08-21-2009, 05:23 PM
The News-Press story about Sheriff Mike Scott’s friendship with convicted felon **** Spence was fair and accurate.
Scott declined three formal invitations from The News-Press for an audio-recorded face-to-face interview to present his side of the story. We offered to publish a full transcript of such an interview.
Three points in today’s guest opinion by Scott require a response from The News-Press.
First, Scott incorrectly claims we did not report that calls between him and Spence dwindled after he learned of Spence’s record. Sunday’s story reported this and quoted an e-mail from Scott addressing this point.
Second, Scott claims there was no corruption investigation of **** Spence, but, in fact, Spence was under investigation. Among the documents posted on news-press.com is the report by Lee County sheriff’s Sgt. Jeremiah Marcotte of the Special Investigations Division regarding the “Pole Cameras” investigation of Spence.
Third, Scott states correctly that James Muwakkil served on The News-Press Editorial Board as a citizen member, but there is no policy prohibiting convicted felons from serving on the board. On the contrary, the sheriff’s office policy states that its “members shall avoid regular or continuous associations” with convicted felons.
Scott declined three formal invitations from The News-Press for an audio-recorded face-to-face interview to present his side of the story. We offered to publish a full transcript of such an interview.
Three points in today’s guest opinion by Scott require a response from The News-Press.
First, Scott incorrectly claims we did not report that calls between him and Spence dwindled after he learned of Spence’s record. Sunday’s story reported this and quoted an e-mail from Scott addressing this point.
Second, Scott claims there was no corruption investigation of **** Spence, but, in fact, Spence was under investigation. Among the documents posted on news-press.com is the report by Lee County sheriff’s Sgt. Jeremiah Marcotte of the Special Investigations Division regarding the “Pole Cameras” investigation of Spence.
Third, Scott states correctly that James Muwakkil served on The News-Press Editorial Board as a citizen member, but there is no policy prohibiting convicted felons from serving on the board. On the contrary, the sheriff’s office policy states that its “members shall avoid regular or continuous associations” with convicted felons.