Now is not the time for graciousness. We've been waiting too long for this.
Frankly, we would have preferred to see 20-year incumbent State Attorney Kirk Zuelch get some jail time. But the humiliating beating he took at the hands of challenger Mark Kohl in the election last Tuesday is the next-best punishment for Zuelch's years of in-your-face corruption, selective law enforcement and babysnatching. The voters kicked his ass! They threw him out into the street like a sore-covered dog. They stomped him like the proverbial grape at a Sicilian wine-making festival.
What makes Kohl's victory— and Zuelch's face-slapping defeat— so delicious is that it's a victory for the people by the people.
• Kohl had virtually no money to run a campaign. Zuelch was heavily financed by the large community of boot-licking fatcat lawyers here. (Almost all of those Zuelch signs outside those lawyers' offices have quickly disappeared. They now have a new butt to kiss.)
• Kohl had virtually no backing from any of the County's establishment powerbrokers. (Oh, they did help him defeat Mick Barnes in the Republican primary, but that support evaporated in the general election as the "establishment" united behind Zuelch in an effort to maintain the status quo.)
Even Key West Mayor Jimmy Weekley put his "prestige" on the line to endorse Zuelch. The voters kicked his ass, too!
We here at Key West The Newspaper are proud that we stood virtually alone among Keys media in recommending Zuelch's ouster. But, frankly, we were concerned that the majority of the voters just wouldn't figure it out. We need not have worried.
So what will Zuelch do now? He could start a private practice— but we hear that he hasn't even been in a courtroom for 20 years. Maybe his pal David Paul Horan will hire him.
We know we will probably get some calls ragging on us for being too hard on Zuelch. But how hard is too hard? After all, we didn't snatch his babies.
Let us tell you a story.
On the final day of the election campaign, Nick Nowatney spotted Zuelch on the street holding a campaign sign. You probably know that, last year, Zuelch falsely accused Nick and his wife of child abuse and took their two babies and held them for 200 days to try to coerce a guilty plea. Those charges were eventually thrown out of court as baseless— but the Nowatneys had to go into debt to the tune of $100,000 to get their kids back and defend their name.
Nick recognized Zuelch. But Zuelch had no idea who Nick was!
"Do you want to hold a sign?" Zuelch said, smiling.
"Not for you," Nick replied.
"Do I know you," Zuelch said, taken aback.
"You should. I'm Nick Nowatney."
"I thought he was going to faint," Nick told us.
But what Zuelch said to Nick next is almost unbelievable: "You know it was nothing personal."
Nothing personal, Mr. Zuelch?! You took that young couple's babies! And even when you learned that you had made a mistake, you continued to keep the kids and pursue the case!
Zuelch has yet to even say "I'm sorry."
The list of people Zuelch has wrongfully hurt is a virtual catalog. Here are just a few of the listings:
• He wrongfully accused local artist Pat Lloyd of abusing her three children. He backed down only when she decided to stand up and fight— and when his dishonorable actions hit the press.
• He wrongfully conspired to put Duck Tours out of business.
• He trumped up charges to try to punish two newly-elected Mosquito Control Board Commissionersfor unfixing a job for a former Key West mayor. Then he tried to hide a report that cleared those Commissioners of any wrongdoing.
• He sided with a customer who was trying to defraudManuel Marcial, a well-respected local jeweler. Even knowing that he had virtually no evidence, Zuelch prosecuted Marcial and dragged his name through the mud. Zuelch's case was so bad that his star witness testified for the defense! A jury required only 35 minutes to return a "Not guilty verdict."
As a result of the Marcial case, Zuelch is being sued personally for malicious prosecution. It could cost him millions! We can't wait for the trial.
Throughout his 20 years as State Attorney, Zuelch abused his power to hurt innocent people. But, in recent years, those abuses have been chronicled in Key West The Newspaper. And, because of that, we hear that some of Zuelch's apologists are now blaming us for his demise. God, we hope so!
But maybe the Zuelch-lovers are right. Maybe we shouldn't kick the boy when he's down. Maybe we should just step back and watch him crawl away.
In Manuel Marcial's pre-election letter to the community asking for the defeat of Zuelch, he concluded with this phrase: "Largate canalla!" Ask one of your Spanish-speaking friends to translate that for you.
