Nevets’ new challenge
By Mike Masterson
Sunday, March 9, 2008
LITTLE ROCK — It was Aug. 2, 1974, when the first editorial praising the tenacity and resolve of a young reserve deputy named Steve Nawojczyk (Na-voy-check) appeared in the Hot Springs Sentinel-Record.
As the newspaper’s editor, I had authored the piece, titled “They Would Gag the Truth.” Steve had refused to cave to political pressure after charging the chairman of the local Democratic Central Committee, W.C. “Bill” Mears, with driving while intoxicated and refusing to take an alcohol breath test.
At that point, B.W. Thomas, a municipal court stand-in judge, already had quietly dismissed the charges.
According to Steve, Mears had asked him that night on the highway if he knew who Mears was. Steve said he’d responded that Mears’ career was irrelevant to his condition behind the wheel. Afterward, Steve, whose day job was directing the city’s ambulance service, was badgered to drop the case, but he refused.
From the 1974 editorial: “Yesterday in Municipal Court a public official had a DWI charge against him dismissed by substitute judge BW. Thomas. . . . [R]eserve Deputy Sheriff Steve Nawojczyk never had to opportunity to explain his case. . . . We, like Mr. Nawojczyk and others in Garland County who still believe in honesty, integrity and those ethical principles in life that each person has to live with, will not refrain from printing the truth. . . . We have to ask the people of Hot Springs . . . Do we want a town where a man [who] is doing an honest job is harassed and threatened?”
More tenacious editorializing finally moved this case back onto the docket. The charges eventually were “undismissed” and he was convicted after Steve finally took the stand.
I later came to call Steve the Alphabet Man for what I believe are obvious reasons. Later, he was elected Garland County coroner and we pledged to watch each other’s back during my seven years there.
As friends, I soon became Ekim and he became Nevets. We got some twisted kick from spelling our names backward. He later would become Pulaski County coroner and a private investigator, and then executive director of the state Crime Lab under Bill Clinton. Not once did I see him sacrifice his principles to political pressure.
Steve earned national attention when he was featured as an expert on youth gangs in Little Rock for an HBO special. The subject of gangs would become his life’s calling, as further evidenced by the national recognition he shared while serving with the North Little Rock Office of Youth Services.
I relive this history today only because Nevets is beginning a new phase of his career. He’s becoming an administrator in the Arkansas Division of Youth Services for a pilot program called the Serious/ Violent Offender Reintegration Initiative. He is perfectly suited for this program in Pulaski County as it begins tracking serious juvenile offenders when they enter the system.
Steve says his goal is to shape a successful exit plan for each offender, adding: “We will work with the kid, their families and the communities where they will return to, hopefully, come up with a successful plan so they won’t re-offend.” He says it will be his responsibility to help DYS Director Ron Angel make sure that the program is effective and beneficial to the state. Most important, Steve will be charged with salvaging the young lives he will be mentoring.
“Hopefully, the program will be taken statewide,” he said.
He also will be developing a community outreach program to help communities effectively deal with juvenile crime and violence.
“This new administration and Deputy Director Steven Jones are intent on changing things at DYS,” he told me. “Mentoring will be a critical element to success. We can’t help anyone who doesn’t want to help themselves.
“I’ll never forget asking a gang leader why it was so hard for him to leave the gang. He responded that he had become addicted to the life, the adrenaline rush and the power.
“No doubt it will be a big job,” Steve added. “Part of the challenge will be that some communities will be wary of a youth returning.” Steve believes that if he prepares properly, many kids with problems will realize they need the help. These troubled young men and women couldn’t have a more devoted role model, mentor and champion than Nevets the Alphabet Man, who as a young man himself stood resolute for what was true and right in the face of powerful and negative influences.
———◊-———
Staff columnist Mike Masterson is the former editor of three Arkansas daily newspapers.
