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| Raymond Martin |
How many fees are being charged nationally, and how are they accounted for. Is there a system of checks and balances, so stuff like this doesn't happen? I doubt it!
08/16/2011
By Jack Howser
GALLATIN CO - While the headline sounds somewhat suggestive, this post is literally about exactly what it states: a box in the Gallatin County sheriff’s office labeled “sex offender.”
Astute observers will note that the handwriting on the post-it affixed to said box belongs to none other than the former sheriff of Gallatin County, Raymond Martin….and this is the genesis of this little tale.
While we were in Gallatin last week, we happened to get into a conversation with a public official regarding some of the disparaging remarks made about the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Department and whether or not the deputies knew what Raymondo was into.
The more vociferous among GallCo residents have opined repeatedly, since Raymondo’s arrest May 19, 2009, that “everybody” at the SD “had to have known what Raymond was doing; hell, they were prolly all in on it at one time or another.” Many were so convinced of it, and so convincing when they spoke about it, that there for awhile, we were tending to believe them….after all, how could they have possibly NOT known what was going on in their own evidence lockers, their own office purchases, right under their own noses?
Yet we sat through hours upon hours of testimony last year at the federal trial, and we heard two of the deputies (Shannon Bradley and Bobby Glover) give testimony that, through their own words and the very delivery of them, were very, very conclusive: Raymondo had an iron hold over operations in that office, and it was highly likely that while deputies had some suspicion of him, they had no way of proving anything by looking into it themselves: their sheriff had total control over keys, locks, items, EVERYTHING. That was the way it was done, and he wasn’t gonna let it go down any other way.
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| Shannon Bradley |
Bradley also found some interesting items right there in the office, however….one of these being the sex offender box.
The story as it was related to us went that Bradley was inventorying things and opened the box, labeled in Raymondo’s own handwriting, which inside held a little more than $100 cash.
He walked across the hall to Treasurer Pat McGuire’s office and asked her what to do with the money. McGuire said she had no idea; she’d never seen the box or any cash from it before.
So McGuire called the state, and they advised her that it was fees posted by registered sex offenders in Gallatin: $10 per offender per year. Since Gallatin is so small (and seems to be so lacking in anyone resembling a prosecutor for so many years), they didn’t have a whole lot of sex offenders paying such a fee, and the money in the box appeared to represent every fee ever posted by the local offenders, at least, perhaps, over the past couple of years.
So McGuire was directed to set up a bank account into which that money was to be deposited, and Gallatin was to keep half, while the state was to be disbursed the other half, and that mystery of the box was solved.
However, Bradley’s actions sort of fly in the face of those who want to disparage his honesty and integrity.
He didn’t have to turn over that box or the cash in it. Apparently, no one else in the world knew it was there except Raymondo, and no one else knew he was taking in fees except the sex offenders. And apparently, Raymondo had no intention of using the money that was in it like it was supposed to have been used, especially if Ms. McGuire had never been apprised of the situation. So that was one of those things that Bradley could have just ‘let slide’ and maybe bought himself some choice steaks next time he was having a cookout instead of settling for drumsticks. But he didn’t. He turned it over, the thought never occurring to him to do anything different with it.
We’ve gotta wonder how many years of this fee thing Raymondo did go out and buy steaks with (or maybe just more pot seeds). But this little anecdote, to us and to the person who related it to us, goes a long way to show that Gallatin really is in good hands with Shannon Bradley in the office of sheriff. Good job, Shannon. And thanks to the kind gentleman who shared this tale with us.
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