Birmingham Mayor Arrested: Langford Joins Jailed Mayors' Club
It's a rather skewed clubhouse -- for the Jailed Mayors' Club. No, no, it's not a very exclusive group because there are so many crooked mayors out there. The membership requirements are that a mayor must commit -- and get caught committing --more than one felony crime. It is my belief that there are a whole lot more criminal mayors who don't get caught or charged with a crime. After all, mayors are in a position of power, often with supervising control over police departments particularly in smaller municipalities.
Oh yes, a number of the jailed mayors are either ordained clergyman themselves, church deacons. or among the serious church faithfuls. Seems that a lot of criminal mayors are tight with religion, especially fundamental churches. You decide what that means. It seems to be a fact.
Most jailed mayors have numerous indictments against them, from misappropriation of public funds and money laundering to felony enticement of a child and dog-napping. It was the news headlines yesterday telling of the club's newest member that provoked this article.
PRAYED IN SACKCLOTH AND ASHES
Birmingham, Alabama's Mayor Larry Langford was arrested yesterday morning by federal agents and charged in an 101-count indictment for crimes leading his county and city to the brink of bankruptcy. And to think that just last Spring the mayor declared an "It's Time to Pray Day," and sponsored a worship service because he was so dismayed by the crime facing the city.(He knew something his constituency did not!) It was time to turn to prayer he told the city council. Not just any kind of prayer though. He wanted prayers of repentance by citizens dressed in sackcloth and ashes-- literally. Langford must have really felt guilty. He reportedly ordered some 2,000 sackcloths for the occasion. "The city needs to humble itself," he said, as reported by the Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Sometimes the hypocrisy is as distressing, if not more, than the crimes themselves. Aw, shucks, Mayor Langford (above right) reads Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," the book Birmingham citizens read together. Wonder what Boo Radley, Atticus, Jem and Scout would think of the mayor? Not much, I imagine. After all, one of the book's themes is the importance of moral education.
I really don't want to go into the details of Langford's crimes. The rest of the media is doing that, repeating over and over again the same words. But I do think it's worth the time to talk about the epidemic of mayoral crime. I really mean elected officials in general. It is shocking just how many mayors -- who are closer and better known to their constituents than state and national representatives -- are criminals!
CAUGHT IN A COCAINE STING OPERATION -- REMEMBER?
We're all familiar with the big headlines. There was Marion Barry (left), mayor of Washington, D.C. arrested with his former girlfriend, Hazel "Rasheeda" Moore, in a 1990 sting operation at the Vista Hotel by the FBI and D.C. Police for crack cocaine use. Charged with three felony counts of perjury, 10 counts of drug possession and conspiracyto possess cocaine, Barry was convicted on only one charge and a mistrial was declared on the 12 remaining charges. Hmmm, even with film!
DETROIT'S MAYOR OF OBSTRUCTION
Ancient history? Yes, but how about Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick? This September Kilpatrick (right) plead guilty to two felony accounts of obstructing justice by committing perjury, impeding and obstructing justice. He will only spend four months in jail, pay up to $1 million in restitution and cannot run for office during the five years he will be on probation. He also has to turn over his state pension to the City of Detroit.
I know these examples are mayors of three big cities and everyone knows that corruption is rampant in the large municipalities. Surely it's different in the thousands of small cities and towns across the country. In the mainstream -- that's where people know their mayors personally.
To test this theory, Ethic Soup searched the news clips of arrested mayors in the last 11 months of 2008. I'm sorry. It is depressing. But when seen as a group together, you get a different picture than when the big stories invade the news briefly and focusing on just one mayor. The following roundup is merely a brief sampling of what we found:
MAYOR STOLE FROM DISADVANTAGED KIDS
- FAIRBANKS, ALASKA -- Former Fairbanks Mayor James C. Hayes was found guilty of 16 counts of Conspiracy, Theft from a Program Receiving Federal Funds, Money Laundering and Filing False Tax Returns. Hayes and his wife, Murilda "Chris" Hayes illegally diverted government funds
awarded to a Fairbanks charitable youth organization to aid disadvantaged kids. The mayor diverted these funds for personal use and to pay for the construction and furnishing of a Fairbanks church. Yes, they were religious folks! The indictment further charged the couple committed numerous acts of money laundering to conceal the source of the diverted funds, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney, District of Alaska.
MAYOR ARRESTED FOR DUI -- FOR FOURTH TIME
- TRAINER, PENNSYLVANIA -- Mayor Eugene Maysky has a very forgiving constituency. In August he was arrested for the fourth time for being drunk and driving, after police saw him in the early morning hours driving without headlights on. Although some residents suggested he step down from his 20-year post as mayor, his fellow city politicians all agreed not to speak publicly about the mayor's brush with the law. Now that's loyalty!
MAYOR AND WIFE STOLE FROM LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL KIDS
- ADELANTO, CALIFORNIA -- Mayor Jim Nehmens, and wife Kelly Nehmens, were convicted for taking more than $20,000 over three years from the Adelanto Little League. Every year the league's annual fireworks sales went missing, but finally the mayor and the Mrs. got caught. The Nehmens pleaded guilty to grand theft by embezzlement and perjury and were sentenced to all of 6 months in jail. The jailed mayor was president and his wife a board member of the town's Little League. Kids were the victims again.
