Fund for Jeff Eddie's Victims?

Highland Park Baptist Church has established a fund for victims of their former youth minister Jeff Eddie. The fund is to cover counseling for not only Eddie's actual victims, but also family of the victims. The location of these accounts was made public in a TimesDaily article. In other words, you the readers now know how to donate.

Perhaps the important question is should you donate? We firmly believe any individual has the right to donate to any legal entity they choose. Do you give to the United Way to help those in need locally or do you give to Deep Fat to help the Minnesota orphans? Tough decision sometimes.

We're not going to tell any readers whether they should donate or not. We do have reservations about this church even suggesting a donation. What if Muscle Shoals Utilities had an employee who sexually abused young people while on the payroll? Should the city utility ask for donations to help with counseling of their employee's targets?

Is Shoalanda personally going to give any funds to this cause? No. Whether any readers do or not is up to them.



Shoalanda

Jeff Eddie: Billy Underwood's Statement

This a transcript of Billy Underwood's remarks on the sentence accepted by sexual predator/preacher Jeff Eddie:


My client, his extremely wonderful and caring mother and father, plus his compassionate sisters wish to express their sincere sorrow and condolences to the victims and their families about this horrendous situation. They know that there is nothing they can say to make the situation go away, but their hearts are heavy with sorrow.

It would have been an hypocrisy to violate these victims again by putting them through a 12-person jury trial with the public media following each step of the proceedings. This plea gives plausible deniability for any victim to say that they were not part of this sordid episode. There will be no trial where a victim has to face a jury and the public. I would like to thank the District Attorney, Bryce Graham, and Assistant District Attorney Kyle Brown, for the way they handled this matter.

I especially acknowledge Detective Captain Craig Rickman, Detective Captain Sig Mueller of the Muscle Shoals Police Department, and ABI Lieutenant Brian Faulkner, for their thorough, rapidity of action, and professionalism in how they brought this case to a quick end within 36 hours of Eddie’s detainment with them. This has been a textbook example of how one of these cases should be investigated and it should be duplicated by other agencies and State authorities in handling situations such as this. Their attention to the most minute details caused me to do something I have never done in my 30+ years of practicing law. With my client’s approval, I made transparent my file to the investigators which caused us to settle this case.

To the public who wonders why there was such a rush to justice in this case, I would say the evidence was a Titanic iceberg. The public has seen only the surface of what the charges could be and were unable to know the true depth of this case. This case may have created a Sandusky-like scandalous atmosphere if we had allowed it to go to Grand Jury and carry on for one to two years of public scrutiny and media coverage daily on the matter while trial awaited. This is a small, close-knit community. The damage to the victims would be frequent and almost daily. There was never any reason to cause a continual black eye for the Shoals area that could interfere with recruitment of industry and the well-being of our citizens.

My job was to make sure Jeff Eddie did not receive a death sentence in prison. He will end his last 10-15 years of life outside of a prison. This is all that could be hoped for in a situation such as this. I would like to quote Winston Churchill in regards to this case. His statement goes something like this.

“This is not the end. This is not the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning.”

While the criminal case should be left behind us, there will be some families who lawyer up and file civil lawsuits that will probably be under the radar of the local news media in their quest for satisfaction in this case. Again, I only wish the victims the best and they do have plausible deniability.



Shoalanda

Synthetic Drugs? Tell Us About It!

We've recently received several tips concerning the sale of synthetic drugs under various names. Some of this information comes from sources we don't know and have no idea of their veracity. Others come from those we trust.

Accusing someone or some business of selling these illegal drugs is serious business. If you have proof of such sales, it's always good to report it to the correct authorities. If you have proof, but have doubts about police, you can feel free to contact us.

We can't promise that we can stop this, but we can promise to send your messages, photos, etc. to the correct entities. If you do have pics, we can publish some of them in an anonymous setting.

Above all, kudos to those who care about our society and our youth.

*****

For those who say synthetic marijuana isn't dangerous, you just haven't been keeping up with the news, have you?



Shoalanda

Is Ed Henry a Murderer? Is Ed Henry Even Sane?

This blog is not about abortion, per se. It is about an elected official who seems just a little mixed up. Two years ago, Ed Henry from Hartselle called himself a murderer because he helped a former girlfriend obtain an abortion. He stated at the time that he was morally wrong and regretted his actions.

Whether anyone thinks what Republican Rep. Ed Henry did was morally right or wrong, isn't Ed just a little mixed up here? At the time of Henry's confession of murder two years ago, some asked why the good lawmaker didn't attempt to turn himself in for his crimes.

