From the October 2002 Idaho Observer:

Leas still seeking justice for 9-year custody nightmare

by The Idaho Observer

Fred Leas was denied custody of his two girls for eight years by Latah county Prosecutor Bill Thompson, over one dozen judges and Child Protective Services. Leas was only trying to protect them from their step father Paul Mohr whom he claimed was a violent, pedophilic, substance abusive drug dealer.

It took the state of New Mexico to discover that Leas had been right all along.

In 1999, the Mohrs violated a judge's order by moving the girls to Roswell, New Mexico. New Mexico authorities investigated Leas' charges of mental, physical and sexual abuse and found they had merit. While Idaho paid the Mohr's legal bills for years -- even while they lived in New Mexico -- no matter how blatant their attempts to frame Leas and send him to prison, New Mexico saw through the problem and, within months, arranged for the girls to be removed from the Mohr home to live with their father.

One of the frame attempts came from Probation officer Tom Blewett who alleged he received a letter from a “secret witness” who claimed to have observed Leas taking indecent liberties with his daughters.

Aside from being a total fabrication, state law demands that all allegations of child abuse be turned over to Child Protective Services for investigation. Blewett failed to do this since an investigation would expose the letter as bogus. Instead, Blewett attempted to frame Leas in the court of District Judge John Stegner who, as it turns out, is Blewett's cousin.

Leas has attempted to sue Blewett and others in civil court but has been denied. Stegner, who was forced to recuse himself from the Leas case in 1999 when his relationship to Blewett became part of the court record, recused himself again September 24, 2002, in another action brought by Leas.

Leas has also filed criminal charges against several people who have participated in the conspiracy to force his daughters to live with a pedophile, including Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson. Deputy Prosecutor Robin Eckman has requested that Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas investigate Leas' charges because Thompson is her boss.

The Leas child custody nightmare has been covered extensively by The Idaho Observer beginning in December, 1998. This entire saga proves intense corruption at the highest levels of state and county government that Leas has committed himself to exposing.