It Is Sad

[Unchained]

It is sad that an entire community has to suffer because of the actions of a few. Ever since the hazing incident at Rye Cove occured, some individuals have felt it their calling to rib and pump out classless jokes and comments. I was saddened when it happened. Not for a second did I find any part of the whole ordeal humorous. The same can be said for Appalachia and the pork rind scandal. I have met many folks from Clinchport as well as Appalachia, and have many good friends in both communities. Have a little class folks. How would you feel if this was your hometown?

[imported_Sportsman]

Where is this happening at, ID?

[Ironlung]

Union Man's post on the Sports board. Featuring everyone's favorite poster. It was another wonder Paintshop job on Union Man's RCHS picture.

[Unchained]

The latest was on the sports forum, regarding Rye Cove. The post was taken down.

As your post refers respect is earned not given.
Some need to learn that.
I don't live in the corporate limits of Appalachia, but it is home and i love the town. The jokes do get old.
I'm sure the folks at Rye Cove are tired of hearing it also.
And honestly it's not like we all can't find some mud to sling.
But my question is why. I know some of us older one's do it out of fun. But some just do it to try to cause or inflict pain and disgrace.

[R0cketer]

And while we're at it, lets forgive OJ, Maurice Clarette, and everybody else.

Look I agree with you on the Rye Cove thing since it was juvenilles. Outside of 1 person that has pretty much been a subject that been off limits. I know that there are some good people in Appalachia, but the ones guilty or charged have all been adults, and its no different than Jay Leno, David Letterman or any other talk show host or comedian relating to a subject. It's local, and lets not forget, there was, at least the appearance so far, of laws being broke. I think we would be a lot better sometimes if we didn't just try to stop making people who break the law feel bad for it because it really bothers them. If a person is out here dealing drugs and gets caught, heck yeah they are feeling bad about it THEN, that they got caught. It was said on here multiple times that people in Appy knew about the gambling and such, is it kind of a lot all hitting Appy at once? Yeah no doubt, but it also looks like that all of this has embarassed them and maybe they're trying to straighten it up now, but I'm completely against always being sympathetic to everybody who breaks the law. We had a young man who was from a good family, no doubt, in trouble several years back, and it was like taboo to say anything because that good family might have been offended. My view if it was brought up more, maybe more families would have kept a closer eye on their kids and made a differnce instead of thinking they had 'good kids' and then those kids ending up in the same type of messes, just not caught. If more people in Appy are embarased by this, as they should be, maybe the ones who will grow into the new positions or assume the new roles will be a lot more resistant to slipping over to the dark side.

Just my view on it.

I've not seen where anyone in Appy has actually been charged. Still no prosecutors and no real case or so it would seem.
And if i remember once appointed special prosecutor Tim McAfee's son was also involved in buying gambling tickets. And all sellers and buyers were to be prosecuted. Well till his son was one. Talk about a double standard?
Seems to me their trying awful hard to get those accussed to plead out, if the case was that strong on that and the gambling. Why?
Kids or not the damage has been done.
To a whole town and community. Locally to nationally. Yet even in the gambling case no charges have even been filed.
At least OJ was charged and faced a trial by his peers. Still Quilty or Not. He OJ, received more justice than we have seen in any of this situation in Appy.
Seems some may of jumped for a little glamour and got egg on their face and now don't know what to do, to salvage a couple cases they blouched.
I don't condone any of it. But as OJ's lawyer said. If it don't fit you must acquit. Hmm.
Good case gone sour due to improper investigating and self conflict.
And all three prosecutors involved, knew the workings of the town well and never knew or imagined any wrong doing?
Some kind of defenders of the oath they took huh.
After all this time this is beginning to smell.
So honestly if your gonna point fingers. Point them all around. A system that got ahold of something and botched it so bad. No one can even get to the point to where they even know what their trying to prosecute and deals being made so fast. Most are not even considered under indictment or investigation no longer.
But a town was ripped apart on the news and national media.
For What? A few ego's and political gain?


