Hege Gone...you western NC DUers have been falling down on the job

[jmowreader]

Or is it that we've been so consumed with Abu Ghraif and Nick Berg that we're not ready for a little bit of good news?

North Carolina is the home of one of the most embarrassing Republicans in memory: Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege (pronounced "hedge"). This is the guy who patrolled the streets in a car with a spiderweb on the hood and a Richard Childress engine under it. This is the guy who dressed his inmates in old-fashioned striped jail uniforms and housed them in a lockup with pink walls. This is the guy who dressed his deputies in black BDUs and jackboots and fired them for being late to work one time.

He raised money for his department by selling "Sheriff Hege's Davidson County Barbecue Dip" (the motto on the bottle: if you call it sauce, you're not from around here) and he had a television show on Court TV.

This made him a legend in conservative circles across America. It didn't lower the crime rate in Davidson County one whit--in fact, reported crime across the board increased during Hege's tenure, according to the NC Department of Crime Control and Public Safety's website--but it did make Hege a popular keynote speaker.

On Monday, according to the Fayetteville Observer, Hege "pled guilty to two felony obstruction charges stemming from an investigation into widespread corruption in his department. The plea deal required Hege to give up his job."

(A thousand apologies, but the link expired before I could write this.)

He got two six-month suspended sentences and three years' probation. For the next 90 days, Hege will be under house arrest with an electronic ankle bracelet.

He must also repay $6200. Among the financial misconduct reported include $2000 to send a dog handler to Australia and $1100 for a Christmas party.

Hege first served as a Davidson County GOP official and was elected to the office of sheriff in 1994. In 2003, the district attorney asked the State Bureau of Investigation to probe the sheriff's office; they uncovered racial profiling, misuse of county money and inmate beatings at the behest of Hege. The DA also had 113 pages of sworn affidavits attesting abuse of office, intimidation and threatening of sworn personnel, and public endangerment. Hey, if you have an engine built by Dale Earnhardt's personal engine builder, you're gonna wring it out.

We've been so inured with bad news lately, it's good to see there are victories to be had.

[supernova]

1. Hege belongs in the same padded cell

as the "My God is bigger than your God" general. :crazy:

Davidson is freeperville central anyway, even if it is pretty and has a nice college.

[Gildor Inglorion]

2. "a lockup with pink walls"?

interesting....I wonder if it's because pink is said to have a calming effect. Western North Carolina, like eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia (where I'm from), is gloriously beautiful country, but it does harbor some strange people. To say the least.

[Selteri]

3. Pink Isn't calming, it's submission

Pink is supposed to cause submission in males and agression in females according to the color psychology listings I have.

Where as Black and red are male colors for agression. People wearing black as teams have an increase in fouls and agression calls being made against them.

There are some interesting prison studies that were done with pink walls.

[bandy]

4. Geez, how I love those mountains.

Spent some time last autumn in Blairsville at a cabin on a lake. Most beautiful place I've ever been and I'm from Va. now in Fla. Would love to live there. Wonder if this guy was raised in Fla. Sounds a lot like some people I know.