Recent news events have left me wondering “what the hell is wrong with Smithfield?”
We all know about the former Logan fire chief case where Kyle Lindsay was arrested on multiple felony charges including burglary and drug counts. But although this is a high-profile case involving a (former) high-level public official, the Smithfield Police Department, namely police chief Johnny McCoy, has refused to release any information as to the basis for his agency’s allegations. That silence has been echoed by the Cache County Attorney’s Office, and the publicly available court documents are also scant with information.
This raises a red flag because, generally, police release information about people who are arrested, the who, what, where and when of the crime. In the Kyle Lindsay case, Johnny McCoy and friends are saying public records laws protect them from giving the information, but they lose that defense because they regularly release the information. McCoy et al also can’t hide behind the statement “we want to preserve the suspect’s right to a fair trial” because the courts have an extensive process to ensure that a defendant is given a fair trial. Johnny McCoy is not the person who is responsible for ensuring someone receives a fair trial, the courts will handle that. McCoy needs to focus on his own agency (you know, the agency that regularly has three-plus squad cars at the Smithfield 7-Eleven late at night) and not how the court process is going to proceed.
That’s the first red flag. The next comes in Sunday’s edition of The Herald Journal with this letter to the editor about Smithfield Justice Court Judge Terry Moore.
If these allegations from the letter writer are true (and I tend to believe they are based on several similar stories of disrespect from people I know, from the comments on that letter to the editor, and from the HJ’s own printed response from what they got when they called the judge himself,) then Terry Moore should not be retained as a judge by the residents of Smithfield (and Wellsville, for that matter, where I’ve heard stories of Moore wreaking havoc and arrogance as well.)
I’ve long had a problem with the fact that people without law degrees are allowed to serve as judges. I’d like to hear some of the arguments for and against allowing “lay” people to serve decades (Terry Moore has been Smithfield’s judge since 1992) as justice court judges.
At the end of the day, I’m frankly scared for the people of Smithfield. All indications are that even though it is 2010, there is a early-20th Century form of good ole’ boys justice taking place in Smithfield with people like Terry Moore having no respect for patrons of his court and Johnny McCoy incompetently running an agency, ignoring public records laws and having officers that seemingly are constantly “on break.”
Where’s the justice? Not Smithfield, it seems.
This also happens in Wellsville City court a lot. My husband has had the same fine for a few years for a traffic ticket, that seemed to be a very outrageous fine for what it was. There are people that we have seen appear before Judge Moore on DUI and drug charges that have walked out of the courtroom with less that $500 fines and two days in jail, but my husband gets a traffic ticket and gets $3000+ fine and thirty days in jail. This to me seems unfair and a very poor practice as a judge. On top of that my husband had a medical condition and was in the hospital one Monday that he was due to go for a review with Judge Moore. He went in the very next day and talked to the court clerk and was told all was okay and to come in the next Monday with his proof that he was there. That Friday officers showed up at our door and arrested my husband on a warrant issued by Judge Moore. The judge made him served ten days then brang him back to court and said it was a mistake and released him. My husband has no problem paying the fine and accepts that he broke the law and got the ticket, but the penalty on it seems very unjust. Judge Moore needs learn how to treat the people that he serves as a public servant.
I’m not to sure about all the stuff you are saying about the Judge and the Police Chief but I will say this about their officers being at the 7-11, unless you have worked in Law Enforcement you should maybe realize that there is not much to do on a grave shift and at least at they are out in the open where people can see them not parked somewhere sleeping like some officers have done in the past, and since they are out there protecting you, your family, and your community maybe you should show them a little respect, and realize that while he is working that graveyard he is giving up his family time, his social life, and pretty much everything else to so he can go out stay awake all night on the off chance that someone may break into your house and you may need him. So in short if you want to be hard on the Chief for what he is doing then good on ya! but leave the officers out of it.
They Smithfield Police want the public to think they’ve caught a big fish, and are leaving the details of this case to the publics imagination. They are not releasing the details because then it would be obvious to the public that they have absolutely nothing on this guy. We all know how the Smithfield Police chief has “little man syndrome” and is trying to make himself look good. Lindsay will get his day in court and Smithfield Police will be left looking like the idiots they truly are.