Ten years after a sensational human killing case in Wallowa County was legally resolved, a newly published story about the woman convicted in the crime is fueling controversy.

A primary focus of that controversy: the writer’s failure to disclose before publication that he was romantically involved with his subject.

Rick Swart, 54, currently of Portland but formerly of Enterprise, where he was editor and publisher of the Wallowa County Chieftain, recently wrote a story based on extensive interviews with Liysa Northon, 49, who is currently serving a 12-year sentence for manslaughter.

On Oct. 9, 2000, Northon fatally shot her husband, Chris Northon, while he was in his sleeping bag in a campsite on the Lostine River. Originally charged with murder, Liysa Northon agreed to enter a guilty plea to manslaughter in July 2001.

Swart’s article, published under the title “Ann Rule’s Sloppy Storytelling” this July 20 in the Seattle Weekly, reexamines the 10-year-old case, portraying Liysa Northon as a victim of spousal abuse who was failed by the criminal justice system. The failure left her imprisoned through most of the years her two children were growing up.

While heaping criticism upon a defense lawyer and a district attorney, the article directs its highest-profile attention to popular true-crime writer Ann Rule, whose 2003 book, “Heart Full of Lies,” presents Liysa Northon as a sociopath who worked at planting a false idea in people’s heads – namely, that her husband was violently abusing her and that he intended to one day kill her and the family’s two children.

It should be noted that, in May, Swart offered to the Chieftain essentially the same article that was later published in the Seattle Weekly. In its earlier version, however, the article’s material criticizing Ann Rule appeared in a middle section and was not presented as the story’s lead. The Chieftain did not publish the article.

By Rule’s account in “Heart Full of Lies,” Liysa Northon was the violent member in her marriage, notwithstanding Chris Northon’s Feb. 8, 1999, assault arrest, which the wife brought about indirectly through one of her own violent episodes. (The case was later dropped.)

After Liysa Northon was later charged with murder, a number of people who were convinced that she was indeed a victim of spousal abuse launched a campaign of writing her cards and letters of support and raising money for her defense, Rule noted. The true-crime writer further observed that in Wallowa County, “the consensus of strangers was that Chris Northon must have been a tyrant who had terrorized his slender little wife.”

Swart, in contending Rule got the story wrong where Liysa Northon’s character is concerned, points to the popular author’s failure to actually interview the convicted party. In this matter, his article directly quotes Liysa Northon, who says, “[Rule] didn’t write me a letter; she didn’t come see me; nothing.”

Swart also points out that Rule’s acknowledgments list in Heart Full of Lies includes Liysa’s aunt Bobbi Chitwood, but Chitwood adamantly maintains that she and Rule never had contact.

Since publication of Swart’s article, the message board at Rule’s website, annrules.com, has been abuzz with posts from fans incensed by Swart’s attack on their favorite author, whose reputation for thorough research they steadfastly defend.

Swart, meanwhile, has been hard-pressed to provide the Seattle Weekly’s managing editor, Caleb Hannan, an answer Hannan considers “satisfactory” to the charge that Swart violated a tenet of journalistic ethics: Swart failed to inform the Seattle Weekly that he is engaged to the subject of his article, Liysa Northon. In a lengthy editor’s note about the lapse posted with the story on the Seattle Weekly’s website, Hannan explains that he began to suspect a possible conflict after Ann Rule posted on her own site that she would soon reveal “a back story” about Swart that “will knock your socks off…”

Hannan said that when he then asked Swart what he thought Rule might be referring to, Swart answered in an email message: “What she’ll probably say is I’m in love with Liysa Northon (which is true).”

Later in the editor’s note, Hannan quotes a subsequent e-mail, in which Swart explains why he didn’t disclose his relationship to Liysa Northon:

“It’s a freelance piece first of all. I’m selling you a product. So it’s not like you’re my boss and you need to know my personal life. My background is in community newspapers where we write about people we know, people we have relationships with, all the time…”

The revelation in the editor’s note hasn’t escaped the notice of other media outlets. In his own piece about the Seattle Weekly story slamming Ann Rule, Jack Mirkinson, a Huffington Post columnist, writes that Swart’s action qualifies him for the “Conflict of Interest Hall of Fame.”

Seemingly oblivious to such criticism, Swart continues to write about Liysa Northon. Early this week, he posted a new, 4,000-word article on Liysa Northon’s website that in large part deals with his and Liysa’s relationship.

“It’s true, I broke a cardinal rule of journalism when I became personally involved with my subject,” Swart writes. “With that said, I think I was able to separate the facts from my relationships. However, I take issue with those who say my involvement with Liysa constituted a conflict of interest on my part. I made it clear from the very beginning that I was telling Liysa’s side of the story, which no one else had ever done before.”