By Tom Eldred and Joe Rogalsky,
Delaware State News
DOVER Gov. Ruth Ann Minner's re-election campaign began airing radio ads statewide Wednesday seeking to clarify statements she made about a July 12 prison hostage incident.
For the first time publicly, the ad says Gov. Minner made the decision on how to disarm an inmate who took a prison counselor hostage at the Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna.
The ad, part of the Minner campaign's media blitz leading to Election Day, also rips Republican challenger William Swain Lee for allegedly miscasting Gov. Minner's comments for political gain. Gov. Minner personally approved the spot, which could continue running through Election Day on Nov. 2.
"Gov. Minner never said You expect this to happen' in prisons and Bill Lee knows it," an announcer in the 60-second spot says.
"As governor, Ruth Ann Minner had to make the difficult decision of how to disarm the hostage taker,'' the ad says.
"She decided the prison crisis team was best qualified. Gov. Minner said correctional officers are the ones who are trained for the possibility of a prisoner taking a hostage, in case it ever happens. And that's all she said."
Convicted rapist Scott A. Miller took counselor Cassandra Arnold hostage inside Delaware Correctional Center for nearly seven hours on July 12. Miller raped her before a correctional officer shot and killed him.
In a July 17 Delaware State News article, Gov. Minner defended her prisons department, saying "There are problems at every prison. This isn't something that is unique to Delaware. In prisons, you almost expect this to happen. The people who work in our prisons are doing an outstanding job."
Mr. Lee, correctional officers and Ms. Arnold have criticized Gov. Minner for saying officials "expect" such incidents to occur in prisons.
Initially, Minner spokesman Gregory B. Patterson, now the governor's campaign manager, said she was saying that prisons hold dangerous inmates and violent incidents sometimes occur. In the past two months, however, Gov. Minner said the statements in the newspaper were "taken out of context."
"I have repeatedly stated in public, to the press, to my opponent, in debates where he is sitting next to me, that I was talking about training issues," Gov. Minner said in an interview with the State News Thursday.
"My opponent is running ads knowingly misrepresenting what I said. If my opponent chooses to knowingly misrepresent my record, my campaign will correct the distortion."
Mr. Lee said Gov. Minner's ad not only tries to rewrite what she said but also falsely claims he blamed the governor for the July 12 incident.
"I have not specifically blamed her for that," Mr. Lee said.
"I have said for a long time that if we didn't deal with the manpower crisis in our correctional system, bad things were going to happen. Everyone knows we are understaffed.
"Is she responsible? She's the governor. If I am the governor, I ought to be held responsible for state employees. She didn't foresee the hostage incident, but I go back to Marine Corps training that your first responsibility is to your troops. She has failed her troops."
Whose decision?
Gov. Minner did not directly answer Thursday whether or not the decision of how to disarm Miller was a judgment she made and then passed on to a command center established in the DCC warden's office during the July 12 hostage-taking incident.
Correction Commissioner Stanley W. Taylor manned the center with his top aides during the standoff and forwarded orders to officers attempting to negotiate with Miller outside a barricaded office door.
When asked Thursday by the State News if she had made the decision, Gov. Minner repeated several times that she "approved'' decisions made by Mr. Taylor that day.
"As I have stated in the past, I had ongoing communications with the commissioner and approved his decisions that day,'' she said.
Gov. Minner repeated her answer when asked specifically about the radio ad language that says, "As governor, Ruth Ann Minner had to make the difficult decision of how to disarm the hostage taker.''
"I knew that (Mr. Taylor) was following procedures and I approved his decisions that day,'' she responded.
DOC spokeswoman Elizabeth Welch said Mr. Taylor was not available for comment Thursday and was referring all questions to the Minner re-election campaign office.
Gov. Minner said she was not contacted or questioned by the state police, the state Department of Justice or the Department of Correction during follow-up investigations on the role she played in the July 12 incident.
The state police probed the evidence of how and under what circumstances Miller was shot to death after the nearly seven-hour siege and turned in a report to the Department of Justice. The department, based in part on the state police report, ruled the correctional officer's use of deadly force was justified.
When asked if she would agree to be interviewed by the seven-member task force that she recently appointed to undertake an independent investigation of the incident and security protocol in general at DCC, the governor questioned what good it would do.
"I don't know what I could tell them other than what I've just told you,'' she said. "I was in constant communication with the commissioner that day and approved the decisions he made.''
