[I had done a long update to this post, but it seems to have disappeared into the cyber-ether, so I'm going to try to recreate what I had to say as best I can)
The Sue Schmitz tale is beginning to get wider play and Susie Madrak led me to the story as told by Scott Horton over at Harpers:
The morning calm in the small Alabama town of Toney, located near Huntsville, was broken at 6:15 a.m. yesterday morning. A team of five FBI agents, accompanied by a prison matron, pounded on the door. When the man of the house answered, he was forced into the yard, shirtless in the early morning cold. The team had come for his wife, Sue Schmitz. She was dragged out of her bathroom, where she was taking a shower, handcuffed, breaking her flesh and scraping her wrists, and hustled off to prison.
Who was this threat to the community? Sue Schmitz is a diminutive, 63-year-old retired social studies teacher who has lived in the town for 38 years, roughly 20 of them as a civics teacher. She is loved in the community and among her students is legendary for her passion for civics and her outreach to the disadvantaged. The dream of her life was to let the fire of civic spirit catch on in communities and among families on the margin of society, where the danger of drug abuse and criminality are the highest. She dedicated her life to it. She launched a program called “We the People,” designed to build civic spirit and interest in participatory democracy among school children. And Sue Schmitz’s advocacy of civic engagement led directly to her conflict with U.S. Attorney Alice Martin, who considers it to be criminal. But one other fact figures directly in this drama. Schmitz is a Democratic member of the state legislature.
The U.S. Attorneys office in Alabama seems to be focused on prosecuting Democrats during state election cycles and Sue Schmitz is their latest sacrificial lamb. Here is a bit more:
And today we see the typical pincer movement involving the Alabama G.O.P. election campaign’s third arm, the U.S. Attorney’s office. Specifically, Alice Martin, the sometime U.S. Attorney, sometime G.O.P. candidate for elective office. Martin fully understands the benefit to the party and its election efforts of criminal prosecutions being commenced that target elected Democrats, are geared carefully to the election cycle, and are hyped extensively to the party media apparatus. And yesterday, as Sue Schmitz was dramatically dragged from her home in Toney, Alice Martin went before the press with an announcement which will feature prominently in Republican campaign literature for the coming years. She announced an indictment that Blackledge signaled, with his usual perfect clairvoyance in all things prosecutorial, was in the works months back.
Here is how the AP characterizes the charges:
The indictment claims Schmitz made as much as $53,403 annually as a program coordinator despite rarely showing up and doing virtually nothing for the money.
Schmitz was charged with mail fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine, and fraud involving a program receiving federal funds, which carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000.
Schmitz is scheduled to enter a plea during a hearing set for Feb. 11 in Huntsville. She was the latest in a string of state officials swept up in a joint federal-state investigation of the Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education.
Oh yeah, the same AP story chronicles what Sue Schmitz is best known for in the legislature:
Legislatively, Schmitz is best known for introducing a bill to give Alabama a new official insect by replacing the monarch butterfly with the queen honey bee. The measure passed the House but died on the final days of the 2005 session.
And just who is U.S. Attorney Alice Martin? Well, she was at the forefront of the prosecution of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman and she seems to have some ethical problems of her own. Again, from Scott Horton:
U.S. Attorney Martin seems to have a problem with the truth. She’s currently under investigation for giving perjured testimony in connection with an employment litigation. I lay out the details of the accusations against her, which are quite compelling, here. However, Martin serves at the pleasure of the president, and, as comedian Jon Stewart would say, it clearly pleasures him for her to continue to serve. And it pleasures Karl Rove and the G.O.P. state organizers even more.
The emphasis above is mine. I have a feeling this is going to be a high profile prosecution and I hope someone will start a defense fund because I have a feeling that Sue Schmitz is going to need all of the help she can get!
I almost forgot this little bit of theater from the arrest courtesy of what passes for the Huntsville Times web presence:
The legislator worked for a prevention program for troubled youth based at the college from January 2003 until October 2008. During at least part of that time, she also sat on the House Education Appropriations Committee.
That committee wields considerable power over the budget of her employer, although it isn't clear at this point to what extent, if any, she was active in deciding the school's budget.
As for the claim that the prosecutor could have tipped the press if she wanted to humiliate Schmitz, at least one other reason for not doing so seems as likely. Pictures of the tiny woman in handcuffs might have generated sympathy for Schmitz and criticism of Martin.
