One of the hottest political races this primary season is for Hamilton County district attorney, who will serve for the next eight years. Unless you’ve lived in a cave over the last year, you know that incumbent DA Neal Pinkston has come under scrutiny for marrying one of his employees – his chief of staff Melydia Clewell – and then hiring her brother, Kerry Clewell.
So? You might say love is love, right? And, yes, it is. No one begrudges love and happiness.
But there is the matter of Pinkston keeping it secret, then misleading county commissioners about who paid his family members – the county or the state – switching them back and forth between payrolls, depending on who was howling the loudest: county commissioners or Tennessee senators and the state comptroller.
Not least, there also is the matter of state law. When the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office in February found Pinkston had violated the state’s Nepotism Act (one of many state laws Pinkston was elected to uphold), our top prosecutor just thumbed his nose at the ruling and put his two relatives on leave. Paid leave.
Even after Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III wrote Pinkston agreeing with the findings of the comptroller’s office, Pinkston kept them there – vacationing on our tax dimes.