COVINGTON — Coming soon to a Northern Kentucky hotel near you: How I Embarrassed Myself Royally, starring high school football coach David Eckstein.
Poor Mr. Eckstein. First he gets arrested on charges of soliciting a prostitute in Covington. Now County Attorney Garry Edmondson, fancying himself the next Cecil B. DeMille, wants to put the Ryle High School coach on TV.
Think Deion Sanders, former philanderer, touting family values. Or Yul Brynner, cancer victim, preaching against cigarettes.
Mr. Eckstein did agree to make a public-service type announcement in exchange for having charges against him withdrawn. He continues to teach at Ryle and has not been convicted of any crime.
Since the deal was made, however, the prosecutor's vision has expanded: Now he's considering not only a segment on public-access cable but also a video to be distributed to hotels throughout the region. Mr. Edmondson already has met with a community values group in Cincinnati, which produced a similar show about the Hustler magazine problem. Northern Kentucky's program would include a history of the area and police efforts to clean it up, as well as Mr. Eckstein's testimony about consequences.
Gee — what a way to welcome conventioneers.
“Enjoy your stay in Covington, folks, and by the way, don't even think about trying to buy sex. Look what happened to this guy.”
The county attorney makes no apologies for his fledgling career as the opposite of Jerry Springer.
Covington and Newport aren't sin cities anymore, Mr. Edmondson says, and everybody ought to know it. The program would be aimed as much at Cincinnati as Northern Kentucky, because about 80 percent of men charged in prostitution cases here hail from Ohio, he says.
“It's going to cost some money to put this thing together. The idea is we're not just going to do something in the back yard or the basement,” Mr. Edmondson says. “It's going to be a really nice production.”
Maybe so. I still think it sounds weird. Mr. Eckstein's participation may be voluntary — he could opt to face trial instead — but I can't imagine he'll look very happy. Will we even hear whatever he's mumbling?
The coach didn't return my calls to Ryle High School, and his attorney, Harry Hellings, was not available for comment.
Mr. Edmondson has confidence in his star.
“They say he's a great speaker. He's a football coach. He's a motivator. I wouldn't have used a truck driver for this.”
If not Mr. Eckstein, he says, Mr. Edmondson would have loved to sign up the Baptist minister from Cincinnati who was arrested at about the same time. Unfortunately, the minister quickly and quietly pleaded guilty.
While Mr. Edmondson ponders financing for his production, Chip Baker points out that TV isn't as easy as it looks — even public access on Channel 21. Mr. Baker is director of the telecommunications board of Boone and Kenton counties.
“On the one hand, we're happy to be a vehicle for any community expression, but I think sometimes there is a feeling that you can just walk in and make television. It ain't as easy as it looks,” Mr. Baker says.
Nor is it really meant to be a tool for prosecutors. “We don't want to punish people with public access,” Mr. Baker says.
He thinks about that for a second, then laughs. “Although people will occasionally comment that they feel like they're punished by it.”
So a show about pornography and prostitution may soon end up on the public-access schedule, along with church services, school talent shows, raucous city council meetings and reviews of people's vacations.
I appreciate Mr. Edmondson's concern that the coach not suffer more than other defendants. Seeking a conviction might lead to loss of his teaching privileges, which would be even worse than all the publicity surrounding his arrest.
Still, starring in an anti-smut show on public TV also seems to go beyond the standard for making a guy pay.
What will this lead to — the courts suggesting defendants parade around the courthouse in sandwich boards proclaiming, “I bought sex in Covington”?
Oh, wait — Judge Marty Sheehan already tried that one. Unlike Mr. Eckstein, though, that guy chose jail.
Karen Samples is The Enquirer's Kentucky columnist. Her column appears on Sundays and Thursdays in The Kentucky Enquirer. She can be reached at (606) 578-5584 or email
her at ksamples@enquirer.com
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