commentary by Patrick H. Moore
I have the feeling that day-by-day many of us, whether we like it or not, are growing increasingly fond of former Chesterfield County sheriff Big Sam Parker. And those of us who are developing this grudging fondness for the embattled lawman may be — at least in some cases — the same people who harbor a violent distaste for Sheriff Joe Arpaio out in Maricopa County. Yet here’s Big Sam getting indicted by a grand jury of his peers while Sheriff Joe continues to run roughshod over decency, morality and the American way with apparently the full support of his constituency.
Yet observe the evidence. Sheriff Joe makes his county jail inmates live in his tent city and wear pink underwear; former Sheriff Sam allows his favorite inmates lots of freedom and even lets them have real sex with real women on occasion. Now that’s my kind of sheriff.
Yet facts are facts and the key fact here is that Big Sam is fighting for his freedom before a jury of his peers. Monday was jury selection day and it was no easy task because most of the prospective jury pool knew Big Sam personally.
On Tuesday, as if to make up for Monday’s halting progress, things moved along at a good clip. Opening statements came and went and fully ten witnesses took their turn in the witness box.
WSOCTV News has the story:
The first witness in the trial, Detective Wayne Jordan, was a deputy Big Sam had hired. While being questioned by the prosecutor, Detective Jordan broke down in tears, telling the court he’d known Parker since he was a young boy playing Little League baseball.
“You don’t want to be here, do you?” the prosecutor asked him.
“In no way, shape or form,” Jordan answered, wiping his eyes with a tissue.
Yet, unless he wanted to perjure himself, Detective Jordan had no choice other than to testify that he’d been asked by Parker numerous times to give guns to people — guns that were property of the sheriff’s office.
“I didn’t ask questions. That’s wasn’t my job,” Jordan said. “I was told to do it, and I did it.”
Later in the day, Assistant Attorney General Kinli Abee held up a sniper rifle Parker allegedly gave a man who was scheduled to be trained as a reserve deputy. That man never completed the training and returned the rifle after three weeks.
Another exhibit for the jury’s edification was a pistol Sheriff Sam allegedly gave Derick Outen, who testified that Parker gave it to him as payment for wiring his house. According to Outen, Big Sam told him that he couldn’t pay him, but he could give him the gun to “make it better.”
Keeping it real, we must admit that this is gun country. Although Parker distributing the firearms to these men was clearly not a stroke of genius, I hardly find it surprising.
Where Sheriff Sam may have really messed up, though, was with inmates, William Skipper and Mike Lee. The special perks they allegedly received included letting them drive department vehicles and live outside the jail. They also got to shop, eat out and vacation with Parker and his family wearing street clothes (gasp), and had access to alcohol and women. (Sounds like a pretty good life. Oh, I forgot. They’re supposed to be in jail.) The indictment alleges that neither man had much supervision while being constructively held in the Chesterfield County jail.
Assistant Attorney General Abee explained:
“If you were sent here to Chesterfield County and you were one of Sam Parker’s inmates, well, you got all the freedoms you wanted as long as you worked for them,” she informed the jury in her opening statement.
Derick Outen, who appears to be one of Sam’s many cronies, testified that he saw inmate Mike Lee doing various jobs at Parker’s home.
“I know Mike was doing some cleaning, and that he was helping paint, and was assisting in putting down a floor,” he said. (What wrong with having these inmates perform these constructive tasks? I don’t imagine there’s much meaningful work at the county jail unless you consider mopping floors meaningful.)
In his opening statement, Sam’s lawyer, Greg Harris, said that the jury could not find Sam guilty of corruption unless they were convinced he was dishonest which he did not anticipate.
“Sam Parker is incapable of dishonesty,” said Attorney Harris.
Harris strikes me as one of those clever country lawyers. He made the rather convincing argument that Parker was a small-town sheriff with a limited budget. Therefore, he had no choice but to improvise to equip his deputies properly and protect them. Harris said the sheriff never took a dime from county taxpayers. Then Harris described his goal to the jury.
“It’s my job to help you put Sam Parker back in the sheriff’s job in Chesterfield County, where he ought to be. This is a man who’s been shot once, stabbed twice, and beaten several times, in the line of duty.”
It’s time for the citizens of Chesterfield County to vote for Sheriff again. The primaries are coming up and although it may be wishful thinking on Big Sam’s part, his name is on the June ballot.
The trial is expected to last into next week. Parker faces five counts of misconduct in office, embezzlement and furnishing contraband to inmates.
* * * * *
How can you not root for this guy? To add to the stew, he bears a strong resemblance to Ernest Borgnine or even Rod Steiger when seen from a certain angle. I don’t have a strong feeling on which way this one is going to go. But as the oracle, Rick Stack, pointed out, even if Big Sam is convicted on some of these counts, he may still get probation. I mean what are they going to do? Lock him up in his own county jail? Of course, if they did, Sam probably wouldn’t suffer that much because his charisma would pull him through.