Felony? No Big Deal

As Thaddeus Matthews notes, in this Commercial Appeal story former County Commissioner and present auto dealer to the political elite Joe Cooper admits to felony credit card abuse:

Although Cooper's employment ended near the start of 2000, he testified he "was still doing things'' for Tanner and carrying three of the businessman's credit cards around Labor Day 2001 when Chancellor Peete called him from Florida.

Cooper recalled Peete telling him "his credit card was not working and he needed to pay for some rooms for the weekend.'' Cooper said he called Peete's hotel and "purported myself to be William B. Tanner,'' then used one of Tanner's cards to cover the $1,400 charge.

A month after the incident, Peete ruled in Tanner's favor in the lawsuit against him, ordering Peck to reimburse Tanner for $719,586 spent in his legal defense. Peck's lawyers contend the hotel charge amounted to improper influence, yet Cooper said Peete never knew he'd used Tanner's card.

It would be nice if the CA was as assiduous about pursuing the other miscreants in this story as it was about driving Hyneman from out midst.