If you haven’t been affected by it or haven’t heard about it, you will soon. Liberty County is part of a juvenile crime wave and it is not going away anytime soon. In fact summertime is coming and it could get worse. Juveniles burglarizing homes, assaulting and raping girls, stealing automobiles, and buying and selling drugs have become a common news story around here. The story we are not hearing from the media is how the greed of one public official and the timidity of another are in effect aiding and abetting this trend.
“It’s like herding cats” one unnamed source said. “The Liberty County Sheriff’s Department and all of the police departments in the county can successfully chase and cage many of these young hoodlums, but what happens next is like ‘aiding and abetting’ the bad guys.”
Statistics indicate the tremendous increase in District Attorney Mike Little’s 2006 budget has not really led to any more success in his prosecution statistics. In fact, one could easily argue the money Little sucked away from County Attorney Wes Hinch’s budget is severely limiting Liberty County’s ability to deal with juvenile crime. Inexplicably, Hinch gave up three assistant county attorneys without a fight. It is as if Hinch were saying Little could spend the money better. But the fact of the matter is Little can’t. The fact of the matter is if Wes Hinch won’t fight for himself, he needs to at least fight for the taxpayer.
The numbers don’t lie. Little’s constant campaign and pressure to get more money has produced little to no results. On the other hand, Hinch would be considered to be under staffed to most. Hinch himself seems to be content with just cutting his services and responsibilities. He has areas of influence he could fight against the juvenile crime wave with additional staff. In 2009 and 2010, former Assistant County Attorney Tommy Chambers teamed with Justices of the Peace like Bobby Rader and made a great difference in making sure juvenile delinquents paid a price for breaking the law. Under Chambers juveniles would appear in court and face the consequences of their actions. The under staffing caused by the hoarding of budget dollars by Little has helped many juveniles to get off scott free and to return to breaking in houses and other crimes.
It is nineteen more months until voters will get a chance to elect a new District Attorney and two new commissioners who vote on the budget. In the meantime, it would be Liberty Dispatch’s pleasure to witness an awakening of County Attorney Wes Hinch. He appears to have reached across the Republican aisle and embraced and acquiesced to Democrat Mike Little. In many cases the cats have been herded by law enforcement, but tickets given to juveniles are going unpaid, community service is unserved, and juvenile crime is going unpunished.
Wes Hinch, if he decides to run for re-election, will appear on a ballot in the 2012 elections. He can try to sell voters on the idea he did not have the money to execute his duty and that he did the next best thing – reduce the expectations he had of his office. Or he can fall out of love with Mike Little and he can stand up for taxpayers and get the money he needs to do his job. Who Wes Hinch is will be decided in the next few months by whether he does his job or makes excuses.
Hinch is more than willing to fight to keep the small, mostly unaccounted slush fund he controls from income based off of hot check collections. But he shrinks back and goes along with anything Mike Little proposes – even if it means he loses the staff he needs to do his job. His office prosecutes several times more cases than Little’s and the budget has never been so lopsided between the two offices.
We have come to know Little is a sycophant. He is also the kind of politician who makes the word “politician” synonymous with self serving liar. Now we have to see if Hinch wants to follow in Little’s footsteps or come out in the light and work with the rest of the justice system Liberty County just elected.
I like Wes Hinch as a person. In the remaining months of 2011 I will find out whether I can like him as an elected official.
25 comments:
I like Wes too but it was inexcusable when he used his power to deny the JP courts the ability to pay their help equitably. These JPs and their staff actually bring in money to the county coffers by working hard. We have had lazy JPs and Wes' attempt to keep their office from benefiting from their own hard work is counterproductive.
Hinch probably made good grades in school but he loves his own voice to much to learn how to be a good lawyer. If he stays in politics he needs to be less like Mike Little who "manages" other lawyers and has endless cases drug out because he is ineffective in anything but open and shut cases and more like Julie Cain who shines in a courtroom.
Too much Little, too little WE THE PEOPLE.
Mike Little has NEVER had an opponent. The voters have never had a choice.
Hahahaha! "Circumstantial" evidence. Mike Little has a record and the voters need to be aware of it. His way of executing the duties of his office are not only flawed, they are filled with unnecessary expense. Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars are wasted as Mike little drags his feet and tries to wear down defendents into pleaing because they feel hopeless after years of legal bills (rather than the facts of the case). Manpower in the DA's office and at the county jail are wasted by a method good DA's don't have to use.
