> Did he believe nothing would come of this and it would all just go away?
Most likely yes, and he isn't wrong to believe that. This is genuinely how small towns & rural areas function even still. The sheriff, judge, police chief, school principal, county commissioner, and the most significant business owners and landlords will all be part of the same segregation-era country club or masonic lodge or some other thing and they'll make decisions and ask favors together over there.
Usually the local newspaper owner would also be part of this clique, and I guess the county attorney misjudged the ramifications of that. But this sort of local corruption is rampant and the people doing it can count on the fact that it almost never gets picked up as a national news item.
