Many of you won’t miss a step this week, but for some of the Beacon’s loyal police blotter readers, my absence over the next seven days will be like a lump of coal in your stocking come Christmastime.
During my time off Jake Grilley – the Beacon’s first intern – will man the helm, and deliver the local law enforcement scoop.
This, however, doesn’t mean I won’t be tracking down police blotter-worthy material. I’m in Arizona, near Phoenix, where the sun does shine and where people who run for local government offices get arrested for selling smack.
While the Flathead Valley has its share of Leno-worthy ‘Headlines,’ Arizona isn’t far behind. In fact, The West Valley View, which serves the cities of Avondale, Buckeye, Goodyear, Litchfield Park and Tolleson, may take the cake.
In today’s edition of the newspaper, a headline at the bottom of page one reads, “Tolleson council candidate served prison time in the 1970s.”
His name is Albert Seledon and in 1974 he served time for selling heroin. At the time, he was city’s mayor. No fooling.
He was arrested in 1974 and charged with distribution, importation, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting. All the charges, minus the distribution count, were later dropped.
Further along in the story, he says when asked why he was running for council again: “I’m just doing a public service.”
“There’s a lot of naïve people on the City Council who need to be replaced. A lot of things need to be done to this town, and they have no foresight.”
What about a criminal records, do they have those?