"I can't see where she has committed any crime," Watson said Friday.
Ironically, Schmitz was arrested on the same day she planned to go to Montgomery with a group of high school students to participate in the government study program "We the People."
After signing her bond, she traveled to Montgomery to join her students. When she got there, Schmitz and the students definitely had something to talk about.
8 comments:
It's easy to characterize this as a partisan smear on Schmitz. The fact is, her attorneys are desperately trying to keep this from trial. Her lawyers know that in a trial she may have to prove that she actually did some work for this money. Like many other political plum jobs she didn't do jack $hit. She knows it, her paid mouthpieces know it, all God's chilen' know it. If she did, her attorneys would be glad to go to trial. The questions that taxpayers - both Repubs and Dems want to know is - what did she do to earn this money ? What was her work product ? How was it documented ? How would the taxpayer know if she was performing well or not ? Give us a copy of her written job description - oh, she did not have a job description - how convenient. How many hours did she work, and were those hours documented ?
This is another case of someone who is addicted to feeding at the public trough to serve their own interests. It's an equal opportunity crime, both sides of the aisle are guilty.
Alabama government and especially Hubbert and Alabama "education" are rife with it. The ceasless mantra - " 'mo money". Republicans are just as slimy as Democrats, and anyone who tries to paint the Schmitz case as ONLY PARTISAN misses the issue.
Spare us the defense that Sue is a "good ole folksy girl". Instead, tell us - in detail - exactly what the hell she did to earn this money. Make the answer quantifiable
- where it could be audited by an independent 3rd party.
As an Alabama taxpayer I am beyond weary of paying for crap like this. Steal by the sword or steal by the pen, your are just as guilty. I hope the courts nail her greedy corrupt a$$.
cp712@gmail.com
That's horse shit and you know it. What did you do to earn your pay today??
You don't get arrested for not doing your job right, you get fired. This was a political stunt representative of Bush era politics and cowardice.
Obama should have the feds drag out little Alice while she is taking a shower in the morning as retribution. Oh, wait, never mind, he has more class than that.
My children had her as a teacher, well sort of. Most of the time they had a substitute. What kind of education can you receive in taking a class that only has the teacher in it a fraction of the time? I was a single mom, working, and barely getting by, so when my child found out there were scholarships for low income families to cover graduation expenses, my child applied, with Mrs. Schmitz, who took her application and replied, "Oh, I see. Well we get people like YOUR FAMILY, you know, POOR, now and then....." My child was humiliated. Perfect teacher and role model before this conviction? POOR excuse if you ask me.
Clearly Smitz is a criminal, and this blogger is full of $&!7, who is he, he son?
I was a student in her English cp class in 1999. Substitutes the whole time. Even her husband substituted! It was a pathetic class. Wrote a horrible book report on 1984 and got a 100. That was the only grade in the class. Passed the class with a 100 conveniently.
I had Mrs. Sue Schmitz for AP Govt. and was a member of the program 'We The People'. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in her class. She made sure that everyone understood the constitution and the functions of our government. She encouraged debate, questioning one's own rhetoric, and encouraged everyone to be opinionated.. no matter what.
I will never forget the news coming to ask us, as a class debate setting, how we felt about the Iraq war that had just started... This was 2003. I to this day have an I told you so moment when I called out the fact that the weapons of mass destruction issue was a fabricated lie and said, "If we know they have those kinds of weapons, it's because we have the receipts". Also saying that this was Dick Cheneys war to line the pockets of his pals in the defense industry and oil industry. Lastly, I said that it would end in the destabilisation of the entire region for years to come and even more blowback. Here we are, 15 years later and can't say I could have called it much more true than it played out.
You can dog Sue all you want, but on a personal and educational level I haven't got a bad thing to say about her.She helped me think about politics critically and question authority. I got a lot of shit from some of the bootlicking young republicans and was constantly labeled a communist even though I was just a democratic socialist. But that's ok. I'm used to being a blue dot in a red sea.
Did I read that right?
Legislatively, Schmitz is best known for introducing a bill to give Alabama a new official insect by replacing the monarch butterfly with the queen honey bee. The measure passed the House but died on the final days of the 2005 session.
She was always that way. Had her favorites and publicaly bullied Christian and Conservative students in the classroom.
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