Pendergrass council to meet Tuesday night; GBI to probe one item of allegations

The GBI is likely only investigating one of the allegations for one of several reasons: (1) not everything that is wrong or immoral or corrupt is a crime; (2) there is a higher standard of proof required in a criminal case, so while evidence may warrant an investigation in one area, evidence may also amount to nothing more than speculation in another area; and (3) the term "fixing" as used by Chief Russell and this newspaper is imprecise--it can either mean dismissing a ticket for any reason, including a lack of probable cause or an inability to satisfy the burden of a criminal trial OR it can mean dropping a valid charge for an improper reason, such as because the accused is a friend or because he has paid money. The Chief, whatever you think of him, probably was not admitting to "fixing" tickets under the latter definition (though he admitted to a couple other really bad things) but the editor of the paper appears to believe that the latter is the ONLY definition of "fixing." The GBI declining to investigate doesn't mean that the P'grass administration didn't do lots of wrong things or have civil liability or that they shouldn't be recalled; it just means that the GBI can only see one area where the behavior might match a criminal violation of the law. The GBI and the DA's office investigate crimes only--not civil cases, negligence on the job, bad record-keeping, or poor governance and they don't orchestrate recall efforts.