Editor’s Notes

By Patsy Stoddard

I feel bad tonight. A letter to the editor appeared in last week’s paper from James Davis concerning his sister in law Christy Maxwell’s death last summer. It was his opinion which he is entitled to. Many have viewed his take on the sad situation as portraying our sheriff’s office and county attorneys office in a bad light.
I am sure mistakes were made. Mistakes are probably made in all investigations. Humans are prone to imperfections.
I don’t think the sheriff intentionally made a sister cry. I think she called the sheriff and in the process of the call she became emotional and did cry. James statement might lead you to believe our sheriff was callous in this case which is not true. I also don’t think County attorney Mike Olsen threatened anyone. He’s a new County attorney. I wish he would have released more information about the case. The article I wrote about the case the day after it happened was written from information I gleaned from the radio conversations as the situation unfolded that night in Orangeville. I went to the scene as close as I could get and also followed the ambulance and took pictures and gathered what information I could.
Attorney Olsen said he did not want to taint the jury pool by releasing too much information. Ok I understand that but too little information released in this case led to too much speculation and gossip. After the person of interest took his own life and there would be no charges or trial then why not then release evidence and get some facts out there.
I’ve been told the details of the incident would not be pretty and why subject people to hurtful details when it would not do any good.
The two people who know for 100 percent certain what happened that night are dead. Their secrets are their own. There is no one to blame now it will not bring peace to anyone.
I do wish the sheriff’s office would have done their own press releases and been more forthcoming. It’s not that they didn’t have information and they weren’t investigating the case they were.
They did what they were supposed to. They adhered to what the county attorney wanted them to do. They can’t control what the public thinks or the family. They can’t control what goes out in the media.
They do their jobs and let the chips fall where they may.
I fear I have hurt people who matter to me by letting James have his opinion.
It’s the tough part of this job damned if you do and damned if you don’t, but I still believe James has a right to his opinion.
It’s his opinion his view of what went down. It’s his assessment of the situation and its aftermath.
There are no winners in this sad situation. I hate stories like this. No I did not allow James his comments to sell newspapers.
Sometimes it helps just to write things down and get it out of your system.
The autopsy was inconclusive. There hasn’t been a cause of death determined. There will remain more questions than answers.
I only hope the families involved can remember happy times with their loved ones and may the unfortunate circumstances surrounding their deaths be dimmed with good memories and keeping love in their hearts for these two souls.