Editorial: Local officials rarely pay for violating law

Try telling the next police officer who pulls you over that you didn’t know whatever you did was against the law. Expect a ticket and a lecture that “ignorance of the law is no defense” or some variation. Unless you’re Grand Traverse County sheriff Tom Bensley. Grand Traverse Prosecutor Bob Cooney said a Bensley plan to offer sheriff’s deputies who who issued five tickets within a U.S. 31 construction zone a reward of paid time off potentially ran afoul of state law. But Cooney stopped short of citing Bensley and the deputies for violating a state law that prohibits officers from benefiting for issuing tickets. Cooney said his decision was based in part because Bensley reversed his position and didn’t seem to intentionally break the law. Oh, please. How many people who get charged with breaking a law would love a chance to reverse themselves and get off scot-free? All of them? And how many get the chance to do that? None of them. And how is it the sheriff didn’t know the law?
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