Sandfort Family's Story

Name: Sandfort Family
Address: 9964 Eagles Nest Drive
City: New Bloomfield
State: Missouri
Zip code: 65063
Phone: 573-896-5469

My Story: I would like to first state that my husband is one of the most fun, loving, hard working, people that I know and for this to have happen to him and to us just makes me ill. He is such a family man everything is always about his family, would give you his shirt off his back if it made things a little easier for you.

They tried to get him to take a plea and him and I talked about it and he told me I'm innocent and they will see that in the end I believe in the system. Those words bit my husband in the backside. My husband also told me he would rather spend the rest of his life in prison than admit to a crime that he didn't do. which they was real big in him taking a plea that he would not do.

He would tell the public defender no I didn't do it, so why should I have to take a plea? Lawyer never had a good answer for that one. So now My husband sits in prison right now because we couldn't afford a high dollar lawyer, we had to settle for a public defender that is over worked and who could care less about my husbands case. So just because we are poor my husband could sit in prison for the rest of his life for a crime that he didn't do. This needs to stop for everyone. This is a story of having an over worked lawyer, over zealous prosecutor, dirty cops, tons of rights violated and no one to take care of him or to watch out for him and his rights. Here is our story.

Missouri case: This Oct. 2003 case needs someone in Missouri to investigate Tim Sandfort's claims. He has been convicted based on a flawed case placed before the judge . . .

Tim Sandfort: 110 year sentence for conviction based on testimony of vindictive child

I am an innocent man that has been wrongfully convicted, I could never do the horrible crimes they claim I have done. I read the papers and I sound like a monster that I am not. Please help us.

It should be noted that the cops lost the first statement I made. I made that statement shortly after I arrived at the police station. This statement clearly shows I'm innocent and I didn't do anything wrong. Yet I wasn't allowed to leave after I made my statement.

When the cops was interviewed by the parole board they stated to them, a different story than what the police report stated and what they testified to in court. How can this be?

The cops also took pictures of my private areas the next day. They lost these pictures and then they found the pictures again. Then the picture was used in court. Is this allowed?

They (the cops) say there never was a first statement, but I can clearly remember doing that one. I hadn't been there very long at that point, the cops also say the pictures were never lost, but there was a letter sent to my first lawyer and now no one can find the letter. I'm on lawyer number three and the letter has been lost or taken out or something, but I remember seeing it.

The cops also testified that this child was able to describe my private areas to a T. That is not true. I have myself read the report this child gave. I would like to also note that my confession was suppressed to the best of my knowledge, but yet the state attorney was able to use it in court. How can that be? My lawyer said she entered it as hearsay evidence. The same judge done my suppression hearing that done my trail and he knew of this. My suppression hearing was 2 days before my trail. I'm a little confused about this. I thought if your confession was suppressed it was like it never happened. Is this correct? Hearsay I thought they used on children when they couldn't testify for themselves. This child was able to testify in all the court dates. Except trail and he got on the stand and stated that he couldn't remember anything that had happened and that he didn't know what sexual abuse was. Then the state attorney brought in hearsay things. I'm really confused on this.

This child even told his older sister that none of it happen, and she testified in court to that and the prosecutor made this child look like a fool. Now this sister knows her brother inside and out and when she says he's lying about something then he is. The older sister and him have always been very close and Charles would always tell her things when he wouldn't tell anybody else. Yet this didn't matter, and yet Tim's lawyer was unable to make good out of this.

Please help me and my family

Safe exam was done on this child and it was proven to be inconclusive and yet this was not used at my trail. This child claims I had intercourse with him 2 different times. Yet no one entered this into trail.

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy day to read my story. The Sandfort Family

Hello, my name is Timothy Sandfort and I was wrongly convicted of a crime that I did not commit.

My stepson, Charles McClure accused me of four accounts of sexually abuse. He is 11 years old and is a proven compulsive liar. He has done lots of things to our family. He has made false reports to D.F.S, has hurt his little brother to the point that he could have died, and he swore that his real dad done it to his little brother, he stated that his dad done it in a drunken rage, was able to tell the same story over and over and it be the same.

So the entire family believed that his real dad had hurt the little brother. Wound up in court over this issue. About 6 months later Charles went to his mother and reported to her that he was in fact the one that done it to his little brother not his dad. He only done it cause he was mad at his dad and the only reason he was telling his Mom is because he felt like he had made his point.

