Officer and gentleman

Act of kindness

It was the kind of news story we all need to see more of in a world increasingly filled with conflict, contrived hatred and bitterness.

I'm talking about the police officer in Lowell who responded to a traffic accident the other day then felt strangely called to become more than a Good Samaritan to an 82-year-old female stranger. His selfless actions changed his life and that of a stranger for the better.

Officer Grant Hall arrived at the scene of an afternoon collision along Arkansas 264 near the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport at Highfill.

Ruth Corbin of Louisiana had slammed her rental car into the rear of a stopping vehicle. A short time earlier she'd had flown into Northwest Arkansas and leased that car to make the nearly three-hour drive to Mountain Home. She'd arrived so she might visit her 93-year-old sister who was ailing. Ruth hadn't made it very far before the accident.

Hall drove the elderly lady back to the airport where she explained her accident that totaled the car to the rental agency. Then the officer left to resume his patrol. He wasn't long from being off duty for the day.

Corbin, on the other hand, was at a loss for what to do next. She wandered through the cavernous airport pondering her next step.

The well-written news story by reporter Teresa Moss said the woman just felt too shaken by the accident to try again to attempt the drive to Mountain Home. Now she was stranded with no plan in an unfamiliar place and still deeply concerned about her sister.

A photograph Ruth earlier had received from a nephew showed her sister has dropped weight while experiencing bouts of dementia. She realized if she couldn't see her soon, it would likely be too late. Ruth also told the reporter how close the two of them had been all their lives, but two years had passed since her sister moved to Mountain Home to be with her daughter.

But now alone and uncertain in the airport, even the possibility of seeing her a final time seemed futile.

Meanwhile, Officer Hall had headed home after his shift ended, but he was unable to get the elderly lady off his mind. He called the contact number for Corbin's family he'd gathered at the accident scene to let them know of her predicament. They were thankful, explaining that they'd been unable to reach her on the cell phone she was carrying.

Hall felt the urge to climb into his car and head back to the airport to check on Ruth. "Something kept telling me to check on her. She was stranded there and I would want someone to do it for my family," he told Moss.

(Ahh, there it is again, my friends, the crucial difference between one thinking of doing something and actually turning one's thoughts into action.)

He arrived back at the airport about 7 p.m. and found the lady alone still pondering her predicament. She said she saw him approaching and knew he somehow looked familiar. It never dawned on her that the policeman would return.

When she asked if Hall might be able to take her to a hotel, Hall said no, he couldn't. Instead, he said he was there to drive her to Mountain Home to be with her sister.

Her response? "I almost fainted."

Can any of us blame her for such a reaction? After all, how many people do that sort of thing? A six-plus-hour round trip to help a complete stranger?

So Hall, assisted by a fellow off-duty officer Sgt. Kris Spangler, loaded Ruth's baggage into Hall's car and away they drove through the Ozarks toward Mountain Home.

Arriving at the home of Ruth's niece and finally reunited with her sister, the lady offered to pay Hall for his gas. he refused, so she "hugged them as much as I could" and thanked them profusely for such kindness.

The officers were back home about 1:30 a.m.

It took several days for Ruth's sister to recognize her and rejoice over their reunion. "When she did, oh my goodness, chills went all over me," she said. "And I hugged her real close. It was a wonderfully rewarding experience because I got to see her one more time," Ruth told Moss.

Afterwards, she sent the Lowell Police Department a letter expressing her gratitude for the compassion shown her. Lt. Paul Pillaro expressed it well: "It says a lot about him. He didn't get anything out of it. He didn't even take money for gas."

Corbin said of her unforgettable gift from a stranger that it was the kindest thing anyone has ever done for her.

Subpoena, not testimony

Karen Thompson, attorney with the Innocence Project of New York, reached me Saturday to say the hearing scheduled for the Carroll County Courthouse yesterday was not to question Gary Lester, the officer who received crucial DNA evidence that went missing in the case of Belynda Goff after the state Crime Lab turned it over to him. Rather, it was to seek a subpoena from the judge to ensure Lester would testify about where the evidence and related paperwork might have gone.

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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected].

Editorial on 09/01/2015

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