Idaho Falls Farmers Market manager resigns after online firestorm over child injury case
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IDAHO FALLS — The manager of the Idaho Falls Farmer’s Market has resigned from his position after a massive public outcry on social media this week regarding his criminal history.
Clark Poston has been the manager of the Farmer’s Market for the past five years, according to a board member who asked not to be named due to recent threats by locals. Poston is currently on felony probation for a 2019 conviction for injury to a child. The case involved Poston soliciting a 15-year-old boy for sex.
It’s unclear what triggered the public outcry, but once allegations were posted to social media over the weekend, they sparked a massive response from people demanding that Poston be fired and that the market board resign due to their knowledge of his criminal history.
Poston’s criminal history
Over the weekend, hundreds of posts and comments appeared on Facebook from concerned community members, referencing an EastIdahoNews.com article about Poston’s 2019 conviction.
According to the story, Poston contacted a 15-year-old on Snapchat in June 2017. He reportedly sent the teen nude photos standing in the bathroom in front of a mirror, asked the teen if he would kiss him, and at one point, told the teen he would pay him $100 to perform oral sex on him.
RELATED | Idaho Falls man allegedly offered $100 to 15-year-old boy for sex
The teen told police there was never any physical sexual contact between him and Poston.
District Judge Dane H. Watkins Jr. sentenced Poston to 20 days of work release and eight years on probation. If he were to violate probation, he would serve a prison sentence of two to seven years. As part of a plea agreement, Poston pleaded guilty to felony injury to a child, which does not require him to register as a sex offender, but he was required to attend sex offender treatment.
“Your offense is upon a child nearly half of your age,” Watkins said at the sentencing. “I think your attorneys pointed out that there was no physical contact. Had there been, it would be a different sentence.”
Court records show Poston has had no violations of his probation since his sentencing in 2019, and that there are no rules against him being near minors, as long as he does not contact them over social media.
RELATED | Man sentenced for offering money to a 15-year-old boy in exchange for sex
Poston’s probation also requires him to maintain a part-time or full-time job.
Public outcry
A post to the Life in Idaho Falls (SE Idaho) Facebook page exploded with comments Sunday evening, publishing the fact that Poston is now the general manager of the Idaho Falls Farmers Market. The Idaho Falls Farmer’s Market website included Poston on the staff tab on Monday, but he has since been removed.
“Not so fun fact. Clark Allen Poston is a Board of Directors for the Idaho Falls Farmers Market,” said the post. “Gotta love Idahos (sic) soft stance on child abuse.”
Hundreds of comments and posts followed, with many in the community demanding Poston be fired. Threats to boycott the farmer’s market were made, and some individuals doxxed board members and members of the public who spoke out in support of the board and the farmer’s market, posting their names, photos of themselves and their families and business information.
Soon, a Facebook event notified the community of a planned protest on Saturday near the market called “#SAVEOURCHILDREN” to object to Poston’s involvement in the farmer’s market.
According to an Idaho Falls Farmer’s Market Board Member who asked to remain anonymous due to recent threats, Poston has been involved with the Idaho Falls Farmer’s Market since around 2020 and has been the general manager for about four years.
On Monday evening, the Idaho Falls Farmer’s Market released a statement, saying that Poston had resigned from the position.
“Over the past several days, concerns have been raised regarding one of our former team members, Clark Poston. We want to acknowledge that the decision to bring someone into a visible role at the market who causes members of our community to feel unsafe is something we take seriously,” says the statement. “We have accepted Clark’s resignation. Moving forward, we are reviewing our hiring practices and internal processes to ensure they better reflect the expectations and safety concerns of our community.”
The board member tells EastIdahoNews.com that Poston resigned so the market would not have to worry about future legal action if it were to fire him.
“He wanted to make sure that the market incurred as little harm as possible,” says the board member.
According to the board member, Poston was hired as an assistant manager when the market was still considerably smaller than it is now.
“His role was largely operational. Get there, put out disks so the vendors know where they’re going to be, assign vendor spots, approve vendor booths, make sure things run,” the board member says. “His job was never, and it’s not in his job description, to interface with the community.”
One concern from the public was a 2024 Facebook post on the Compass Academy page, showing Poston speaking with a group of students at the high school.
Courtney Mcswain, who says she just moved to Arco from Kansas and is the organizer of the #SAVEOURCHILDREN protest, says she heard about the community’s concerns and wanted to do something about them.