When this child was 5 years old he would tell people that his dad rubbed/played with him in the shower and made his penis hard. Nothing was ever found there. Should also be noted that, this child had been going to counseling during this alleged time and nothing is in the records at all of any abuse, he had seen this counselor for 2 1/2 years.

When this was reported D. F. S. Had Charles change counselors and start going to one that they wanted him to see. His old counselor was out of the picture all-together. His old counselor did not testify in court nor was Charles counseling records brought in for that time period. This counselor knew Charles very well and knew a lot of the stuff that he had done in the past. Yet none of this was allowed to be in court. This child has done numerous other things to this family and to himself that is not mentioned above.

In our home we used what we called the buddy system, because we have had so many problems with this child, that we all agreed that no one was safe to be alone with him, because of his lying and dishonesty all the time. We took this buddy system very seriously in our home. So I have an at least one witness if not more every time I was around Charles. The buddy system was easy to do in our home because we had 3 teenage children and my wife and I, this system worked very well in our home. In fact if my wife wasn't going to be home for any length of time this child went back to his dad's house. This was basically laughed out of court; I was never alone with this child ever for any reason at all. This started Oct. 2001. All the allegations were from Jan. 2002 to Aug. 2002. No one wanted to listen.

The state attorney was able to get threw out of court the fact that this child dad is gay and has a gay lover, that they have walked around the house nude, they have watched dirty movies with this child, and my step daughters have caught there dad and lover in bed together, my step daughters have also seen the them walking around nude, and seen them let Charles watch these dirty movies. Now this child lives with his dad and his boyfriend full time and they wonder the jury, judge how this child could have known this kind of stuff. It was thrown out and not allowed to be talked about as a possible of how this child could know this. I not saying the dad or the boyfriend done anything to him, all I'm saying is he has been around gay men that have let him see things that may not have been appropriate.

This is information that my youngest brother-in-law (Robert Simonelli) has just gave us permission to disclose in this letter. From the time Robert was about 10 years old till he was about 15 he was molested by his ex brother-in-law Andy McClure and his current boyfriend Jimmy LaFavor. Robert states that his sister never knew about it. That it always happened when she was at work. She worked evening shift or the midnight shift.

They had no children when it first started: they didn't adopt their kids 'til later. So when they molested Robert they were alone. Robert states that he was threatened and was told that no one would believe him if he told, and that they would hurt him if he ever told. By the time Robert was 15 years of age, he stopped going over to his sister's house and if he had to he never stayed with them (his brother-in-law Andy McClure and his boyfriend Jimmy LaFavor) alone. He never told anyone till he was between 19 or 20. He went to D.F.S and they told him because he was over the age 18 that there wasn't anything they could do.

Robert stated he had concerns for the 2 minor boys either living or having visits with their dad and boyfriend. Yet nothing was done. He then went to the police, they told Robert that they couldn't do anything either because it had been to long for anything to be done. Robert has also disclosed this information to the parole board of Callaway County. Robert has been able to disclose all of this to his family and he's been able to make some kind of peace with it. Now Robert feels somewhat responsible for this now. He knows Andy and Jimmy raped him he can remember ever little small detail. He's scared it will happen again or maybe it has already happened again and this child (the alleged victim)

Charles McClure has either mistaken identity or wants to blame someone else to protect his dad and his dad's live in boyfriend. Robert also states there was another person watching a lot. He never did anything to me just watched. This was also disclosed to my 1st lawyer and they stated that it didn't matter that it had nothing to do with this case and they wouldn't do anything. I believe it has something to do with my case and someone needs to be checking other places such as his dad and his boyfriend. I would never point the finger at another person because I know what it feels like to be wrongfully accused. Robert Simonelli reports all this information to me. Robert has stated that he would talk to anyone about this if they would like his number is 314-718-0643. Robert has also stated that the damage has already been done to him and he's had to learn to live with it. Robert wants to help Tim Sandfort and to ensure that his nephews are safe.

The police (Callaway County sheriff department) called me at work and told me I needed to go in for questioning. I asked them how long I would be there because I am a hypoglycemic and I need food at regular intervals. The police (Houges) told me it would be approximately thirty minutes. So on August 28th of 2002 I went in for questioning about these accusations and was kept for seven hours during this time I told them again that I was a hypoglycemic and I needed food. They refused and told me that if wasn't their job to feed me. The police officer did not know what hypoglycemic was and I had to explain to him in great detail. I also requested to see my wife, Karrie Sandfort, and they told me she had left when actually she was out in the hallway the entire time except to go out for a cigarette. Why didn't I get to see my wife? The cops testified that I wasn't under arrest. Yet I was in a locked room. They finally brought me a cup of coffee with regular sugar. I told them I could not have that. They told me it was the best they could do and I had to deal with if or do without. They testified that I was not under arrest. So why didn't they let me leave to go get a snack out of the machine or to go find my wife?

