News article got into rumor-mongering

  • Follow Letters

I was unaware that the Augusta Chronicle had merged with the National Enquirer , but apparently this is the case.

In your latest article where you mention Sgt. Richard Roundtree and the female inmate, this newspaper crossed the lines from reporting facts and instead moved into sensationalist rumor reporting.

You stated that Maj. Autry released a statement that no wrongdoing was found; you also reported that the inmate reports nothing elicit occurred. But then you proceeded to blatantly insinuate otherwise by saying there was no account for the time, sometimes hours, that he spent alone with her.

Do you realize that this investigator has one of, if not the highest, "close" rate of any investigator in the state, if not the region? At what point do legitimate news media become involved in rumor reporting?

Do you realize in a city with the crime rate and law enforcement understaffing that we have to lose a resource like Roundtree is something to be sad about, not pumped up and inflamed with rumors?

Augusta Chronicle, get a grip on fact reporting and save it for the water cooler.

Carolyn L Moore Rahn

Augusta

Comments

pofwe

The National Enquirer's standards have been raised since its earlier inception. Roundtree may deserve all the glowing praise you credit to him but his professionalism and moral issues seem to be lacking. He did take files home, which is against department policy. On top of that he left the files unsecured along with a firearm in his vacted apartment. How professional is that? Just because he and a female murder suspect say "nuttin happened" when they were out alone, (doing God only knows), don't mean a thing if it has that "WANG." Get-it?

angiesdad

anyone who has ever worked in law enforcement will tell you,you never leave a male officer alone with a female prisoner and vice versa.even billy graham knew that and always had another person with him,just in case.this detective seems inept,replace him and move on,because you can believe down the road he'll mess up again.

patriciathomas

Richard Roundtree seems to have a career full of line crossing action. There's a reason for procedure just like there's a reason Roundtree seems not to have been guided by procedure. The appearance of impropriety means he's not doing his job nearly as well as he should. His reprimand will give him another chance to do better. (I've noticed that all news media seems to be following the National Enquirer model)

Riverman1

He takes a prostitute out of jail and spends hours alone with her with no record of an interrogation or anything. She writes him many letters from prison. He takes orginal files home and leaves them there. That has ruined those cases since nothing was done for all those months. Plus, wasn't the file of the same prostitute who is in prison for murder in that stack found? Keep an eye on her future appeals.

streetwatcher

all this brings me to the question, Why do we never see prostitutes in the for the record? and why do they arrest the men buying them and not the prostitutes? and why is Harrisburg still full of prostitutes ? on any given friday you can come to Harrisburg and watch the same cars, trucks ect with columbia county tags, and with south carolina tags riding the Harrisburg streets until on of them scags gets into their auto. but you NEVER see or hear of the Prostitutes getting arrested????

XY

Did anyone watch Roundtree's entire interview on channel 6 website. And if the Sheriff's Office thought so little of Roundtree and he had such a bad history WHY would they send him to the HIGHEST law enforcement school in the nation. If being alone with a female suspect was wrong they would have said it was wrong but his supervisors said he did nothing wrong as it relates to the inmate. And as for the files, Riverman you have no clue, ask your friends at the sheriff's office when was the last time ANY investigator looked at a cold case. Nothing is done on cold cases unless someone like Roundtree cares enough and takes the time to actualy look at one.

HYPOCRITES 08

Great post INJUSTICE.

pofwe

Yeah justus, you da' mahn.

patriciathomas

Oh, I see. This is just another attempt by the white man to keep the black man down. What a surprising post justus4.

Top headlines

Accused Aiken police officer shooter denied bond

AIKEN -- South Carolina authorities will not release video recordings today from the Dec. 20 traffic stop that ended in the shooting death of an Aiken officer.
Online Database by Caspio
Click here to load this Caspio Online Database.
Loading...