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A troubling speeding case
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Published: November 28, 2009
Forsyth County District Attorney Tom Keith, whose last day on the job is Monday, started a battle with Forsyth County District Court Judge Laurie Hutchins several days ago when he charged in a motion that Hutchins improperly reduced a charge of speeding 122 mph in a 65-mph zone against Gilbert Richard Turner to 79 mph in a 65-mph zone.
Keith noted that Turner's only excuse for speeding was that he was late for work.
Hutchins fired back in an e-mail to the Journal that she would not be "Nifonged" by Keith in the media, a reference to Mike Nifong, the Durham district attorney who lost his job over his outrageous statements and otherwise irresponsible handling of unfounded rape charges in the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case.
Hutchins noted that she had already scheduled the speeding case for review in her court on Jan. 5. That's a relatively rare move for a judge to take on a speeding case that she has ruled on. She told the Journal that she did so "because it was such a high speed" but said she could not comment further on a pending case. Hutchins said that Keith or anyone else who has a problem with the case is welcome to come to court on Jan. 5. "I can do whatever I want to on Jan. 5 after hearing the evidence from both sides, and anybody else who wants to speak," she told the Journal.
But if Turner has completed his community service, and pays his fines and fees, by the time Hutchins reviews his case, the law might give her little leeway to change her decision.
In his motion, Keith asks a Superior Court judge to allow his office to appeal Hutchins' decision. Among other things, he finds fault with a plea that attorney John Barrow used in the Turner case called "not guilty before the bench." In such pleas in Forsyth district courtrooms, attorneys, while not admitting their client's guilt, acknowledge the evidence and plead for leniency from a judge.
Several lawyers, at Hutchins' suggestion, called or e-mailed the Journal this week to defend the longstanding plea practice and say that Hutchins is a fair judge. One said that Keith has approved some questionable reductions in speeding cases. In 2008, Keith approved a dismissal of a charge of speeding 92 mph in a 65-mph zone against Walter Church Sr. of Burke County, who was then in the state legislature.
After Journal columnist Scott Sexton got wind of the dismissal and questioned Keith about it in print, Keith reinstated the charge and brought in an outside prosecutor. Church pleaded guilty last year to going 79 mph in a 65-mph zone. None of Hutchins' supporters could explain why she would accept such a drastically lowered speeding charge -- a reduction of 43 mph. Hutchins told the Journal that "I will address it on Jan. 5."
We look forward to hearing her explanation.
Take, use the money
The Forsyth County commissioners, after a few weeks of squabbling, finally agreed this week to accept Dell's early repayment offer of $7.9 million in incentives, even if the county can't recoup all of an approximately $20,000 discount Dell received for paying the money about three months early.
The county already has the money in the bank. Finance Director Paul Fulton has said that it should be able to recoup, through interest, all but perhaps two thousand dollars of the money. As Jim Holmes III, the director of Deutsche Bank Alex Brown's Winston-Salem office, told the Journal, "I think it's always better to have the money in hand."
But some Republican commissioners resented Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines making the deal to get the early payback for the city and the county, even though he got the agreement of Commissioner Chairman Dave Plyler. Because the full board hadn't voted on the deal, they felt that either Dell or the city should repay the county the $20,000 discount.
The commissioners will soon begin debating what to do with the $7.9 million. Some commissioners would like to see it go to a reduction in the property-tax rate. It would be a negligible one. And with the Dell plant closing in January with its 900 jobs, the commissioners would do better to recommit the money to economic development.
Love on wheels
Every day in Forsyth County, many shut-ins, whether elderly or disabled, eagerly await the delivery of their Meals on Wheels plate. The food and the conversation with volunteers nourish the body and soul.
After a shooting last year, the Meals on Wheels story, at least for a while, was as much about courage as compassion. Volunteer Anne Magness was killed and her husband, Bob, was injured. The person they were serving, Bob Denning, was beaten to death. Neither Bob Magness, who resumed delivering meals, nor the other volunteers would be deterred.
Tuesday, Gov. Bev Perdue helped Senior Services' Meals on Wheels celebrate the delivery of its 4-millionth meal by taking a hot meal to Nancy Hooper of Winston-Salem.
The governor said that the state's fiscal crisis has kept it from helping the elderly as much as she hoped it would. Perdue, who is 62, said that she may one day be getting food from Meals and Wheels. So might many of the rest of us. Perhaps it's time more of us got involved.
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