If I were a newspaper reporter here is how I would have reported what I observed at the candidate forum last week. The three candidates sat next to one another facing the audience. The room was full of Robey Willis supporters and not Chamber of Commerce members who supposedly hosted the event. Included were Noel Waters, Ann Langer, several deputy district attorneys and many other Robeylites from the courthouse.
Bill Kreider was the first candidate to speak who said he really did not know why he was there as a candidate, except that someone who "wanted to remain anonymous" had asked him to run at the last minute. Kreider denied Weddell's accusation that it was Alan Glover who, as referred to by Weddell, was "the gatekeeper of your vote who ran to the phone when Weddell registered to run" was the person who had called him in an effort to give Robey Willis the advantage in the primary. While Robey agreed that such conduct was unethical, he said his old pal Alan Glover was a great guy and would do no such thing.
Weddell, as he started to speak, said he was nervous and that he did not enjoy making the accusations of misconduct of Robey Willis and other public officials. Regardless, Weddell went on to accuse Robey of not being his own man; rather, he described him as "being a rubber stamp for the district attorney and a puppet of Ann Langer." It was then Robey's turn.
He, even though the serious and seemingly well-supported allegations of Weddell were before him, did not deny any of the accusations. Instead he made light of those allegations by stating that he had not been accused of so many things since he broke up with his girlfriend in the eighth grade. Everyone laughed including Weddell. Included in Weddell's allegations was a picture he had earlier shown the audience of John Bustamonte as he was being released from San Quentin Prison in March of this year. Where there, Weddell said, prison officials had notified him that John Bustamonte was headed back to Carson City. Allegations by Weddell asserting that Robey Willis, Ann Langer, Noel Waters, Rod Banister and a close niche of deputies all have and are continuing to provide known drug dealers and attempted murderers a free pass of our fair city.
As Robey went on talking, it became apparent he is most certainly a social butterfly. I think the only organization, board or committee that he did not mention that he belonged to or chaired was the Ku Klux Klan and Black Panthers. He went on ad nauseum about being on this or that committee making anyone with an ounce of sense wonder, how could a guy be that much of a socialite and be an unbiased judge all at the same time? Come on, now, Robey, not be biased when one of your socialite friends has a legal dispute with some common man who is not in any of your social circles? Hmmm, maybe that's the point Weddell was trying to make. Maybe I will keep that in mind when I vote, remembering all those Retain Robey Willis signs, wondering if, should I get into a slight fender bender with one of his pals, how my rear fender might feel after getting it bent over by Robey.
Weddell fielded questions from the well-salted Robeylite audience. It was an obvious setup. Del White from Redco led with a question about Weddell's arrest in the disappearance of L.B. Loyd. (Dismissed by order of the Supreme Court.) White's follow-up question was how could you not be biased against drug dealers after what happened to your daughter? as if to imply that perhaps as a judge, Weddell might not be tougher on drug dealers than to Del White's liking and some of his public official friends in the room.
Then came a question for Weddell from a guy named Karl Neethammer, who apparently confused by facts and his own fiction about Weddell, asked "What other than being convicted of income tax evasion and shooting your gun qualifies you in running for justice of the peace?"
Weddell responded, telling Mr. Neethammer that he had not been convicted of income tax evasion but rather for failing to file some tax returns, which is a misdemeanor and not a felony as stated by Neethammer. Weddell further stated that the second amendment as he saw it (though different from Neethammer) allowed and contemplated the use of a gun rather something to be left in a closet as tacitly suggested by this brown-nosed irritant. End of my report.
I was expecting an audience of interested or concerned citizens to hear my message. Instead, it was an audience made up of some of those same people who are targets of our grand jury petition and their butt-kissing friends.
It was not the audience I had expected as inferred by the host name (Chamber of Commerce) and for that reason, coupled with all my other jobs, I have chosen to withdraw from the race for justice of the peace. Unlike Robey Willis, I have not taken a penny in campaign contributions, because had I been elected, I did not want to be beholden to anyone.
I wish to thank each and every one of you who has had the courage to sign the petition for a grand jury in Carson City, and I want you to know that we are going forward with that petition. As of this moment, we have over 4,000 validated signatures of the 4,207 we need. I wish to thank Rick, Patty and Tracy at National Voters Out Reach and especially thank the men and women there who have beat the streets in getting the signatures we needed for the grand jury.
Hopefully through this grand jury, we can rid our community of these two dangerous felons and the shameless public officials who have and continue to protect them, all in an effort to make our streets safer and to replace those Carson City public officials named in the grand jury petition with honorable ones.
We will be filing the petition for the grand jury with the district court by the middle of August.
ROLLAND WEDDELL
Carson City