement. It appears to simply state that people thought there was a settlement. Now, thanks to you, who obviously knows Sutton first hand, we know there was not a settlement. I guess we knew that by Austin Wiese's willingness to go forward with the hearings. And for that matter all of Sutton's weddng party.

I think when your guy resigned it told the public the truth. I wonder why he didn't resign before the election and be honest with his intention with those 57 percent of voters? Oh,did I just ask Sutton to be honest?

By the way, it is reported that Austin Wiese also said he went to the Catholic Church to tell the priest. He said he also went to the Flandreau School. He didn't send a parent to do his talking.

Apparently they had reason to believe something inappropriate happened if they removed Sutton from being around young people. Perhaps they had warnings before or indications of inappropriate behavior about Sutton.

Pretty soon you will be blaming Brandon Carr's father or all the parents of the other victims. Don't blame Austin's father or anyone else for this nightmare, but rather look in your families house before you cast any more stones.

As for the rest of us, we are simply confused by the defense of Sutton by his remainging supporters. Didn't he get enough of a hand slapping in Pierre to be told to stay away from this issue and all its victims? Didn't you?
Anonymous said…
Bugger:

You want to talk about "pathetic individuals"? Okay, let's:

The most pathetic one of all in this fiasco is the MARRIED ADULT MAN who climbed into bed with a young man who was essentially his employee.

I say hats off to whomever warned the community of Flandreau about this situation.
Anonymous said…
Senator Sutton did not resign because he felt he wasn't guilty of what he was being accused of. He never denied sleeping in the same bed as Austin...that never once was a denial he made. He did however deny the accusations that he groped Austin Wiese's penis. He even stated in his testimony that he possibly without knowlede maybe brushed Austin during sleep. I sincerely hope that anyone who felt they were being falsely accused would also stand up for themselves because if you don't, that would be a free for all for anyone whom wants to accuse anyone of anything. And whomever said that Dennis didn't go to Father Fox doesn't have the truth. HE DID TOO!! I am not saying Austin wasn't there, but Dennis Wiese went too! As Dan's judegement was not where it should have been in this deal, I also don't think Dennis and Austin's behavior was "normal" either. There is so many tangles in this web that none of it makes any sense. BUT, Dennis' behavior in this deal is to be questioned also!! I sincerely don't think Dan did what he is being accused of and others see it the other way and that is fine, but any way you look at it you have to agree that Dennis did not act in a normal fashion having believed the allegations his son brought forward, it's just a wierd sad situation all the way around and I sincerely hope that with time the truth really does come out! I think everyone involved needs closure.
Anonymous said…
Bugger, the fact is that Sutton DID resign, albeit from the last session, hoping that either the issue would then go away, or that his lawyers could get him out of it, or failing that knowing that he would face a friendlier Senate with the newly elected group.

I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt until he pulled these stunts. If he was truly innocent, he should have reported the incident right away and faced up to it. He didn't. But I think he would have come away from this thing in a whole better light if he had.
Anonymous said…
Bugger:

You always blame the parent or someone else. There is no pattern of behaviour for victims.

Civility certainly was the wrong direction taken by teh Wieses early on. That lesson was learned.
Anonymous said…
7:15 I don't know if you are a parent or not BUT I am willing to go out on a limb and speak for most parents, if you truly thought your child had been violated SCREW civility, there shouldn't have been a "lesson to be learned". I am just saying that Wiese's behavior was bizarre to say the least. Most parents would be SO angry they wouldn't be worrying about "civility" and "learning lessons" most normal parents certainly wouldn't be asking for public endorsements from the perpetrator...that I am virtually certain of.(Notice that I am not saying anything about Austin's behavior because you are right there is no "pattern of behavior" for victims, I am just speaking of the father's behavior. I don't know what happened in that room as does no one else on this blog unless you're Sutton or Wiese and we all see things our own way and this is just the way I see things...I'm sure someone will say that Wiese's behavior was completly normal, and that's fine although I STRONGLY disagree. I also think Dan is innocent and I am entitled to that opinion just as Nonnie is to hers. I have followed this case very closely and the the behavior on Dennis' part (if he really truly believed what his son had told him) following the alleged incident just doesn't compute in my mind common sense just tells me "something's not quite right here" Once again that is just MY opinion and I am entitled to it!
Anonymous said…
7:38

Your right, it is just your opinion. Seems to be a lonely one though!

Have a safe trip to Pierre!
Anonymous said…
Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.

And when that doesn't work, bring them out into the light of day.
Anonymous said…
Bugger:

So you're saying that Dennis didn't show enough outrage over the alleged incident in the hotel room, but that accompanying his son to speak with the Catholic Priest was out of line?

You sure can change your argument easily when you need to.
Anonymous said…
Only legal action will get this to its true end. I wonder what else will be learned with the ongoing investigation?
Anonymous said…
I think it's safe to assume that Butler and Duffy are on permanent retainer by the Sutton camp. I also think they're going to have their work cut out for them.
PP said…
Guys - keep it to opinion and accepted fact.
Anonymous said…
It is my opinion that it is an accepted fact that this guy is in trouble!
PP said…
ok, I warned you.

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