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Just another silly day in Whitley County’s courts
Posted On 22 Apr 2011
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by Trent Knuckles |
My latest reason to lack faith in our local courts unfolded last week.
It all centers around Tim Lavender, an attorney from McCreary County, who was arrested FOUR YEARS AGO for driving drunk, with a vehicle full of liquor bottles and supposedly causing a three-car crash near Williamsburg.
The shenanigans began the minute Lavender was put in jail. He spent six full minutes in a cell before a local judge had him out without even having to put up a single penny in bond money. We should all be so lucky!
Anyway, the evidence in this case was compelling.
Whitley County District 3 Constable Jim Thornton, who arrested Lavender, reported finding five fifths of liquor in Lavender’s car at the scene of the accident, including an open container between the seat and the center console. Lavender refused to take any breath, blood or urine tests to determine his blood alcohol content.
Yet last week, after FOUR YEARS of legal buffoonery and incompetence on the part of prosecutors and judges, the charges were dismissed. This ridiculous stretch of time included two and a half years where the case was literally forgotten by our courts – at least until the News Journal exposed it and essentially forced some kind of action.
In hindsight, I really don’t know why we bothered.
The “special” prosecutor in the case couldn’t summon enough energy to do any actual prosecuting. Most of his effort was spent on lame excuses and conflict avoidance. Traditionally, backpeddling and running up the flag of surrender seem to be a art form among special prosecutors, so you can never expect much. He claimed he was bound by the terms of some prior agreement, never approved by a judge, dropping the case for LACK OF EVIDENCE. He even said it with a straight face.
I think Thornton summed it up best when he eloquently referred to the outcome of this case as “bull.”
Right here is the paragraph where I usually launch a broadside against our judges and prosecutors (I don’t include defense attorneys because they are the only ones apparently doing their jobs) blistering them for playing favorites and continually fertilizing a perverted legal arrangement that doles out justice differently for the haves and the have nots … the somebody’s and the nobody’s.
I’ve written columns like this dozens of times and it only gets worse. You can’t change a system that literally rubs your face in its ineptitude and corruption. You can’t shame people who have none. The people who could do something to correct the problem won’t.
The sad result of all this is that, at least in theory, it should be nearly impossible now for anyone to be prosecuted for DUI in Whitley County. If the police pull you over, the smart thing to do is refuse any tests to prove your blood-alcohol level. Simply go to court and ask for “The Lavender Deal.” The prosecutor should literally fall down to his knees and beg your forgiveness for putting you through the trouble of a messy arrest and short incarceration. Our courts work on precedence after all. This case sets a precedent, doesn’t it? Not enough evidence. Sorry we wasted your time. Decisions and punishment need to be consistent, right? Our courts can’t be arbitrary.
Is there anyone out there willing to defend this ridiculous farce? I’d love to hear from them. What am I missing here?
I write columns like this over and over, and not a single person EVER steps up to the plate to dispute what I’m saying about our court system. Never! I can only take that to mean that even the ones directly involved with it are so ashamed of what is going on they don’t even want to talk about it. Are their no noble defenders of the status quo out there? Is there not a single knight in shining armor to carry the banner for the way things are? I want to hear from you. Take some space on this editorial page and explain why what happened in this case was right. Matter of fact, take my space. I won’t burden our readers with my opinions next week if someone wants to write me a spirited defense of the handling of this case. I’m dying for someone to disagree with me here!
Constable Thornton knows what he thinks of it.
“Bull,” he says.
I know what I think, too.
A whole stinking heap of it.
