Words mean something
I haven't really weighed in much on Charlie Grapski's situation, other than to try to keep people updated with any new information I had, about Charlie's incarceration, his current needs, and how people can help. But I've been reading the comments as member of this community have reported on their efforts on Charlie's behalf, including the correspondance between listener and State Attorney Bill Cervone. While listener has been, as always, gracious in the tone of her letters, the tone of Mr. Cervone's responses has been somewhat unsettling.
In his most recent response, we were troubled by these words:
We are not aware of Charlie having been convicted of any criminal acts in the past year--if he has been, I'm sure his detractors will quickly set the record straight--so why the use of the word "criminal"? One would think that a States Attorney would choose words carefully. The use of the words "criminal problems" would seem to belie the claim of having no personal feelings concerning this situation.
Please understand that I have no personal feelings one way or the other concerning this situation. I do not, however, live in a vacuum and have had to deal with Mr. Grapski and his various criminal problems a great deal over the last year.
I am not an attorney, nor am I a reporter, but my recollection of the past couple years is that Charlie has been the one filing charges at least as often as he has been charged with something. Again--just my impressions without going to the labor of constructing a timeline of the events. I do know, from my contact with Charlie over the past few years, that he is a strong proponent of government of, by, and for the people, and that, in his estimation, Alachua County has fallen short in that regard.
If it is your job to safeguard justice, then, well, that is your job. And I'm pretty sure the way it is *supposed* to work, is that you even defend the rights of those you might personally find annoying. Something about "equal treatment under the law", I think...
In any event, I hope we can see better evidence of impartiality as this moves forward.
Update: I just remembered when the charges against Charlie were dismissed last November, and jc created this:
Haloscan comment thread
Charlie Grapski has been taken to a hospital. http://www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2007/08/21/breaking_news/break01.txt#blogcomments
ReplyDeletePlease call the jail and let them know our concerns.
Acting Major Charles Lee
Interim Director
(352) 491-4460
clee@alachuasheriff.org
Conflicts of Interest
ReplyDeleteBefore becoming State Attorney, Bill Cervone worked as an assistant state attorney for 10 years under Rod Smith, who is deeply involved with the Alachua Cabal that is persecuting Grapski. Rod Smith was CLovis Watson's personal attorney in 2002 and drafted the original dual office holding language for his interim city manager contract. Smith returned to the scene of the crime in June 2007, this time retained by the City of Alachua to defend against the lawsuit filed by Charlie Grapski and Michael Canney.
In a truly bizarre move, Rod Smith presented a new contract for Watson to the Alachua City Commission on June 18th that included the illegal language about Watson retaining his "Special Risk" police retirement. Despite warning and pleas from Grapski and Canney not to approve this contract, the commission did so. An amended complaint was filed in Circuit Court the next week by Grapski and Canney, and documentation was sent to the Florida Retirement Service to prove that Watson was being falsely reported to FRS as a police officer.
The state agency immediately corrected that situation and reassigned Watson to Senior Management class (which is compulsory for city managers in Florida), retroactive to 2002, and refunded the City $54,000 in overpayments.
This change saved taxpayers over $1,000,000 in undeserved benefits that would have been paid to Clovis Watson during the course of his retirement. Watson and his City Hall cronies went ballistic, and the word was out on the street that Clovis wanted Grapski dead.
A couple weeks later, Charlie was jumped by Jernigan's goon squad at APD and then jumped again in the jail. Payback for taking away Watson's five free years of a fat pension (Special Risk retirees can retire in 25 years, but city managers need 30).
They want to teach Charlie a lesson, but so far they are batting ZERO in criminal convictions against him. This time he has six felonies against him, and any one of them could get him several years in state prison. Charlie needs our support now more than ever.