Felony Charges Dropped for Virginia Republican Who Trashed Voter Registration Forms Last Year
Source: BRAD BLOG
Felony Charges Dropped for Virginia Republican Who Trashed Voter Registration Forms Last Year
Did conflicts of interest by Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and Prosecutor Marsha Garst play a role in dismissal?...
Given the professed concerns about election fraud among Virginia Republicans, it seems somewhat astonishing that the man at the center of the Commonwealth's most notorious fraud scandal last year seems to be getting off the hook after initially being charged with 13 criminal counts including eight felony charges.
Colin Small, a Republican Party Voter Registration Supervisor who secretly tossed filled-out voter registration forms into a dumpster last year, had all of his felony charges dropped by the local Republican Commonwealth Attorney prosecuting the case yesterday.
Small was arrested and charged with 13 counts --- including destruction and disclosure of voter registrations, as well as obstruction of justice --- in Harrisonburg, VA in the run-up to the Presidential election last year, after he was seen by a local shopkeeper throwing away a bag of registration forms behind his store. Small's felony charges were all dropped on Tuesday, according to local Fox-affiliate WHSV.
The case had garnered a great deal of national attention last fall --- almost everywhere but on Fox "News" --- as it emerged at the pinnacle of an embarrassing nationwide GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal which plagued the Republican Party in the weeks just prior to the November general election.
The prosecutor on the Small case is Republican Marsha Garst. Unlike other Commonwealth Attorneys, observed a local Democratic-leaning political muckraker yesterday, Garst failed to recuse herself from the prosecution despite what would appear to be very clear conflicts of interests in the case.
The newly dropped charges appear in stark contrast to Garst's declarations last year, when told the Washington Post on the Friday before the Tuesday Presidential election that the matter was "a very important investigation to the state, and we intend to prosecute Mr. Small to the fullest extent"...
FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9948
Read more: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9948
valerief
(53,235 posts)indepat
(20,899 posts)Blue Owl
(49,913 posts)That "justice for all" is a crock of bullshit in this country.
Baitball Blogger
(46,574 posts)There you go little boy. Next election they'll put you at the head of a consulting firm for the G.O.P.
aggiesal
(8,864 posts)There you go little boy. Next election, don't be so obvious!
Put people in jail or they'll do again, only under better cover.
Botany
(70,291 posts)n/t
elleng
(130,128 posts)P.O.S. cuccinelli.
PLEASE get him out of there, virginians.
Gin
(7,212 posts)He is thin on experience and not too well known......I am not encouraged...and dread the thought of cooch as gov.
elleng
(130,128 posts)and wish I could clearly support a Dem candidate. cooch as gov would be a disaster; HAPPY I'm in MD.
patrice
(47,992 posts)socialindependocrat
(1,372 posts)They tried to prosecute a couple of people here for all sorts of things.
The judge threw out all the important violations and they prosecuted her
on using state employees for campaign purposes.
She owes a lot of legal fees but with something this obvious I would think that
somebody would investigate the situation.
Now, it's all blown over and nobody probably remembers much about it - except me...
Mr Moyer - Keep pumping out those TV specials!!
Someday, the stack of evidence has to be recognized for what it is!
chuckstevens
(1,201 posts)Appalling, yet not surprising. What really makes me angry is that, just like Rove in Ohio in 2004, not punishing the guilty will just embolden these Brown shirt thugs for the next election.
We could always hope that Eric Holder would act. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Like that would EVER happen.
The Wielding Truth
(11,411 posts)Mnpaul
(3,655 posts)although I see nothing about registration problems
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/03/28/executive-order-establishment-presidential-commission-election-administr
freshwest
(53,661 posts)As much as I'd like to snap my fingers and do it, I can't send the GOP and their willing followers off world. No magic, only hard, tedious work.
Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)you feel compelled to THANK this fine public disservant...
Commonwealth Atty:
(insert her name here)
33Court Sq. #210
Harrisonburg, Va 22801
Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)at Republican election headquarters henceforth: PLEASE! Be more discrete when disposing of registration form or ballots! Some DO-GOODER might well be watching.
Dryvinwhileblind
(153 posts)forestpath
(3,102 posts)Festivito
(13,452 posts)Testimony in this case might be very interesting.
dmr
(28,321 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)... and effed up justice is no justice at all. What a convoluted mess. Looks like they would have had to bring charges against themselves if they charged Small.
mahatmakanejeeves
(56,890 posts)KansDem
(28,498 posts)However, it appears Social Security numbers won't attract "dumpster divers."
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)what would Republicans have done to a Democratic operative caught doing the exact same thing?
FuzzyRabbit
(1,958 posts)but it's not OK if you're a Democrat.
tout_le_monde
(23 posts)Justice = Just Us.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)If we don't fight back very hard very soon, there will literally be nothing left
IDemo
(16,926 posts)I think I got the acronym correct..
DFW
(54,051 posts)Just in case he said something on the stand that would transform both of them from advocate to co-defendant.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)no laws left at all for Repukes
wordpix
(18,652 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)Chakab
(1,727 posts)reprehensible officials in the entire country. I can't believe that this wingnut piece of shit is in such an important position in a state like Virginia.
Well, I guess that now this case is done, he'll have more time to appeal the overturn of the State's sodomy law.
Gregorian
(23,867 posts)Sink low. Don't rise above self-interest.