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I have been in the court system for about 5 yrs. now. it seems once u r n it u can’t get out. The fines that they hit u with is a good reason to keep u coming back. Here recently i had a court date and i was there at 9am. I wait to be called and by lunch i ask Troy if i was on the docket, he looked and told me my name wasn’t on there. I went home. My next court date, which i had a lawyer for the case. I wanted to fight the allegations, i had been to court 4 times over this and i took 30 day probation just to get it over with! My lawyer Paul Croley didn’t want to fight it and i was tired of trying to convince paul that i didn’t do it and it was their word against mine. i get in front of Fred White which i feel he can’t stand me (idk why) but i took the 30 day probation and crap load of fines. Went to walk off and Troy told me to come with him. I had an FTA on the ticket that “I wasn’t on the docket for” so i went to the jail and bailed out. on my paper work where they put your court date was blank. i ask the people working at the desk that was releasing me, what my court date was and they told me i didn’t have one. OK now how is that possible!! I had my dad to take me to the clerks office and asked Gary Barton when ALL my court dates and times where. He was very nice and helpful. He said that the jail had been ‘forgetting to put peoples court dates on their release’! How nice! if i hadn’t went to the clerks office i would had had another FTA. its all about the money and thats dirty. oh, by the way my lawyer didn’t inform me of what was going to happen. He actually turned his head like he was afraid i was going to ask him for help.LOL i could have represented myself better. Anyway u hit the nail on the head. I like that someone has what it takes to say what everyone else is whispering about.
This all started under Dick Vermillion 40 years ago.
ha ha ha manchester had trouble long ago just like this and the fbi came and put a stop to it mybe thats what is going to happen to this sorry couny named whitley FBI we need your help come do some cleaning
need to give all the police a drug test.
I have been through this legal junk enough at my young age that I have lost every bit of faith that I ever had in a fair and just legal system. Everything from a ex husband that has not paid child support in over a year with not so much as a slap on the wrist; to a current husband who is paying to keep an ex wife and her new husband up just because they are too lazy to work. We both work 40+ hours a week and are stuggling to make ends meet, but yet child support keeps going up on top of alimony… All when I cannot get my ex to pay a penny. It amazes me that a judge just looks at external factors; ones that are brought up in court is all the judge knows and or cares about. Who cares that my husband woke up one day to be handed divorce papers and go from seeing his babies everyday to only seeing them every other weekend. I could go on forever about all the ways the court system has failed me personally, Whitley county really needs to take a look at the bigger picture and have EACH individuals best intrest in mind!
Thank You so much for your article. Some people are blind to what is going on around here and I’m glad you pointed it out. Nothing you said should surprise anyone after knowing what the former sheriff has done.
I wish I could disagree with you, dispute anything you wrote, but it is impossible to dispute truth. I hope that you continue to write about the corrupt public officials and those that are obviously above the law.
When I grow up I want to be a WHITLEY COUNTY POLICER, so I can get away with being corrupt, a drug dealer a pill pusher a bootlegger a drunk driver a bully to beat up prisoners and a PIG lier and thief..etc. Need I say more? I’m sure you will agree that our guys that are ordered to serve and protect are only protecting each others back….I vote fire them all…….
Mr. Knuckles I just want to thank you for being brave enough to point out the sick TRUTH about what is going on in Whitley County. Nobody else seems to have the BALLS to do it. All the lawyers and politicians is in on it so nothing will get better until we demand it gets better. Thank you.
I have no faith in are justice system here, so very corrupt. I have an actual signed paper between two lawyers and myself and the person who took my vehicle and never paid for it. They gave him 30 days and nothing has ever happened I went through two lawyers, Leroy Gilbert Jr. was the first one and then I paid David Kersey, never to have anything happen. And I was left with 4 children and no vehicle. And he had 3 vehicles in his parents name and But, his lawyer was Jane Butcher. He was suppose to give me back my truck and $6,000. He is my daughters’s father and he didn’t want her to go to St. Camillus. He doesn’t even want to pay child support, even after he served me papers when she was 10 to pay child support. At $186 a month he is over $3,800 late. But thanks to his 4 counts to DUI, and none of them alcohol related, my daughter is not forced to go their anymore. That has been my only justice. But he has never gone to jail for not paying child support. I have no way of figuring out how to get him to pay for my vehicle, and he was also suppose to give it back. Even when lawyers tell me I have a case.They have taken all my money and I am still without a car. Which is very painful, and its not easy getting around. You are my last hope. sincerely, Wanda
I really enjoyed reading your article. That is the way the system works there. It is sickening. If it had been some poor red neck person that did the same thing he would be locked up with the key thrown away. Perhaps it helps to have the former county attorney also pulling strings for him. Especially since he dated his mother and also his aunt who coincidentally worked for both of them.