Ex-mayor's free speech embarrassing

Dispute over Cruise Night leads to incident and police reports.

— In most cases public officials who lose elections gracefully bow out and let the newly elected official take the reins and handle the duties the people elected him to fulfill. But that's not exactly the way it has been going in Gentry following the November 2010 election of a new mayor to replace Wes Hogue.

Not only has Hogue - who served in that post for the previous 12 years - continued to frequently attend city meetings (a right of his and all citizens) he has argued for a truckturnaround for McKee Foods and against proposed ordinance changes dealing with Main Street parking and signs within the city. He even suggested that he would like to be the first to request posting a large sign ona city building - done to point out a loophole in a proposed ordinance.

But it hasn't stopped there.

He has filed a lawsuit against the city, naming Mayor Kevin Johnston and Fire Chief VesterCripps in the suit, claiming they had violated the Freedom of Information Act by not providing him with city records relating to money raised by the fire department in last year's Fall Festival.

Hogue wasthe mayor at the time of the October 2010 festival and had access to city records for 2 1/2 months after the event.

Acting as his own attorney, Hogue sued, also naming Johnston and Cripps as defendants. He filed a FOIA request Aug. 31 asking for a copy of a deposit slip concerning money raised from the 2010 Fall Festival car show. Hogue claims money raised from the event was deposited into a city bank account. Hogue’s request sought a copy of the checking history for 2010 and who the checks were made out to on the account into which the money was deposited. Hogue also wanted copies of any other documents concerning where the money was raised and for what purpose it was donated.

City Clerk Jo Ellen Martin responded to Hogue on Sept. 1, saying she did not have any of the requested information. Hogue said he then submitted his request to Cripps. Hogue said that days later Cripps claimed no money was deposited for the city or the fire department.

The problem, according to information supplied by Cripps, is that Hogue made his FOIA request to the city for information in city accounts. The Fall Festival car show was handled by the Gentry Volunteer Fire Department, an organization separate from the city, with non-profit status and its own separate bank account. Money in the account is used to pay for safety-equipment needs of firefighters. The separate firefighters' organization is not subject to state audits of city accounts or to FOIA requests.

Some of the dispute revolves around Gentry Cruise Night, set for Saturday, Oct. 8. Two past cruise nights were organized by Kevin and Katrina Cryer of Gentry. The Oct. 8 Cruise Night is being sponsored by Gentry's Volunteer Fire Department and it was the opinion of the Cryers that the event had been taken away from them after they had already done much work to promote it.

According to the volunteer firefighters, an agreement was made last spring allowing them to sponsor the fall event held in conjunction with the Gentry Fall Festival, at which the volunteer firefighters already host a car show. The Cryers, according to firefighters, could continue to sponsor other cruise nights if they wished.

Because of the Volunteer Fire Department’s nonprofit status and it being a receiving agency of Gentry United Way donations, it only made sense that the agency sponsor the Cruise Night in conjunction with its car show since the Fall Festival is a United Way kickoff event. Very little money is actually raised in the events because entry fees are used to buy Tshirts and trophies for the activities.

But things get worse.

According to Gentry Police Department reports, an incident occurred on the afternoon of Aug. 31, when firefighters Jeff Trammel and David Harwood were asking businesses if they could place flyers in store-front windows promoting the Fall Festival Show Your Ride car show. When the firefighters entered Two Guns Tattoos on Main Street - a business owned by Hogue - Hogue allegedly asked them who was sponsoring the cruise night event. When they answered, he told them to get out. The police report states they reported that a few minutes later Hogue confronted them on the sidewalk down the block, allegedly using foul language and telling them they should have their "(expletive omitted) asses kicked" for the way they had talked to Katrina Cryer on the telephone.

When the firefighters told Mayor Kevin Johnston what had happened, he contacted Gentry Police Chief Keith Smith and asked the two firefighters to submit statements to document the events in the event more came of it. Trammel and Harwood submitted signed statements documenting the occurrence.

According to police reports, on Sept. 6, Hogue submitted an FOIA request for the statement submitted by Trammel and Harwood. In signed and initialed documents dated Sept. 7 and Sept. 8, Hogue submitted his voluntary statement - which he in writing stated was made "of his own free will" - to the police department. According to police reports, he was even advised by the police chief that submitting his statements would make them subject to FOIA requests.

In those documents, Hogue alleges in writing that the statement of Trammel and Harwood were "deficient in practically every material aspect and certainly not in keeping with the level of documentation one would expect from a person holding the position of assistant fire chief."

In writing, he called the report to the police a "sleazy and transparent attempt by the mayor to silence and intimidate his critic for having the audacity to exercise his First Amendment right to free speech by promulgating the threat of police action against said critic."

He accuses the current mayor (in writing) of "wasting taxpayer resources" and attempting to use the Gentry PoliceDepartment as his "personal Mafia goon squad."

He wrote that he offers his "own exercise in wasting taxpayer resources’ by offering his own "Hyperbolic Documentation of Events," not all of which can be reprinted here due to profane and explicit descriptors.

In that written documentation of events, Hogue accuses Trammel of flexing "his mighty fireman muscles by intimidating and bullying (Kevin and Katrina Cryer), flogging them with false and inflammatory rhetoric."

Hogue, in his written statement, called the attempt to display a flyer in his business window an attempt to "gloat about his magnificent victory" over the Cryers and an "exhibit" of "a trophy of his victory in the form of a display bulletin."

Hogue wrote that he "did take the opportunity to express himself in First Amendment-protected speech" in his business and later on the sidewalk. He wrote in "hyperbolic" language that "the firemen ran shrieking down the street to the mayor's office where the mayor was playing angry birds and sucking his thumb.”

Angry Birds is a game popular on smart phones.

In his written hyperbolic documentation of events, he said, "The firemen cried to the mayor that citizen Hogue said bad things about the mayor....” To which the mayor responded, “I'll have the police write a sumthin-happened report and that will scare the big, mean citizen Hogue into not engaging in free speech."

Hogue concludes his hyperbolic documentation by writing, "We all went home and slept safe in our beds that night and the mayor cried himself to sleep, sucking his thumb, scared of the big mean world he finds himself in. God bless America and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution."

In his second written statement, signed Sept. 8 and filed with the police department, Hogue alleges he has "reason to believe that the mayor may be trying to intimidate (him) for exercising (his) First Amendment right to free speech."

He also alleges in the written document his belief that he has angered the mayor, fire chief, members of the fire department and other elected officials andappointed officials, mentioning councilwoman Janie Parks and her husband, planning commission member Mike Parks, by name.

Hogue alleges that some of the above may wish him harm.

A police department report states that Hogue asked that a report be filed on his behalf for future documentation, "in case something happens to his residence, business and/or himself and/or family."

Gentry Mayor Kevin Johnston and Fire Chief Vester Cripps declined to comment in detail on the matters because of Hogue’s pending lawsuit. They expressed sadness and disappointment over the chain of events and what the effect of the incidents and allegations would be on the city's image. No ill will or wishes of harm were expressed toward the former mayor.

Mike Parks, who called the former mayor’s actions “an embarrassment to the city,” indicated he wishes the former mayor would simply bow out and admit he lost the election and is no longer Gentry’s mayor.

The FOIA law suit is assigned to Circuit Judge Mark Fryauf. A court date was not available at press time.

News, Pages 1 on 10/05/2011