“Being a mother now, and it being a family-friendly event, I just feel like there’s no place for someone with that type of background to be working,” says Mcswain. “There are other job opportunities far away from families and children.”
Mcswain says she does not support the threats of violence that board members and vendors have been receiving, but says the protest will now aim for the removal of the rest of the farmer’s market board.
“The main goal was for (Poston) to be removed, but with the farmer’s market response and all the other information, we want, like, the community wants the members of the board to be removed too,” Mcswain says. “We do not by any means want to get rid of the farmers’ market. I personally love the farmers’ market.”
Multiple vendors have recently withdrawn from the market, blaming the board for its handling of the information that has come to light.
“The entire Idaho Falls Farmer’s Market leadership team violated the public trust, which has included threatening vendors and their livelihoods,” ” says a post on the Modern Hippie page, a former vendor at the market. “For these reasons, we are contacting the Idaho Attorney General’s Office for investigation of the breach of public trust, and we will consider further legal action against all those involved to hold them accountable.”
Some board members reportedly learned about Poston’s conviction during his hiring, but many only learned recently from an online discussion. According to the board member we spoke with, at least one additional board member has resigned, and others are considering resigning.
“We don’t have an HR department, we don’t have a PR department… it’s actually in the bylaws that we cannot benefit in any way by being a board member,” the board member says. “A lot of people have said, ‘Why didn’t they do a background check?’ Because we don’t have to do those things. We’re running small businesses, just trying to get by, and for almost all of us, it’s our livelihood.”
The board member says the first time they were aware that Poston’s conviction was being discussed on the internet in relation to the farmer’s market was in November on Reddit.
“We as a board met, and we had to weigh a couple of things. What was the community outcry? It didn’t seem to be large at the time. Then we looked at it from what was he accused of? What happened?” the board member says. “We got some more of that content, and we tried to weigh the goal of the judicial system, which is rehabilitation, with the good he’s done for the market and the community.”
According to the board member, Poston’s probation officer was heavily involved in the decision for Poston to begin working at the farmer’s market, even making sure that Poston had a daily chaperone with him at all times when he was at the market.
“We learned about all the guardrails that went along with it. What more can you do for society than to do something to benefit it, and (he’s) done that,” the board member says. “So we feel like rehabilitation is taking place, and so long as those guardrails are in place, given that you’re not a person who interacts with the community…there’s plenty of guardrails there to protect the community and keep everyone safe.”
The board member says his experience with Poston was positive, and although he witnessed him doing lots of good for the community, it does not excuse the abuse.
“None of that dismisses what has happened. None of that is an aim to brush what he’s done under the rug. Our goal was never to hide anything,” the board member says. “It was just us as small business owners who know him personally and know what his heart is, trying to also make the best decision possible.”
By Saturday morning, Poston reportedly started receiving death threats and other threats of violence. Soon, the board members were receiving them as well.
Many board members reportedly kept their children home from school and feared being in public this week, due to the intense amount of hate they were receiving for working with Poston.
“We absolutely want people to voice their opinion, and we support the protest that’s coming this weekend; we support their goals. We are so grateful that we live in a country where people can advocate for things they are passionate about,” the board member says. “But you can’t threaten to harm people. You can’t make people fear for their lives or livelihoods. It’s just not OK. I don’t think it speaks to the community that Idaho Falls wants to be.”
The organizers of the protest say even though Poston has resigned, they are still planning to show up, now with the goal of convincing the justice system to increase the minimum sentences for child-involved crimes.
The Idaho Falls Farmers Market board member agrees, saying that people often don’t realize judges can only do so much when working with laws created by our elected officials.
“The reality is, a lot of time judges’ hands are tied, judges’ and prosecutors’ hands are tied by first-time offenders and the legislature,” says the board member. “So a lot of the outrage needs to go toward our elected representatives to get those laws changed.”
According to the board, the Farmer’s Market is still planned for Saturday, May 9, but says that is subject to change.
As for the time being, the board member says they hope for healing in the community, especially for the victim of Poston’s crime, who has likely been re-traumatized by the online debate.
“I think what gets lost also is this also gets dragged up for the victim, who doesn’t want it dragged up,” the board member says. “Where does it stop?”
EastIdahoNews.com reached out to Poston for comment, and we have not heard back.