A Telling Letter - What Say You Mac?
The below is a letter recently received. Unfortunately, the author, was denied the opportunity to have the letter published by several Pitt County Newspapers………even as a PAID letter/advertisement! The refusal of the Daily Reflector to publish the letter is to be expected based on their endorsement of a candidate, Sheriff Manning, who has several current or former officers in prison or under indictment. It smacks of an even higher level of HYPOCRISY since the Daily Reflector allowed Mac’s paid advertisement where he stated Barbara Pollard’s efforts to bring accountability to those responsible for her son’s death was nothing more than a politically motivated smear campaign. Incredible isn’t it? Not when the political career of Pitt County’s highest ranking law enforcement officer and source of information to the local paper as well as the financial well being of several local attorneys is concerned. What a wretched crew we have been reduced to depending on for news and protection.
To My Fellow Citizens of Pitt County:
Many of you may, or may not, know the history of my relationship with Sheriff Mac Manning. It started in 1998, on the day I was sworn in as Pitt County Commissioner for District 6. After taking my Oath of office, I witnessed a number of Sheriff’s Deputies enter the Commissioner’s Auditorium. During a break, I found that these deputies had just lost their jobs because Mac refused to swear them in. These deputies were with their wives and children. I observed many of their wives crying. This truly broke my heart, so after the meeting, I went directly to the Pitt County Sheriff’s office and asked Mac why these trained officers were not keeping their jobs. His response was, “I am responsible for the actions of this department and I need people working for me that I can trust”, indicating that because these officers may have supported their previous Sheriff during the election, Mac could no longer trust them.
The next dealing I had with Sheriff Manning was over a contract he signed with a phone company regarding the Pitt County Detention Center. I questioned the Pitt County Attorney and was informed that, legally, the Sheriff could not sign a binding contract. However, in an effort not to embarrass the Sheriff, the County Commissioners later voted to approve the same contract that Manning had previously signed. I later found that the phone company’s salesman was a former Sheriff of another county who in the future would contribute money to Mac Manning’s campaign.
On several occasions Manning came before the Pitt County Commissioners and requested more money to keep the deputies from leaving the department. I personally talked with each deputy whom had resigned, only to find not a single officer noted financial reasons for their departure. They told me they left the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office for more job security after seeing the way other deputies were treated by Sheriff Manning.
Other things I questioned Sheriff Manning about included: where money came from for so-called “Public Service Announcements” on television, which featured Mac Manning shortly before his 2002 Sheriff’s Election. I also questioned why Mac wanted the Commissioners to budget $1800 for a sniper rifle that could be bought at any retail gun store for $800.
Because I was doing what I believed to be my duty as an elected Pitt County Commissioner and steward of the taxpayer’s money, I was becoming a so-called “thorn in the side” of Sheriff Manning. Prior to the election of 2006, several deputies informed me that Mac Manning was “furious” about my questioning him. I was told that he along with some of his deputies were “plotting” to unseat me as County Commissioner and fill the seat with one of Mac’s good friends, Kenneth Ross. I immediately started seeing my signs removed from my friends’ yards, and being replaced with Kenneth Ross signs. When I asked why, they told me that a “Deputy” had told them “I was destroying the Sheriff’s Department, and that they needed me out of office and Ross elected in my place.” On Election Day there seemed to be more Deputies Sheriff’s working the elections polls than there were working the streets! Apparently, Mac Manning was getting his revenge by placing well-known Deputies at all the precincts in my district wearing red t-shirts that read, “Vote for Kenneth Ross”. Kenneth Ross and Mac Manning have lied both to me and about me, many times.
After the dealings I have had over the last twelve years, many recent actions of Sheriff Mac Manning and some Pitt County Sheriff’s Deputies have come as no surprise to me.
In closing, I am asking you to vote with my family and I, for two people that have never lied to me or the citizens of Pitt County. These two men are: Neil Elks for Pitt County Sheriff and Dr. Michael House for Pitt County Commissioner District 6.
D. Glenn Bowen, Jr.
Former Pitt County Commissioner, District 6
GET OUT AND VOTE FOLKS, IT’S OUR ONLY CHANCE.
April 28th, 2010 at 7:15 pm
Mr. Bowen, I suggest you print a thousand copies of this letter and start putting them on people’s windshields and handing them out at the polling places tomorrow, Saturday and on Tuesday. I would start your wind shield campaign now, hand this letter to people walking in and out of Manning’s office. Make sure Henry Hinton gets this letter. He might even read it on his show (don’t hold your breath). I am sure you can find some of Elks’ volunteers to help pass this letter out to people at the polls. You have clout as a former Commissioner, use it. Hold a press conference; send out press releases every day until the election. Hold a press conference at the Ag Center and show the media how to report the facts. Post this letter on every political story the Reflector runs, do it several times. The media in Pitt County remind me of the walking dead. Michelle Pollard’s deposition reads like a road map to her current jail cell, and the press ignores it even today. Mac investigated that colostomy bag for animal cruelty in the 90s, so he has no excuse for playing stupid or saying he inherited her. It would be nice for someone in the press to have asked Mac what made Michelle so special? They won’t-ever because they are afraid to do their jobs. Take no prisoners, expect no quarter and offer none what so ever. You have the truth on your side, and the truth must be known. If by some unforeseen chance a member of the media see this please before the question find out why Mac promoted and allowed a deputy to carry a firearm and manage others who failed a polygraph test, admitted to doing cocaine, and could not tell the difference between her dreams and reality?