OPINIONFBI Investigtion raises questions about all local officials
By GEOFF DAVIDIAN
Putnam Pit editorCOOKEVILLE, Tenn. [May 2, 1999] -- Within days of The Putnam Pit's report on April 27 that a federal investigation of local ticket fixing was underway, Nashville's Channel 5 news broadcast a confirmation by businessman Mike Gaw that he was a target of the probe.
"I hate their investigation," Gaw told Channel 5 news, "because I hate it for the governor and my family. Because it is probably embarrassing because I was a supporter of the governor and I really hate it. But I know there's nothing wrong. I know I'll be cleared and I just hope people have faith in me." Gaw reportedly contributed $70,000 to Sundquist's two gubernatorial campaigns.
The Channel 5 broadcast on April 30 echoed The Pit's report that the investigation involves files in Court Clerk Lewis Coomer's control. It reported the investigation was looking into whether State Highway Patrol speeding tickets were being fixed "in and around Cookeville."
Meanwhile, Dana Keeton of the state department of safety said that the agency was aware of the FBI's investigation and "we're cooperating with that investigation."
How could something like this happen to a city that wants so desperately to love itself?
Without jumping to conclusions about who did what, it is no secret that evidence of official corruption was ignored by local officials and The Herald-Citizen for years.
That's how something like this could happen to a city that wants so desperately to love itself.
For example, District Attorney General William E. Gibson spared no powder in his attack on former Republican Putnam County Assessor of Property Byron Looper for illegal use of county employees for personal work at his home, and for sending faxes to news media outside the county. Yet Gibson did nothing to investigate why Democrat Coomer collected costs of $18 per day from Putnam County Jail inmates for years before the legislature passed a law authorizing it. In fact, an official of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Gibson called off their inquiry into the illegal charges because Gibson told them the matter was civil rather than criminal.
That's how something like this could happen to a city that wants so desperately to love itself.
Gibson also refused to receive from The Putnam Pit records proving the per diem charges were penciled in after the judge had signed the bill of costs.
That's how something like this could happen to a city that wants so desperately to love itself.
Gibson also blocked The Pit's inquiry into how many automobiles were confiscated by his drug task force, and whether they were accounted for by auction or other disposition after confiscation.
That's how something like this could happen to a city that wants so desperately to love itself.
And lawyers refuse to take cases that go against this systemic corruption because they'll be shunned by the other goose-stepping "officers of the court."
That's how something like this could happen to a city that wants so desperately to love itself.
And then there's General Sessions Judge John Hudson, a former prosecutor for Gibson, who said that investigating corruption by his court clerk was not his job. While establishing a dress code in his court and prosecuting parents who opt for a non-Christian home-study school program not licensed by the state, Hudson refused to investigate corruption in his own building. Amazingly, Hudson's office is less than 100 feet from Coomer's records, yet the judge refused to look into three files identified for him that indicated Coomer was stealing money from inmates.
That's how something like this could happen to a city that wants so desperately to love itself.
Then there's Cookeville City Manager Jim Shipley and City Attorney T. Michael O'Mara. When The Putnam Pit found that city parking tickets had been changed to warnings or voided -- bluntly, fixed -- this municipal Heckel and Jeckel responded by adopting a policy of denying electronic records to The Pit. This policy is under scrutiny by the federal courts and has cost tax payers tens of thousands of dollars. The city maintained this obstructionist policy until the state supreme court ruled that public records had to be turned over in electronic format. Records of the citations in electronic format make it possible to determine how thousands of citations were disposed of in seconds. Instead, the city's policy cost taxpayers hour after hour of employee time to sit and watch reporters pore over the paper records. The arbitrary decision is part of a federal lawsuit now before the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, and taxpayers may end up paying tens of thousands more to cover the tracks of the person who fixed more than 50 of Lewis Coomer's parking tickets.
That's how something like this could happen to a city that wants so desperately to love itself.
Then there's City Councilman Harold Jackson, who whined and whimpered when the corruption was brought before the City Council. John Dedmon, a career bad-check writer who admitted in writing and swore in an affidavit to setting up innocent citizens for Gibson, asked the council to ask the FBI to investigate Gibson's Drug Task Force. Jackson, himself charged with drunk driving, objected to hearing an attack on "our" district attorney general. And without mentioning his own drunken charges, sought to impugn Dedmon's integrity before he had even heard his message.
That's how something like this could happen to a city that wants so desperately to love itself.
There is absolutely no inclination to apply the law to public officials, unless they are of the other party. That's why it is no surprise that the report of Mike Gaw's link to Sundquist's campaign.
That's how something like this could happen to a city that wants so desperately to love itself.
And that is why despite the welcome presence of the FBI in the Putnam County Selective Justice Center, we should withhold judgment on Looper and Gaw and Coomer and all of them. The mechanism that renders decisions is corrupt. And a society that ignores justice to advance its political advantage is garbage.
That's how something like this could happen to a city that wants so desperately to love itself.
Keep your eye on the ball and cry "Foul" every time. It may be you on the court next time.
Cookeville attorney Samuel J. Harris, who represents The Pit in public records cases and in federal civil rights matters in federal court, says government is a jobs program for the stupid.
It's not clear whether he means the stupid people work in government or that they serve stupid voters.
This investigation may resolve that question, because, as one City Hall worker likes to point out, voters get the government they deserve.