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The worst predator
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Suspected of molesting several boys over an 8-year period, wanted in Alaska and Idaho for skipping bail Schwartzmiller was on the run.
He headed south to San Francisco, hunting for prey in nearby Fremont.
San Francisco, Calif.
Once again, Schwartzmiller changed his name— Rob Stevens this time— and befriended a single mother of an adolescent boy.
To this day, she still grieves when she recalls how Schwartzmiller talked his way into living in the house she shared with her 14 year old son.
Carol Stewart, mother: What breaks my heart is I sent that little boy out the door with him. I should have kept him with me. I would have kept him with me.
John Larson, Dateline correspondent: You had no way of knowing then.
Stewart: No, I misread it all.
She had no idea, she tells us, that Schwartzmiller was a predator until the day she got a sickening telephone call from her 11-year-old daughter, telling her that her son was missing. When she got there she found her son, a friend of his and Schwartzmiller, were missing. Schwartzmiller took the two boys north to the Seattle area and Schwartzmiller’s home town of Everett, Washington.
Robert Pichler, of Everett, Washington, is an old high school buddy of Schwartzmiller and let him sleep on his couch whenever he was passing through town. This time Schwartzmiller had two boys in tow.
Everett, Washington
Bob Pichler: He was a friend of mine. I trusted him.
Larson: And what did he say about these kids? How did he explain it?
Pichler: That one of them was the son of the girl that he was gonna marry in California and the other one was a friend of his.
Retired FBI agent Max Noel was called in on what was now a federal kidnapping case.
Max Noel, retired FBI agent: He liked boys entering just entering puberty. Dean Schwartzmiller was very intelligent and very articulate.
A few weeks later, the FBI got a tip, rescued the boys and arrested Schwartzmiller outside of Portland, Oregon.
It looked like they finally had him. During his investigation, Noel had found a boy who was willing to testify that Schwartzmiller brought him out to California to be part of a prostitution ring—serious charges that could make for a very strong case.
Larson: So how much federal prison time did Schwartzmiller serve for transporting a minor across state lines for prostitution?
Noel: None.
Larson: None?
Noel: None.
Larson: And what about the two boys he kidnapped and took out of California?
Noel: No charges were ever filed on that.
What happened?
Remember, Schwartzmiller was also wanted in Idaho and Alaska, as well. Since it was agreed Idaho had the strongest case -- 2 victims willing to testify -- both the U.S. attorney in California and the district attorney in Alaska made what they thought were practical decisions: they dropped all their charges against Schwartzmiller and handed him over to Idaho for prosecution.
At first, it looked like the strategy worked. Schwartzmiller was convicted in Idaho on 3 counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor and given a 25 year prison sentence. But Schwartzmiller once again went on offense, employing his “appeals” technique. He filed a stream of legal motions. Eventually a federal circuit court overturned his conviction. Once again he was set free.
Agent Max Noel’s five-state manhunt, in the end, was just wasted time.
Larson: From looking at the record, you guys did everything right.
Noel: Oh, I believe so.
Larson: You had agents in Arkansas. Oregon. California. Idaho. You had him cornered. When he went across state lines, the FBI followed him. And yet he still somehow managed to get away with it.
Noel: He managed to do what he has done in the past—manipulate the criminal justice system, to his benefit.
So at this point, 18 years after his first arrest, picked-up five different times on suspicion of raping boys in seven different states—Dean Schwartzmiller did not have one felony conviction on his record.
Portland, Oregon
In 1989, Schwartzmiller moved to Portland, Oregon and once again, opened his home up to neighborhood boys. Befriending a parent and her 13-year-old son, who was attracted by Schwartzmiller’s newly-purchased race car.
Debbie Griffin: They were able to go down to the Woodburn drag strip and watch races.
Once he gained the trust of parents, Schwartzmiller would take the boys on field trips to raceways around the North west, eventually those trips involved overnight stays in motels.
Larson: Did you worry about those trips?
