After all the recent news on corruption taking place in various law enforcement agencies, someone actually thinks its OK... Why has no local (Sun or Herald) made mention of this news story?
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Ex-city marshal hopes to return (with DOCUMENT)
Comments 16 | Recommend 3
Ray Burgess, who left office in 2005, is 1 of 3 candidates in April 14 election
March 15, 2009 - 10:03 PM
Andrew Gant
Daily News
DeFUNIAK SPRINGS - Ray "Buddy" Burgess, a former city marshal who retired under ethics complaints and criminal charges for falsifying documents, is trying to reclaim the office that has been vacant since Mike Adkinson became Walton County sheriff in January.
If he wins the April 14 marshal's election, Burgess would return to law enforcement more than three years after he lost his police certification, paid thousands of dollars in fines and faced censure and reprimand from the state Commission on Ethics.
"People are going to make their choices," he said Saturday. "Most people know me ... The circumstances, they're not just plain black and white."
Burgess faces two opponents: Police Capt. Mark A. Weeks, the acting supervisor at the DeFuniak Springs Police Department, and Walton County Sheriff's Deputy Jimmy Macon, who ran for sheriff last year.
Burgess pleaded no contest in 2005 to charges that, as city marshal, he falsified documents to help a Walton sheriff's deputy avoid re-certification testing. One of Burgess' employees quit under pressure to help him.
He retired after the first-degree misdemeanor plea. Gov. Charlie Crist last year ordered Burgess to pay $3,500 in civil penalties.
The ethics commission also found probable cause to believe Burgess enlisted a police officer to report fraudulent overtime hours so the officer could receive more pay and kick back the money to Burgess.
Burgess still denies those allegations. They were dropped from his civil punishment, according to ethics commission spokeswoman Kerrie Stillman.
On Saturday, Burgess said he invites residents to call him if they have questions about his past.
"I'll give them my side of the story and they can make their own conclusions," he said, adding that he's taken responsibility for the falsifications "to help a fellow law officer."
Weeks and Macon did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
Replies
54
SWGB
Answer, Nope I'm not. My info is verified. Be nice to the outsider who "ain't from around here". They bring money and gainful employment, during these trying times, to locals would be sitting around whittling a stick, and have no food on the table for their kids. I see the same thing here in my hometown. Where the established families who have lived their all their lives are way to insulated to see the forest for the pines. And...most importantly....GO Gators!!!!!!!!
Please don't come down now or in October. We'll just be whittling and starving. :roll:
Beach Fanatic
All this incessant inuendo and chatter about old news has to stop sometime. We have plenty of current issues to discuss without dregging up old junk. If Mr. Chapman had violated the law, he would have been charged. End of story.
Beach Crab
The point is Police Corruption. Something you know about first hand. I am from another part of Florida, with similiar problems. I have also lived and worked in other parts of the world. I have seen enough corruption and patronage it makes me sick. Nothing gets done, criminals profits and the community suffers. I visit your community often. It disappoints me to see these things happen in a wonderful part of our Great State of Florida. I have grown up all my life watching the "Dixie Mafia" suck the life out of good decent law abiding, hard working citizens. That's what this is about, Corruption and Good Ole Boys mistreating their community for personal gain. So yes I can go there. And I will.
Lol, Sounds like you have a "vested intrest" in your local law enforcement, and don't even want to see the forest! Believe me when I tell you my sources are verified, and if you choose not to, do some checking of your own. It don't take long to weed out the good from the bad once you start diggin'.
In your opinion then, since the election for town mashal was held a couple weeks ago, nothing more should be said about Bill Chapman and the role he played in the disruption of the police dept., and who just happens to be the #2 man in sheriff's office? Your philosophy is that it's time to just "look the other way and let the corruption continue", is it? That may just work for you since you have your "vested interest", but what about the other residents that live and work in the county that don't? I can see from other threads on this message board that there are people interested in just about any other subject posted about, but not to many (1) you, that cares about what is going on in their top law enforcement agency!!
And besides,,,,,,GO GATORS Ya'll
Lol, Sounds like you have a "vested intrest" in your local law enforcement, and don't even want to see the forest! Believe me when I tell you my sources are verified, and if you choose not to, do some checking of your own. It don't take long to weed out the good from the bad once you start diggin'.
In your opinion then, since the election for town mashal was held a couple weeks ago, nothing more should be said about Bill Chapman and the role he played in the disruption of the police dept., and who just happens to be the #2 man in sheriff's office? Your philosophy is that it's time to just "look the other way and let the corruption continue", is it? That may just work for you since you have your "vested interest", but what about the other residents that live and work in the county that don't? I can see from other threads on this message board that there are people interested in just about any other subject posted about, but not to many (1) you, that cares about what is going on in their top law enforcement agency!!
And besides,,,,,,GO GATORS Ya'll
Oh good, one of my favorite things. There's one in every bunch.
Folks who have followed this saga closely know the fact from the fiction. Further, "verified" (by what, hearsay?) information is not nearly as reliable as actually having watched, thankfully from a distance, this thing unfold.
I don't really understand what the point of your post was, being as the city election happened last week and is over, other than to further someone's personal agenda against Bill Chapman.
Finally, and this is my last comment on the subject: I work closely and excellently with our visitors and with the folks who enable our tourists to visit this beautiful area we call home. People who know me, and even people who only know me from this board, know that it's not easy to rile me up. However, there is one surefire way to get my attention, and that is to bash our local law enforcement. You don't want to go there with me.
Beach Fanatic
The point is Police Corruption. Something you know about first hand. I am from another part of Florida, with similiar problems. I have also lived and worked in other parts of the world. I have seen enough corruption and patronage it makes me sick. Nothing gets done, criminals profits and the community suffers. I visit your community often. It disappoints me to see these things happen in a wonderful part of our Great State of Florida. I have grown up all my life watching the "Dixie Mafia" suck the life out of good decent law abiding, hard working citizens. That's what this is about, Corruption and Good Ole Boys mistreating their community for personal gain. So yes I can go there. And I will.
Lol, Sounds like you have a "vested intrest" in your local law enforcement, and don't even want to see the forest! Believe me when I tell you my sources are verified, and if you choose not to, do some checking of your own. It don't take long to weed out the good from the bad once you start diggin'.
In your opinion then, since the election for town mashal was held a couple weeks ago, nothing more should be said about Bill Chapman and the role he played in the disruption of the police dept., and who just happens to be the #2 man in sheriff's office? Your philosophy is that it's time to just "look the other way and let the corruption continue", is it? That may just work for you since you have your "vested interest", but what about the other residents that live and work in the county that don't? I can see from other threads on this message board that there are people interested in just about any other subject posted about, but not to many (1) you, that cares about what is going on in their top law enforcement agency!!
And besides,,,,,,GO GATORS Ya'll
Buddy, you have issues. If your "sources" possessed the information you claim, then they should have produced it when it would have mattered. Since they did not, they are either A) bad citizens, or B) have a vivid imagination. (I am being nice there)
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