Wednesday, December 15, 2010

REALLY DAVE STENGEL? PLEASE LEAVE NOW

Dave Stengel needs to go. Seriously. Now. This guy is and has been nothing but a political hack for years. There is not one thing to trust about him nor does he do his job effectively. Period. Needless to say I am not a fan and the Courier Journal just showed once again why.

Check out their story here
Dave Stengel reverses himself, says prosecutor Matt Conway was disciplined courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal.

It seems in the case of Matt Conway, yep Jack Conway's brother, there was much abuse of official duties by the investigative staff with LMPD as well as Dave Stengel's office. Matt was tipped off by police about an investigation going on concerning him and drugs. You can read an earlier story here
Louisville News and Politics: DID AG CONWAY BREAK THE LAW TO AID HIS BROTHER?

Stengel has lied repeatedly about this situation and in my opinion has kept other cases from being heard by a Grand Jury all because of politics. Let's look at this case in more detail.

While Jack Conway was busy playing the "aqua buddha" game with Rand Paul he found time to contact investigators to ask if there was an investigation going on against his brother. In the meantime according to the CJ, Matt Conway failed at least 2 drug tests in March.

Stengel in October states that he cleared Matt Conway in the drug charges yet now we find out that Matt was put on probation for at least a year. So what is Stengel's response when caught in an obvious lie?

Stengel told The Courier-Journal Tuesday that he thought “all internal discipline was confidential. I didn't really realize it was subject to open records. If I blabbed it, then it wouldn't be confidential.”

Stengel also said he did not consider the probationary period he imposed on Conway to be disciplinary action.

This guy is the Commonwealth's attorney? He doesn't even know the basics of open records laws? He doesn't consider a probationary period put in place as a response to drug charges discipline? He doesn't consider that failing at least two drug tests violate that probation?

And why did it take until October to put all this info out? It happened in March.

Insider politics period. Stengel is part of the game and misuses his office accordingly in my opinion.

That is unacceptable to any of us.

To believe that Stengel is that stupid or naive undermines just how connected he is. If he is that dumb he certainly does not ever need to be placed in a position of power like Commonwealth Attorney. If he isn't then he is as crooked as they come. You figure it out.

And don't get me started on Harry Rothgerber his assistant. I spoke with him one time and I must say it wasn't pretty.

But his personnel file includes a memorandum, dated March 18, and written by Stengel's first assistant, Harry Rothgerber specifically titled “disciplinary action.”
Asked about that reference, Stengel said: “Well, yeah, it's called ‘discipline' by Harry, so it's discipline.”


So if Harry says something it must be true? Stengel isn't smart enough to figure that one out since according to Rothgerber “a decision was reached by Mr. Stengel to place Mr. Conway on probation for 12 months. His (Conway's) division chief will not be made aware of this, and I will continue to monitor his progress.”

The personnel file contains the results of two such tests, one of which was conducted on March 12 and revealed the presence of cannabinoids — a compound found in marijuana — in Conway's urine sample.

Stengel said Conway told him he was taking Benadryl, an over-the-counter cold and allergy medication, at the time of the first drug test, and that Conway's physician and others said that could be responsible for the positive result.

Folks this guy prosecutes drug cases!

Would anyone reading this not bother to verify with another source whether this is true or not?

I have talked with 2 physicians today both of whom I have known for years and they deny this would happen. I am told that Benadryl DOES NOT create a false positive for cannabinoids. Who is right and who is wrong is very subjective at this point but it is clear that Stengel did a pathetic job verifying.

Is it any wonder that so many of us are sick of the BS in the legal field.

Stengel himself basically said they didn't verify with this statement. “We believed everything he was saying, but we just wanted verification,” Stengel said.


Yet he never sought independent verification.

It is time for the good ole boy system to be gone. It appears to permeate every aspect of our elected officials including the legal.

I also think it is time to hold those in the court system accountable. Want to clean this up? Start with a mandatory drug test for ALL in the Commonwealth's Attorney's office, County Attorney's office, and All sitting Judges.

Then make them accountable by requiring them to submit to random drug testing like most of the private sector already has to adhere to.

If it is good enough for us, and upheld by the courts at that, that millions of Americans can be forced into this then it should be good enough for those who enforce the rules on each of us.

This is long past due and many of us demand it now!

After all we must start somewhere.

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Ed Springston

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