Thursday, 8 February 2007
Impeach Stumbo????
Courtesy of hillbillyreport.com, I received a report about a woman,Amy Mischler, who has filed a petition with the state legislature to impeach Greg Stumbo for his failure to investigate corruption in Pike and Floyd counties.
It appears that Amy Mischler had a problem with the Attorney General of Pike County. After divorcing her husband she went to the AG to prosecute her dead beat husband to pay child support and health insurance for her two sons. The only problem was the ex-husband was a personal friend of the AG. After eleven months of inaction, Amy decided to protest the AG's office.
For protesting, she was served with an emergency protection order. She was arrested and convicted for domestic violence because she violated the EPO because she used her first amendment rights.
So she filed a complaint with the State Attorney Generals office. Stumbo's office responded with a letter stating that their office "had no intention or jurisdiction to interject" itself into the case. Well it turns out that both the Pike County AG and her ex-husband were both contributors to Stumbo. And in fact Stumbo's office sent a letter of re-assurance to the Pike County Attorney that his office was ready to assist the Pike County AG with the complaint.
A few days later she was issued a felony arrest warrant which wasn't served until her custody hearing the following month.
It turns out that Stumbo's offices "no jurisdiction" comment was false. In fact the Commonwealth's Administrative Office of Courts advises people to file complaints against prosecutors with the AG's office. The fact that the AG's office refuses to perform its duty, they are in direct violation of the constitution. For they have violated Amy's constitutional right to file grievances against government.
While this appears to only be one side of a story, it does seem plausible when you take into account the long history of corruption in Kentucky politics. While, I am not sure that this is an "impeachable" offense, it does appear that the AG's office is more political than they have positioned themselves. If these allegations have any truth at all, then Stumbo's office has engaged in political favoritism for his donors while in office. But that doesn't surprise me. It fits right in line with the type of ethics that Stumbo likes to practice.
The allegations are serious and should be investigated by the state's legislature. I wish Amy well in her quest for a fair hearing.