Before ruling on whether the trials for some of the 14 defendants should be heard together or separate, Wise County Circuit Court Judge Tammy McElyea wants to wait and see if there is anyone to try in the Appalachia voter fraud conspiracy cases.

After hearing arguments Thursday, McElyea set a Sept. 7 date to announce her decision on a joinder motion filed by special prosecutors Tim McAfee and Greg Stewart.

First, the judge said she wanted to get some idea of how many defendants in the case will reach an agreement to work with prosecutors as cooperating witnesses.

Four defendants, including three who face the largest number of charges, have already agreed to cooperate with the prosecution, McAfee said Thursday.

Former Appalachia mayor Ben Cooper, suspended town parks and recreation director "Dude"? Sharrett Jr., former town councilman Andy Sharrett III and suspended town police captain Ben Surber all have signed agreements with the prosecution.

Cooper faces 245 charges related to an alleged voter fraud conspiracy conducted during the town elections in May 2004. Sharrett Jr. is charged with 221 different counts and Sharrett III faces 216 charges. Surber is charged with 22 counts as part of the same investigation.

Since the foursome has already agreed to cooperate with the prosecution, McAfee filed amended motions to have their cases severed from the trials of the other defendants so they can be heard separately.

McAfee also agreed to amend his motion to sever the trials for Betty Riddle, Krystal Turner and Natasha Mullins, who each face one count of election fraud by providing false information.

Of the remaining seven defendants in the case, McAfee said he anticipates that four or five would sign agreements within the next two weeks, leaving only two or three to be tried together.

McAfee declined to name who he anticipates making agreements in the next couple of weeks.

Defense attorneys representing the remaining defendants "? Betty Sharrett Bolling, Adam Sharrett, Dennis "Boogie"? Sharrett, Kevin Sharrett, Belinda Sharrett, Don Estridge and Mike Baber "? argued that having a trial at the same time for all of the defendants would not be fair to their clients and would not be practical for the court.

Charles Bledsoe, attorney for Baber "? a suspended town police officer "? said his client faces only one charge and it's grand larceny.

"Mr. Baber's case has nothing to do with voter fraud,"? said Bledsoe. "He has no connection other than being an officer of Appalachia."?

Jewel Morgan, who represents Belinda Sharrett, said the practical side of trying all of the defendants would dictate the trials would have to be separated.

"There's not enough room to accommodate counsel and defendants in the courtroom,"? said Morgan. "This is no legal precedent, this is just common sense and reality."?

Despite the difficult logistics of trying a case with several defendants and lawyers at the defense table, McElyea said she is leaning toward having the defendants tried together.

"It is likely that the court is going to join some of a great number of the remaining defendants,"? said McElyea.

But, the judge said she wants to see how many other defendants work out an agreement with the commonwealth before making her final ruling.

Any Yet Another Prosecutor.

Wythe County assistant commonwealth attorney has been appointed as special prosecutor to investigate alleged gambling violations in the town of Appalachia.

All three 30th circuit court judges "? Tammy McElyea, John Kilgore and Chief Judge Birg Sergent "? signed an order Thursday appointing Lee Harrell as special prosecutor in the investigation.

The order comes nearly two months after Wise County Commonwealth Attorney Chad Dotson informed the court he had a conflict of interest in the case and requested that McElyea appoint Norton attorneys Tim McAfee and Greg Stewart as special prosecutors. McAfee and Stewart are serving as special prosecutors in the alleged voter fraud conspiracy investigation concerning the 2004 Appalachia town elections.

Sergent and Kilgore have not been available for comment and McElyea has declined to comment on any aspect the case.

"Judge McElyea cannot comment on any matters before the court,"? the judge's secretary said last week.

McAfee said Friday he did not know why he and Stewart were not appointed as special prosecutors to investigate charges of illegal gambling in Appalachia.

"It was a surprise to us that we were going to be released,"? McAfee said. Both he and Stewart were on board as special prosecutors when Virginia State Police, the Virginia Gaming Authority, the Wise County Sheriff's Department and the Southwest Regional Drug Task Force raided alleged gaming operations in Appalachia in early May. McAfee said at the time the searches and seizure of money and property were in connection with the continuing investigation of alleged voter fraud in Appalachia.

