Your tax dollars at work

Thank our lucky stars the Rock Island County Sheriff's office is keeping us safe.

Each of us should give thanks in our own way to the nameless deputy who so willing put his moral purity on the line and fearlessly volunteered to get a massage from a 66 year-old South Korean immigrant who speaks no English and then try to get get her to give him a happy ending. (Due to the language barrier, one can only imagine the hand gestures involved in that effort.)

Unfortunately, in this valiant officer's understandable zeal to collect evidence he apparently forced the issue.

Ms. Fenner owns Garden Spa Massage, 801 N. High St., Port Byron. She was arrested in April and May 2003 after two alleged incidents involving undercover officers from the Rock Island County Sheriff's Department. (one assumes "undercover" in this instance wasn't meant as a pun.)

During Tuesday's trial, Ms. Fenner, testifying with help from a Korean interpreter, said she never agreed to any sexual acts. Ms. Fenner, born in South Korea and now a U.S. citizen, said the officer grabbed her hand and forced her to touch him in a sexual manner.

Happily, Ms. Fenner was acquitted of the two charges against her. I'm all for rural economic development, and I encourage all to patronize Ms. Fenner's establishment and support a plucky emigrant who has embraced our can-do entrepreneurial spirit and who, through adversity, has brought her welcome services to a previously underserved rural area.