Rocky Watson: Somehow, ended up on right side of law

COEUR d’ALENE — Rocky Watson was well into the longest tenure as a Kootenai County sheriff and was cruising toward a comfortable retirement when a bombshell landed squarely on his desk.

It came in 2005 in the form of a gruesome triple murder and the disappearance of two young children. The news immediately thrust Watson and his congenial county into the national spotlight in the worst of terms and launched a massive investigation under Watson’s direction. It was a sudden and classic criminal undertaking.

Watson doesn’t like to discuss the Groene case, which has left a permanent scar on Coeur d’Alene. He takes no credit for the arrest of serial killer Joseph Duncan or the rescue of little Shasta Groene from abduction. But he’s willing to reflect on a single positive element of the ordeal. Local response.

“When we put the call out for help, every agency around us sent us men. So for 28 days we were putting 67 investigators in the field. I just wanted that they wanted for nothing,” he said. “My food bill for all those people was probably less than $200 because the merchants and residents donated endless food to the command centers. The community really pulled together to help with that whole thing.”

So the 71-year-old, soft-spoken, demure former cop and his wife, Mary, are firmly entrenched in the community that backed them at a crucial time and in many other ways.

They both are retired and maintain a rambling 7,000-square-foot home on 40 acres in the Rockford Bay area south of Coeur d’Alene, where Rocky fashions masterful creations from wood or steel or any medium, including 28 cannons he has given to friends and business clients. He’s not bored. The home, which they built in 1976, is a virtual museum of antiques they have acquired locally over the years and artistically incorporated into their distinctive decor.

For a while, Rocky was a gentleman farmer raising cattle, sheep and llamas on what was originally a 120-acre homesite. The critters are all gone now except for a turkey-stalking cat and an affectionate great Dane named Henry VIII, because he is their eighth one.

Life is good. But it wasn’t always so sedate.

“I became a cop to keep myself out of jail,” he said, smiling.

Watson was born in Moscow and moved with his family to Post Falls when he was 3 months old. He was one of five siblings, with an older sister, Mardell, and three brothers, Robert, Russell, and Rollie. Why all the boys were named by their mother starting with “R” remains a bit of a mystery.

“She never explained why,” Watson said.

Nor why she named him Rocky to prevent him having a nickname.

“She gave me a nickname to be sure I wouldn’t have one,” he said.

Watson soon learned that he was growing up in a pretty ideal place for a young guy. Post Falls’ population was just over 1,000 and was easy-going. The family lived a block from the Spokane River across the street from Frederick Post’s original home.

“There was no better place to grow up. We played in the river all the time. We fished. It was just a fun place to be,” he said.

His father kept horses in a pasture on the south side of the river. So every morning Rocky would walk over, feed the horses, then make his way to a duck blind where the city beach is now. He’d do a little hunting then head home to go to school.

He also remembers crossing the river on huge log booms at the Louisiana-Pacific mill to get to the island between the river’s three channels.

“We called it running the logs and thought nothing of it,” he said.

His father was a hunter so Rocky spent a lot of time in the woods and shot his first elk when he was 13.

“He hunted for the meat. He never took a trophy,” Watson said. “When people said they were going on vacation I always figured they were going hunting because that’s what we did.”

His father was also an auto mechanic, so during Rocky’s high school years his fixation on hunting switched to fast cars.

“Because of my cars I was on a personal basis with most of the cops,” he said. “I had a lead foot.”

Other than that, he was a straight-shooter. One of his brothers spent time in reform school, which shook up his parents.

“Other than the lead foot I never tested anything. I never wanted to get anywhere near that line,” he said. “I had plenty of places to loose my energy.”

Watson graduated from Post Falls High School in 1964 and enrolled at North Idaho College, studying electronics.

He then joined the Marine Corps and came out longing for a career as a cop.

“I wanted to be where the action was,” he said.

Watson enrolled at Lewis-Clark State College, studying law enforcement. After graduating he was hired by the Spokane Police Department as a patrol officer.

While there, he took a trip to Missoula to visit a former girlfriend. She introduced him to a friend named Mary, and chemistry took charge. Rocky and Mary were married in 1970.

Watson hadn’t worked long for the Spokane Police when he was fired for “mouthing off to a sergeant. I was a cocky ex-Marine and had a mouth issue,” he said.

“I needed to be fired. I needed a course adjustment at that time,” he said. “I have since fired many people for the same thing and I hope they have learned as much from it as I did.”

Watson was hired by the Post Falls Police Department. One of the first calls came from the manager of L-P’s lumber mill.

“He said, ‘Kids are out there playing on the log booms,’” said Watson, who spent a moment harkening back on his own childhood and responded, “That’s what kids do.”

Watson spent five years with the PFPD and rose to assistant chief when he decided to be the youngest candidate ever — he was 29 — to run for sheriff in 1976. He beat a field of eight other candidates and went on to serve 18 years as sheriff.

His first term was interrupted in 1980 when he was defeated by Republican Merf Stalder. Rocky attributes his election loss to his aggressive style. “Rocky’s Raiders” were shutting down two mainstays at Stateline at the time — prostitution and gambling. That, and the Reagan Republican surge. Watson had always run as a Democrat.

Rocky and Mary more than prevailed. They bought a small security company with one client and transformed it in 20 years into the Watson Agency with 300 employees and numerous clients in five western states and Canada, including sawmills, military bases, secret installations, embassies and consulate offices.

In 1999, Watson was appointed sheriff when Pierce Clegg retired. The Watsons sold their business in 2001 and Rocky retired as sheriff in 2013.

He is proud of many innovations and upgrades he instituted at the sheriff’s office. His home has 18 years of mementos on display. And he has his memories, both good and bad.

“My best decisions, nobody even knows. Because with your greatest decisions nobody gets hurt,” he said. “It’s your bad decisions...

“It was a great job. But it was time for me to leave when I left. It takes a lot out of you,” he said.

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Know a longtime local we should feature? Send your suggestions to Ric Clarke at clarke_ric@yahoo.com.