The silence after Richard Madeo's death speaks volumes
A gifted artist is dead. The media stayed quiet. The suspect walked free.
Richard Madeo brought beauty to Sequim with his one-of-a-kind woodworking—but when he was fatally assaulted, the silence from police, press, and public officials was deafening. Why did it take six days to alert the community? Why was the judge so quick to release the suspect? And why are local media outlets begging for donations while refusing to report the stories that matter? This isn’t just about one death. It’s about a community losing trust—and demanding answers.
“Everything I design is an experiment… I love to create the unusual. The one-of-a-kind pieces that no one else can dream of (except for me!)”
Those were the words of Richard Madeo, a talented woodworking artist whose work was recently featured at Le Petite Maison Blanche, a boutique in downtown Sequim. Just days after being celebrated for his one-of-a-kind craftsmanship, Richard Madeo was assaulted outside the Sequim Safeway gas station. He later died from his injuries.
He was a master finish carpenter. A creator. A contributor to Sequim’s First Friday Art Walk. A community presence. And now, a casualty of a system that appears increasingly indifferent to the people it's supposed to protect.
But Richard Madeo didn’t just die. He was failed—by law enforcement delays, media silence, and a judicial system whose decisions defy public confidence.
A death, and then nothing
For six days after Madeo was attacked, not a single news outlet reported on it. No press release. No appeal for witnesses. No official word to the public. Just silence—until a local blog broke the story, finally putting into words what much of the Sequim community was already whispering about.
Only after an online watchdog published its report did the Sequim Police Department issue a press release requesting witness assistance. By then, nearly a full week had passed. Security footage did not clearly show the punch that led to Madeo’s death. Eyewitness accounts could have been critical. But how many potential witnesses might have come forward had they known, in those crucial early days, that their memory mattered?
A platform that stayed quiet
What deepens this story is the fact that the suspect’s father is reportedly longtime KONP radio personality, Pepper Fisher. As speculation swirled online about a family connection, the silence from KONP was deafening. The station made no community appeal for information and no plea for assistance in an assault case that had left a local artist dead.
KONP finally acknowledged the story online—six days later, at 11 p.m., 17 hours after the story broke on Tuesday. Even then, their coverage omitted key details, such as the suspect’s own admission, according to the Peninsula Daily News:
“I mean, I’ve been in a hundred fights. I know where, I mean. It was self-defense.”
That quote from court documents was left out of KONP’s coverage. So was any genuine challenge to the narrative being shaped by the suspect’s own account, which claimed the 36-year-old was defending himself against a 70-year-old Madeo.
KONP knows how to report news. This unrelated article from 2022, written by Pepper Fisher, included photos of the suspect and was published one day after the suspect’s mother was found murdered in her home.
The media protects itself. Not the public.
The Peninsula Daily News and the Sequim Gazette—both owned by Sound Publishing—only covered the story after a local blogger forced their hand. The Gazette did not even print it in this week’s physical edition. Worse still, when a community member asked publicly why the PDN hadn't reported on Madeo’s death, they were banned from the paper’s Facebook page.
This is not journalism. It is damage control. And it’s happening at a time when those same papers are begging the public for donations to stay afloat.
Meanwhile, Clallam County Commissioner Mark Ozias has floated the idea of using public tax dollars to subsidize legacy media, presumably in the name of preserving local journalism. But how can we justify funding institutions that refuse to report the stories that matter to the public?
Two systems of justice?
Compare this case to another recent crime in Sequim:
A man was arrested in connection with a scam that stole $125,000 from a 71-year-old woman. His bail? $2 million.
In Madeo’s case, the suspect was exonerated and released. Bail? $50,000—in a death investigation.
The man accused in Madeo’s death, Aaron Fisher, has a long criminal record spanning nearly two decades and multiple counties: King, Clallam, Jefferson, Pierce, Thurston, Kitsap, Yakima, and more. Cases for drugs, theft, assault, domestic violence, and traffic violations pile up like a rap sheet wallpaper.
And yet, Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Stanley—newly elected in an uncontested race—granted release without bail after Fisher claimed self-defense.
Stanley, who was appointed Family Court Commissioner before becoming judge, inherited her current position without facing a single opponent. That is how decisions are being made in Clallam County’s courts: quietly, unopposed, and now under scrutiny.
Patterns
Richard Madeo loved patterns—the lines, curves, and shapes that come together to form beauty and structure in nature. But the pattern we are seeing in Clallam County is far more disturbing.
A man dies.
Law enforcement delays alerting the public.
The media ignores it.
The courts downplay it.
And the people asking questions? Silenced or banned.
This isn’t about one tragic death. It’s about the growing sense that the systems we trust are no longer operating in our best interest.
Richard Madeo created pieces that no one else could dream of. He gave Sequim beauty and character. And when he was taken from us, the institutions that should have sounded the alarm responded with silence, dismissal, and omission.
If we allow that to become the pattern—then justice, like Richard, will disappear without a trace.
This is heartbreaking. First, and foremost, is that the family and friends of Richard Madeo be given our deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathy during this tragic time. The fact that a media personality, long known to this community, has said and done nothing to show respect to the family by, at the very least, acknowledging his son's role in this speaks volumes. The fact that Sequim PD, who are paid to protect the citizens in that community said nothing in light of what happened...at the very least the assault of a 70-year-old man, even before those injuries led to his death...is so far beyond suspect that it is appalling. The legal system for that entire state is absolute garbage and for those willing to sit back and watch it unfold without uttering a sound, know that this only gets worse. Your silence is complicit and you're on the edge of a very steep cliff.
Thank you, thank you so much for all your hard work to bring this to light. My uncle was a special man and I want everyone to know just what a travesty of justice this is. Fisher should be locked up and the key thrown away so he can never harm anyone else ever again.