COURTS AND VINDICATOR USED BY DA TO ELECT PICKETT

There he goes again! Mike Little, the man we pay to prosecute criminals is abusing the justice system for his own gain again. He is pulling out all of the stops, including lies and deception and abusing the justice system to make sure when he leaves office his hand picked replacement will be in position to cover his tracks.

This article Liberty Dispatch (LD) wants to call attention to an article The Vindicator entitled “Jury assesses lengthy sentence for burglary”. Boy is that an understatement. Like most folks, LD usually counts hearing a convicted criminal getting his just due a victory for society. But 37 year old Mario Garcia was in the Liberty County courts at the wrong time and it is hard to call what he got “just due”. 80 years for “several items” he took in a burglary! Who is going to pay the bills to keep this man in prison for that long? Why did the prosecutors guide the jury to such a stiff penalty? Compared to other crimes we read about, this is a relatively small one, but compared to other sentencing this is a relatively harsh one.

Now the person that wrote the article for The Vindicator, District Attorney Mike Little, would like readers to put most of their focus on one thing – Logan Pickett won this case and he is tough on crime. That is the message Little is using his article and our courts to send you. If you want to risk getting sick, read the article and think back in 2008 when Democrats were writing the same kind of inflated deceptive exaggerations and lies to try and make Barack Obama seem like he suddenly was experienced enough to be elected President. Little’s protégé’ and the most inexperienced lawyer in the courthouse, Logan Pickett, is drenched with complimentary election year hyperbole by Little in this article that belongs more in a deceptive piece of campaign literature and not a legitimate newspaper.

First off, this case was an open and shut case and nothing to brag about. Second, as was said before, if you are a taxpayer can you imagine feeding and housing this burglar for eighty years for stealing “a few items.” In typical Vindicator and Little fashion, the article never says what items the man stole but unless a local homeowner has Rembrandt hanging on their walls and the Hope diamond in the jewelry box next to their bed, it is clear to see why the paper and the D.A. left that out of their Pickett promotion piece. Crime that it was, there is nothing unusual about it – except some people believe it is Pickett’s time to be D.A. and they will do and say whatever is necessary to make that happen.

This is how slobbery the article was that The Vindicator allowed the D.A. and Pickett to post (which by the way, because of how over the top it is, it clearly qualifies as an abuse of the privileges of their public office).

Here is an excerpt:
“The extensive pretrial preparation and the excellent trial work of lead counsel Logan Pickett with the assistance of Joe Warren clearly contributed to this conviction and long sentence. I am extremely proud of the long hours put in and the hard work by these assistant district attorneys which resulted in Mario Garcia being brought to justice and sentenced to a very long time in prison.”

The man had priors and he was caught with a few items that had been stolen within 24 hours of him being pulled over by an alert law enforcement officer. The case was something an inexperienced struggling new lawyer for the D.A.’s office couldn’t screw up on. But some might think the million dollars plus that it will cost taxpayers for this “lengthy sentence” is a screw up in itself. And others might wonder what kind of heavy handed sentences we may see between now and when voters go to the polls to decide between Pickett and his much more qualified opponent, Karen McNair. Others may wonder about the entire D.A.’s office and their priorities. After all, this is the same DA that looked like a professional all-world dodge ball participant in the way he avoided prosecuting the most infamous fraud case in county history. Ooops, strike that … Little may say if he had Pickett on staff back when all of that happened, he would have gone for it. He might say anything to get Pickett painted and ready for prime time.

But the fact of the matter is... Pickett has a horrible win/loss record in any court he has worked in. Even according to Little’s own campaign piece, Pickett is still yet to handle a case on his own. The fact of the matter is, Little is politicizing his office and trying to give as much credit to candidate Logan Pickett as he can. How dumb does he think Liberty County voters are?

These men should be shining examples of justice and truth and the public should never even suspect that our District Attorney’s office uses the justice system for their own personal gain- business as usual. LD is all for getting the attention of want-to-be future criminals because we all know there have been several years of a seemingly unstoppable crime wave as far as home burglaries have gone. They have been a great source of consternation and embarrassment for both the D.A.’s office and the Sheriff. But PLEASE don’t expect that leading a jury to “lengthy sentences” erases our memories of what was revealed in the Rusty Hight courts in the last couple of years and PLEASE give us a break on hyping Pickett. We remember the D.A.’s office did nothing to stop Judge Hight from undoing some of the public sentences in his court the next day when no media was there to report it. We know you can’t join the department and be the wettest behind the ears and suddenly just after Christmas is super prosecutor. Voters are not stupid!

It is likely The Vindicator will continue to allow Mike Little to soak you in his spin so be prepared. This was not a news story; it was clearly a “press release”. The proper way of balanced news reporting elements is to either have someone from the paper present to report the story or to dig out all of the political garbage packed in the press release. But this newspaper has not been doing that. It may be why we rarely hear anyone say “Hey did you read that article in the Liberty paper” anymore. The answer more and more indicates that The Vindicator is read less and less.

DA Mike Little cannot afford for anyone but Pickett to be elected as DA so that his 30 years of criminal enterprises can continue on the backs of Liberty County residents. Mike Little could be indicted for his recently relieved corrupt acts of "obstruction of justice" - "official misconduct" and other crimes. The Feds have some decisions to make about Mike Little.

Liberty County readers will be watching the other Liberty County media for the same "political bile" as produced by Mike Little and Logan Picket.

The Cleveland Advocate cut through the entire BS when they reported the same story.