This is an opinion column.

Convicted sheriff gets privileges his inmates didn’t

Former Pickens County Sheriff David Abston threw himself on the mercy of the court.

Splat.

And it worked.

He admitted to fraud and filing a false tax return, to taking food meant for the poor and hungry from a church food bank and feeding it to his inmates so he could pocket the savings.

He owned up to it on the hope of a reduced sentence, and was promised one.

And then he asked to leave the country, to go to Brazil on a church mission trip, because there’s nothing like a convicted fraudster who profited from the crimes of others to spread the light of Jesus.

His parole officer said fine. Go.

His bond conditions were inexplicably sealed by the court.

He was allowed – it is a rare consideration – to keep his passport and go. In the name of God. In the name of good.

So Abston is not just the poster child for rob-from-the-poor-and-give-to-yourself. He’s not just symbolic of corruption and greed and sheriffs who see themselves as above the law.

He’s a monument to special treatment and privilege. He is somebody in Pickens County. So his victims count for nobody.

It’s revolting, deflating. It is typical.

It’s maddening enough that this crook’s mission trip was seen as so vital it demanded court dispensation. But it is absurd on its face.

The poverty rate in Brazil is comparable to Pickens County, though life expectancy is lower in Pickens County. Brazil is 90 percent Christian, a higher rate than the U.S., and it is unlikely a corrupt sheriff is going to save a lot of Portuguese-speaking souls.

Then again, it has always bugged me that people like Abston feel they must travel the world to act like Good Samaritans. Pickens, after all, borders two counties, Greene and Sumter, where more than a third of people live in poverty and could use all the healthy food they can get. It is part of the Black Belt, which shares the social, health and educational shortcomings of developing nations.

I’ll never understand the urge to help those far away, and to ignore those at home. Or defraud them.

This is what they call privilege. It is allowed, simply because Abston was a longtime sheriff, a good church-going man.

I’m reminded of the first real investigative story I did, in the early ‘90s, when a man stole air conditioners from the Birmingham school system and gave them to his church. He defrauded the city and gave heavily to his congregation. His preacher talked of what a fine Christian man he was. The school system lost millions.

It happens over and over. The most corrupt thieves among Alabama’s elite always hide their guilt and suspicion with the words of Jesus and donations to their church.

It’s a sham. And even if it weren’t, it shouldn’t lead to special treatment.

It’s not even like Abston has been a model sheriff, either. The Alabama Ethics Commission recommended years ago that he be prosecuted after he was accused of using inmate labor to work on houses he owned. He skated on that one.

He was the sheriff who was found in his county patrol car near the Mexican border a decade ago. El Paso, Texas police took him to the hospital, saying he was combative and did not adequately answer questions. He was hospitalized, rather than charged.

This is a guy who admitted guilt on two federal counts, a guy who profited off people who broke the law.

He was given a passport, and the benefit of the doubt.

And you wonder why people feel the need to question authority.

John Archibald, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is a columnist for Reckon by AL.com. His column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Write him at jarchibald@al.com.