UPDATED: 03/21/2009 AT 11:30 A.M.The viewpoints in graphic format above are largely based on the viewpoint holders take on the factual underpinings of events that precipitated the Marlboro trustees referring the matter to the sheriff and the county prosecutor.
The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report, SCPR) takes a difference perspective in arriving at a point-of-view.
Although the indictments are fourth degree felonies (Disruption of Public Services [Kyle] and Complicity Disruption of Public Services [Ron], the The Report's point-of-view is that Trustees Wise and Wolf have created a public turmoil hugely disproportional to the allegations - even if one accepts the factual premise of the trustee, the sheriff, the prosecutor and the grand jury.
Much more serious allegations involving public officials may be in the process of being white-washed by Sheriff Swanson and Prosecutor Ferrero (reference: the Healy matter).
Why make that point?
Because The Report believes that there is a disparity in the Stark County law enforcement community, at the county level, as to who gets prosecuted and who does not. While the law enforcers will claim a factual distinction for the variations, The Report believes, when public officials are involved, the real reasons are too often tinged with political considerations.
In the Marlboro situation, The Report believes the sensible solution would have been for the sheriff and prosecutor to encourage and perhaps even facilitate a sitdown between the Devies and the trustees to iron this matter out without invoking the criminal process.
Now that the legal path has been chosen, it should be obvious to one and all that Marlboro Township will be ravaged by political vendetta after political vendetta after political vendetta.
The Report believes that Wise and Wolf were motivated in the first place by political vendetta. Chief Ron Devies is a strong personality and did not kowtow to the all powerful Trustees Wise and Wolf ("all powerful" in their own minds).
So now Marlboro Township and derivatively Stark County has a mess on its hands.
If Stark County had a sheriff and a prosecutor (who, by the way, was unopposed in the last election) with some social and community sense about them, they would have been instrumental in having "cooler heads" prevail in the Marlboro situation.
But Stark doesn't.
Swanson too often acts like a "bull in a china shop," and Ferrero, a former chair of the Stark County Democratic Party, has - in the opinion of SCPR - a tendency to look at matters from a political perspective. Political in the sense who are the players in the matter before him.
They will tell Stark Countians that they "play it by the book." The Report knows both of them and does not believe such protestations for one second.
Swanson and Ferrero have let the Marlboro matter get totally out-of-hand.
In the judgment of The Report, they could have prevented this escalation and therefore have failed the Stark County community.
2 comments:
You're kidding right? If the Sheriff and Prosecutor have EVIDENCE that a crime has been committed, they have a DUTY TO THE CITIZENS OF STARK COUNTY to prosecute the offender no matter who they are! Would you feel the same way if this happened in the private sector? Maybe we should have all offenders sit down with their victims to see if they can "work things out" instead of prosecuting them. If I disrupted the services at my job, and things were shut down for TWO DAYS, I bet my employer would want me prosecuted for my actions! Ron Devies should not be granted any special conditions because he is a law enforcement officer, in fact, he should be held to a higher standard!
With the economic conditions of the state and county I cannot believe that this is taking place. I am a Stark resident but not part of that township. Were I part of that township I would be holding a door-to-door petition to re-elect some new or neutral trustees. At very best I would be seeking an independant council from outside my township to review the actions of the trustees themselves. As a police academy graduate my thoughts have to wonder what laws the trustees are breaking too. Maybe someone should put them on administrative leave until the trial is over because 'should' it fail. I would really have to wonder if the Devies family wouldn't have reason for civil action against the township and at very least against the 2 antagonistic trustees. The words of slander, fraud and defimation of character come to mind.
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