I'LL VOUCH FOR HIM: ON SECOND THOUGHT...

By Juan Montoya
One of the facets of being an elected official consists of writing letters of recommendation and of character reference for constituents seeking jobs or trying to influence any number of boards, commissions, potential employees, etc.
Constituents think that a letter coming form an elected official on a letterhead will be much more impressive that will a simple letter handwritten by them and to a large degree  that is true.
However, the person seeking the letter of recommendation sometimes isn't totally truthful in the portrayal of their skills, the facts, or the circumstances surrounding their request for the letter. Sometimes you find out that unbeknownst to you, they have already submitted your name as a reference to one of these entities in anticipation of your positive consideration to their requests.
I used to work for an elected official in one of my previous lifetimes when an elderly man who the officeholder had known as a regular customer at his business came into the office to ask for a letter of recommendation for his son. The man told the elected official that his son had been arrested in the State of Georgia because he had been riding in a car with people that he didn't know were transporting marijuana to North Carolina.

The man said his son was going to North Carolina to work and that when they were stopped in Georgia he was arrested along with the owners of the car and charged with the crime.

Now, with sentencing due in a federal court there, could he please write a letter to the judge asking for leniency for  his innocent son and explain that he had been at the wrong time and at the wrong place?
Now, my boss had known all the family since the kids were young and he called me into the office and told me to speak with the father and get the particulars in the case so he could sign the letter.
I did and within a half hour the man left beaming with his letter on the office letterhead.
Time passed and a few weeks later the elected official got a telephone call from someone who said they were with the Department of Justice (FBI) and wanted to speak with him. When they started talking, I heard a sputtering from inside the office as my boss backpedaled saying he hadn't known the details or else he wouldn't have signed the letter.
I later found out that the boy's father hadn't been totally up front about the details in his son's arrest in Georgia. The FBI agent said the man had been with three others in a car carrying close to 500 pounds of marijuana and that they – including the man we recommended for leniency – had gotten into a gunfight with agents of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Needless to say, the letter of reference and recommendation for leniency was hastily withdrawn over the phone.
This happens more than we imagine. Just today I learned that the business manager of a local restaurant received a letter from the Department of Justice stating that the missive was sent in response to a request from the local business on an inmate at Three Rivers federal correctional facility. The letter said that the Federal Bureau of Prisons had received the request for notification of the case as it proceeded through the process. The only thing is, neither the business manager nor the owner have any idea who might have sent the request.
The inmate, who is scheduled to be transferred to a half-way house in Austin is not eligible for parole, indicating that the crime he was convicted of was rather serious.
The owner of the local business and the business manager says this is the first time that they have ever received a letter like this and both swear they did not send the request for notification to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
\"Either it's a hoax, or maybe someone who knows this guy sent a letter to them with stolen stationery with our letterhead," they said. "We don't know anyone by that name. Hopefully when we don't answer it'll be over."