Tickets with all the fixin’s

Thursday’s court hearings in the Medford gambling saga revealed that former Capt. Tracy Bridges was assigned by the former Sheriff to fix tickets in both Carolinas.

This brings to mind similar charges that emerged during the Pete Bradley and DMV cases, which allegedly tied Medford to ticket fixing in Woodfin. Bradley’s case was settled out of court for a large sum of money and the DMV investigation only resulted in conviction of fringe players. It will be fascinating to see how much old dirt is turned over as the Medford trial proceeds.

As my pal Brian Sarzynski reported back in 2002, in a story about the Bradley case: “Woodfin Mayor Homer Honeycutt—who’s both an elected official and an employee of the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department— has been captured on tape boasting to a Woodfin police officer about fixing tickets. Fixing tickets is patently illegal, and such a boast by an elected official should be taken seriously indeed.

“Why does Honeycutt drive an unmarked sheriff’s cruiser equipped with a radio and blue lights, as several Woodfin residents and officials have alleged? And why have numerous Woodfin residents—including one of the six members of the town’s Board of Aldermen—reported that Honeycutt has been seen on many occasions driving the county-owned vehicle to campaign functions (before he was elected) and using it to conduct town business (after he was elected mayor)?”

If you’re curious about the gambling connection with Honeycutt, look no further. Honeycutt was in charge of registration of gambling machines in Medford’s office, the position later occupied by Johnny Harrison, now a codefendant with Medford in federal court.

Small world.

~ by bothwellsblog on February 15, 2008.