Bay Area Reporter - June 8, 2001
Katie Szymanski

Wyatt, 34, was serving time awaiting trial on 16 felony counts related to having sex with a minor and being HIV-positive. Wyatt, who has always denied any physical contact with his 16-year-old accuser, pleaded "no contest" three weeks ago to five misdemeanors in order to be released from jail, where he spent 208 days following his arrest last October.

Assistant District Attorney Tim Pappas dropped the felony charges after the alleged victim, a troubled teen with a record of mental illness, was caught engaging in sex with another adult male and subsequently offered conflicting accounts of what happened. Deciding the teen's credibility was not strong enough to build a case, Pappas at first reportedly offered a deal whereby Wyatt would plead guilty to two felonies, which he refused to do. The no contest pleas still convicted Wyatt of misdemeanor charges, but they do not limit his ability to file a civil slander suit against the county. The pleas also allowed him to get out of jail at a time when he could not raise the necessary bail and his health was failing rapidly.

"This has been the biggest roller coaster ride of my life," Wyatt told the Bay Area Reporter following his release. While in jail, he experienced various AIDS-related illnesses that he said went untreated. "I was very close to death, and very close to going crazy. I'm thankful to be out. I would have died in there."

One can trace the roots of Wyatt's legal case to the small gay-friendly town of Ashland, Oregon, just across the state border from his home in Yreka. Wyatt, a frequent visitor to the town, befriended his young accuser who was known to many locals as a compulsive liar.

"He would introduce himself to older men and tell them he was 21 years old," Bob Rauhl, the owner of a coffee and chocolate shop in downtown Ashland, told the Bay Area Reporter. "He also went around saying he had tested HIV-positive, which we later learned was untrue."

Last fall, according to Rauhl, two events happened in quick succession: the teenager wound up in a mental hospital for self-destructive behavior, and Wyatt was arrested on October 18. According to Wyatt, he sent the boy a get well card, which was intercepted by hospital staff. The staff asked the boy if Wyatt was a man he had slept with, and the boy answered affirmatively. Documents of the boy's entry into the mental hospital quoted him as having various relationships with older men, but those same documents also determined that he was "psychotic;" "had difficulty with reality;" and "seemed to want to please and give the right answer." The documents also stated that the boy had a suicidal fantasy of contracting AIDS and dying.

Nevertheless, the boy's story was elaborated upon, and he eventually told a police detective that he and Wyatt engaged in oral and anal copulation on two different occasions in Wyatt's home and that although there were condoms all around the house, Wyatt never used one.

Wyatt's version of events is that the boy had come on to him in the past, but that he refused his advances. A private investigator's report also showed that a former lover of Wyatt's reported that Wyatt was incapable of having unprotected sex while in the context of their relationship.

Additional interviews performed by the investigator showed that numerous partners of Wyatt's were all informed of his HIV status and that Wyatt had only engaged in very low risk activity with them.

None of the evidence in support of Wyatt seemed to matter, however, when it came to a gay man accused of statutory rape; the conservative Northern California prosecutors and media had a field day with the story, and Wyatt's bail jumped from $75,000 to $250,000 when his HIV-positive status was learned. His AIDS also played a role in sentencing enhancements, and Wyatt faced 38 years in prison if he had been found guilty of all the offenses.

For Wyatt, who lived a very out life in San Francisco as Chad Seibold in the 1980s (he changed his last name when his mother did), the emotional toll from the ordeal has been very damaging, and he is now looking to move from Yreka, where he had relocated to be closer to his family.

"I live in constant fear here," said Wyatt, still readjusting to his newfound freedom. "I am ready to move on with my life."
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