Last week I asked Duwayne Escobedo what he considered the biggest political blunder that he had ever uncovered. Duwayne was the editor of the Independent News from 2003-2008, but the one he brought up wasn’t for me.
The investigative report was one he wrote in 2000 for the Fort Walton Beach Daily News. He won a state award for his breaking that the Chief Deputy of the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, Wes Cummings, had sent threatening, hostile emails to a political opponent of his boss, Sheriff Jerry Brown, and to other public officials and citizens.
The story broke days before the GOP primary. Brown was forced to ask for Cummings’ resignation. Wendell Hall ended up crushing the two-term incumbent in a run-off.
Most of the emails were written from Cummings’ home computer. Duwayne had gotten copies of ones written to Joel Lowery, a Republican challenger for the sheriff’s seat, Santa Rosa County Commissioner Debbie Dawsey, Milton resident Phil Sandy and Dorothy Slye, president of the Navarre Area Chamber of Commerce.
To Commissioner Dawsey:
One-term Deb:
…Nice try, but your transparent attempt to discredit the Sheriff has backfired as you were depicted as a moron…tata for now.
To Phil Sandy:
Hey, here’s a thought, go to the dictionary, look up the word MORON and see your photo…
Other emails threatened family members of those that Cummings believed didn’t support his sheriff. He sent an e-mail to Joel Lowery that contained only the tag number of Lowery’s wife’s car. He questioned Dorothy Slye’s motives for inquiring about an incident in which her teen-age son was involved.
Santa Rosa County Sheriff Jerry Brown called a press conference the day Duwayne’s story was published. The sheriff said that he had asked for and received his chief deputy’s resignation. The reason given: “inappropriate electronic mail messages.”
The following Tuesday, Hall topped the GOP primary for Santa Rosa Sheriff with 41 percent of the vote. Brown received 31 percent and lost to Hall in a run-off a few weeks later.
Today, the political thuggery would happen over Facebook or anonymous posts on blogs. It would be interesting to see how an elected official would react if one of his key staff members was caught threatening political opponents, public officials and citizens. And would the revelation be enough to unseat the official?