Mr. Hinch is a good man. Please lighten up. I am a big fan of this website and the Republican party but wish you would just go and sit down and talk to Mr. Hinch rather than air dirty laundry within the party.
To the Republican whose natural inclination is to defend "Mr. Hinch": several people, including people considered to be his superiors, have tried to get him to reconsider his opinions surrounding his duty as a County Attorney. Conclusion: "Mr. Hinch" either loves the sound of his own voice or he sees the world very differently than all of the local elected Republicans considered to be legal experts and those LD considers to be political experts.
The point I got from this story is well taken . LIBERTY COUNTY HAS A GROWING PROBLEM WITH JUVENILE CRIME. When school dismisses in a few weeks this will only get worse.
My brother works for the sheriff's department in Liberty County and I agree they deserve some help on the juvenile matter. The sheriff's department in your county catches too much flack and not enough help.
I can say a lot of things here about Mr. Little but I think the Lordwould look down on me for that. With that said Mr. Little, you will not get votes from my family and friends
Your post is very confusing. What precisely do you believe a county attorney can do to gain access to monies confiscated by the district attorney? Aren't there laws that designate this? Are not the property and monies confiscated from felony activity beyond the reach of a misdemeanor prosecutor i.e. county attorney? Sorry for my ignorance. The county attorney's office could definitely use more help, but wouldn't that create more of a burden on the taxpayer? Shouldn't we be proud that our Republican County Attorney isn't trying to increase his budget in these economic times?
I just met Wes Hinch,he seems like a very competent and likeable person. He said if someone has a problem or hears rumors,come set down and talk with him about it. Maybe we need to set down and talk to him. I think he would listen to what we say.
I disagree about Hinch. He has already shown his real self. What you'll see in these last months will be campaigning BS. He needs to go.
Mike Little keeps pushing Joe Warren out in front of the national news media and all the cases coming through the DA's office. Joe Warren is as big a piece of $hit as Mike Little.
Mike Little has been hiding from question of the national news media about Little's homosexual behavior and sexual assault of prisoner/s -as in multiple prisoners-
I'm sure if the black men accused of raping the girl in Cleveland would allow themselves to be sodomized, Mike Little would let them go.
Julie Cain for Liberty County District Attorney in 2012. How about it?
I like the sound of that, Liberty County District Attorney, Julie Cain.
Why not, if McNair can have a sister in the County Attorneys office, why not a sister as DA for Chap?
I think Karen McNair has bigger grapes than Wes Hinch.
She is a heck of a lot better looking than whats in there now and Im sure she would clean out all those sacks of crap.
What a better place Liberty County would be...
Too much family power in the leagal system would be the reason not to elect Julie Cain as county attorney. We're just getting away from some of that stuff. I don't care if it is Republicans or Democraps involved I don't like the family system being installed to a bigger degree. Besides, she's a big Chip Fairchild fan and so is Chap. If you don't believe that just ask them. I don't think they'll lie about it.
I know for a fact they are interested in Justice and not Chip or Russell Fairchild. We are talking about Julie Cain running for DA not County Attorney.
Chip and Russell Fairchild are complicit in the murder of Winston Smith. Julie or Chap would never align themselves with these murderers.
There is no harm in Julie being DA and Chap one of the district judges. Julie would never have to prosecute case in front of Chap, she would have others who would work Chaps court. No problem...
Look at the County Attorneys office, Karen McNair works for the county attorney and her brother Craig McNair is the county judge. No problem...
Matter of fact, Karen McNair should be the county attorney, not Wes Hinch. Mike Little is Wes Hinch's idol and has been while he was growing up. What does that say about Wes Hinch to idolize a homosexual like Mike Little? Do the math...
Intentional or not, someone posted a comment that could create confusion out of what I thought was one of the more informative articles from the news media this year. To simplify the effect Wes Hinch's County Attorney's budget has on Mike Little's District Attorney's budget: Despite the need for Hinch to have kept his three assistant county attorneys to effectively fight juvenile crime, he abdicated - Little then fought for whatever funds were available and got them. By the way, Hinch also neutered another of our first line defenses against juvenil crime by fighting to keep any more of the funds the JP's collect from going to help their staffing.
"I am with the government and I am here to help" can be a scary statement if people in the positions Little and Hinch have choose politics over service.
I hate to hear of any public official who is so unconcerned about our problems that they are keeping those public officials who are concenred from helping as much as they can.
There have been three burglaries in my neighborhood in three weeks. Most of us think it is kids doing it and we wonder what's up with the truant officers.
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