'Good-Old-Boy Syndrome' Alive And Well At Sheriff's Office

It shocks me to read about another incident at the sheriff's office so soon after the accident incident a few months back. It appears to me that it is another cover-up in the sheriff's department; the "blue wall is up."

Here we are again where alcohol is the culprit, the root of all evil, a bunch of deputies in a bar drinking and the love affair goes bad. It sounds like a soap opera, "Days of Our Lives," in the sheriff's office again. It looks like the sheriff is playing the "good-old-boy syndrome" again. What's good for one is not good for the other; one deputy resigns and another gets the break.

I am not the best educated person in life, but I have a lot of common sense and it does not take much to see the whole picture here. The cover-up is more obvious than what is printed in the newspaper and a lot of evidence has been set aside again from when this whole incident started the night they all got together at the bar. That night is just another person getting caught, cheating on his girlfriend and a lover who just happens to work at their place of employment.

This has been going on in this great country of ours for centuries in the work place. Why is it so different than any other white or blue collar job? It even happened in the highest position in the country; did he resign or get suspended? Why is it a reason for any boss to change the rules now? It will still happen no matter what the rule is. It will be up to the boss in the end, who goes and who stays, just like it happens continually in the sheriff's office in Hernando County, where anybody can see that the good-old-boy syndrome is still going on in that department.

If that was just any other citizen being stopped by a deputy in Hernando County, they surely would have gone to jail that night for an assault and battery charge, but where the incident was a man of the "blue," he got to get a free ride. Here is another incident in the sheriff's department where "we take care of our own" but when it causes friction, they are asked to resign or get fired when the heat is on in the sheriff's department. If you're a good old boy, you get to stay; and if not, you're pushed out the door in some way or manner.

I say to you, Sheriff Nugent, it is only obvious how you run that department, and my experiences in the work place over the years, it always comes down to who you know. Some get to keep their jobs and some get to go to the unemployment office. There is an old saying, "What is good for the goose is good for the gander," which you surely do not run your department in that way. When reading the newspapers in this county since the past and present administration, this good-old-boy syndrome is still at large in that department.

If you really want to stop what is going on in the sheriff's department, you need to resign or you need to take the approach what is good for one is good for all. If any of your deputies break a rule that's unbecoming of an officer, especially one in his or her probationary period, he or she should be terminated immediately. A veteran deputy that is abusing his power should have the third-strike rule and out he goes, like any other work place rule.

Marion Merrell

Spring Hill