This is not politics

We do not believe the charges against Chris Abril are a political conspiracy.

We agree with all of those now lamenting the personal disaster which has befallen a man we have come to know and like. Television and news stories, online comment postings and sidewalk conversations are filled with personal testimonies on behalf of Abril.

However, that this could be a political conspiracy emanating from the office of Abril’s political opponent, Sheriff David Satterfield, as some suggest, stretches credulity.

It is certainly true that there are political manipulators hanging around every courthouse who are perfectly willing to employ slander as a political tool.

That such manipulators might gain access to the power of police authority is the stuff of nightmares and intimidation. If our entire legal system is corrupt enough to turn on a good man just to defeat a local candidacy, to bring false witness against him, then we are all in trouble.

What is happening to Chris Abril involves our state legal system from the top down. Accusers apparently came forward in March. The State Bureau of Investigation investigated and presented a report to the State Attorney General’s Special Prosecutions Division, which took the case to a panel of Polk County citizens, a grand jury. We trust that our fellow citizens, grand jurors, have done their best to be honest and fair to all involved, with full knowledge of their responsibilities to Abril and to his accusers.

We must all remember that the grand jury has determined only that the SBI’s evidence is strong enough that the state should be allowed to proceed to present its case. Polk County citizens will determine guilt or innocence.

Until that day, while the legal system works, we offer up our hopes and wishes for all involved. Innocent, or guilty, we simply wish healing and redemption for Abril and for any who may have been harmed 20 years ago. — JB