After being arrested this weekend, a woman previously nabbed for her alleged role in a dog-sex case has once again found herself thrust into the spotlight. Claiming that this is the second time that she was wrongly jailed, Sarah Dae Walker is speaking out to Examiner in an effort to tell her side of the story.
Walker, 33, first made headlines earlier this year after being picked up by Arizona authorities in a bestiality bust involving Walker, her husband, her lover, an undercover cop and a golden shepherd dog. Over the next few months, Walker's woes garnered intense media attention as the press reported on a bizarre series of events which began with the bestiality arrest and culminated in an assault at the hands of a suspected serial predator known as the "Sex Pig." Today, Walker is back in the news after being picked up by police over the weekend and subsequently spending 16 hours in jail due to what she says was a clerical error.
This most recent twist in Walker's saga occurred on Friday, when she was taken into custody by a Phoenix police officer. The local news immediately picked up on the story, claiming that Walker had been jailed on DUI charges. After being released, Walker took to the internet to refute the media reports. The following statement was posted Saturday night on Walker's Facebook page:
This is horrible. To all Facebook friends the story on news channel 3 website is not true. I was falsely arrested due to a court error saying I did not pay a fine. I spent 16 hours in jail before MCSO realized there was a mistake and there was no warrant. I was immediately released by order of the judge. This is a horrible thing to happen to anyone. The news channels found my mugshot MCSO refused to remove and went wild with this story I had a DUI. I have contacted them and done an interview to correct it. I want it off their website! If you support me drop them an email or call. Thank you for your support.
The Channel 3 website was updated Sunday morning to include Walker's version of events. According to Walker, she was not driving a vehicle when she was detained by an officer who claimed that there was outstanding warrant for her arrest. A subsequent piece by the New York Daily News corroborates Walker's story, stating that a jail official finally released her after learning that there was no warrant and that the "whole thing was a mistake." As of Sunday evening, Walker's mugshot remains on the MCSO website under the "DUI" category.
This is not the first time that Walker has claimed that she was arrested on false or non-existent charges . Since first making national headlines in February for her alleged part in attempted sexual tryst with a canine, Walker has continued to maintain her innocence while claiming that she was "railroaded" by both an overzealous sheriff and an exploitative media that chose to neglect certain facts and instead sensationalize the events surrounding her arrest in hopes of obtaining higher ratings.
For those not familiar with the case, it revolves around a Craigslist personal ad posted around the beginning of February 2012. The ad, titled "Wife Looking for K9" detailed how a married couple was seeking a dog to participate in a sex act with the wife. An undercover sheriff's deputy responded, offering his male golden shepherd to the pair. The correspondence went back and forth for a few weeks, with the posters telling the deputy that they were participants in an open marriage. Eventually, a plan was hatched and a date was scheduled for the married couple to meet the deputy, along with his dog, at a motel. Shortly before the meeting was to take place, another message was sent explaining that the couple would also be bringing along a male friend. The planned rendezvous was to include sexual intercourse between the woman and the dog while the men watched. On February 27, Sarah and Shane Walker, accompanied by a man later identified as Robert Aucker, arrived at the Quality Inn in Mesa. Here they were met by over a dozen officers who promptly arrested the trio and charged them conspiracy to commit bestiality.
Immediately following the arrests, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio sent out a flood of press releases in addition to speaking to numerous media outlets about the case. The sheriff, who is well known for seeking out media attention and claims to average about 200 television appearances per month, proceeded to use the Walker case as part of his very public campaign against Craigslist's personal ads section. Within two days, the story had been picked up by thousands of media channels both nationally and internationally. British tabloid Daily Mail, which boasts up to 79 million unique visitors on its website per month, covered the case in a February 29 top story titled "Flight attendant, his swinger wife and her lover used Craigslist to find a dog for sex." The internet was soon abuzz with outraged comments from people discussing the vile charges facing the woman who was believed to have posted a sex ad looking for a dog.
