The Maynor Event

I have to say, in all honesty, that while the charges against Glenn Maynor aren't altogether surprising, it still made me pause when I heard about it Thursday morning.

To her credit, my friend who writes for a local newspaper waited until AFTER her story ran to call me. I am not in Robeson County anymore; we have a reporter embedded there. I still maintain many contacts there, and still get some good gossip from up there from time to time.

That is why I am not surprised that Maynor now faces the federal court system.

However, I am taken back to when I first started working at WBTW, and my second day on the job. Then-Sheriff Maynor was the first interview I conducted for my first-ever on-air story. He was very nice, very helpful, and very friendly. The same can be said for every time I spoke to him. I remember times when I called Maynor at home, on his cell, or in his office, and if he didn't have the information I was looking for, he told me where I could get it.

I think it's the beginning of the end of a sad era in Robeson County politics. The investigation, and the subsequent plea bargains that have resulted, have painted a very negative picture on what should be a noble institution: The Robeson County Sheriffs Office, now ran by Maynor's hand-picked successor, Ken Sealey.

Painfully, this may, one way or the other, paint Maynor's legacy in a light that is less than kind. He was, after all, the county's first American Indian sheriff. If you don't know the significance of that, then you either haven't lived in the Eastern Carolinas very often, or don't ever watch News13. The Lumbee Indian community was very proud of Maynor's accomplishments, and many of them still stand behind him.

In the end, justice is coming down on those who may or may not have stepped outside of the law.

But for me, former Sheriff Maynor helped me when I needed help starting out, and I can't help but remember that when I hear this news.

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