Details Of Casper Foster Parent’s Sexual Assault Case Revealed

Casper foster parent Steven Marler, 49, made an initial appearance in Natrona County Circuit Court earlier this year.

At that time, Judge Nichole Collier read that he had been charged with 26 counts, but did not go into detail, nor was his name revealed at that time per Wyoming Statute § 6-2-319.

He appeared for his preliminary hearing this morning at the Townsend Justice Center and the case was bound over to District Court.

Earlier this month the original charges were amended from 26 to 20 counts including two counts of sexual assault in the first degree. Each first degree charge are punishable by up to 50 years in prison.

Since the case has now been bound over to District Court , media may now release the details from the heavily redacted affadavit supporting the charges.

Marler is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. He is currently out of jail on a $225,000 corporate surety bond.

In the affadavit, investigators ask one of the alleged female victims which part of a reported sexual assault stuck out to her the most.

Court records show she said that when she was 13 or 14 years old she and her sister were sleeping in a shared room when Marler entered and began "touching" her. She alleges that he asked if she liked it and she told him to leave. She said Marler left, but he was "mean" to her afterwards.

She added that when Marler's wife Kristen would leave he would call her and her sister into his bedroom to sleep with him. "If they did not sleep with him, they got into trouble," she told investigators and that he would kiss them on the lips as well as "rub up" on them.

The affadavit says that one alleged victim told investigators he did not want to speak with law enforcement until he turned 18 because he was concerend that there was a possibility that he would be returned to the Marler family if he did so.

When that time came, he was ready to say more: he alleged that his last beating happened just before he moved out of the Marler house. According to the court records and a statement from the alleged victim's mother, Kristen had shoved him against a wall. He said he told her at that time not to touch him.

A few days later Marler reportedly told him he needed to be punished for his actions. That's when the 18-year-old said he grabbed a pistol off of Marler's dresser and pointed it at him. He said, "I was done with him touching me."

He also spoke of a time when he was about 15 or 16 years old and Marler kicked him off the roof of the house. He shared that it was common practice to shovel snow off of the roof and that Marler kicked him off because he wasn't going fast enough. He stated that he has scars from the incident and that two other children also have scars from being hit and hurt at different times.

The same alleged victim says that he witnessed Marler go into the previously mentioned victims' rooms whenever Kristen was gone. If Kristen was gone for even a few hours, Marler would call them into his room, he said.

A different alleged victim also claims Marler punched her in the face when she was about 10 years old for going into one of the boys' bedrooms. This was corroborated with another alleged victim statement.

Another made a report to a Kelly Walsh school administrator that Marler beat the children and slept with the girls. He added that Marler had pointed guns at four of them.

When asked why he did not disclose the abuse during previous law enforcement contacts, he said that he was scared. He said that Kristen and Steven Marler said, "What happened on the mountain stayed on the mountain."

He told investigators his main worry at the Marler house was getting food.

One alleged victim told a forensic investigator that whenever the children told any adults about the physical and sexual abuse in the Marler home, Kristen and Steven always found out, and the kids were punished.

In today's proceedings Natrona County circuit court judge Nichole Collier found probable cause on all 20 charges and bound the case over to District Court.

Steven Marler will next appear for an arraignment where he will make a plea.

We will update this article as more information becomes available.