Local Football Star Makes $700

A few days ago, an anonymous SOL reader posted a comment wondering why an armed robbery in the FM parking lot happened to miss the Police Reports. The post implied that the incident was a bit too close to the Soldotna Police Dep't.

A few rumors began circulating, and then Saturday, on page 4 of the ADN, the story about the arrest of SoHi's former football star, Anthony Griglione, for faking a robbery in an attempt to steal drugs, was published. Michelle Quelland, Jesse Chumley-Lawson, Jesse Honrud, and a minor were involved in the incident. Griglione is now on the lam.

It's always a sad thing when kids go bad; sometimes the kids are from good families and sometimes from a dysfunctional ones. It's embarrassing to all who are related to the perps.

But it seems that if you are from a connected family, that somehow the story might be omitted from the local news or perhaps left out of the police reports submitted to the media. Michelle's father is a Soldotna policeman and Jesse is a relative of Scooter Chumley, Mayor Carey's Chief of Staff. The incident took place on December 29 - nearly two weeks ago. If some normal low-life was involved in the incident, it probably would have been front-page news the next day.

All this does is fed the rumor mill - and the faked drug deal/robbery has been the buzz of the town today. The most damning thing I've heard is that all were detained at the scene - but then, because of being connected, were later released.

But who knows?

The surest way to spread rumors is to suppress the facts about what happened

It's easy to pretend that this sort of thing doesn't happen in SOLdotna, but that is obviously not the case. While most of the student-athletes at SoHi are outstanding young men and women, this isn't the first case of the children of the powerful, including school-district administrators, being exempted from drug-related or other criminal investigations after being caught in delicate situations.

Given the hero-worship that is given to the stars of the Stars' football team, it is not all surprising that some youngsters get the impression that they can do no wrong.

Unfortunately, this is the way the world works.