John Boyle

ASH

On the gaffe-o-meter scale of 1-10, it's not exactly off the charts, but it's probably a good, solid 7.

But it definitely ranks as the worst "gotcha" question ever.

I refer to the recent foot-in-mouth insertion by Democratic District Attorney candidate Todd Williams at a candidates forum. Given the chance to ask a question of his opponent, independent Ben Scales, at the Council of Independent Business Owners gathering, Williams embarked on a rambling query in which he posited, "Many crimes are victimless."

"Such as many DWIs, most all failure to register as a sex offender offenses, statutory rape, many crimes don't necessarily have a victim or you have a victim that has consented, such as in a drug sale," Williams said. "You have said that you would de-emphasize victimless crimes. What is your definition of a victimless crime and what are your plans in that regard?"

Without missing a beat, Scales took Williams to task.

"Well I would strongly disagree with your characterization of all of those crimes that you listed as being victimless," he said. "I think that DUI is, whether or not you have been in accident or not, is the type of crime that harms the fabric of our society. Statutory rape most definitely has a victim."

Williams sat there with a decided deer-in-the-headlights look on his face. Days later, he backtracked, saying, "There are no victimless crimes."

Williams said he "asked a gotcha question and it got me instead."

If you watch the video, and I encourage you to check it out on our website (citizen-times.com — go to about the 40-minute mark), it doesn't really come across as a "gotcha" sort of question. Scales has made it known he supports legalizing marijuana in some cases, and in fact he explains that stance after chastising Williams.

Instead of a "gotcha" question, it struck me as one of those rare windows of insight into how a candidate really feels about certain issues.

If he wanted to make Scales talk about his support for legalizing marijuana in some cases, why not just ask that question straight up?

Aren't lawyers supposed to be able to craft better questions than this?

I assume Williams was trying to refer to statutory rape cases involving teenagers separated by a few years, but most cases prosecuted involve men considerably older than the victim, often a girl in her early teens or even younger. Anybody who's read a few arrest warrants knows this.

"You're not talking about an 18-year-old and a 15-year-old," said current District Attorney Ron Moore, whom Williams beat handily in the Democratic primary. "You're talking about 13-, 14-, 15-year-old girls who are preyed upon by 30-year-old men. To say that's a victimless crime is ludicrous."

On DWIs, Moore said he's seen way too many people maimed and killed by drunk drivers to ever consider it a victimless crime.

What strikes me about this is how much it made Williams, a public defender with no experience heading an organization, look unprepared, even a tad bewildered. He's the handpicked candidate of the progressive wing of Asheville's Democratic kingmakers, but he looked, well...

"Not ready for prime time — that's exactly what came to my mind," Moore said, adding that he plans to vote for Scales.

Sure, Moore lost to Williams, but I think that still says something.

With no Republican candidate running, it at least says Williams just made a race out of one that looked like a runaway.

This is the opinion of John Boyle. Contact him at 232-5847 or jboyle@citizen-times.co