There was one problem though; neither Shane nor Sarah Walker posted the ad. According to the official police report, Robert Aucker admitted during questioning that he was actually the "Wife Looking for K9" who had corresponded with the deputy while assuming the identities of Sarah and Shane Walker. Aucker told investigators that he had been dating Sarah Walker for about one month, a statement that was corroborated by the Walkers. The couple admitted to being swingers and saw no problem with the relationship between Sarah and Robert, as Shane also enjoyed the fantasy of sharing his wife with another man.
"WE HAD NO IDEA Robert Aucker had placed an ad on craigslist," Walker told Examiner via e-mail Monday morning. "The police lied in the report, or were going on the statements of Aucker. Had we known he had arranged this, there is no way in hell we would have shown up. We were only going for what we supposed was an adult encounter and no mention was made of his arrangements to include a dog. It is my belief that it was his fantasy to see this, and that other women had done it and he thought that I may also do it if coerced. I do not think he realized it was illegal. In our arrest videotape, you can clearly see me ask him 'Mike, what is this??? Do you know anything about this???' And then I begged the officers to tell us why we were being arrested. No one would tell us. Turns out, his name was not 'Mike' but actually Robert. All three of us were arrested, and he pled guilty immediately. I do not resent him as a person. He has had a fairly swift and clean exit from the media, while we remain tormented. I do not know if we will ever fully recover."
Despite Aucker's admission that he was the writer of the messages, the case against the Walkers proceeded. While the Walkers fought the case in the courts, many media outlets continued to erroneously report that Sarah was responsible for the messages sent to the undercover deputy. Most people reading this version of events became rightly outraged and soon the outcry led to the Walkers' lives being turned upside down.
"One huge thing that I have not gone public with is going to come out eventually, but tragically the day after our first arrest we were ALSO falsely accused of molesting our children," Sarah Walker tells Examiner. "Only Child Protective Services accused us of this, no one else. Our children were immediately taken on that day, and we have been denied ANY contact with them since then, and it has been over 7 months. There is no evidence, and after being forced to take a polygraph and multiple evaluations, they have finally discovered they are running out of ways to keep us from our children. All we are waiting for is the results from the court ordered polygraph to reach the court. This has gutted us emotionally...destroyed our hopes in the systems of this country."
That same day, Shane Walker was fired from his job as a flight attendant. Sarah Walker, suffering from depression and shock, was rushed to the hospital where she would spend the next 10 days in inpatient care.
In March 2012, Robert Aucker officially pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bestiality. According to the plea deal, Aucker would avoid jail time provided that he pay a fine and refrain from owning any animals. The same deal was rejected by the Walkers, who insisted that they were not guilty. The case continued to play out in the press with Sheriff Arpaio regularly mentioning the couple as part of his anti-Craigslist campaign. By now, the Walkers were receiving death threats; fearing for their safety, the family made arrangements to move to an undisclosed location.
The most devastating consequence of the media scrutiny occurred in May and led to Sarah Dae Walker once again appearing in the news but now as a victim of a crime. Sarah, a professional photographer, had been contacted through her website by a man who had seen her in the news. Struggling to make ends meet, she agreed to meet the man in person for what she thought would be a typical photography gig.
Court documents state that the pair met at a coffee shop, where they spoke for about a half hour. Walker would later say that the man seemed "harmless and nice." The man stated that he had seen her portfolio and was interested in having her come to his property to take photos. According to Walker, the man brought up the bestiality bust but she diverted the conversation back to the topic of photography. The two then went to the man's home, where Walker was given a glass a water. After drinking the liquid, she began to feel whoozy and realized that she had been drugged. The man then threw Walker over his shoulder and took her into the bedroom, where he proceeded to brutally rape her.
"He had duct tape, zip ties, chains, ropes, medical instruments. He had a whole bag of basically torture devices and I was scared for my life," Walker would later told Channel 3.
She was eventually able to escape by telling the man that her ankle monitor would soon go off if she was not home. Although Walker was hesitant to trust the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, she nevertheless reported the rape. Police responded to the man's home and identified him as Lee Lubonne, a suspected serial sexual predator who had recently raped a 15-year-old girl. Items found at the home led authorities to believe that there may have been other victims.
