(Fremont County, WY) – Fremont County woman Karen Rider was sentenced to 2 years of supervised release (plus time already served) at her sentencing hearing held yesterday, December 30, before the Honorable Judge Alan B. Johnson in the U.S. District Court of Cheyenne.
Of those 2 years, 6 months of home confinement were ordered, in addition to various probation conditions.
Rider was sentenced after being federally charged with felony tampering with a witness, in relation to the child abuse case involving her daughter Kandace Sitting Eagle and son-in-law Truman Sitting Eagle.
The Sitting Eagles were charged (and both later sentenced) after law enforcement discovered a juvenile in their care who had been being kept from school, was locked in his room and deprived of food for long periods of time, and had been physically assaulted on multiple occasions, according to original federal investigation documents.
Additional court documents state that Rider coached the siblings of the victim to not speak to law enforcement during investigation interviews, despite the children’s previous comments of witnessing abuse during the early stages of the investigation.
The federal complaint filed against Rider on June 3 states that during the initial course of this investigation, the three minor siblings of the juvenile victim were forensically interviewed in December of 2023.
Two of the children stated that they witnessed their brother being beaten up by Kandace and Truman, and all three children reported their brother being locked in his room, the complaint informed.
Two of the children described seeing a lock on the victim’s bedroom door, and one of them also talked about food being withheld from him.
Kandace and Truman were later arrested and transferred to federal custody, and the three siblings of the victim, as well as two additional younger siblings, were placed in the care of Rider.
In May of 2024, the three siblings who were previously interviewed were brought to the
United States Attorney’s Office in preparation for the ensuing trial, the complaint continues, where each was spoken to individually.
When asked about something happening to their brother, each child stated that they “did not know or could not remember.”
The complaint also states that after one of the children’s interviews, another sibling asked, “What did you tell them?” to which the first sibling said, “Nothing.”
Additionally, a call was placed by Kandace to Rider on the same day the siblings met with law enforcement, which was recorded.
The complaint goes on to state that during that call, Rider informed Sitting Eagle that she told the youngest sibling that if they “said anything bad about his mom, they were not going to let her out of jail.”
Rider also said in the recording that prior to the meeting, she gave that same sibling coffee, prune juice and chips, because “they make (them) go potty,” and she hoped that they would “make a mess and be in the “shitter” at the United States Attorney’s Office and would need help wiping.”
Another call between Kandace and Rider was placed on May 28, where Rider
stated that she “told the children not to talk to strangers, that the FBI were strangers, and it was not okay to talk to them.”
Rider also stated that she reiterated to the children if they said “bad things about their mom, she would not be let out of jail.”
Rider went on to plead “not guilty” to the charge, and an August 26 jury trial was set.
However, on September 17, a non-public plea agreement was filed on Rider’s behalf, and following an October 4 change of plea hearing, the jury trial was vacated and yesterday’s sentencing hearing was set.
To read all of County 10’s coverage of the case, click here. To read County 10’s coverage of the Sitting Eagle cases, click here.