We're Nick-less

Okay. Nick has a few days off, so I'll get a quick post up for y'all. It seems like there have been a lot of comments about the Sheriff and the possible deputy lay-offs. All I'm going to say is that Calhoun County is better off than some. For those of us who live in Randolph, Cleburne or Clay counties there are even fewer deputies patrolling the roads.

The two biggest things since the last post both come from Randolph County, where the Roanoke mayor entered a plea yesterday on ethics charges and a former pastor pleaded guilty to rape and sodomy charges. Almost a (scary) side note was the entire emergency radio system crashing Thursday morning.

The Roanoke mayor was indicted on 26 counts (11+ felonies) in January, but after the agreement he was convicted of only two misdemeanors. His lawyer said that if you read between the lines that means the state's case wasn't as strong as prosecutors initially thought. That's lawyer speak, but I was surprised to see the charges reduced that much.

The AG's office of course said the penalty set an example. Bonner had to pay about $3,500 back to the city for the profits is alleged to have made off of the fuel sales. Bottom line-- if you're a mayor and you want to rip off your city you can get a lot more than that.

As far as the pastor story, it's the conclusion to a case we reported here last June. Sad stuff.

Aside from that, the APD has come out and called the man responsible for several rapes in Anniston a "sexual predator," an Anniston police officer is accused of killing a dog, a judge sentences a Talladega County man to death and Riverside continues to search for a police chief.

Nick will be back Monday.