The governor of Idaho respectfully declined to write the foreword for Kiley Kiebert's book, and little wonder.
It has been a year since a Bonner County jury acquitted her father of the sexual abuse charges she brought against him.And her father, Idaho Transportation Director Kermit Kiebert, contends her book, "The Power of Touch," is one more reason for estrangement.
"Carrying this thing forward and forward just prolongs the time (when) she can come back into the fold," he said in a telephone interview. "These kinds of things just keep driving her outside."
"The Power of Touch" is described as a book to help incest victims heal through writing poetry.
Kiley Kiebert, 18, says she had a number of reasons for producing the 160-page book of poems and writing exercises with author Shelly Marshall, who wrote "Young, Sober and Free," a recovery guide for teenage alcoholics.
"I think it's to get some vindication," the younger Kiebert said. "I've had a judge and a jury and everybody tell me that I'm lying.
"And it could make some money.
"Another reason was for my healing and to learn. When I had the opportunity to work with Shelly, I took it," she said.
Her father wishes she had taken on another topic.
"I wish that she would have had a book on the development of the flora and fauna of north Idaho, that's a cinch," he said. "It just gives me a hollow feeling in my belly. . . . But maybe it's a heck of a neat book."
The elder Kiebert said he is concerned about the book's potential for libel and added that it would "aggravate me appreciably if this is being done for economic benefit for somebody."
His daughter asked Gov. Cecil Andrus, an old family friend, to write the foreword for the book.
"I respectfully declined," Andrus said. "That's a case that is very private between her and another member of her family."
Andrus urged Kiebert to resign as head of the transportation department after his arrest on the sexual-abuse accusations. Kiebert refused and was suspended without pay. He was reinstated with back pay after his acquittal.
Kiley Kiebert said she began writing a private journal while struggling with alcohol and drug abuse in her early teens.