The Blog of Columbus, Georgia

28 FEB 08: FOUL GROUNDS

(BLOGGER'S NOTE: All jokes for today are suspended, due to the sensitive nature of our main topic. We hope to resume our usual format Friday.)

BLOG EXCLUSIVE: As we first posted around 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, your blog has now confirmed the charge against former Pioneer Little League Board member Ron Harris. It is a single criminal charge of "sexual exploitation of children."

Court records show Ron Harris was arrested last December 12. Robert Ford with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told us late Wednesday his agency has handled the case. Ford says he's "almost positive" a summary of the G.B.I.'s findings has been submitted to the District Attorney's office. (He was outside his office when we talked with him.)

Earlier in the day, a Muscogee County prosecutor handling the Ron Harris case told the blog it is being "prepared for indictment" -- which means it will be presented to an upcoming grand jury. The prosecutor said no specific date has been set for that.

The prosecutor added Columbus Police are still investigating the Ron Harris case. We left a message with the police sex crimes unit Wednesday seeking more details, but there was no reply by our post time.

Robert Ford believes the Ron Harris case involves child pornography, which may have been found on Harris's computer. Ford was not aware of Harris's connection with Pioneer Little League, so he could not comment further along those lines.

When we talked with Pioneer Little League Vice President Lamar Pruitt Tuesday night, he told us he did NOT know the specific charge against Ron Harris. But after the arrest in December, Harris left the Pioneer board.

We mentioned Wednesday that according to Lamar Pruitt, all members of the Pioneer Little League board go through an annual background check. We reviewed the Georgia Sex Offender Registry, and Ron Harris is NOT listed there - so for all we know, this is the first accusation against him.

You'll recall a former Pioneer Little League board member e-mailed us Tuesday. We sent a reply, asking if he knew anything about the Ron Harris case. As of Wednesday night, we had received no answer either way.

Those are the facts as we have them -- and there's much more that we'd like to know, but currently do not:

+ If child pornography truly is on that computer, whose pictures are there? Could this be a case similar to what happened with the Columbus Boys Choir?

+ The Ron Harris case apparently was at least a "rumor" inside local Little League circles. Were Pioneer parents ever told about this arrest?

+ When the first e-mails of complaint about Pioneer Little League reached us last summer, did anyone imagine it would lead to an arrest like this?

Now for our personal thoughts about all of this. It's sad that we have to break this sort of news - but as Lamar Pruitt noted when we called him, no local news outlet mentioned Ron Harris's arrest last December. It apparently went unreported for more than two months.

There's no good time of year to break a story like this - but the timing of this discovery admittedly is terrible for Pioneer Little League. The new season begins in about two weeks. I'm not in a position to tell any parent what to do, but I would understand if some of them had second thoughts about letting their children play this year.

It's possible this entire case is built around one person's accusation against Ron Harris - and we've chronicled the divisions among adults in Pioneer Little League since last June. But given what the prosecutor told us Wednesday, the G.B.I. apparently agrees there's enough evidence to take it to a grand jury. The sooner this case can be resolved, the better things are likely to be for all parties.

E-MAIL UPDATE: In light of this new information, the unedited e-mail which first accused Ron Harris was posted in the 27 Feb blog entry Wednesday. We also have a response to what a former Pioneer Little League board member wrote earlier this week:

Richard,

The email from Mr. Olvera was fantastic fun reading, but really ends up demonstrating the problem at Pioneer versus shedding any light on it. Mr. Olvera is one of those Pioneer board members that always existed as a symptom of all the problems at Pioneer, certainly not one that would conduct all of the great investigating that he mentioned when parents mentioned or documented problems.

This is a great example of a typical Pioneer board member's attitude, and a response is indeed warranted.

No little league in Columbus, GA has ever mandated as a board that teams must buy uniforms from one vendor. Remember the pressure your blog brought on Pioneer last year, resulted in this year the board saying we highly recommend you buy uniforms from DCR sports ala Bo Weaver Pioneer Board Member. But the fact remains that on Mr. Olvera's watch, last year (2007) the board indeed did mandate as an entity that teams buy their uniforms from DCR Sports, or Bo Weaver. Mr. Olvera has really thrown some great PR spin moves by trying to equate Northern and Peach LL with similar actions. Bottom line, it never happened at Northern or Peach, which are leagues that NEVER indicates to team coaches and managers where to buy anything. Especially in an official board capacity. Also the whole spin that the decision was an attempt to save money for families is ludicrous. At least with a $100 uniform the kids got good uniforms. The money saved on $65 ones from DCR sports is no savings at all when the uniforms resemble threads by game 2.

As for resolving complaints by turning to the board, he must be kidding. You chronicled how Pioneer treated a volunteer coach of 20 plus years in Coach Miley. This is indicative of standard board conduct when problems are presented. Is Coach Miley happily coaching away at Northern LL now? Yes. Just ask him.

And the real kicker is Mr. Olvera's assertion that other leagues have this problem and other problems. Richard, what other email complaints have you received about other little leagues? What other little league in Columbus is so bad, that it motivates folks to pick up the keyboard and set their complaints down? I have been a long time reader of your blog. It appears none! Did I miss something?

Let me take you thru a standard complaint to a board at Pioneer over the years. For instance the president Rick Chadwick.

"Rick I was wondering why we can't maybe buy our uniforms from Team Sports?"

"You don't like it here", responds Rick Chadwick.

"No I like it here, just wondering on the uniforms, I think it sets a bad precedent to force and coerce folks to buy from one source."

"Well if you don't' like the policies of this board and myself, please find your way to American LL", replies Rick.

This Sir Richard, to steal a phrase from the constable, is standard issue resolution policy at Pioneer when you approach a board member. Case in point? You documented it quite well with the Coach Miley situation.

And Mr. Olvera ends right on point by sneaking in to make sure you help raise money! Can you actually imagine Pioneer representing us in the Little League World Series? Well based on how the league is run you won't have to worry about that, as they are probably as usual never advance past city play, but to equate Pioneer board member actions, with the professionalism shown by Northern when they won the LLWS, is really an insult that league. In contrast to Pioneer, Northern raised tons of money and used it for the kids, which may be why when you go to Northern as I did the other day, you see brick dust based baseball fields, nice facilities and new practice fields. Wait, it can't be, Northern actually uses the money they raise for the kids Greg. Huh what a concept!

Thanks!

The matter of team uniforms pales in comparison to the case we're focusing on today. We'll do some fact-checking with other Little Leagues as time permits. And we tried to call Coach Philip Miley after receiving this e-mail, but the line was busy at his home.

Let the record show that Pioneer Little League actually had a Georgia state champion last summer. The nine-and-ten year-old girls' softball team took the title [20 Jul 07]. But NO e-mails reached us about that -- and if we hadn't paid attention to the late-night TV sportscast, we never would have known about it.

There's a part of me that wonders if this series of messages (especially several weeks before opening day) really is designed to pressure Pioneer Little League President Rick Chadwick to resign. The critics probably wouldn't object to that. But to me, this doesn't seem the proper way to go about bringing change. And if online politicking really worked, Ron Paul would be leading the Republican Presidential race right now -- challenging Howard Dean.

Today's main topic was the result of a blog reader's tip. To offer a story tip, make a PayPal donation, advertise or comment on this blog, write me - but be warned, I may post your e-mail comment and offer a reply.

BURKARD BULK MAIL INDEX: 891 (+ 14, 1.6%)

The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author -- not necessarily those of anyone else in Columbus living or dead, and perhaps not even you.

UPDATE 3/12:00m

Thursday, February 28, 2008