It’s dawned on me that we’ve added quite a few new viewers in the past few years. Readers who are not familiar with some of the corruption that has been part of the Delaware Way forever.
As you can see from this story from WDEL, (or more accurately from Randall Chase of the Associated Press, who has got to be the most underrated journalist in Delaware), ex-state legislator Walker, who turned her opposition against death penalty repeal into a huge sinecure with the police, has opted for a bench trial on charges of corruption. Faking drug and alcohol tests to cops that never were administered. Chase provides a lot of history on the back-story, which is always welcome.
Here is the story I wrote on Walker back in 2015, when this corrupt deal was sealed. For those of you who are relatively new to Delaware Liberal, I hope this fills in a lot of blanks for you:
BREAKING: Ex-Legislator Rewarded For Burying Death Penalty Repeal Bill
Remember Rebecca Walker? She’s the former chair of the House Judiciary Committee who buried the death penalty repeal bill in her committee for most of 2013 and all of 2014.
Remember Rebecca Walker? She’s the former legislator who claimed she was running for reelection in 2014, had actually filed, waited until after the filing deadline, then withdrew her name, thus denying the Democratic voters in her district the right to choose her successor via primary. Remember why Rebecca Walker claimed she withdrew? She said that her work would not enable her to continue to serve. As if she just found that out right after the filing deadline.
Well, guess what ‘good fortune’ has been bestowed upon former State Rep. Rebecca Walker?
If you guessed a $92.5K state job that required no public posting and which reunites her with her police pals with whom she scuttled death penalty repeal, you would be correct. Oh, and it’s a newly-created job that had not previously existed (I know that’s redundant, but sometimes I feel the need to employ both belt and suspenders). An exempt position, no less. No pesky Merit System requirements like, say, qualifications. Or ethics. Tony DeLuca Part Deux. Oh, and she’s now in a position where, should inconvenient evidence not make the police look good, she can do something about it. Appointed by someone who opposed death penalty repeal in Delaware.
LADEEZ AND GENTLEMEN: The brand new ‘Deputy Director’ of the brand new (and profoundly ill-considered) Delaware Division of Forensic Science, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Delaware Department of Homeland Security: Rebecca Walker.
You got that? The forensics will now be under the purview of the state cops. What could possibly go wrong? My prediction: Evidence will still disappear. It will just be different evidence. If a cop has been alleged to have done something wrong, how can anyone trust the cops to ensure that the evidence is preserved? History teaches us that we can’t. And now Rebecca Walker will be reunited with her cop buddies and will have access to that evidence.
Once again proving that, with the Delaware Way, there is no justice. Just casual corruption that rewards the corrupt who play the inside game.
What. A Disgrace.