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FROM the Associated Press GOLDEN, Colo. —https://apnews.com/article/8b00853cc8480883dcf46cfedbba577c
“GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) A man imprisoned since 1984 for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 3- year-old girl and then leaving her for dead in an outhouse pit was released from prison today.
Robert Thiret, whose release Gov. Roy Romer tried in vain to block, did not speak as he and his attorney emerged from the facility and got into a van. His destination was not known.
Colorado law requires Thiret to be set free - no parole, no probation, no restrictions, even though authorities have said they still consider him a menace, and psychologists say he’s made ″minimal″ progress in therapy.
Thiret, 28, was convicted of snatching a 3-year-old girl in Sheridan in 1983. She was found alive three days later in an outhouse pit at a campground 20 miles west of Denver near Genesee. She had been sexually assaulted and left for dead.
Thiret has been at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Complex, where he was serving a six-month sentence for telephone harassment after getting out of the state penitentiary where he served six years of a 10-year sentence for attempted murder and sexual assault on a child.
Onlookers who had shown up at the jail to watch Thiret’s release were urged to leave by sheriff’s officials.
News of Thiret’s impending release had angered residents and led Romer to criticize state parole law.
Thiret was up for parole in 1989, but public pressure pushed authorities to continue to hold him. In May, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that because of the delay, under the law in effect at the time of the attack Thiret had to be freed - not paroled.
On June 23, Thiret was transferred from state prison to the Jefferson County Jail to serve the harassment sentence.
Stephen Bakker, a rescue volunteer who carried Thiret’s shivering victim from the outhouse pit, questioned why he should be released from jail.
″I just don’t believe anybody who could do something like that to a little girl is going to change just by being in jail,″ Bakker said.
Bakker said he still can see the 3-year-old girl, wearing only her underwear, shivering in the outhouse pit where she had been left for dead.
″I don’t see how anybody could do that to a child - just leaving her in a pit like that,″ he said. ″She was disoriented. She was just looking for something warm to hold onto. As soon as I touched her, she grabbed me and held on until I pulled her out.″
The girl recovered.
The crime created a call for the sexual assault registry.
Pictures of Robert Thiret at the Trial
https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/robert-thiret
Another article about Lori, with a picture
https://geniuscelebs.com/lori-poland-abuse-kidnapper-robert-paul-thiret/
Watch this chilling video about the crime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoX8p2bOjf0
A video about Lori Poland today .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUNqa4McAMs
Associated Press Article
https://apnews.com/article/dbd0dde06328557f544cd8c63736fd68
I Live Here: learning to heal through embracing your own story by Lori Ellen Poland (Author)
Visit Lori Poland's website and organization.
“The National Foundation to End Child Abuse and Neglect is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to shifting the conversation around child abuse and neglect, by highlighting the long-term physical, mental, and public health impacts of abuse.
We know that ending child abuse and neglect neither begins nor ends with children. Everyone is a child at some point. How do you use your story? What is your impact?
Here at EndCAN, we are focused on change. We raise dollars and awareness, we connect and listen, and we give back and impact.”
Donate to her charity.
The Poland Kidnapping Case - Sheridan Colorado Police Department
http://www.shs-co.org/ha_police.htm
Three year old Lori Poland was kidnapped about 12:45 p.m. on Monday, August 22, 1983 near her home in the 3200 block of W. Bear Creek Drive. After interviewing neighborhood children and adults in the area the police started looking for a Datsun four door, faded orange or brown car, with black stripes down the side, and a partial license plate of ADV-2.
The description came from one child playing with Poland before she was kidnapped and a nearby resident. Her mother was at work while her father was inside their house at the time. After seeking approval from the City Administrator and the Mayor, the police department contacted the local media for help. The Amber Alert system would not come into existence in Colorado until 2002.