Editorial, Pages 97 on 03/09/2008
Copyright © 2008, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
By Mike Masterson
Sunday, March 9, 2008
LITTLE ROCK — It was Aug. 2, 1974, when the first editorial praising the tenacity and resolve of a young reserve deputy named Steve Nawojczyk (Na-voy-check) appeared in the Hot Springs Sentinel-Record.
As the newspaper’s editor, I had authored the piece, titled “They Would Gag the Truth.” Steve had refused to cave to political pressure after charging the chairman of the local Democratic Central Committee, W.C. “Bill” Mears, with driving while intoxicated and refusing to take an alcohol breath test.
At that point, B.W. Thomas, a municipal court stand-in judge, already had quietly dismissed the charges.
According to Steve, Mears had asked him that night on the highway if he knew who Mears was. Steve said he’d responded that Mears’ career was irrelevant to his condition behind the wheel. Afterward, Steve, whose day job was directing the city’s ambulance service, was badgered to drop the case, but he refused.
From the 1974 editorial: “Yesterday in Municipal Court a public official had a DWI charge against him dismissed by substitute judge BW. Thomas. . . . [R]eserve Deputy Sheriff Steve Nawojczyk never had to opportunity to explain his case. . . . We, like Mr. Nawojczyk and others in Garland County who still believe in honesty, integrity and those ethical principles in life that each person has to live with, will not refrain from printing the truth. . . . We have to ask the people of Hot Springs . . . Do we want a town where a man [who] is doing an honest job is harassed and threatened?”
More tenacious editorializing finally moved this case back onto the docket. The charges eventually were “undismissed” and he was convicted after Steve finally took the stand.
I later came to call Steve the Alphabet Man for what I believe are obvious reasons. Later, he was elected Garland County coroner and we pledged to watch each other’s back during my seven years there.
As friends, I soon became Ekim and he became Nevets. We got some twisted kick from spelling our names backward. He later would become Pulaski County coroner and a private investigator, and then executive director of the state Crime Lab under Bill Clinton. Not once did I see him sacrifice his principles to political pressure.
Steve earned national attention when he was featured as an expert on youth gangs in Little Rock for an HBO special. The subject of gangs would become his life’s calling, as further evidenced by the national recognition he shared while serving with the North Little Rock Office of Youth Services.
I relive this history today only because Nevets is beginning a new phase of his career. He’s becoming an administrator in the Arkansas Division of Youth Services for a pilot program called the Serious/ Violent Offender Reintegration Initiative. He is perfectly suited for this program in Pulaski County as it begins tracking serious juvenile offenders when they enter the system.
Steve says his goal is to shape a successful exit plan for each offender, adding: “We will work with the kid, their families and the communities where they will return to, hopefully, come up with a successful plan so they won’t re-offend.” He says it will be his responsibility to help DYS Director Ron Angel make sure that the program is effective and beneficial to the state. Most important, Steve will be charged with salvaging the young lives he will be mentoring.
“Hopefully, the program will be taken statewide,” he said.
He also will be developing a community outreach program to help communities effectively deal with juvenile crime and violence.
“This new administration and Deputy Director Steven Jones are intent on changing things at DYS,” he told me. “Mentoring will be a critical element to success. We can’t help anyone who doesn’t want to help themselves.
“I’ll never forget asking a gang leader why it was so hard for him to leave the gang. He responded that he had become addicted to the life, the adrenaline rush and the power.
“No doubt it will be a big job,” Steve added. “Part of the challenge will be that some communities will be wary of a youth returning.” Steve believes that if he prepares properly, many kids with problems will realize they need the help. These troubled young men and women couldn’t have a more devoted role model, mentor and champion than Nevets the Alphabet Man, who as a young man himself stood resolute for what was true and right in the face of powerful and negative influences.
———◊-———
Staff columnist Mike Masterson is the former editor of three Arkansas daily newspapers.
Editorial, Pages 97 on 03/09/2008
Copyright © 2008, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
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