Good question, but we feel ours is even better. At the time of his declaration of murder, Henry said he cautioned his own children not to commit the sin of abortion as he had done. Wouldn't it just have been simpler for Henry to have cautioned his children, and everyone else's, not to engage in sex outside of marriage to begin with? No sex means no pregnancy, and no pregnancy means no abortion. Simple, isn't it? Or does Henry consider this something less of a sin?

Somehow our perception of Republicans had always included just a hint of better education than the Dems; that rapidly changed when the Republicans came to power in Alabama.

*****

During the current session, our state House of Representatives has passed not one, not two, not three, but four bills that restrict abortion in some manner. Just a thought here, but couldn't these politicians have gotten together and combined much of this legislation for simplicity? Or is their game plan simply to wear down the opposition with numbers?



Shoalanda

UNA Does Report Sex Crimes...

There's been much discussion recently about an alleged rape in South Alabama that wasn't reported in a timely fashion. Could that happen at a certain college in Northwest Alabama? We doubt it. The University of North Alabama does an excellent job of reporting crimes...up to a point.

A recent alleged rape that occurred off campus, but resulted in the victim being thrown from a vehicle on UNA property, was not commented on again after the initial report. We were assured that neither of the two individuals involved was a UNA student, but beyond that, readers were allowed to fill in the blanks on their own.

If a new campus crime reporting bill is passed, let's hope there's enough teeth in it to prevent any cover ups, no matter how small.



Shoalanda

No One Immune to Scams

Scams may be like a terrorist attack or police raid; the secret is in surprise. Someone calls to say your grandson is in jail, and you don't think rationally for a few seconds...or minutes...or maybe even hours. By the time you begin to say "wait a minute," your money is already in Nigeria or Frog Pond or wherever.

It seems someone is attempting to pull a scam on one of the editors at Pen N Sword, a retired detective no less. Ah, the game is afoot:

Cashier's Check Scam

What's really surprising about this? Neither the U.S. Postal Service nor the Muscle Shoals Police is willing to pursue the would-be scammer(s) legally. Since many of these con artists reside half way around the world, the local authorities may just realize how futile most cases are to investigate, much less prosecute.

*****

Congratulations to Adruitha Lee on her Oscar win. Anyone out there remember when she used to cruise around Florence with the vanity tag "EEE-EX?" Living well is indeed the best revenge.



Shoalanda

Seth Lewey: Another Olivis Victim?

It was a small Shoals company, publicly traded, and very successful. The company had a total of two CEOs in its 40 years of life, and a third long-time employee was set to become the company's newest leader. The problem?

Stockholders were happy that the company was very successful, but they believed in the then current economic climate the business was set to become a shooting star of success in its field. The stockholders met, and at the end of the day a new president had come out of nowhere. The new leader quickly fired many employees and brought in his own team. Many locals were upset. What could they do?

The answer is "nothing." It was a publicly owned company and the stockholders had spoken. What if it's a government entity? What can the taxpayers do? We say, "a lot," and it may now be time for the citizens and taxpayers of Colbert County to speak out.

We know that Robert Montgomery, principal of Colbert Heights Elementary, is not the only long-time education employee to meet the wrath of current superintendent Anthony Olivis. A short six weeks after Olivis took office in January of last year, Seth Lewey turned in his notice ostensibly due to health reasons.

Lewey had been principal of Hatton Elementary School and a supporter of Robert Montgomery in the 2012 superintendent's race. Did he really have health problems? If he did, they cleared up as soon as he resigned from Hatton; he now teaches third and fifth grades at Colbert Heights. Perhaps in an area where teachers are as numerous as mosquitoes in the dog days of summer, Mr. Lewey took what he could get?

Olivis' second would-be victim? We know the name, but have been unable to get a statement from the educator. Often, parties in legal suits agree to a gag order, and this may be the case with the principal from western Colbert County.

Robert "Tuc" Montgomery has now become Tony Olivis' third victim in assembling his team of rural educators, all of whom will publicly support Olivis in the next superintendent's race. Let's hope Mr. Montgomery, his attorney Tim Case, and the citizens of Colbert County will draw a line in the proverbial sand of good ol' boyism...

*****

It would seem some in the Colbert Heights area are rumor-mongering. Let's clear up any reports that there is money missing from the school. From Pen-N-Sword:

No Criminal Charges

Shoalanda