FOOTNOTE: The defeat of Kirk Zuelch should send a crystal clear message to the stable of judges who have allowed Zuelch's power abuses to continue over the years. They know who they are— and they share his disgrace.
Key West The Newspaper also stood virtually alone among Keys media in calling for a County Commission makeover. With makeover in mind, we recommended for the three seats that were up for grabs, the election of Sonny McCoy over outgoing Shirley Freeman's hand-picked boy, Sullins Stuart; Dixie Spehar over longtime incumbent Wilhelmina Harvey, and the reelection of incumbent Mary Key Reich, who often stood alone against the bumbling majority.
McCoy won. Dixie won. Mary Kay lost to Murray Nelson in a squeaker.
But there has been a makeover. There will be three new faces on the five-member Commission— a potential majority. We don't know if those new Commissioner will be better or worse than the three outgoing Commissioners. But we do know that they will be different! And as we repeatedly suggested before the election, almost any level of performance should be better that the circus sideshow we've been watching over the past few years.
In the race between incumbent State Representative Ken Sorensen and Ron Herron, we here at KWTN again stood virtually alone among Keys media in endorsing Sorensen. In endorsing Herron, some of the other newspapers criticized Sorensen for often being "at odds" with the County Commission. Well, duh! He should have been at odds with that bunch of dolts!
In this race, Jimmy Weekley again put his "prestige" on the line by endorsing Herron. And, again, the voters kicked his ass! Don't you just love it?! So much for the Mayor's "prestige."
There were probably a number of things that contributed to Herron's defeat— like the voters figuring out that Ken Sorensen represents them in Tallahassee and not the County poowerbrokers. But we want to believe that one of the factors was Herron's involvement in those secret meetings back in 1993 where decisions were made out of the Sunshine concerning how the City would buy ($18.5 million) and manage the Key West Bight.
If you've been around for awhile,you know that we broke that story and pursued it for years until the State Attorney General finally ruled that those meetings violated the State Government-In-the-Sunshine Law.
And we were first to report to you that State Attorney Kirk Zuelch wouldn't be prosecuting Herron, Weekley and others who participated in those meetings because, Zuelch said, no one "knowingly" broke the law. Seriously. That's what he said.
Last Tuesday, the voters not only rejected Herrin's bid for public office, they kicked Zuelch out, too!
What will Herron do now? If he can't feed at the public trough, maybe he can find another local charity that will pay him $75,000 per year for management services.
In trying to explain what happened to Zuelch, Harvey, Herron and other Democrats this past Tuesday, a Citizen reporter speculated that they were the victims of a "Republican buzz saw" that swept the County. Not so.
Throughout the County, more people voted for Democrat Al Gore (16,483) for President than voted for Republican George Bush (16,059). So, obviously, most County voters had no problem voting for a Democrat. If every voter who voted for Gore had voted for the County Democrats who were running for office, they all would have won!
But that's not what happened. Many of those who voted for Gore turned away from his compatriots at the County level. So don't let anybody tell you that Zuelch, Herron and Harvey were victims of some kind of Republican landslide. The majority of the voters just didn't want them.
The referendum to allow the City of Key West to borrow $2.5 million to finance "affordable housing" in Bahama Village passed. We hope that this actually results in some affordable housing in Bahama Village.
But we'll be watching closely— and reporting to you— how much of this cocoa butter is siphoned off for fees for consultants and salaries for administrators before the first "affordable" unit becomes available to anybody.
Keep in mind that we're all still waiting for something— anything— to happen out on the old fairgrounds site, which was purchased back in the last Century for "affordable housing." And we've watched as the affordable units at Poincianna have been doled out to middle-income City and County employees.
We hope that City officials will make it easy for us to watch what happens to that newly-approved $2.5 million— rather than hiding or obfuscating information about spending decisions. How about sending out a memo to the press each time any of that money is chisled away?
And we would urge City Commissioners to force public discussion of each spending decision. No more mystery consultants, please.
Typically what happens is that all the decisions are made behind closed doors and discussed with the City Commissioners in advance— so little or no discussion is required at the public City Commission meetings.
Stay tuned.