Griffin: We looked for signs. Anything suspicious. Anything wrong. And even to go to the house and look at the other boys. And does everything feel comfortable and right? It didn’t show any signs from anyone.
Finally after four years, one of the mother’s became suspicious and reported Schwartzmiller to police. Portland authorities moved quickly, interviewing all of Schwartzmiller’s young friends.
Jim Hayden, prosecutor: We ended up with 60 or more counts of Class A felonies. And that’s only because that’s all the boys could remember.
The closer prosecutor Jim Hayden came to trial, though, the more reluctant the victims were to testify.
Hayden: They were embarrassed to tell people what had happened to them.
Larson: In the end, what did you wind up with?
Hayden: He pled no contest to three counts.
Three counts of sodomy involving just two of the boys.
Larson: And how much prison time did he get?
Hayden: 46 months.
It was the best Hayden could do. Because Schwartzmiller’s criminal history, everything that had happened from Alaska to Idaho with the FBI couldn’t be introduced as evidence.
Hayden: It’s called “prior bad acts.” And you can’t use prior bad acts to prove what happened in this case.
In 1996, after serving three and-a-half years of his sentence, Schwartzmiller was released from prison. And went straight to his hometown of Everett, Washington and his old friend Bob Pichler.
Betraying a friend
Larson: You knew he had been in jail?
Bob Pichler: I knew he had been in jail.
Larson: For a sex offense?
Pichler: Right.
Larson: And you still let him back in your house?
Pichler: He’s still a friend.
Larson: I mean, that just sounds crazy.
Pichler: Maybe I’m gullible. I don’t know. But I thought because of our friendship that he would never do anything to my kids.
Within a month, Schwartzmiller stood accused of molesting Pichler’s grandchildren -- 2 boys, ages 10 and 13.
Larson: What was your reaction when you found out your own grandsons said they had been molested?
Pichler: If I could have got a hold of him, I would have killed him.
The case went before a jury. This time Schwartzmiller attacked not just his accusers, but the entire family— claiming they were out to blackmail him.
Clay Hess, juror: They almost seemed like a completely broken home.
Two jurors said they had a hard time believing the charges against Schwartzmiller.
Hess: He spent his whole time crying and asking for Kleenex. He seemed like the steady piece that was helping finance the entire family. From clothing to covering the rent.
Larson: When the case finally went to the jury, how long did you deliberate?
Hess: I would say no more than a couple hours at most.
The verdict? Not guilty. Once again, the jury was not allowed to hear about Schwartzmiller’s 30 years of molestation arrests.
Larson: He came out of prison in Oregon. And the Oregon parole board said this is a sexual predator with a high chance of re-offending.
Hess: We never—
Robert Mercer, juror: Wish we’d have heard something like that.
Hess: --yeah.
Mercer: It would have been a different jury I assure you.
28 years—seven arrests, 4 convictions — 2 overturned on appeal — and now an outright acquittal: Dean Schwartzmiller was free, once again. He moved to San Jose, California, rented a house and hired adolescent boys for odd jobs.
A chronicle of crime
In May of 2005, Schwartzmiller was again arrested, but this time investigators found something new: spiral bound notebooks with what appear to be coded entries.
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Police believe during the 35 years Schwartzmiller was manipulating the criminal justice system he was keeping a precise record of every child he molested, or raped. Damning evidence, if police can break the code and find the victims.
When Schwartzmiller goes to trial, we don’t know whether the jury will get to hear the full story about the broken families from at least seven states and about the scores of victims like Ken Madison, who came forward years ago and are still struggling to survive.
Ken Madison, victim: It scares me that with his intelligence he’s gonna get out again. After all this, no. He should never get out again. He should never got out the first time.
This time, though, jurors may get to see these notebooks filled with the names of thousands of children who may have been too afraid or ashamed to ever tell their stories to police—stories just as horrific as Ken Madison’s.
Madison: I felt really ugly, dirty—I had a lot of shame from it. People have no idea what it can do to a person.
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