CITY'S REHAB LEADER PERSONALLY PROFITED BY MILLIONS
(right) is facing criminal charges
in San Diego after getting caught in a conflict-of-interest scandal shaking up the city's establishment. The once popular mayor, after whom West Palm Beach named its downtown dancing fountains, is charged with misuse of her official position, improperly influencing a municipal decision and failing to file a statement of economic interest. She headed up San Diego's rehab effort as president of the Centre City Development Corp. However, Graham did not reveal that she made more than $3 million from building The Moorings condos with The Related Cos., whose CEO is the new Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross.
FROM $1.50 IN HIS POCKET TO $500,000 MISAPPROPRIATION
- INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA -- Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn (right), an ordained clergyman, was charged this summer with four felony counts, including conflict of interest and misappropriation of $500,000. A three-term mayor, Dorn often recounted how he arrived in Los Angeles from the cotton fields of Oklahoma with $1.50 in his pocket, reports the Los Angeles Times. Before becoming mayor he was a sheriff's deputy, an assistant Los Angeles city attorney and a Municipal and Superior Court judge. The criminal complaint charged that Dorn used his office "to influence a governmental decision in which the defendant knew and had reason to know he had a financial interest."
MAYOR ARRESTED IN SEX STING
- DISTRICT HEIGHTS, DIST. OF COLUMBIA -- Mayor James L. Walls Jr.(right) is 30 years old and the youngest person elected mayor in this community of 6,000 inside the Beltway. He was arrested this Spring after allegedly offering an undercover male police officer $40 for sex in a known prostitution area. Known as a rising star among young Democrats, Walls was charged with solicitation for lewd and immoral purposes. He serves as an associate minister at the Forestville New Redeemer Baptist Church.
MAYOR FALSIFIED DOCUMENTS, TAMPERED WITH A WITNESS, USED BACKHOE
- JACOB CITY, FLORIDA -- Former Mayor David Pittman (right) was charged this summer with grand theft, official misconduct and tampering with a witness. Details included falsified documents, a backhoe and reimbursement from the city to pay off a personal debt.
MAYOR & PASTOR SOLICITED SEX OVER INTERNET
- COLLINS, MISSOURI -- The small-town Mayor of Collins Allen Kauffman, 63, was jailed last winter for soliciting sex over the Internet from a police detective posing as a 13-year-old girl. Married and a pastor of the Temple Lot Church. The mayor was arrested on four counts of felony enticement of a child. Not once, but four times for the church pastor!
POLICE CHASE FLEEING MAYOR THROUGH TWO COUNTIES
- BURNSIDE, KENTUCKY -- Mayor Charles Fourman, 41, was arrested this summer on two counts of wanton endangerment and first-degree fleeing or evading after a two-county chase. The mayor told the police officer who stopped him that he was en route to the hospital due to an injury. But guess what? He failed to stop at the hospital and the chase down the Cumberland Parkway finally ended after police used stop-sticks to blow out his tires.
MAYOR CHARGED WITH DOG-NAPPING
- ALICE, TEXAS --Mayor Grace Saenz-Lopez (right) was indicted last winter on two felony counts of tampering with physical evidence related to a dog her neighbors say she took from them -- a Shih Tzu, named Puddles which the Mayor renamed Panchito. The allegations against the mayor include a faked death, an attempt to hide evidence from police and a cover-up. The mayor of Alice, a South Texas town, told the dog's owners that the dog was dead, then filed a report with police saying the dog was missing. Said dog was found 10 miles away at the home of the mayor's twin, who told police that a "mysterious lady" had found the dog and left it there.
I've included this last item about the Shih Tzu for comic relief. I'm certain it wasn't funny to the owners of the little dog, especially coming from the town's mayor. But in comparison to all the rest of the criminal mayors, it's a bit of a respite.
What is it about elected officials? Is it that all politicians have big egos -- which seems like a requirement for the job and the campaigning -- and they think they are above the laws that apply to everyone else? Or, is it that being in a position of power, they believe they can get away with criminal acts? There are some misdemeanors in the mix, but mostly we're talking serious felony crimes folks. Or, maybe our jailed mayors' club is just a reflection of our society in general and we're all bastards. If that's not true, why the hell don't we bother to elect a better caliber of mayor for our towns and cities?
I heard recently about a group of women in India called the Pink Sari Gang from a NPR interview. (You can listen to the 8-minute NPR interview here.) The Pink clad women are several hundred strong, vigilante women in India who are determined to protect women against social injustice, corrupt officials and abusive husbands. They are striking fear in the hearts of corrupt officials and wife-beaters, whom they go after with sticks and axes.
Perhaps we could take a lesson from them here in America, land of freedom and justice.
TO READ THE SECOND ARTICLE ON JAILED MAYORS, "AMERICA'S MAYORS KEEP GETTING ARRESTED: HARTFORD, BALTIMORE, RACINE," CLICK HERE.
By Sharon McEachern
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