It’s been a couple months, but I am thinking back to one of the few emails I received from District Attorney Chris Stanford in response to multiple requests for comment and clarification on stories. Stanford cited his “overall priority of ensuring our community’s safety” as reason for not replying. This implies my reporting is a danger to citizens. I found that somewhat insulting for the longest time. Now I have a different feeling. 

 I’m still not over the DA leaving out details in such a manner as to make me out to be a liar or sensationalist. I did make an error which was corrected, but if Stanford had responded to the request for clarification, then no correction would be needed. Meanwhile, Stanford, ironically, misspelled my name in his post about my error. Maybe he got so mad reading my article he was seeing double. Understandable.

It’s better to just be a liar, I think, than to use linguistic trickery to imply things that aren’t true so you can call someone a liar. At the moment though, I just can’t stop thinking about Trayton Whipple. Yes, I referred to that case and the Katlyn Morgan shooting in my last column, but what’s hitting me the hardest is all the evidence that Christopher K. Stanton should never have been on the streets in the first place. 

I have talked to a mother whose son was beaten over the head with a beer bottle by Stanton months ago. I have talked to another mother who, along with her mother and her small child, had their lives threatened by Stanton. Just weeks ago, Stanton rear-ended an elderly woman while driving on a suspended license doing damage to her vehicle and sending her to the emergency room. There are multiple suspended license and simple possession charges. I’ve been sent pictures from his Instagram where he posted selfies brandishing a gun while hovering over stacks of cash, plus over half a dozen counts of aggravated assault in under a year, counts of brandishing and assault with a deadly weapon. 

One woman described Stanton coming to her home in a ski mask threatening to “kill everyone.” She was told they would have an order of protection and be warned if he bonded out. Neither turned out to be the case. Stanton reportedly attempted to bribe the woman whose family was threatened. He violated his bond conditions by offering the mother $10,000 if she’d drop the charges. The women’s daughter told me, “Nothing came of that either. Pretty sure that’s coercion of a witness.”

I think actions like letting a violent criminal repeatedly terrorize innocent people are a much graver danger to our community than reporting on the actions of our District Attorney. I would go further: I believe that in cases where our District Attorney, Chris Stanford, politely asks us to just don’t ask questions and don’t talk about that case, those may be the ones we most need to question thoroughly. 

Standard reporter Philip Fairbanks can be reached at (931) 473-2191.