Several weeks ago, Augusta District Attorney Jared Williams called one Sunday morning, and boy, did he have a bee in his bonnet.
Williams had read an op-ed piece published by The Augusta Press which was penned by conservative commentator C. J. Pearson, and what Williams read made him furious.
In his op-ed piece, Pearson pointed out the problems of Williams’ law suit challenging Senate Bill 92, which creates the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission and works as a stop-gap measure to ensure sure prosecutors are actually doing their jobs.
Williams hotly demanded that I, as editorial page editor, remove Pearson’s column and issue a retraction. However, Williams could not identify any blatant falsehoods in the op-ed piece. He just did not like being criticized openly in the press.
My response to Williams was that the pope, the president of the United States and Batman could call for the removal of material approved for publication, and the Editorial Board would tell them all no if the piece was deemed to be truthful.
That is simply not the way a community newspaper works. Everyone in the community can chime in, and the only reason The Augusta Press would turn down an otherwise acceptable op-ed would be if the writer made a claim like space aliens had kidnapped the mayor from the steps of the Municipal Building and had no picture or other evidence to prove it.
I offered Williams the opportunity to write a rebuttal, and he declined.
Williams knows that he faces stiff competition in the next election, but rather than prove that he can be a successful prosecutor in court, he is doubling-down on his “keep kids in the classroom and out of the courtroom” branding campaign.
At a press conference on Oct. 11, he promised even more programs to teach kids whose parents are in jail basic life skills in an attempt to help them avoid the same fate as their parents.
“How to tie a tie, how to speak in an interview, financial literacy. The idea is not just to rack up convictions, but to actually change lives,” Williams said.
That is not your job, Mr. Williams.
A prosecutor’s job is to prosecute criminals, not take a tour of elementary schools teaching boys how to tie a tie or balance a checkbook.
Incredibly, during the press conference, Williams mentioned a recent visit to a pre-school class, and he caught a bit of a bug.
Perhaps Mayor Garnett Johnson should have invited Williams on the recent tour of the county jail so Williams could see, up close and personal, the people he is responsible for sending to prison. Those folks will give you more than a head cold.
Any reasonable person can take one look at many of the people being held in the detention center and determine that this is a group of people who cannot be reformed. The neck and face tattoos are a constant reminder that these people have “X-ed” themselves out of society and have no intention of following the law.
The rap sheets of many of the people being held at the jail are longer than a CVS receipt, if that is possible.
One of the reasons the Charles Webster Detention Center remains so overcrowded is because the District Attorney’s Office is not moving cases along.
All one has to do is look at the court calendars and see where assistant district attorneys continue to delay cases for no good reason, and some of the judges allow them to keep kicking the can down the road.
Every time Williams releases a scripted video complete with fake tears and holds press conferences proclaiming himself as Augusta’s surrogate dad for children with wayward children, he proves yet again that he is nowhere near up to the task for which he was hired.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
