MAGA elected official calls on Grady Judd to account to Taylor Cadle
Will anyone else in Polk County's weak "leadership class" match Property Appraiser Elect Neil Combee's basic moral clarity about this atrocity? Who will call for Judd to fire Det. Melissa Turnage?
Polk County’s Taylor Cadle atrocity is a massive story, told in excruciating detail by Cadle herself and reporters Rachel DeLeon and Julia Lurie. But it boils down to this:
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office belligerently disbelieved 13-year-old Taylor Cadle of Lakeland when she reported her multiple, very real incest/rapes by Henry Cadle — her uncle-turned-adopted father — in 2016. They charged her with fabricating her own very real incest rapes. They hauled her in front of a judge and forced her to apologize in writing to her incest rapist. Then they sent her right back to her incest rapist to be incest-raped again. The extraordinarily brave and self-possessed Cadle Cadle documented on her phone her next incest rape as it happened by side of the road in 2017 in an unbelievable act of composure and courage. She caught an image of incest rapist “dad”s exposed penis on camera just before her raped her with it — again. Only then would Grady Judd’s agency do its job. And the detective who abused Cadle, Melissa Turnage, remains employed by Grady Judd, despite a long record of incompetence and failure.
You can read the full story from DeLeon and Lurie here:
You can read my takes here:
A meaningful apology and statement from a very MAGA Polk County elected official
Credit where due: Current Polk County Commissioner and Property Appraiser Elect Neil Combee issued that statement Friday on his personal Facebook page. That makes him the first and only elected official in Polk County to publicly acknowledge the Polk Sheriff’s Office’s and legal system’s abuse of Taylor Cadle
I think calling Taylor Cadle “this poor girl” misreads her power severely; and I would have preferred an official release on County Commission letterhead demanding that failed Sheriff Grady Judd fire Det. Melissa Turnage, who is an ongoing threat to public safety.
But those are just my quibbles. This is a significant public statement from a very MAGA public official. It is better than not having one. It matters. We’ll see how much.
This is also a good example of why I’ll never be the one to break off relationships with MAGAs. I’d much rather apply constant, aggressive moral pressure and see what happens.
Fire Det. Melissa Turnage watch: “Daydreaming about it”
What makes the Cadle atrocity an ongoing Grady Judd scandal hiding in plain sight is the shocking — but not surprising — fact that Melissa Turnage is still a Polk Sheriff’s Office detective despite years of failures in addition to the Cadle atrocity.
So I will periodically dip into DeLeon and Lurie’s reporting for a view into what a massive ongoing threat to public safety — and especially the safety of children — Turnage really is.
This passage, with incest rapist Henry Cadle declining to take a polygraph test because he seemingly acknowledged masturbating about Cadle in his shower, is simply un-fucking-believeable.
Turnage heard this, shrugged it off, and sent Cadle right back to her “daydreaming about it” incest rapist (with an apology) to be incest raped again. Note especially the parts in bold:
Sexual assault investigations involve sensitive gathering of information by trained professionals who understand the dynamics of abuse—ideally in neutral, safe, quiet settings with no distractions, said Jerri Sites, an expert in child abuse investigations who facilitates trainings on best practices. After listening to recordings of Turnage’s interviews, Sites concluded that they sounded like interrogations by a biased detective. “It seemed as though she was trying to pressure the child to recant,” she said. “It was really, really hard to listen to.”
Turnage didn’t bring the same skepticism to her interviews with Lisa and Henry. Her interview with Henry outside the church—the only time he was officially questioned—lasted just 20 minutes. During this time, he made a troubling admission. When asked if he would take a polygraph test, Henry declined. “I’ve had sex with a lot of people in the shower with my eyes closed, if you know what I mean,” he explained. “I’m a man.”
If Turnage was concerned about Henry acknowledging he had sexual thoughts about his adoptive daughter, she didn’t show it. “Daydreaming about it and answering questions in reference to the allegations are two totally different things,” she told him.
I’m just going to leave you there.