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February 21, 2008
I shot craps with the sheriff, but I didn't remember the deputy
A couple of local officials are running away from former Sheriff Billy Long so fast, they're not even making sense.
Chief Deputy, and acting head of the department, Allen Branum, who really does sound like a nice guy by all reports, now admits that he went on a gambling trip to Tunica, MS and that Billy Long was on the same outing.
Branum must be such a nice guy that you'd forget he was in the car with you for twelve hours (round trip) — quite a feat, if you ask me. But that's exactly what Sessions Judge Ron Durby says: he doesn't remember who else was in the car when he and Billy Long went to Tunica. I think I would remember.
Back to Chief Branum, though: sure, he went gambling, but he "didn't like it." Fair enough. I did a little bit of playing in Vegas when the wife and I got hitched out there, and it quickly loses its appeal when one doesn't start with very much money (uh, I'm talking about the gambling, not the marriage, just to be perfectly clear). The rapidity with which one's hard-earned cash disappears into the slot machines or the tables can make one feel a little queasy. But it wasn't all bad.
Even more awkward is the man's attempt to make it sound like it was some kind of youthful indiscretion, when the fun was all really had inside a year ago, by all reports.
Who cares if some people went and played games of chance where it is legal so to do (as it should be everywhere, if you ask me)? That is not what Billy Long is accused of doing. He just might have had a little more in his pocket, thanks to his alleged side businesses.
If these other officials had no knowledge of, nor involvement with, the criminal behavior with which Long has been charged, then they have no reason to stammer such pitiful-sounding defenses of accompanying him on innocent trips to Tunica.
Government | By joe lance | 04:46 PM