A convicted child murderer directed grant disbursals for youth services to a rapist. The county viewed these men as “credible messengers” ideally suited for handling vast sums of money meant for kids.
KING COUNTY — Decades before they were partners in a taxpayer-funded kickback scheme, Willard Jimerson and David Heppard were neighbors in a different sort of institution: the McNeil Island Corrections Center. Both men had entered the prison system as teenagers for violent crimes that shocked the region.
By 2020, however, they had reinvented themselves as “credible messengers”—mentors with lived experience hired to steer at-risk youth away from gun violence. FULL STORY BELOW.