Lori was found the following Thursday morning. Steven and Cynthia Gaulin, bird watchers from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania were wandering through the Stapleton Park. They had been wandering through the park for two hours near the Chief Hosa exit of I70. Mrs. Gaulin heard cries after using an outhouse along with her husband. "The two searched around the area. Then they heard a girl cry, 'Mommy.' They called back for her. She said, 'I'm here. They looked under the floor of the outhouse and into the pit and saw her. They asked 'What are you doing.' She replied, 'I live here.'" The Gaulin's summoned the Highland Rescue squad from a phone booth at the Chief Hosa Campground. Lori was pulled from the pit by Highland rescue volunteer Steve Bakker. No one knows how long she was in the outhouse pit.
Lori was taken to St. Anthony's Hospital. Lori was reunited with her parents at the hospital.
Then twenty-one year Robert Paul Thiret surrendered himself to police on September 5, 1983 and was arrested. He was taken to the Arapahoe County Jail with a $250,000 bond. Thiret became a suspect the day the abduction. His vehicle was a 1972 Datsun 510 and fit the description of the vehicle that was given to police the day of the abduction. He was charged after hair samples in the car matched Lori's hair.
Three year old Lori identified Thiret in a police video line up and from photo line up. "He did it. He put me in the hole," said Lori. Thiret proclaimed his innocence and said he was home at the time of the kidnapping. Thiret was charged with two counts of kidnapping, sexual assault on a child, child abuse, and attempted murder. Thiret was provided with public defenders including Craig Truman and Pat Vance. Truman challenged Lori's identification of Thiret during the police lineups. The defense filed more than thirty motions to the court before the trial date.
There were several audio and visual tapes made during interviews with Lori by police and Dr. Jones. The defense argued the tapes should not be admitted into evidence at the trial. There was also a legal dispute whether Thiret had properly been advised his rights before his arrest.
Prosecuting attorney John Jordan later argued, "The court must remember that Lori Poland had not even been found at that point." He further stated, "Lori Poland was still down that hole… if she was alive, she wasn't going to be alive much longer and we must move quickly."
The defense also threatened to subpoena Lori's parents for the trial. The defense attorneys filed motions stating that two recently passed laws preventing cross examination of kidnapping victims were unfair. Thiret entered five not guilty pleas. His attorneys also sought a change of venue.
The trial was set for March 1984. It was later moved to October 1984. The delay was caused when an appeal was made to the state Supreme Court by the prosecuting attorneys. The Supreme Court ruled the prosecutors could use evidence that had been previously ruled out by Judge Friedman. The judge finally ruled on all the motions, which both sides described as a mixed bag.
Prosecuting Attorneys Jim Peters and John Jordan said they would review the judge's rulings before deciding how to proceed. The ruling had been made after eight days of testimony, which requested that evidence be suppressed from the searches of Thiret's home and car. The judge denied the motion to drop the sexual assault charge. Judge Friedman also ruled that Lori would not be placed on the stand during the trial. An October 23, 1984 trail date was set for jury selection. In September 1984 a plea bargain was reached.
A confession was written by Robert Thiret and admitted into court. According to public defender Craig Truman, Thiret is "a guilty man who is settling up." In return for the guilty plea the charges of kidnapping, and child abuse, and committing a crime of violence were dropped.
Thiret was sentenced to ten years for sexual assault. Judge Friedman said in accepting the plea bargain "If I accept the plea bargain, some might consider it a slap on the wrist." He added that he accepted it "with a great deal of reluctance."
Arapahoe District Attorney Robert Gallagher Jr. said, "People are mad, they don't understand it." Robert Thiret was sentenced to ten years in prison. "Ten years is better than nothing," said Gallagher. He said the case was weak, as some of the evidence had been ruled inadmissible by the judge. "I didn't feel we had an excellent chance of winning."
Although the Poland's were disappointed with the plea bargain and sentence, Richard Poland said it is "better than nothing at all." It also spared the Poland's from reliving the case in the courtroom.
It was estimated the case legal costs were more than $350,000. Not to mention the several thousands of dollars paid by Sheridan taxpayers for police overtime and special forensics costs approved by the Sheridan City Council.
Robert Thiret spent a total of six years in jail and the state penitentiary and was released on December 7, 1990. Thiret is currently a registered sex offender in the state of California.