"The investigation has a component of the (voter fraud) investigation because of allegations that past and present council members and members of the police department have gambled there,"? said McAfee. "There is also information that certain council members have been paid to instruct the police department to stay away from the gambling establishments."?

In their order appointing Harrell as special prosecutor, the three judges point to Virginia state law that calls for the appointment of a state attorney or assistant state attorney from another jurisdiction rather than an attorney in private practice.

"However,"? the code section states, "if the circuit court determines that the appointment of such attorney for the Commonwealth or such assistant attorney for the Commonwealth is not appropriate or that such an attorney or assistant is unavailable, or for other good cause, then the circuit court may appoint an attorney-at-law."?

McAfee and Stewart are in private practice. Harrell works in the office of Wythe County Commonwealth Attorney Jerry Mabe.

Neither Mabe nor Harrell returned phone calls on Friday or Monday.

COMMONWEALTH DENIED
In two separate motions in mid-June, Dotson asked McElyea to clarify language in a Feb. 24 order appointing McAfee and Stewart as special prosecutors in the Appalachia voter fraud investigation and to expand their appointment to include the Appalachia gambling investigation.

On Thursday, McElyea granted a motion by Dotson to appoint a special prosecutor but in a separate order entered Thursday she said the Appalachia gambling investigation should be handled by Dotson's office and not McAfee and Stewart.

The Feb. 24 order "expanded the authority of the special prosecutors beyond that contained in the September 2005 and January 2006 orders,"? McElyea wrote in one of Thursday's orders. "However the scope of this February 24, 2006, order was limited to the investigation and the prosecution allegations of possible criminal conduct involving alleged acts of corruption by certain Appalachia town officials and/or the town's law enforcement officers and related to the May 2004 Town of Appalachia election."?

The Feb. 24 order filed in the Wise County Circuit Court Clerk's office, and signed by McElyea, makes reference to the 2004 Appalachia elections. It does not make mention of limiting the investigation to allegations of possible criminal conduct involving "alleged acts of corruption by certain Appalachia town officials and/or the town's law enforcement officers."?

McElyea also wrote on Thursday that the scope of duties as special prosecutors for McAfee and Stewart "did not extend to the prosecution for alleged gambling offenses suspected to have occurred in Appalachia in general. Accordingly, these matters fall within the duties of the Wise County Commonwealth's Attorney's office."?

McElyea's Feb. 24 order states that, during their voter fraud investigation, McAfee and Stewart discovered evidence of alleged corruption that would create a conflict of interest for the commonwealth attorney's office. Dotson once served as a town prosecutor for Appalachia and, as a result, Dotson requested and McElyea granted the order to appoint McAfee and Stewart as "Special Counsel to assist in the investigation of alleged corruption and eventual prosecution."?

The order does not define nor list what types of corruption McAfee and Stewart were to investigate.

After Dotson declared a conflict of interest in June, McAfee said he thought he and Stewart should be appointed special prosecutors for the gambling cases because they were related to the on-going voter fraud cases.

"The order for special prosecutors in February said we were to investigate corruption in the town of Appalachia,"? McAfee said in June. "You could certainly argue that illegal gambling is part of the corruption. In addition, the same people benefiting from the election scheme are benefiting by allowing illegal gambling to go on."?

McAfee was initially appointed by McElyea in September of last year to investigate allegations of voter fraud and other criminal allegations regarding the town elections in Appalachia in May 2004.

In January of this year, Stewart was appointed to assist McAfee in the ongoing investigation.

[R0cketer]

No charges have been brought
No charges have been brought
No charges have been brought

Just wondering if repeating it like you do makes it better. Do you understand why they have special prosecutors? No charges have been brought because they had to bring someone in from outside to try and get a fair trial. Wait maybe someone involved in it could have investigated it, decided it was nothing. Would that have made it fair? Would that have made it better? Give the process a bit of time. How long did we put up with OJ? How long does anything legal take? You're right on McAfee, I guess in your mind, if he did it, found out that there was nothing there, you would be on here complaining of a double standard then, right? Let the process take place.