Election issue
Mr. Lee, a retired judge, said the Minner ad shows the race has tightened and the governor and her advisers are nervous. Recent published polls have shown Mr. Lee trailing, in one case by 15 points, but the Republican said his internal campaign polls show him even with the incumbent.
"She's saying that she didn't say this, even though her statements have been reported in several newspapers and she has made them in our debates," Mr. Lee said.
"All of a sudden, 10 days before the election, she's trying to call me a liar and go negative. In a close political campaign with Ruth Ann Minner, you almost expect these things to happen. That's what happens when your polls show the race is dead even and is going south on you."
Gov. Minner would not divulge results of her internal polls, but Mr. Patterson said the campaign's polls are similar to the published polls.
"If he thinks he is doing that well, maybe he should stay home the next week and a half," Gov. Minner said, referring to the time remaining until the Nov. 2 election.
Mr. Lee has hammered Gov. Minner about the July 12 incident and staffing shortages in the prisons since the summer, and the correctional officers union has endorsed him.
Earlier this month Mr. Lee began airing a radio ad on the prison issue, which is what Gov. Minner's spot answers.
"They are the only people standing between you and career criminals they are Delaware's dedicated correctional officers," says an announcer in the Lee ad, which opens with the sound of a cell door slamming.
"Every day they are out-manned, understaffed and overworked because of Gov. Minner's refusal to take Delaware's prison crisis seriously. When the correctional officers appealed for better working conditions, Gov. Minner filed a lawsuit to make them work longer hours.
"But when a violent felon took a prison counselor hostage earlier this year, held her hostage for seven hours and raped her, Gov. Minner's response was in prisons, you almost expect this to happen.' No governor, this is Delaware and you should not expect this to happen."
Ad panned
Wilmington attorney Jeffrey K. Martin, one of Ms. Arnold's lawyers, said he had no indication whatsoever that Gov. Minner was involved July 12 or made the decision on how to disarm Miller.
"I'm very surprised,'' he said. "We've been investigating this for more than three months. There has been no mention of the governor's involvement."
Mr. Martin said he's extensively studied the DOC internal report, released by Mr. Taylor Oct. 6.
"There is absolutely no mention in that report of the governor's involvement in the July 12 tragedy,'' he said. "All I know is she said she tried to make contact with our client at the hospital. However, she has since retracted that to the Wednesday (July 14) after the incident.''
Ms. Arnold recently sued Gov. Minner, Mr. Taylor and other DOC administrators, claiming ongoing security lapses, inadequate staffing and ineffective supervision directly contributed to her ordeal.
Cpl. Paul Smith, a correctional officer in New Castle County who coordinated a six-week protest against voluntary court and transport overtime this summer, said he was surprised to hear the Minner campaign's radio ad Thursday morning.
"I said to my wife that I don't remember her being involved in this thing,'' he said. "She's been telling everybody that she was letting Stan Taylor and DOC handle it. It surprised me to hear differently.''
The Correctional Officers Association of Delaware, which has endorsed Mr. Lee, released a statement saying officers "statewide are shocked and disappointed" by the ad.
"It is a pity that the governor has found it necessary to be so unprofessional in the way that the she directs her campaign by running negative ads and smearing her opponents," the statement says.
Douglas Ingram of Lincoln, a former security expert for the federal Bureau of Prisons who has commented often on security problems in the state's prison system, said he was equally surprised to hear of the governor's July 12 decision.
"I'm a little taken aback,'' he said. "Why hasn't the public known about this since July? How can she appoint an independent task force to investigate what happened July 12 when we now learn she's part of the investigation?
"I'm stunned she ran that radio ad. The ad makes the assumption that she was a very active player in the negotiations. Now she's saying she was in charge. What I want to know is why the governor never, ever, came forward publicly to say she took charge, that she made the call, until now?''
Mr. Ingram said the public had a right to know of what involvement the governor had July 12 and that it should have been announced immediately after the incident.
"I'm a little disturbed,'' he said. "This is something that should have been known immediately. I thought Stan Taylor and his top administrators were in charge. She allowed that to fester when maybe they weren't in charge after all. That's scary.
"Why is she waiting until two weeks before the election to say, I saved (Ms. Arnold's) life?'"
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Senior writer Tom Eldred can be reached at 741-8212 or teldred@newszap.com.
Staff writer Joe Rogalsky can be reached at 741-8226 or jrogalsky@newszap.com.
