from the Spokesman-Review
Thursday, June 14, 2001

Idaho

McGuckin jail stay extended by two weeks
Hearings postponed so lawyers can work out a settlement
Related stories

Susan Drumheller - Staff writer

SANDPOINT _ JoAnn McGuckin may be in jail another two weeks while attorneys try to negotiate a resolution to the child neglect case against her.

A preliminary hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning, and today's child protective shelter hearing, were both postponed until the last week of June to allow for a possible settlement.

Bryce Powell, McGuckin's court-appointed attorney, said he and prosecutors are working on a "global resolution of the entire case," both the criminal charges and the child custody case.

"We've all recognized the primary goal is to reunify this family ... and get this family back on its feet," said Bryce Powell, McGuckin's court-appointed attorney.

Prosecuting attorney Phil Robinson said, however, that any deal will involve the state retaining custody of McGuckin's six children who are minors.

"The primary goal to us is not reunification, it's protection of the kids," Robinson said Wednesday. "It may lead to that (reunification) some day."

The children, who held off law enforcement for five days following their mother's May 29 arrest, saw their mother at the Bonner County Jail for the first time Tuesday, Powell said.

McGuckin, 45, was arrested on felony child injury charges stemming from authorities' concerns that the children were subjected to squalid living conditions and a lack of food.

The children, ages 8 through 16, are staying together with foster parents who are friends of the family.

Powell said he was not present when the children visited their mother in jail. A witness to the reunion told him it was "a beautiful thing to behold. There's obviously a lot of love in this family," Powell said.

Powell also released excerpts from a statement McGuckin wrote in response to reports that she harbors strong anti-government views. He declined to release the entire statement.

"I am not against the intentions of the preamble of the Constitution, nor the Bill of Rights, nor the free enterprise system that's supposed to be truly free," she wrote. She also said she's not against "love of family and the freedom to be."

McGuckin has refused to abide by court conditions for her release, so she remains in jail.

She does agree with the "democratic republic the way it was intended to be operated," but bureaucrats are not the government. "People are the government," and bureaucrats are employees of the people, she said.

"I don't know that she's against anything," Powell said. "She's pro-Constitution, pro-civil liberties and equal rights. She's pro-family and she's individualistic."

Although neighbors and authorities have suggested that McGuckin may have a personality disorder or mental illness, Powell has not requested a psychological evaluation for her. Powell would not elaborate why, saying her state of mind was obviously an issue in the case.

"I'm not a psychological expert, so I'm not going to make a diagnosis," Powell said. But, he added, "people should not confuse unconventional ideas with mental illness."

Many who know the McGuckin family's situation blame those "unconventional ideas" on the deplorable state of the household and the McGuckins' refusal to accept any government aid.

JoAnn and Michael McGuckin began to isolate themselves in the mid-90s. Michael McGuckin died last month from malnutrition and dehydration stemming from the final stages of multiple sclerosis.

In June 1997, Deputy Bill Tilson conducted a welfare check of the family and was greeted by a pack of barking dogs. JoAnn McGuckin first told him to leave, but warmed up to him when the dogs settled down and didn't bite him, he reported.

Tilson was there to check on the family because they had no power. A few months earlier, a utility worker had been bitten by one of the McGuckins' dogs.

During his welfare check, McGuckin told Tilson that she knew she could trust him because "the dogs can detect witchcraft and I had no `witch poo' on my vehicle or myself and the animals did not bite me," according to his report.

She also told him "that Health and Welfare is an evil group that sacrifices people and eats them on a regular basis."

Furthermore, she believed that electronic equipment was making her husband sick, that cars had conducted a war dance maneuver by the house, and that Northern Lights workers were poisoning the family, and using radiation and microwaves off the hilltop, "aimed specifically at her family and nobody else," he reported.

She also said Northern Lights also was capable of "setting up a tripod-type system that will fry you instantly if you get too close or if they just want to kill you," he reported.

Tilson reported that not all the children seemed to share in McGuckin's beliefs, according to behavior he witnessed during a later visit to the home.

But Michael McGuckin did, telling a deputy on another visit that the family stayed isolated because they couldn't trust anybody.

By all accounts, the McGuckin family is fairly well-educated. Michael attended college and JoAnn a business school. The children were home-schooled, and the older ones attended public schools several years ago. The eldest son, Ben, was beating the nurses at chess regularly during his stay at Bonner General Hospital following the standoff.

JoAnn McGuckin, then JoAnn Dunn, graduated from Sandpoint High School in 1973.

In the summer of 1972, she worked at a dude ranch in Hayden Lake with Smoki Bonser.

"We were both 16," Bonser said. "At that point in time, JoAnn would talk to anybody about anything. That's one of the things I liked about her, she was blunt and outspoken."

Bonser was surprised and angry with the arrest of McGuckin. "I can't see JoAnn as anything but a good mother," she said.

In 1981, JoAnn married Michael McGuckin, a man 16 years her senior. He started developing paranoid tendencies in the late '70s, according to his ex-wife, Randy Sue Latimer.

The McGuckins attended the local Catholic Church, and JoAnn gave birth to seven children. The couple lost their sawmill business and filed for bankruptcy in the '80s.

Michael McGuckin's disease progressed, forcing him into a wheelchair. The last few years of his life, he was bedridden.

Friends and neighbors believe that JoAnn McGuckin "cracked" under pressure from having so many children, so little money and a seriously ill husband. According to police reports, she believed witchcraft was making his illness worse, and she tried to treat it with a strict diet and herbs.

She appeared slightly nervous during the short court hearing Wednesday, and told Magistrate Judge Debra Heise that she agreed to waive her right to a speedy trial for the sake of the negotiations.

She held her attorney's hand firmly as she left the courtroom and headed back to jail.

•Staff writer Thomas Clouse contributed to this report.