From the May 2000 Idaho Observer:

Tables may turn permanently in Leas child custody saga

MOSCOW -- The most gratifying feeling a reporter can experience is to see justice finally prevail in favor of a person who has always been in the right. Fred Leas, 51, of Helmer, is going to have his day in court July 10 and he will likely be awarded custody of his now 11 and 13 year old girls.

Leas, with the support of many good people and the legal assistance of Steve Mahaffey and Scott Thurston, is also in a position to successfully sanction civilly several people who have participated in a conspiracy to throw him in prison and keep his daughters in the custody of the drug and alcohol abusive and sexually deviant ex-wife Ruth and her husband Paul Mohr.

Leas has been attempting to gain custody of his two girls since spring of 1993 when Ruth left him to marry notoriously violent and perverse drug dealer/user Mohr.

Since Ruth left, Leas has been falsely accused of sodomy rape at gunpoint, vandalism, child abuse and drug dealing. He has been convicted of custodial interference, has spent almost 200 days in jail and has been on probation since 1996.

Leas has appeared in court almost 140 times and has never been late. He has never given up hope that he would be able to rescue his girls from the life that the state has given them. Idaho Legal Aid, Judge John Stegner, Judge George Reinhardt, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson, Deputy Latah County Prosecutor Robin Eckman, Child Psychologist Greg Wilson, Child Services Division employees and others have conspired to falsify and withold evidence, perpetually persecute Leas and make sure his girls remain in the custody of their mother.

Leas has two boys by the same mother. Shane, 16, and Scott, 15, ran away repeatedly until Leas ended up gaining what amounts to default custody of them.

In September, 1999, the Mohrs violated a court order and moved with the girls to Roswell, New Mexico. Prosecutor Thompson, who is running for reelection in Latah county, would not prosecute the Mohrs for custodial interference.

In April, 1999, Magistrate Greg Kalbfleisch ordered that Leas be granted summer visitation which was cut short.

“It is time to bring closure to this matter,” commented Judge Kalbfleisch.

This July, Ruth will answer to charges of custodial interference and the girls will be allowed to testify as to what life with mommy and Mohr has been like.

Their testimony, which is expected to force into evidence a videotape that has been hidden and suppressed since 1996 and in which the girls detail the less-than-wholesome environment in which they live, will expose an entire cabal of corruption that has plagued the county for years.

Leas is a kind, decent and simple man who loves his girls too much to give up on them. For his sins he has been persecuted every day of his life for the last seven years. Leas is an example of how patience, perserverence, truth and love can eventually have their day in court.