10/08/2004
What the heck was that gathering at the Department of Corrections on Wednesday? The Minner administration would like you to think it was a news conference designed to answer any and all questions about the biggest agency screwup in recent memory: the kidnapping and rape of a prison counselor by a scumbag serving a 699-year sentence. The scumbag was shot and killed, but the circumstances leading up to the incident have raised a slew of legitimate questions about how much oversight is exercised over the Department of Corrections.
In the first place, nobody should be serving 699 years in prison. That kind of guilt deserves the death penalty. And if the sentencing guidelines don't allow for the death sentence, they should.
But serial rapist Scott A. Miller, No. 00145669, was nevertheless a permanent guest of the State of Delaware at a cost of $30,000 or so a year, including room, board, television, surveillance and so on. And he no doubt had nothing to lose by taking advantage of the skimpy security measures at Delaware Correctional Center.
In any other state, the kidnapping and rape of counselor Cassie Arnold would have made TV headlines for days. Since Delaware has no statewide television, the Minner administration tried to do what most Delaware politicians do when faced with a crisis: gloss over it, with help from the pussy-footing General Assembly, and trust that everyone will forget about it all.
Well, that ain't gonna happen this time. Cassie Arnold has gone public and apparently intends to stay there. Good for her. She went through a horrific thing but she is obviously no wilting flower who will disappear into the bureaucratic woodwork. Remember, Cassie Arnold sent a warning to her bosses about prison security with the caveat that she didn't want to be considered a snitch on her colleagues.
A jury is going to love her.
Minner and Company botched this investigation beyond the normal bounds of governmental botching. And don't give us a typical Delaware blue ribbon task force of friends and neighbors. Bring in the professionals.
Minner says she wants a report from her certain-to-be-appointed task force of friends by Jan. 31. It just might be delivered to Gov. Bill Lee.
It takes all kinds
The 2004 Delaware Campaign Chutzpa Award goes hands down to Republican state Rep. Dick Cathcart of Middletown.
Cathcart is running against Democrat Vincent Ascione Jr., a newcomer to politics. Cathcart is anything but a newcomer, having served in the House the first time from 1978 to 1982 and then again from 1997 to today.
It seems that the good legislator distributed a campaign brochure that featured a picture of him with powerful Democratic state Sen. Jim Vaughn of Clayton. The picture shows the two of them intently doing legislative stuff, like looking at a table. The caption reads: Dick Cathcart, Preserving Our Neighborhoods.
Just what Vaughn, from Kent County, has to do with preserving a neighborhood in New Castle County is not made clear. But Vaughn was none too happy about the brochure.
He and the Democrats quickly put together one of those hideously irritating campaign telephone messages, the kind you get just as nature calls, that slammed Cathcart's brazen attempt to suggest Vaughn was supporting him.
"I'm calling to correct a false impression" the message said.
"I am supporting Vincent Ascione for 9th District representative because I think he will do a better job."
Telephone messaging, known as robo-calling, is becoming a big campaign tool that will soon short-circuit telephones.
Reach Ron Williams at rwilliams@delawareonline.com.
