By Kim Murphy
Los Angeles Times
SAGLE, Idaho – Five children holed up in a remote Idaho home with guns and dogs ended their five-day standoff Saturday night.
A Bonner County Sheriff’s Department official confirmed that all of the children left the house about 6 p.m. and were on the way to a hospital for examination.
“They’re safe,” the official said.
Authorities had vowed to wait “however long it takes” to assure their safety.
“My sheriff’s comment on that was he was just recently elected, and he has four years,” sheriff’s spokesman Robert Rahn said earlier Saturday as a convoy of vehicles headed up the closed-off road where the children have remained since their mother’s arrest last week.
Rahn said intermediaries known to the children met with them throughout the day.
The heads of the Aryan Nations and the Militia of Montana arrived at the scene, declaring that militia members across the country were prepared to intervene if the authorities moved to force the children out.
“We’ve had literally hundreds of phone calls from across America, from just about every state, asking what we should do,” said John Trochmann, who heads the Noxon, Mont.-based Militia of Montana group. “At the moment, we’re asking them to please stand down.”
Richard Butler, head of the Aryan Nations, blamed the standoff on the authorities. “If the government would go away and let them see their mother, everything would be OK. The kids are scared.”
JoAnn Dunn McGuckin, 45, is being held in the county jail on $100,000 bail on a felony charge of child neglect after authorities accused her of providing inadequate food, heat, clean water and sanitation to the children, ages 8 to 16. The family has lived in virtual isolation on the 40-acre property in recent years. McGuckin’s husband, Michael, died May 12.
The standoff has attracted interest from anti-government groups across the country because of McGuckin’s reported anti-government views and because her lawyer has accused the government of improperly taking McGuckin’s home and children from her. The remote property southeast of Sandpoint, Idaho, was sold for about $8,000 in back taxes last year.
“This family continues to be under siege by its own government,” said lawyer Edgar Steele, who was representing McGuckin on civil matters. “I still steadfastly maintain her only crime is that of being poor.”
The children, Steele said, “love her and they need her, particularly now that they’ve just lost their father.”
Sheriff officials said they intervened because the children faced serious health risks under McGuckin’s care. Over the last two days, they have dropped off parcels of food and water. Envoys familiar to the children approached the house and were able to make contact, Rahn said.
Bill Walker, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Welfare, said the state has identified a foster family that is willing to take “up to all” of the children if their mental and physical states are appropriate to their remaining together.
“Obviously, they’ve gone through a very traumatic experience over the last few weeks that may only have intensified the last few days. We’re going to make sure they receive any help they need in dealing with issues related to this experience,” Walker said.
He said a judge would determine within 48 hours of the children leaving the house whether they should go into foster care or be returned home.
The issue of the family’s two dozen dogs – whose presence on the property was one of the deterrents to deputies approaching the house – was resolved by family friends, who are known to the dogs, Rahn said.
McGuckin’s criminal lawyer, Bryce Powell, told local reporters that two intermediaries took a note from McGuckin to the children assuring them she loved them and was well.
Steele said contributions totaling more than $7,000 have come in from around the country to help McGuckin post bail. A hearing reviewing her $100,000 bail is scheduled for Monday.
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