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SUCCESS...
"To be successful is
to be helpful, caring,
and constructive-
To make everything
you touch a little bit better.
The best thing you
have to give is
yourself."
Norman Vincent Peale
"FAILURE to stand
for what is morally
right is the prelude
to being the victim of
what is criminally
wrong"
"Zig" Ziglar
ON THE MARK... Hurricane PD Scandal
Commentary
By Mark Hallburn
Publisher
PutnamLIVE.com
It's been more than two years since PutnamLIVE.com broke the first story about
the Hurricane Police
Department scandal.
More than two years since
Cpl. Scott Adams, Sgt. Ron
Smith, and Chief
of Police Lawrence D.
Foster were fired.
Little is known about their firings, other than the
documents PutnamLIVE.com obtained through Adams and civil court records from Foster's lawsuit-and that was last year.
The rest is hidden from the public because the case is still "under investigation."
That’s right, "under investigation."
We know the F.B.I. has been investigating the department. We know the new Hurricane Chief of Police Joe Sisk has been investigating the department and possibly City Hall. We know Sisk has turned over information from his investigation to Putnam County Prosecutor Mark Sorsaia and the F.B.I.
But we don't know what Sisk recommends, because the case is still "under investigation." And we don't know exactly who has been investigated because the case is still "under investigation."
In other words, we don’t know much, and we don’t know enough. Even though we should know everything by now.
Two years later, the public still waits. And we aren’t alone. Also waiting are Adams, Smith, and Foster, as well as the other officers of the Hurricane Police Department who feel they were wrongly associated with the scandal just because they worked with Adams, Foster, and Smith. Most cops are honorable people, and they don’t deserve the "guilt by association" stigma. They also don't deserve the idle gossip that has raced through Putnam County. No one does.
Two years is long enough for an investigation. It's too long. This isn't a murder case. It isn't rocket science. It can't be that complicated.
It's time to let everyone know what went on in the Hurricane Police Department, and at City Hall. If charges are warranted, file them. If someone should be tried for crimes, arrest and prosecute them. If they are guilty, send them to prison. But if people are innocent, announce their innocence to the public and clear their names. Set their reputations free. Don't protect the guilty and don’t impugn the innocent. Justice delayed is justice denied.
Whatever the case is, do something. Don't leave everyone hanging anymore.
