Abuse of power — 01/02/09

July 01, 2009 04:36 pm

— Elliott County Jailer Charles F. Howard — who should immediately resign from his elected office — is now a convicted rapist.
In addition to abusing the authority given to him by the voters of Elliott County, Howard is guilty of betraying the trust the voters placed in him. Even if the sex with the female prisoner was consensual, as Howard claims it was, it represents a blatant abuse of his power. In neighboring Ohio and a number of other states that alone would be a crime.
Howard should never have agreed to transport a female prisoner alone. Indeed, it went against the the standard procedure in Elliott County. However, Howard’s wife, who normally accompanied him when transporting female prisoners, was not available, and from the evidence presented at the trail, Howard took advantage of her absence.
As the elected jailer in a county without a jail, Howard’s only duties were to transport those arrested in Elliott County to lockups in another county.
Howard’s attorney, Michael Curtis, said the verdict would be appealed, saying he believed the jury had punished his client because of his status as an elected official. That’s his perogative, of course, but from our vantage point, justice was served in this case. There were enough holes in Howard’s version of the events of that day to convince the jury that he — and not the victim — was lying.