Sorry? Or sorry to be caught?
Jefferson County Judge Henry “Hank” Wilkins IV resigned Thursday after his recent admission of accepting $100,000 in bribes from a lobbyist during his time in the Arkansas Legislature.
A short letter expressed his “profound” sorrow.
The Pine Bluff Commercial reported last week that Wilkins admitted to the FBI that he accepted $100,000 in bribes from a lobbyist. The documents said that from 2011-15, while he was a member of the Arkansas General Assembly, Wilkins funneled the money through St. James United Methodist Church — the church he pastored at the time, but resigned from last summer.
Wilkins told the FBI on Feb. 22 he had taken bribes from lobbyist and health company executive Rusty Cranford. The bribery admission was revealed in a recent hearing for Cranford, who faces political corruption and embezzlement-related charges.
A U.S. attorney said Cranford, who operated in both Arkansas and Missouri, was trying to get Wilkins to lie about dealings with him. As a legislator, Wilkins was in a position to direct the flow of state General Improvement Funds from the state surplus. And he did — in the direction of interests that served Cranford. Wilkins has not been charged with any crime. Perhaps it is coming — or perhaps he avoided criminal charges by testifying against Cranford and aiding prosecutors.
Wilkins served in both the Arkansas House and Senate between 1999 and 2015. He opted to not seek re-election in 2015 and ran for county judge. He defeated former County Judge Dutch King in a run-off in 2016 and took office Jan. 1, 2017. At some point he was sought for questioning in the bribery case. He subsequently resigned as pastor of St. James and announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election as county judge.
“I am profoundly sorry that my own actions make this resignation necessary,” Wilkins said in his resignation letter.
So are the people of Arkansas — Jefferson County, in particular. But a one-sentence sorry? Hopefully, Wilkins is sincere. I’ll leave the judging of his sincerity to the Lord above. Ultimately, that’s where true judgment will come.
But, we do know some things by Wilkins’ actions. He wasn’t sorry enough about his behavior to stop suckling the public teat. That came AFTER the public found out and demanded he resign. If a reporter hadn’t been in court on the day Wilkins’ name came up, would he still be on the public payroll? Without the public scrutiny, would we have that letter of resignation and expression of “profound” sorrow?
When Wilkins was caught or more aptly put, publicly exposed, he expressed sorrow. The bipartisan public and other local elected officials demanded his resignation and to Wilkins’ credit, he obliged with an immediate announcement to do that very thing.
It’s a sad situation all around. Wilkins, by many accounts, is a good man who for whatever reasons, gave in to the temptation of money. He forgot, or chose to not heed, the lessons of his pastoral training in I Timothy 6:10: “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”