Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Metro columnist Dan Casey: Judge's reappointment held as hostage to cronyism
Dan Casey is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
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Dan Casey
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If you desired a status report on the health of public information in Virginia, you got one last week.
Not too subtly, Del. Charles Poindexter and some other lawmakers decided to hold up a respected judge's reappointment.
Judge William Alexander's offense?
In December, he approved the release of a grand jury's report that contains highly embarrassing information about Poindexter's fellow Republican, Franklin County Sheriff Ewell Hunt, and the sheriff's teenage daughter.
Alexander's decision to release the grand jury report was entirely legal and very unusual.
But you've got to admit this is one very unusual case.
The grand jurors found that over a 10-month period in 2008, taxpayers paid Ashley Hunt $11,494 as a part-time temp in the sheriff's department, based on time records she maintained (page 6 of the report).
If you believe her time sheets, Ashley worked hard. In some cases she worked 15-, 17- and 18-hour days. Once, she put in for 24 hours in a single day. The grand jurors found that "highly suspicious" (page 7).
Although she was an unsworn teenager, Ashley appointed herself the department's purchasing queen for sheriff's vehicles and other equipment (page 8).
She decided who got what equipment and favored deputies with whom she had personal relationships (page 9).
Over the objections of sworn personnel, Ashley went on stakeouts, drug buys and arrests with other deputies (page 10).
She carried a radio, wore a uniform and drove her daddy's department-issued car 90 mph (page 11).
She sidestepped the department's command structure, overruled superior officers and threw tantrums to get her way (page 12).
In other words, the report paints Ashley as an 18-year-old Boss Hoggette who ran amok through the sheriff's department.
Her dad, who let her get away with this stuff, comes across as a patsy who couldn't even measure up to Barney Fife.
The report also notes that few if any of the aforementioned actions are prosecutable, because at worst they are misdemeanors that happened too long ago to bring a case.
The sheriff remains charged with a single misdemeanor related to failing to keep certain required records. He denies that charge and has defended his and his daughter's conduct.
But a courthouse is not the only place where questionable conduct by an elected official can be dealt with. There is also the court of public opinion.
By approving the report's release (at the request of a special prosecutor) Judge Alexander did Franklin County voters a public service.
It gives them the opportunity to consider Hunt's and his daughter's conduct the next time the sheriff is up for election, in 2011.
Perhaps this is exactly what so offends Poindexter, R-Franklin County, and his crony, Del. Bill Janis, R-Goochland County, who chairs the House subcommittee that vets judicial candidates.
Whether or not Alexander's reappointment is ultimately approved, their action in holding it up is a warning to every judge in the commonwealth.
It says: Don't do anything that might embarrass public officials, no matter how egregious their conduct.
Because if you do, we can fire your butt at the end of your eight-year term.
Poindexter and Janis are sending a message that reports such as the one about Hunt should be buried and kept secret.
The slip-it-under-the-rug gang has decided it's none of voters' business.
That is one of many reasons the state of public information in Virginia is on life support.
With seedy power games like this it's getting sicker every day.
Dan Casey's column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