Seized were recording devices, a duffel bag filled with "sexual apparatus[es]" and a bag of what detectives believe are "trophies" from possible victims, including medication bottles and printouts of women's profiles from social-networking websites. Also found were 13 hard drives and thumb drives locked in a safe. To-do lists found in Lubonne's car and home were also taken into evidence. One of these lists noted that he had to meet one of the victims and buy zip ties, and another "stated his desire to stop being a 'sex pig' and to find Jesus," according to MCSO.
It was later discovered that the MCSO had obtained Lubonne's address, as well as a rape accusation against him, three days before Walker's rape. The Wednesday prior, the fifteen-year-old victim told police that Lubonne had raped her at knife-point after she arrived at his home for what she thought was a babysitting job. She was able to give police Lubonne's home address and license plate number which was registered in his name. Despite having this information, authorities did not visit the man's home where Walker was raped on the Saturday following the teenager's report.
Walker has claimed that it is "no coincidence" that she was targeted by the rapist after Sheriff Arpaio continued to feed information on her case to the media, despite having Auker's oft-overlooked confession. The New Times was apt to agree with her, with reporter Matthew Hendley writing, "court documents obtained by New Times seemed to support her claim that Lubonne knew who she was from the media attention."
According to Hendley, "Arpaio looked for attention on this one, writing a letter to Craigslist's CEO about the bust, and telling the public, 'People who do this for enjoyment are a different breed, that's for certain.'"
Two months after the sexual assault, the Walkers accepted a plea deal on the bestiality charges. The couple were sentenced to probation and banned from owning any pets. Despite the guilty plea, the Walkers maintained that that they were innocent of the charges and stated that they had only accepted the deal so that they could put the case behind them and move on with their lives. The two then posted a public statement online explaining their decision.
"Regarding the alligations [sic], would like to state that we were completely unaware of the Craigslist ad placed by Mr. Auker, and were not involved in arrangements made for the alleged crime," say the Walkers. "We have never participated in bestiality, and never will. That being said, we do not wish to endure a grueling public trial for a crime that historically yields a misdemeanor. We have already been tried by the media and wish to move on."
The Walkers claim to have been railroaded into the media spotlight, "where the story would boost ratings and stir controversy." They also point to Sheriff Arpaio's public beef with Craigslist as a reason for the sheriff to aggressively pursue the case against them despite Auker's admission that the Walkers were not involved in the e-mail exchange.
"I suppose Joe's agenda at that time was making a statement to Craigslist," Walker said in a previous interview with the New Times. "Too bad an entire family has now been devastated for his own gratification and media whoring."
While public opinion of the Walkers initially appeared to be overwhelmingly negative, a review of online discussions written after Sarah Walker's rape reflect a turning of the tides for some Phoenix-area residents who are now pointing fingers at Sheriff Arpaio's office for what they believe is a publicity stunt gone wrong.
Of the comments posted on Matthew Hendley's interview with Sarah Walker discussing the assault, the majority of readers appear to exhibit positive or neutral attitudes towards Walker while simultaneously expressing disgust with Sheriff Arpaio's office.
"If I was Sarah Walker I would hold Arpaio just as much responsible for this," reads one comment. "He jumped the gun on her original case solely for publicity to distract from what crime he had recently been accused of. Arpaio is as much a predator as the sick [expletive] who raped this lady."
"Yes, Arpaio is a proven liar that will do anything and everything to get attention," states another commenter. "That includes the serious possibility he and his deputies are outright lying about Sarah and her involvement."
Walker's supporters have cited Arpaio's past controversies and track record as evidence that the sheriff may not always act in the most ethical manner. Dubbed "America's Worst Sheriff" by the New York Times Editorial Board, Arpaio has been the subject of numerous investigations by agencies such as the FBI, the United States Department of Justice and the Attorney General's Office. According to a December 2011 press release issued by the DOJ, the agency found "reasonable cause to believe that MCSO engages in a pattern or practice of violating the Constitution and laws of the United States" and that "MCSO is broken."
