It’s good to have a little money. It’s also good to know the right people in the right places.

Just ask Lee and Rose Prince of Maggie Valley, middle-aged entrepreneurs of some means who hired a couple of local fellows to burn down the popular Back Door Grill and Lounge. Well, why not? After all, it was their own business.

Sure enough, the half million dollar building was successfully torched one year ago (January 2000) in the wee hours of a winter morning and burned to the ground. In less than four days, the Princes filed a claim to defraud the insurance company - not only for the value of the policy but for another $12,000 a month in lost income.

Nine months later, on Oct. 16, after an exhaustive investigation involving no less than 13 public safety and investigative agencies, the Princes pled guilty to three major felonies before Judge “Let ‘Em Go Lo” slapped them on the wrists with a small fine and a suspended sentence. They never spent a day in jail.
For those of you who don’t know “Let ‘Em Go Lo,” I’m referring to the (ahem) Honorable Superior Court Judge Loto G. Caviness of the 29th District from Marion.

This wasn’t a pile of leaves. Rose and Lee Prince are felons who, with malice aforethought, caused a major building fire and endangered the lives of three dozen firefighters from six different agencies, as well as the properties of neighboring homes and businesses. The last I heard, arson is a Class I felony in America. If anyone had died, it would have been a capital crime: Death Row material.

They walked. Where’s the outrage? Where are the pundits of justice and morality who drive around with bumper stickers about intolerance to crime, to lock’em up, to pray, to be good and honest, the ones who write copious letters to editors preaching about doing the right thing?

Awful quiet around here.

If that fire had been set by poor Willie Lump, he’d be languishing under the jail today. So much for equal justice.

It was in August of 1999 that Lee and Rose Prince commissioned Ira Norman “Dick” Cabe and Mark Stephen Pressley, paying them $10,000 up front to set the Back Door Grill on fire. Another $5,000 would be paid after the deed was done.

In the interim, employees of the restaurant and bar began noticing how all the valuable sports memorabilia that adorned shelves and walls was slowly disappearing. After all, torching for profit is one thing, but sentimental value is another.

On that cold winter morning of Jan. 10, 2000, a police officer came upon the burning building at 3 a.m., triggering the most intensive firefighting effort in the town’s history, fighting the blaze for five hours, preventing it from spreading. No one was injured, but 18 valiant volunteer firemen from Maggie Valley risked their lives, supplemented by 20 more personnel from five adjoining jurisdictions. The cost incurred by the fire departments alone was more than $30,000.

The criminals were amateurs, and it showed. Local police and investigators from the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) knew early on this was an arson. In the ensuing months, Chief Investigator Bob Vehe would log 351 official hours of investigation, not to mention the assists from seven other agents and the follow-up at the forensic entities involving no less than six scientists. Total cost to the SBI would exceed 20,000 taxpayer dollars. Add in costs to the Maggie Valley Police, the Haywood County District Attorney and other outside agencies and the grand total incurred by public service personnel and equipment would approach $100,000, compliments of Mr. and Mrs. Prince.

Their fine? $1,500 each.

No, that’s not a typo. Hold on, there’s more.

The first to crack under investigative pressure was Pressley, who then turned over Cabe. When they saw no way out, both men agreed to cooperate with law enforcement in the hopes of getting a break. Sure enough, on a cool day in February, Mrs. Prince was caught on surveillance tape in a Wal-Mart parking lot handing over the $5,000 balance of payment to the arsonists. The dirty money was impounded, and the Princes were subsequently arrested on the first of March. They never openly admitted their involvement until the day they appeared before “Let ‘Em Go Lo” on Oct. 16.

Some cynics thought there was a plea bargain, that prosecutors had made a deal.

“Not so,” says District Attorney Charles Hipps. “We knew they were pleading guilty to the charges, but never dreamed that they wouldn’t be serving jail time. We were all stunned by the judge’s action.”
Amid a chorus of lofty supporters from around the community, the Princes pled guilty to three major felonies: filing a false claim to collect insurance, solicitation to burn a building used for trade, and burning an uninhabited building used for trade. For that, they were adjudicated guilty and given a 12- to 15-month suspended sentence with five years probation, ordered to perform 300 hours of community service and to pay the $1,500 fine.

