Suit dropped against mayor

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November 21, 2009

By GINA KINSLOW The Glasgow Daily Times Sat Nov 21, 2009, 01:36 PM CST

HORSE CAVE — An order granting summary judgment dismissing a defamation of character lawsuit filed against the city’s mayor has been granted.

The order was issued Tuesday by Hart County Circuit Court senior judge Geoffrey P. Morris.

The lawsuit was filed by Councilwoman JoAnne Smith, who served as mayor prior to Odell Martin taking the mayoral seat in 2007.

Smith claimed she was defamed on two occasions by Martin. The first instance took place during a special-called meeting on July 31, 2008, which was called to discuss trees that had been cut down at the Main Street Cemetery Smith complained about Martin not advising the public that the trees were going to be cut down.

According to the complaint, Martin questioned Smith about $30,000 in police equipment that he said was missing. When Smith questioned Martin if that issue was on the meeting agenda, Martin replied, “I’m conducting the meeting.”

Smith said, “The auditor will answer your question.”

Martin asked her if the information was secret, and Smith said, “I’m sorry; I’m not going to respond to you. This is not on the agenda. You are sitting there trying to set me up.”

The second occurrence was in a newsletter designed to update citizens of Horse Cave about current activities of the city council in which reference was made to the July 31 special-called city council meeting.

In Morris’ opinion, he wrote there was no showing that Martin’s statements were made with actual malice.

“He was privileged to make such an inquiry of the ex-mayor,” Morris said. “Although it may be argued that the more apolitical approach would have been to make the inquiry in a private setting as opposed to a public meeting, the mayor’s decision to make the inquiry at the public meeting is not tantamount to ‘actual malice.’”

Morris continued, “The Court finds there is nothing contained in the mayor’s inquiry about the $30,000 of missing equipment that would bring the ex-mayor into ‘public hatred, contempt or ridicule,’ cause her to be ‘shamed or avoided,’ or injure her in her business. The mayor’s statements are therefore not defamatory.”

Smith was not pleased with the court’s ruling.

“I’m really, really disappointed,” she said. “My attorneys will be filing an appeal, and I guess really what I want more than anything else is my day in court so I can have an opportunity to disapprove his allegations and just to try to protect myself from his malicious untruths.”

Smith anticipates filing an appeal.

Martin said that while he was pleased with the court’s ruling, he was disappointed that Smith filed the lawsuit that he says had no merit.

“I await the city council’s efforts to make amends,” Martin said in an e-mail. “We advised the city council that the questions I asked were legitimate and that the Smith suit had no merit. We advised the city council that trying to remove me for asking financial questions could help Ms. Smith in her wrongful suit against the people. We advised the city council that the attempted removals were wrongful. It is a shame that it took two unsuccessful removal proceedings and one unsuccessful defamation suit for the truth to come out.”

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