FORBES' CRITICISM OF POLICE UNIT MASKED HIS LACK OF PROSECUTION

With the election just around the corner, I want to stress the
importance of the job of Kanawha County prosecutor. When you think of
that position, you should think of the qualities that the person
elected to the office must possess. Honesty, courage to do what is
right and integrity come to mind, along with several other attributes.

With those three qualities in mind, I want to tell a true story,
unlike falsehoods then-prosecutor Bill Forbes told in February 1999
about the Charleston Police Department Street Crimes Unit.

During that time, Bill Forbes took every opportunity to defame the
character of each of the five members of this highly successful unit.
He started by using the media to disparage this unit's members and the
work they performed. He was simply angry and was acting in childish
ways, as well as attempting to cover up his own incompetence.

The Street Crimes Unit had approximately 300 pending drug cases going
nowhere in Forbes' office, and when I questioned him about this he
became defensive. Just two weeks after he was questioned about the
lack of prosecution, he telephoned then-mayor Kemp Melton, asking him
to replace me as the unit's supervisor. A few days later he called
then-Police Chief Jerry Riffe, requesting that I be replaced.

When neither chose to replace me, Forbes reached out to the media,
dramatizing his false allegations about the unit and its activities,
while hiding what was really causing his outburst. For days he was in
front of news cameras and sounded off to news reporters as often as
possible, the best defense for his failure to prosecute the high
volume of drug cases was an offensive packed with unproven
allegations.

His claim that we missed 40 percent of our court hearings was totally
bogus. In reality, our percentage of missed hearings was approximately
3 percent, and those were minor misdemeanor charges. His claim that
many of our charges were based on misleading information can also be
disproved. In fact, his staff helped us prosecute many of the same
cases he so adamantly claimed were improper charges.

At the time, I had worked for the police department for 20 years and
was proud of my accomplishments. I could go on for days bragging on
the officers who worked for me in the Street Crimes Unit, both about
their work ethic and their integrity. Forbes tried to destroy the
public's trust in us as police officers and our work, not to mention
making it even more unsafe for us to work our plainclothes assignments
in the high-crime areas of the city. City officials denied his
grandstanding claims and chose not to continue the battle in the press
and requested the unit members do the same. Yet, he raged on, even
going as far as to attempt to use race as an issue.

Forbes claimed that members of the unit stopped a black Lexus simply
because three black males were in the vehicle and that was our only
probable cause for the stop. However, the incident was very different.
The security director of Spring Hill Apartments telephoned the Street
Crimes office to advise us that a black Lexus was parking on the
property and he had observed drugs being dealt out of the vehicle.
Three members of the unit responded to the scene and as they
approached, two black males ran from the car. One male was a local
resident who had active criminal warrants on him at the time. He is
currently serving time in federal prison for drug-dealing at the
Spring Hill Apartments. The other dropped drugs as he ran and was
arrested for felony possession. The Lexus, which was never moved from
the parking lot, was reported stolen from the state of Georgia. Those
were the facts.

This incident will always weigh heavy on my mind as I look back and
see myself and the other officers of the unit doing the best work of
our careers, day in and out trying to make the quality of life better
in some of Charleston's more crime-ridden areas.

Unfortunately, so will Forbes' efforts to destroy our reputations, our
good names, all the hard work we put forth, and our efforts to fight
drugs and dealers from destroying our town and its
neighborhoods.

Is Bill Forbes really the person you want representing you in the
prosecuting attorney's office?

Lt. Rinehart, still on the Charleston police force, was supervisor of
the Street Crimes Unit from its beginning in May 1996 until July 1999.