No jail.

That’s not all. Remember that payoff cash that was impounded after the sting at Wal-Mart? Well, “Let ‘Em Go Lo” ordered their fines paid from the dirty money, and - get this - the balance to be refunded to the Princes.

A criminal’s dream judge, to be sure. Not only did they escape the slammer, they got a refund!
Are you voters reading this?

Three major premeditated felonies, 38 firemen’s lives endangered, nearly a hundred thousand tax dollars down the tubes in investigative costs, attempts to defraud insurance for nearly a half million dollars, and ... the perpetrators get a refund!

Well, you know how it is, when important people go to bat for you. While the judge imposed sentencing, at least a dozen friends of fame, fortune and influence were in court to show their support for the Princes. The defendants claimed they were only induced by the evil boys, that it was their idea all along.

Right.

Good thing Willie Lump Lump wasn’t on trial. He doesn’t know any of those important people.
Then again, power and influence is no stranger to “Let ‘Em Go Lo.” That’s how she became a judge in the first place. Three years out of Wake Forest Law School - before paying her dues with any experience as a trial lawyer - Loto G. Caviness was plucked from legal obscurity by Gov. Jim Hunt to an open judgeship in the 29th Judicial District. Of course, it helped that her mother had been an activist for the governor.

From there, it was more about name recognition than competence. She was elected as a Superior Court judge in 1992 and 1998 by an ignorant electorate who hadn’t a clue who they were sticking on the bench. And, in many cases, she can’t even be held accountable by the regional voters. The system calls for Superior Court judges to rotate around the state serving as visiting jurists, which is what happened in October 2000, when “Let ‘Em Go Lo” rode into town, set the Princes free and then rode back out, leaving an odious trail that would gag a skunk. Equal justice? Give me a break.

Will someone please take down that Lady Justice sculptured over the courtroom bench.

When the dust settled, Lee Prince told a local newspaper reporter that he had no regrets. His plans were to go fishing.

Still, no outcry.

Well, there was one voice. Steve Rich’s name appeared in a letter to the editor on Oct. 18, 2000, written from a prison cell where he’s serving over four years for growing marijuana plants. Rich compared his non-violent offense to the Princes’ case and wondered why he’s rotting in jail while they walk free.
“I feel the system ain’t quite fair,” he wrote. You got that right, Steve. And as long as we elect incompetent judges, it’s going to stay unfair.

By the way, Steve Rich doesn’t know any important people. The simple lawn maintenance man left a wife and two children at home to wait out those four years, while Mr. Prince goes fishing.

There are 197 inmates in the state prison system today who are guilty of setting fires. Someone, please tell me there isn’t a double standard of justice.

What do we tell kids on the cusp of adulthood, while parents, teachers and police officers try to teach the downside of breaking laws? How do we justify and gain respect for our criminal justice system when the double standard tips the scales of justice with influence carved from a golden ingot?
How do you answer that, “Let ‘Em Go Lo?”

And while we’re at it, why aren’t all those review boards, political action committees, congressional investigators, media and other watchdogs probing the actions of this kind of official malfeasance?

Well, I smell something all too familiar. I spent 30 years within the criminal justice system in Miami, where official corruption or incompetence was as common as sunshine, glaring in daily headlines, staining the good names of many fine civil servants. I remember it well. Too often, there was more going on behind the scenes, than in front. I suspect, now, it’s not much different here.

Meanwhile, all you proponents of morality and fairness, letter writers, fist-pumpers and do-gooders. We’re still waiting for the outcry.

Perhaps we need someone like Paul Harvey, who always seems to know the rest of the story. Because it sure does stink around the Western North Carolina judicial system.

(Marshall Frank is a writer who lives in Maggie Valley and a retired Miami-Dade police officer. He can be reached at mlf283@aol.com)

 

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