By Michael D. Martin, E.C.P.D.
Retired
About the author...Michael Martin (pictured front row, far right in the 1981 photo) is a retired veteran of 25 years on the Eden City Police Department, and has penned a number of anecdotal writings recalling his experiences.
XLVIII. Neil Lewis
I never had the pleasure of working with Neil
Lewis, I came along just after he left Law Enforcement, but from tales from
the guys who worked with him, I understood he was a tough cop. A really
tough cop who had to fit the times. This story was told to me at various
times by Marshall Clark, Posey Meadows and Fat Vestal.
The Things that happened were back in the
late fifties, before the Miranda decision in '64 and before computers and
even small towns did not have teletypes. All local law enforcement had was
the telephone, and an officer had to know who to call for the information he
wanted. Things that an Eden City Police Officer can get in three seconds
now, sometimes took days. I remember that when I came to work in 1966, our
dispatcher had a big book of license plates issued in North Carolina and
when we wanted a (10-28) License identification, the dispatcher had to
look it up in the book.
The Leaksville Police Department officers
observed a strange car and stopped it. The car had out of state plates and
the driver did not have a driver's license. There were three men in the car
and they were a rough looking bunch.....Like Willie Adkins used to say
"I can tell a thug, just by looking at him."
Well, the Leaksville boys thought sure they had
spotted some thugs and they arrested the driver and the two passengers were
drunk and had to be arrested forcefully........which Leaksville was good at.
These three strangers were jailed at the Spray Jail and all they screamed
for was a lawyer....they knew their d--- rights, they wanted a lawyer!!!!
Detective Neil Lewis was notified that Leaksville
had arrested strangers from somewhere else and put them in jail. No one knew
who they were, and they were not saying. Neil walked into the jail to
interview the men and for some reason.......they thought he was the lawyer
sent to represent them. Neil usually wore a suit and tie.
In the next few minutes, they told him they were
escapees from a prison up north, they had stolen the car, they had robbed a
couple of stores in Virginia and asked Neil if he could get them off. Neil
dutifully took down their statements, had them sign them and started to
leave when one of the convicts asked..are you gonna take our cases????
Oh yea, Neil said...and showed them his badge.
Michael D. Martin