BlogWood: MT Archives

Sheriff corrects Deputy's lies

Despite the Tribune’s sloppy reporting on this issue, BlogWood readers have been well informed on the misleading testimony by a Sheriffs Deputy that led to commissioner Jan Platt’s decision to re-think the long overdue relaxation of our county blue laws.

Again: Jan Platt heard testimony from a uniformed officer that she assumed to be factual. The officer appears to have intentionally blurred the fact that he was representing MADD and not the Sheriffs Office. He testified in uniform and presented numbers that he said showed an increase in DUI activity. He lied.

Ms. Platt heard these lies and acted on what she thought were the facts when she agreed to consider rescinding the County’s recent decision to roll back Sunday liquor sales to 11AM. Now, the Sheriff himself has testified before the commission. He has clarified the testimony of his Deputy by presenting actual statistics that are not so scary as the made up ones.

Now Ms. Platt has changed her mind. Faced with real facts, it is obvious that we don’t need to go back to 1PM Sunday sales. The Tribune, which either dropped the ball on this story in the first place, or intentionally misled it’s readers, is spinning Platt’s decision as a flip-flop. The headline reads “Platt Folds...” and the piece starts off like this: “ Appearing on unusually shaky political legs, Commissioner Jan Platt flip- flopped on Hillsborough County's blue laws again Tuesday.”

Hmmm... I’m not sure I would call a change of heart based on misleading testimony a flip-flop. I’d say that the Tribune is attempting to distract us from the fact that they got this story wrong from the beginning.

Anyway, here’s a more neutral story from the SP Times:

Residents in unincorporated Hillsborough County will still be able to buy a drink before noon on Sundays now that the sheriff has put one commissioner's mind at ease about it.

Hillsborough commissioners had voted 4-3 to relax its so-called blue law in August, following the lead of the cities of St. Petersburg and Tampa. The change pushed back the time at which bars and stores could sell alcohol on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 11 a.m.

But commissioner Jan Platt got cold feet about the change last month when Sgt. Steven Wallace of the Sheriff's Office appeared before the board. Wallace presented commissioners with statistics showing a 21 percent increase in alcohol-related deaths in the county from 2000-2002, asking commissioners why they would want to do something that could make it worse.

Faced with those statistics, Platt flopped, tipping the majority of the board against the blue-law rollback.

However, as Wallace mentioned last month, he wasn't representing his boss, Sheriff Cal Henderson, but rather groups that fight drunken driving and alcohol abuse. Henderson spoke to the board Tuesday and said he had no problem with earlier alcohol sales.

Henderson showed that driving under the influence arrests are actually down this year compared to last. He later acknowledged that those numbers might not reflect how many people are driving drunk. But he said the problem with drunken driving is worse at night and in the early morning hours.

In fact, his deputies have made only two DUI arrests from the hours 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. since the law was changed Aug. 3, the same number for the same period last year. In the past 101/2 months, there have been eight DUI arrests during those hours.

"I just think those two hours are not going to make a difference," Henderson said after addressing commissioners. "It doesn't make sense to punish the retailers in unincorporated Hillsborough County unless you're accomplishing something."

With the presentation of those figures, Platt moved to cancel a proposed public hearing to consider a repeal of the relaxation of the blue law. It passed 3-2, with commissioners Tom Scott and Ken Hagan voting no. Commissioners Jim Norman and Ronda Storms were absent, but because they were split on previous votes, their presence would not have made a difference in the outcome.

"That deputy has painted a picture of gloom and doom. But the sheriff said that wasn't the case," Platt said, explaining her second change of heart.