What Happened To Oppression?
| Now that District Attorney,
Russ
Johnson has laid out all the defenses for Doyle Arp's
tax
dollar give away to developers,
the investigation is very
complicated, the case is not as clear cut, the property assessor is the
final decision maker, all things that are difficult if not impossible to
prove, there is little to prosecute,
statute of limitations and so on and so on, what about the violation of
official oppression? Before we learned of Arp's 11.6 mil. appraisal discount for developer Mike Ross, there was the attempt to strong arm other county officials to change the adequate facilities tax for developer Wes Cooper. This violation of the law shouldn't be so hard for Johnson to investigate. Arp's still the county mayor, there are witnesses and even a memo from Arp as evidence and Arp admitted to doing it. TCA 39-16-403 - Official Oppression is a Class E Felony. This law deals with a public servant acting under color of office or employment who directs any other official to violate the law. Clearly Arp violated this law by directing building inspector, Bill Cox to change Cooper's assessment even though the Loudon County Board Of Zoning Appeals had upheld the building commissioners assessment. Arp even threatened to fire one of the building commissioner's employees to pay for the lawsuit filed by Cooper. So, does this one just go away too. Maybe Cooper had a sandbar under his house. Who knows. |
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9/8/08