My memories become fuzzy after that point, the cops say I made out a full-page confession and signed it. I have no memory of this at all. In this confession that I supposedly wrote out. I talk about a shed on our land and give dates, in reality that shed didn't even exist at time I said, we didn't get that shed till months later. The weather was freezing rain that day, so why would I be on a piece of land that we had just bought having my stepson do something to me in a shed that didn't exist, further more we didn't even have my stepson that day, my wife keeps good records when we have the kids for visits and when we don't, between the 2 of us we have 8 children so it's important to know when everyone is coming and going. The cops also testified that they did not feed me during my interrogation and that I was shaky, pale, and stared off into space with a blank look on my face. Those are common signs of an attack. By the time I has signed this confession I hadn't eaten for 10 to 12 hours, not good for someone that is to eat every 3 to 4 hours or 6 times a day.

The cops ended up arresting me at some point. I have no memory of it. My wife reports that see seen me around mid night. My wife reports that I was shaky, pale, sweaty looking, and disoriented was talking in circles. My father-in-law seen some of the same stuff along with a close family friend. My wife reported this to the police and they told her that nothing was wrong with me and that I was perfectly OK. She did not agree, but yet they refused to do anything. There again none of this was allowed in court. Not relevant to the case.

I was bailed out of jail a few days later by friends, and they dropped the charges December 23rd and reasserted me December 24th. Was bailed out the same day. I spent the next 14 months fighting these accusations. I have been away from my loved ones and was not allowed to see my children. I have demolished my funds for bonds and lawyers and had to switch to a public defender. I have missed my little girls first steps and her first words. I haven't seen my little girls since she was 5 months old and she's now 19 months old. I also have other children and stepchildren. I've had to miss my stepdaughter's eighth grade graduation and I will soon miss my son's and daughters graduation from high school.

All I want is to be clear of these charges and be able to go home to my family again. I would also like to see the police to have to change policy and procedure to be everyone gets a break regardless of the allegations. Would like for the cops to have to be trained to detect signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia attacks. This is a big problem in our country and law enforcement need to be trained to help someone in the time of need, instead of getting what they want out of them. The cops have put into writing that work in this County that they don't have a police or procedure that they follow from the A. D. A. (Americans with disability act), hypoglycemia is consider to be a disability according to the department of justice.

I went to trial on October 8th and 9th of 2003. I thought I was finally going to get justice but the prosecuting attorney was able to get a lot of valuable evidence supporting my case thrown out, while keeping in a lot of evidence against it. I was convicted of three of the four charges. The recommended sentence for me from the jury is 110 years. A long time for a man that didn't commit a crime. There has been several motions filed in my case on things that were not done correctly. The motions have been denied by the judge. The motions that were filed was things like the judge not giving the jury instructions on beyond reasonable doubt, evidence not allowed into the trail that was important to this trail, one of the state witness in the courtroom before he testified (a police officer), Mr. Sandfort's hypoglycemia not being taking care of while at the police, one of the state witness had these same kinds of allegations made towards him by this alleged child, there was a total of 8.

Would like to also note that the police state that I told a doctor at my work about urges I was having about little boys. Yet when the state attorney's office interviewed this doctor about these allegations that I supposedly told him. This doctor reported that Tim Sandfort NEVER told him anything like that, and if he had told him, he would be mandated by the law to report it, and further more he would have had to report it to our employer. For we work with mental ill patients, and a lot of them are in the hospital for sexual crimes. Which none of this happened. I have no memory of telling the police anything like this. I do remember the cops asking me who the professional staff was that I worked with, they wanted names and titles and this doctor was one of the names that I gave them. Yet nothing has been about this.
Sincerely,
Timothy Sandfort
Dictated by Timothy Sandfort and typed by Christina Cook.

The prosecutor was able to get a lot of this thrown out stating it was irrelevant to the case. My lawyer didn't try very hard to get any of it added into the trail and the judge allowed all of this and let the prosecutor attack the defendant's witness and make rude remarks to the defendant such as things like. " I wouldn't like you either if you had raped me," things like that said in front of the jury and the judge allowed that stuff.