You know as well as I do that you made comments about knowing this stuff took place. You're right, it makes us all look bad. However, does shoving it under the rug make it look better? This area is viewed as bad because of the good old boy network and not trying to clean it up is part of the good old boy network.

A black mark on us all? Sure it does. I guess pretending nothing is wrong doesn't make it look like we're a bunch of idiots around here right? What makes us look like a bunch of idiots is the severe lack of anybody trying to straighten things up, the old 'its always been that way' method. There are some good people in Appy, there are some who would try to do the right thing, but the problem is/was that those people couldn't do a dang thing because there was too many involved in positions of authority that kept anything from ever being done.

A black eye is trying to pretend that there isn't a problem. A black eye is where you don't risk offending someone because they are your friend or a good boy or from a good family. If more people actually had to deal with consequences of their mistakes, you might find a few that could get straightened out, but when they know they get a slap on the wrist, why the heck worry about? Yes Appy gets drug through the mud but getting it cleaned up will make them look better, pretending that its everybody ganging up on them just makes it look ignorant. We all know that situations like that tend to fall apart like a house of cards once you get in the door. You're investigating one thing or one person who gives a bit of information you didn't know, sure to protect themselves, but then you find something else.

Nobody likes being the target but if nobody ever tries to say hey we got egg on our face but we're going to fix it but just keeps saying oh stop picking on us, it will never clean the egg off your face, its just everybody will make fun of you with the egg on your face behind your back.

Well Rock you work where the good ole boy situation works best.

More back room deals done at WC Court House then many would think.

Yes i knew about the gambling from years back when i was a child.

I didn't say it was ok. I just said why is it just now a big deal? It was not a big deal back 1 year ago? Why not. Yet it was going on. Even a special prosecutors son was involved in buying tickets. Right?

Face it. Our court system in Wise County is run by a few.

You can do your best to justify why no action has been taken, but again look at what you said. OJ at least was charged and had a trial. Has anyone in the gambling even been charged? No.

Yet deals are already being cut in the voter case and it's not even had a true prosecutor. You have no prosecutor but deals are being cut. So how is this real justice?

I don't know what climbed up your arse. But you got to know yourself this is not the way the justice system is suspose to work.

Or maybe you been around the good ole boys yourself to long and don't see any thing wrong. Maybe it's suppose to be drag it out and cost a fortune to get it to trial. Esp. when one prosecutor says they have volumes of evidence. Yet lack the ability to even charge anyone?

Im not condoning any thing. Im just tired of it lingering on and it constantly befalling many that are trying to get a town past it. If you got a problem with that. Well i don't know what to tell you. You don't begin to heal till you things scab over, well this scab keeps getting ripped open, every time a prosecutor bows out.
So when can the good things in Appy be seen. Or is it just that Appy don't deserve it. And believe me no town or city in Wise Co. or Dickenson, is without it's gambling or drug problems, and well those who run things politically.
Black eye. WC and DC both are full of black eyes and that good ole boy philosophy. You should know that better than anyone working in Wise.

It's time for some closure. And that can't start till those who are suppose to be doing their job do it, and do it without constant beating of the drama sticks.

To fix the black eyes you have to fix the political machine first. And i don't see that happen. It benefits to many in all these counties, towns and communities. Who is not dumb enough to see it.
It's as it has always been who know, who you blow and who you ruin before they ruin you.

[imported_Counts]

I agree with you The bad in Appy needs to be cut out quickly the longer it draws out the harder it is on the community.

Buchanan Co had the same type issues with the "Big [censored] Dog" situation here and it took a couple of years for this to work its way through the legal system and now things are starting to smooth over here but it took closer for that to happen.

IMHO I think everyone from Appy just want those responsible for this mess to pay for it so that the community as a whole (Who are not involved in Voter fraud, Gambling, ect) can let the wounds that the corrupt in the community caused heal.