MLM LIBERAL EXCLUSIVE: VICKI ALMAY NEVER WAS A NARCOTICS OFFICER, BUT AN INFORMANT HAVING "FAMILIARITY WITH THE DRUG TRADE"

Vicki Almay was NEVER a State of Ohio employee eligible for retirement benefits from Ohio's Public Employees Retirement System, according to an e-mail MLM Liberal received tonight from Common Sense:

People please do some research into the history of Vicki Almay. She was never a certified police officer in any state in the country. She was used as a BCI undercover agent because of her familiarity with the drug trade, a connection which she developed in her life prior to becoming an honest citizen. This is common practice in law enforcement, the use of people currently or formerly a part of the drug culture. Although she was theoretically an agent, she does not recieve a state retirement pension as she is basically considered an informant not a regular officer. She still cannot tell the difference between reality and fiction as the case she refers to was never prosecuted and neither were any of Mr. Brown's staff supposedly related to this case. Another last ditch effort by Mr. Dewine to smear his opponnent. He should have used a person with "Clean Hands" when he made the TV spot.

See the DeWine spot here

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As a former journalist and now an Ohio Department of Public Safety employee, I have always known an informant in drug cases to mean either a drug dealer or a drug user. MLM Liberal can only wonder which applied to Vicki Almay in her past life.

As was posted here yesterday:

From Jonathan Riskin of the Columbus Dispatch October 28:

(Sherrod) Brown himself in 1985 asked for a State Highway Patrol investigation into whether employees in his office were selling illegal drugs, though no one was charged. At best, the ad overstates the level of scandal and at worst is misleading about Brown's culpability.

The Akron Beacon Journal would report the following on September 9, 1990:

"No Proof of Impropriety Found in Drug Inquiry in Brown's Office."

"The patrol has accepted fault for not telling prosecutors about a mid-August 1985 drug buy."

To the readers of this blog: The Bureau of Criminal Identification & Investigation is a division of the Ohio Attorney General's Office, not the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
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A Google advanced search using "Vicki Almay" came up dry. However...

Yet another SOB Alliance member, Matt Hurley of Weapons of Mass Discussion, has become the latest member of that Alliance to not only slam my co-workers but also to accuse them of wrongdoing:

When this failure to take action on the drug buys surfaced in 1990, an investigation was launched by Franklin County Prosecutor Michael Miller into whether a cover-up had been conducted. While Miller could find no direct evidence of cover-up, he did find that Highway Patrol officers failed to turn over their findings to prosecutors, and that a felony case existed that was not prosecuted.

Inquiries made by newspapers at the time also uncovered the fact that reports filed by Joseph Hopkins, the lead Highway Patrol investigator, were altered after he filed them to lessen the severity of the drug crimes committed. Further newspaper reports indicate that the actions taken by (State Highway Patrol) investigators left lingering questions of whether politics played a role in the probe’s conclusion.

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It is absolutely unbelievable how members of the State of Ohio Blog (SOB) Alliance have been brazen in their smear campaign against the employees of the Ohio Department of Public Safety on behalf of Ken Blackwell and now Mike DeWine.

It is one thing to smear me. I was prepared for that. But when there appears to be a coordinated effort by SOB Alliance members to smear my co-workers (including at least 1,600 State Highway Patrol troopers), these bloggers will be revealed for who they are.

The politically correct term would be Karl Rove wannabees. My co-workers would use a more direct term: bullies.

Chris Matthews of MSNBC may not be even that kind, as readers can see from his interview with DeWine yesterday.

See Chris Matthews' interview with DeWine here.