Papa Ray Goes Down

A number of people have asked me why I had no written comment on last week's sentencing of Raymond "Papa Ray" Asselin to ten years hard time, but I don't like to kick people while they're down, and as the prison door slams shut behind him, Papa Ray is as down as down can be. Sad, yet he has earned it. 

It is hard to forget how the Asselins strutted around town, demanding a respect they never deserved, treated as pillars of the community when they were hardly any better than common thieves. I remember the days when it was only the Valley Advocate's Stephanie Kraft and myself who were attacking the Asselins when they were at the top of their power, a time when it was difficult and even dangerous to do so. Yet, although I may feel some vindication from their fall, I feel no real sense of satisfaction. All I can feel is sadness and disgust.

Judge Ponsor said that the corruption went on for so long and was so widespread that he said he believed "hundreds" of people must have known what was going on. Yet less than a dozen were indicted and imprisoned. That means there are others out there, almost certainly some politically prominent persons among them, who should have been shackled right beside Papa Ray and yet apparently have escaped justice. But at least the ringleader Papa Ray has finally been held accountable.