In 2007, the New Times published a seven page article on Arpaio titled "Inhumaity has a price." One of the most shocking claims in the seven-page expose is that Arpaio was the target of 2,150 lawsuits in U.S. District Court and hundreds more in Maricopa County courts, with more than $50 million in claims being filed between 2004 and 2007. Labeling Arpaio "the most sued sheriff in America," the article goes on to say that "lawsuits against Joe Arpaio have cost us $41 million, so far."
Amidst accusations of racial profiling, abuse of power and attempting to silence critical press including but not limited to having reporters arrested and subpeonaed to appear before a grand jury, Arpaio's actions have been called into question by a handful of courageous local journalists and public officials who describe his retaliatory practices as a "reign of terror." Arpaio, joined by since disbarred Maricopa County prosecutor Andrew Thomas, is said to have been responsible for forcing Arpaio's enemies to repeatedly defend themselves from criminal investigations over what the Arizona Republic sarcastically calls "the 'crime' of having upset Arpaio and Thomas."
These past attempts to censor and intimidate MSCO's critics may provide an explanation for why the majority of local news channels continued to parrot Arpaio's assertion that the Walkers were using Craigslist to find a canine sex partner, long after Robert Auker admitted that he was actually the "Wife Looking for a K9."
Although the police report states that Aucker confessed to placing the Craigslist ad, an addendum to the probable cause statement adds that Sarah's husband, Shane, was aware that the trio were going to the motel so Sarah could have sex with a dog. The report concludes by saying, "All three parties were aware of the e-mail and contact exchange."
Sarah and Shane Walker contend that those statements contained within the report are untrue. Upon the release of the police report, the Walkers once again took to their blog in a post that would echo the pair's earlier statement. The Walkers write:
Regarding the alligations [sic], [we] would like to state that we were completely unaware of the Craigslist ad placed by Mr. Auker, and had no contact with anyone on craigslist, or any contact with the undercover officers. Conversely, we were blamed in the media for doing so and our lives have forever changed. We have never participated in bestiality, and never will.
In a message to Examiner, Sarah Dae Walker writes that her ordeal has left her tired, exhausted and in despair over her children. She states that she has been the subject of intense harassment from people who believe false allegations against her. According to Walker, the only thing that is her keeping her going is the hope of one day seeing her children.
Walker goes on to write:
Our goal is to get our children back, and leave the state. We will have to change our names and isolate ourselves for quite some time. I hope I make it through this adversity. I struggle with depression deeply and also with suicide. I would call it an example of 'adult bullying' that has gone to the extreme. Everything I have loved and enjoyed in life has been taken from me. My privacy, my children, our financial security, our reputations, relationships with family and friends. For me, I've endured physical torment as a result...being thrown in jail for no reason, and assaulted by a man who targeted me. He chained me up in his room and assulted me for 5 hours in ways that I cannot even repeat. I am glad he is being held in jail and that I had the courage to come forward. All of this haunts me both day and night. I hope somehow, some way, I can resist the urges I get to end my life and somehow influence others for good. For now, I am in the drudges of despair and do not see an end in sight. It will start with the visitation of my children, and finally their return. I can assure you that my statements are sincere, truthful and heartfelt. I wish I knew what to do or had money for a lawyer. Many of these things that have happened are a violation of our rights, but we dont have the funds to fight it. I have hope that perhaps increased awareness of our story will bring someone out of the woodwork who can actually help us.
Sarah Dae Walker is now focused on not only telling the world about the circumstances behind her earlier case, but also clearing her name in regards to her latest arrest this past weekend. She has requested that MCSO remove her most recent mugshot from its website, however her photo remains under the listing of DUI violations. Walker has used this recent error by the MCSO to back up her long time claim that the police report on her bestiality arrest is also inaccurate- could she be telling the truth?
Author's note: While I unequivocally believe that bestiality is a horrible form of animal abuse that should bring swift punishment to any party proven to be involved in such an act, I equally believe that those who may have falsely been accused of such a crime deserve the opportunity to clear their names. While I have no inside knowledge that would enable me to definitively determine the Walkers' guilt or innocence, I believe that all sides of the story should be told before the public forms an opinion on a case as serious as this one.
For Pennsylvania residents who have information on animal abuse occurring, please click here to learn how to report abuse and cruelty in your county.
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