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Huckabee Got a Rapist Freed (for dumb reasons), Allowing him to Kill Again" Mike Huckabee pressured the Arkansas Parole Board to free a convicted rapist, Wayne Dumond -- who then moved to Missouri and raped and killed two more women. Worse yet, he lies to this day about it, denying he had a role.
Worse yet, Huckabee ignored the desperate pleas of the rape victim, a 17-year-old high school student, and several other women who wrote him to say that Dumond also raped them and should not be released. The victim went to the governor's office, got right in his face, and said "This is how close I was to Wayne Dumond. I will never forget his face. And now I don't want you ever to forget my face."
Incredibly, Huckabee was unmoved, and argued that the rapist was innocent, or at least got a "raw deal... He'd been born on the wrong side of the tracks and hadn't been treated all that fairly." He even wrote a letter to the rapist saying "My desire is that you be released from prison. I feel that parole is the best way for our reintroduction to society to take place."
Huckabee had a lot of other reasons to keep Dumond in prison, too. Another woman wrote him that Dumond had raped her mother, when she was 3 years old and sleeping in bed with her -- and threatened the mother that he would rape and kill the 3 year old if the mom did not cooperate. A third woman wrote Huckabee that Dumond raped her at knifepoint, and added "I feel that if he is released it is only a matter of time before he commmits another crime and fear that he will not leave a witness to testify against him the next time." One of Huckabee's chief former aides has confirmed that the the then-governor read that letter and spoke with the victim in a follow-up phone call. He also heard about Dumond's alleged role in a murder while serving in the army.
So why was he so determined that Dumond be released? How could he ignore all of these heartfelt pleas? Well, a preacher friend of his ministered to Dumond in prison, and believed his claim that he was born-again. Huckabee commuted or pardoned over 669 prisoners, including 12 murderers -- 10 times as many as Bill Clinton did over 9 years, and more than all of the larger states surrounding Arkansas put together -- as long as they claimed to be born-again Christians, or worked at the governor's mansion, or played in the prison band.
Also, the teenage rape victim was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton, who as governor refused a request for pardon by the rapist. Right-wing circles at the time -- including NY Post columnist Steve Dunleavy and radio host Jay Cole -- had a conspiracy theory that Clinton railroaded Dumond.
Stranger yet, Dumond called the police one night and said that two men had broken into his trailer and castrated him. (The police thought he had done it himself, to gain sympathy and show that he was safe to release. Huckabee said he felt sorry for the rapist.)
In a bizarre twist, the local sheriff (Coolidge Conlee) put the testicles in a fruit jar on his desk and showed them off. "That's what happens to bad guys in my county," he liked to say. Ironically, Dumond sued him for intentional infliction of distress and won over $100,000. Then that sheriff was himself convicted of extortion, and died in jail. (Arkansas is a pretty interesting place, eh?)
Now that he's in a tight presidential race, Huckabee is denying that he had any role in Dumond's release, and has refused to release the governor's office documents on the case. He has blamed Bill Clinton for the release, or Jim Guy Tucker, the governor after Clinton and before Huckabee (who was later convicted himself of fraud in the Whitewater case.) But Huckabee's story keeps changing, and he doesn't dispute the letter of support he sent to Dumond. He said he wished he "knew more" about Dumond -- before details of the letter sent to him by other victims were made public; then he had no comment. Dumond also had a prior record -- a guilty plea for attempting to assault a teenage girl in Tacoma, Washington, and Dumond's own sworn testimony -- under a grant of immunity -- that he and two friends beat a man to death with a claw hammer in a public park, because he dated their friend's ex-wife.
Huckabee now claims that he had no influence over the parole decision. However, that board voted 4 to 1 to NOT release Dumond before Huckabee was governor. Huckabee arranged a meeting with the board, and the board's secretary -- who normally tapes the entire session -- was asked to leave the room, violating state law. After that, the board reversed their decision, voting 4 to 1 in favor of parole. Huckabee denies he asked them to release Dumond, but four of the parole board members insist that Huckabee pushed them to release Dumond. (The others are dead, not talking, or forgot what happened.) Huckabee claims that all four parole board members are lying. His office also claimed, at first, that the letters to him from other Dumond victims were not genuine, but now admits receiving at least one of them. Huckabee's former lawyer -- referred to reporters by Huckabee's own campaign, to support his story -- actually said that the governor called Dumond's sentence "outlandish" and "way out of line", and that Huckabee pushed for Dumond's release.
Huckabee refuses to release the documents from his office concerning the case. A former aide has sasid that Huckabee's staff discussed how to make sure that documents about the case, especially the letters from other Dumond victims, could be kept secret. When he left the governor's office, Huckabee spent the entire governor's emergency budget - set aside for hurricans, tornadoes and the like -- destroying the hard drives of 100 computers in the governor's office. -
Rapist Sources
"The Story Mike Huckabee Dreads", by Byron York, The National Review, December 5, 2007
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/223026/story-mike-huckabee-dreads/byron-york
"Let us not whitewash governor's Clemencies", by Garrick Feldman, Arkansas Leader, July 28, 2004
"Huckabee's role in rapist's parole comes under fresh scrutiny", by Dana Bash and Alexaner Mooney, CNN.COM, December 7, 2007
"Murder Victiim's Mother Assails Huckabee," CBS News.Com, December 5, 2007
"Paroled Rapist Could Haunt Huckabee," by Brian Montopoli, CBS News.Com, December 4, 2007
"Huckabee Aide: Gov Pushed For Rapist's Freedom," by Brian Ross, ABC News: The Blotter, December 5, 2007
"Former Aide Contradicts Huckabee Defense of Rapist's Release," by Murray Waas, Huffington Post, December 5, 2007
"Documents Expose Huckabee's Role in Serial Rapist's Release," by Murry Waas, The Huffington Post, December 4, 2007
"Hard Times For Huckabee," The Hotline -- National Journal, December 6, 2007
"Despite Victim's Pleas, Huckabee Pushed Rapist's Freedom," by Brian Ross and Joseph Rhee, ABC News: The Blotter, December 5, 2007
http://www.realchange.org/huckabee.htm#rapistsources.
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