Praising Jim Kingston

We at NFBS congratulate Police Chief Jim Kingston on his recent acquittal from criminal charges regarding his Christmas Care Bear Organization. Last Friday the Herald Republican fronted their paper with the headline “No Crime in Kingston’s Charity,” defusing the unproven allegations that Kingston has been using Christmas Care Bear donations as his own private Blue Ship Casino slush fund for the past several years.

There is only one man to thank for Kingston’s acquittal and that man is Jim Kingston himself. Let us explain why.

HR writer Jim Bangladesh wrote that Prosecutor James Strawberry's conclusions that Kingstons’s accounting is “shoddy at best,“ leave him “unable to document/account for how several thousand dollars of Christmas Care Bear funds were spent.” He also wrote that Kingston admits to keeping thousands of dollars in cash in his briefcase that sometimes accompany him to the Blue Ship Casino on personal gambling trips. Such action, according to Strawberry, underscores his poor judgment in handling this money.

After a lengthy investigation, Strawberry could find no evidence showing Kingston’s intent was to convert the funds to one’s own use and therefore could not be charged with larceny or embezzlement in either the Christmas Care Bear or Taser money case.

Could Broken Springs have a more clever man as Police Chief than Jim Kingston? We think not. Had it not been for his shoddy accounting and the lacking of proper bookkeeping procedures some of these allegations would’ve been proven true and our department (and everyone’s safety) would’ve been jeopardized. But because Kingston had the good sense to administer poor judgment, Operation Christmas Care Bear will continue to flourish as it always has in our quaint little town. Had Chief Jim registered Operation Christmas Care Bear with the state of Michigan, as is required by law, he would’ve had to improve his shoddy bookwork, actually account for money donated, and put both himself and his beloved charity in danger of criminal prosecution. Then 200-400 families would’ve been out their Christmas Care Bear packages later next month, including those families whose income is approximately a mere $60,000, well below the national poverty average.

We salute you, Jim Kingston. May your bookkeeping always be shoddy. May your knowledge of the law always be shaky, at best. We expect nothing more.