Incestous relationships bring trouble to legal system

Recent News Herald reports of sweet deals at the State Attorney's Office in Steve Meadows' waning days give the appearance of incestuous relationships where the participants long ago quit worrying about what others might think.

The cases of Arthur Cullen and Ryder Laramore are troubling not because the law appears to have tilted in favor of influential people - that also has happened since biblical times - but because the participants seem to care so little about everyone knowing.

Biblical incest, while not rare in the Old Testament, was for the most part discreet and had some purpose, like the time Lot's daughter got him drunk in a cave so they could seduce him to repopulate what they thought was a barren world.

The handling of cases involving Cullen and Laramore - a former Republican Party chairman/Charlie Hilton employee and son of the chief public defender, respectively - is akin to Lot's daughters having sex with him in the town square for the sheer joy of it.

Laramore, 44, was a probation officer when he was pulled over Sept. 24 after several people reported a vehicle driving erratically. He was charged with DUI, possession of methamphetamine and misdemeanor possession of marijuana.

Laramore, the son of Public Defender Herman Laramore, was arrested prior to Meadows' loss to Glenn Hess in the November general election.

Two top prosecutors not offered jobs by Hess were hired by Laramore to work at the Public Defender's Office.

Two weeks before leaving office, Meadows dropped the felony charge against the Public Defender's son and it all disappeared in a relatively brief pre-trial intervention program.

Herman Laramore said politics were not a factor.

Meadows said the order spoke for itself, but added, "What the press has done, the pressure and pain they've exerted on Mr. Laramore, has been more punishment than the State of Florida could ever do."

Many would argue the only person who brought pain or pressure on Laramore was Laramore himself. It certainly is a unique legal argument, exchanging public embarrassment for judicial punishment.

And perhaps that was in play with Cullen's case, which is even more troubling.

Cullen was arrested Aug. 27 and charged with DUI (his second such charge in four years), driving with a suspended or revoked driver's license (his fifth such charge in nine years), resisting arrest without violence and felony fleeing and attempting to elude.

His attorney said there was some question whether Cullen was fleeing. Look at the Panama City Police Department in-car video at www.newsherald.com and decide for yourself.

Either way, the case was a hot potato as Cullen was chairman of Bay County's Republican Party at the time.

It was not Cullen's first time at the dance, either. Four years earlier Panama City police worked a wreck in which Cullen drove a truck - owned by Bay County Commissioner Jerry Girvin - into a ditch at 2 a.m. He registered .15 on a Breathalyzer test, nearly twice the legal limit. He was also charged with driving on a suspended license for the third time in his life.

The DUI was reduced to reckless driving.

In 2004, Cullen was again charged with knowingly driving on a suspended license, his fourth such offense. While many people are treated as felons with the third such arrest, Cullen was fined.

With his 2006 arrest, the tally went something like this: Felony fleeing and attempting to elude, two DUIs, five driving with a suspended or revoked driver's license and resisting an officer without violence over a nine-year period.

Panama City police made it known they wanted the case pursued.

While Cullen resigned his chairmanship, he found employment with Charlie Hilton. Meadows, who profited greatly from Hilton contributions to both his election campaigns, landed a new office as a private attorney. He moved into the one occupied, up to that point, by Lee Sullivan and Bay Tax Watch, an organization Hilton helped create.

The building is owned by a corporation, NORSCO HOLDINGS INC., that lists as its director a man who, along with Hilton and others, contributed mightily to fund a 527 attack ad campaign against Hess in the most-recent election.

We know that last month, the state attorney helped out a couple of people he deemed deserving of it. One was the son of the man hiring two of his key people who were not rehired by Hess.

The other works for the man who contributed heavily to both of his campaigns and was the chairman of the political party to which he switched less than a year ago.

Both deals were sweet enough that one prosecutor refused to sign and the other noted it was being done on Meadows' behalf.

They were sweet enough that our on line commenters at newsherald.com basically went berserk.

"Mr. Hilton employs several purchased people, ex-commissioners and such," one reader noted. "It's kind of like a good old boy witness protection program."

And, as so frequently noted in this space, therein lies the problem. It doesn't much matter who was involved in what, whether the cases were handled lightly because of favoritism or because Meadows had a good day.

The public can't see past this: We had a state attorney who would put a surveillance camera on an enemy's fence line to try and catch her tampering with it, a civil matter at best, but is apparently unable to prosecute those connected to his friends.

He justified the infamous camera on Sister Milligan's office, saying it was a reported crime and he had a duty to pursue it, but did not much pursue two people police say they caught committing felonies and endangering others.

It's not always fair, but perception does become reality. And in cases like these it seems impossible to separate the two.