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INSIDER@THEMETROSPIRIT.COM Insider is an anonymous, opinion-based examination of the hidden details of Augusta politics and personalities.
More Confusion
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The grandson of the creator of Red Bull appears to have run over and killed a police officer and Bangkok, Thailand, with his Ferrari, dragging the officer and his motorcycle several dozen feet before fleeing the scene. We would make a joke about how he needed those wings Red Bull supposedly gives you, but that would just be wrong.
Not long after the Spirit broke the story about Georgia State Patrol Lieutenant and District 7 Commission Candidate Donnie Smith’s involvement with those involved in an incident at Wild Wing that resulted in the arrest of one Jay Blackburn, word got out that Smith was being investigated by the State Patrol, which doesn’t like its members to make news the way that Smith was making news. Tuesday afternoon on the Austin Rhodes radio show, Smith confirmed that he’d been told by superiors not to comment on the incident until they had a chance to look into it. By airtime, the case was closed, and he was free to tell his side of the story. At least that’s what he told Rhodes. Thing is, his side of the story doesn’t really hold up. For one thing, if Smith’s statement on the Austin Rhodes show is true and he didn’t do anything but collect friend Charles, help the cops on the scene get information out of Blackburn, who was uncooperative, and drive away, how did Will Scholer know that Smith knew the owner of the Wild Wing in Macon, who by the way just happens to be a retired Richmond County law enforcement officer? Smith’s statement was that he did not talk to anyone with Wild Wing, only assisted the officers after they requested his help, and was there just to give Charles a ride home. And what about all that? Friend Charles, a drunk and disorderly 20-something year old, just got kicked out of Wild Wing. His running buddy is sitting in the back of a patrol car. He needs a lift home. So… who to call… who to call… I know! I’ll call a 20-year veteran of the Georgia State Patrol, one who is running for Richmond County Commission and who dates the local District Attorney. He doesn’t have anything better to do than come and pick me up and drive me home. That makes perfect sense. Said no one ever. Jay Blackburn was calling for his friends to call Donnie Smith as soon as the officers had him on the ground. If what Donnie Smith said on the Austin Rhodes program is true, how did Will Scholer, the Wild Wing employee who had his job threatened by Smith — and whose parents own the Wild Wing — how would he know Smith knew who owned Wild Wing in Macon and Augusta? The only plausible explanation, since he had never met nor did he know Smith, is that Smith told him. In casual conversation? No. Smith told him as a threat. None of Smith’s denials ring true. In fact, on the radio the tentative Smith didn’t sound like he believed himself in his own denials. Why? Maybe because there were too many witnesses. Too many people who know the people involved. The only thing that Insiders question is what is he thinking? As Groucho Marx put it, Are you going to believe me, or what you see with your own eyes?
Donnie Smith
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6SEPTEMBER2012