This Can’t Be Good
According to my colleague Jack Rinehart at RTV 6, City-County Councilor Paul Bateman is under investigation for his role in a charitable foundation that is missing more than $1.5 million.
Marion County Grand Jurors served a search warrant last week on the headquarters of the Russel Foundation seizing computers, IRS records and other documents.
Bateman is listed as the Chief Operating Officer on the charity’s website. Bateman would not comment on the warrant to RTV 6, but he would only say he has done nothing wrong.
I will be the first person to stand up and say a search warrant is not guilt and Bateman and I, while having philosophical disagreements at times, have always been cordial to each other.
However, this news can’t be good for Marion County Democrats in general and Black Democrats in particular. Bateman’s potential troubles come on the heels of Doris Minton-McNeil being arrested on disorderly conduct charges. And last year Monroe Gray and Ron Gibson found themselves at the center of controversies.
I don’t know who’s running the local Democratic party these days, but these incidents are evidentiary of an absence of leadership and getting people in line.
