PFT pointed me to this Virginia Pilot story about Gerald Poindexter, the Surry County (VA) Commonwealth Attorney who may prosecute charges from the dog fighting scandal that might involve Michael Vick.
Some interesting factoids:
- The entire population of Surry County is around 7,000.
- Poindexter is the County's only prosecutor -- and he's part-time.
- There are only two lawyers in Surry County.
- The Circuit Court only convenes one or two times a month.
- A previous dog fighting case brought by Poindexter several years ago was dismissed by a judge who ruled that the search warrant was improper. Poindexter felt that he moved too fast in that case and does not want to repeat the error.
So, one of the NFL's wealthiest players might go up against the part-time prosecutor of a thinly populated, resource-poor county. The county is so small that the only tourism message on the Tourism page of Surry County's web site is "Any time of year, Surry is a great place to visit!"
Advantage, Vick.
UPDATE: Poindexter Speaks
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World of dogfighting seems to be growing despite awareness of its cruel side
1 comment:
The real David and Goliath battle will only occur after an indictment, which seems unlikely for all the reasons stated above. If Michael Vick is ever put in a position to purcahse reasonable doubt, he will devote sizeable portions of his estate towards that end.
At this point his guilt is not at question as far as I am concerned. Even if I buy his story that it was merely his property, I hold him accountable for what happened. We aren't talking about a friend leaving a bag of pot in his bathroom -- the raising of multiple dogs (to fight) on his property requires either knoweldge on his part or criminal negligence. Fortunately for him, in our current justice system there is often no distinction between lacking innocence of a crime and being ruled not-guilty at the same time.
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