Two day trial; “Did not call meeting” selectman said

 After another attempt to delay the proceedings by defense attorney Dennis Horn, the trial Patterson versus the McComb selectmen finally started in front of a larger than normal audience. Judge Michael Taylor heard the Complaint for Declaratory Relief, Injunctive Relief, Mandamus (filed on November 3, 2009 by McComb Mayor Zach Patterson) during a two day hearing, on Tuesday, March 2 and Wednesday, March 3. Patterson’s lawsuit against all of the selectmen of the McComb Board of Mayor and Selectmen centered around the illegality of the August 26, 2009 Special Call meeting of the board.

All six of the selectmen: Wade Lamb, Danny Esch, Robert Maddox, Ernest Charles Nobles, Melvin Joe Johnson and Robert Earl Smith were called as witnesses along with some city employees and the mayor. Other witnesses were City Administrator Quordiniah Lockley, City Clerk Jeanette Butler, Deputy City Clerk and Executive Assistant to the Mayor and City Administrator Sherry Spears, and Accounts Payable Deputy City Clerk Stephanie Forrest.

It was the potential defense witness who was not there that Horn said was the reason he was requesting another delay in the trial. Horn told Judge Taylor that McComb city attorney Wayne Dowdy was out of town involved in another court proceeding. However, the request to delay the trial was denied.

 Judge Michael Taylor instructed everyone to remove any electronic device they had and delayed the beginning of the trial, Patterson vs. the City of McComb Selectmen, so that everyone could take their cell phones and other electronic devices out of the building on Tuesday, March 2. The trial, which was scheduled to begin at 10am, did not start until 10:25am to allow the courtroom audience and participants the opportunity to comply with Taylor’s order. He said the devices were interfering with the sound system in the courtroom, causing static interference, because of the larger than normal crowd in attendance.

During the two day proceedings the audience would break its silence with a groan or with laughter when they heard something surprising, unbelievable or funny. Two area residents spoke about the trial: Katie Jenkins, a Ruth resident, followed every minute of the trial, along with her husband. “How can selectmen have such memory losses and still run the City of McComb?”

 It seems to me that Pike County may have one of the most aggressive Tea Party movements in the country. Folks, don’t ever think that the Tea Party Movement you see on CNN, FOX and other news networks is not operating right here in ‘good ole’ Pike County, Mississippi. I would go as far as to say that Pike County, as it was in the 1960’s, is still one of the most racist communities in the United States.

I’m fully aware of the fact that what I’m writing is causing some folks (black and white) to cringe, but I believe in calling a spade a spade. It’s the ministry that God blessed me with, Truth-telling. We just finished celebrating black history last month, and in some churches, schools and other organizations (black or white) you won’t hear another word about black history, black unity, black empowerment, and yes, the need for a black political-economical empowerment agenda anymore this year.

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 This week members of the McComb board of Mayor and Selectmen were meeting together. Not in the board room of City Hall, but in a courtroom in Magnolia, the county seat of Pike County. And, I was there to witness what has to be, so far, the trial of the decade. The lawsuit by McComb Mayor Zach Patterson against the selectmen of the McComb city board was played out over two days at the County Courthouse in front of Judge Michael Taylor.

I am convinced that the trial was a result of a “runaway freight train.” That runaway train is those four selectmen (Danny Esch, Wade Lamb, E.C. Nobles, and Robert Maddox) and their good-ole-boy network that includes their defense lawyer, Dennis Horn. What a show. What a picture. To see them all there, testifiying and being made to answer for all the mess they created at city hall.

Tuesday and Wednesday, those selectmen had to answer, not only for their actions on August 26, 2009 when they held an improper and illegal meeting to authorize themselves to sign and issue checks to pay the city payroll and other approved city bills; but, they also had to take responsibility for their actions on June 9, 2009, when they stripped Mayor Patterson of his duties as mayor and gave that authority to themselves and their appointed city administrator. I’ve coined a statement that Mayor Patterson uses to describe what those selectmen did: “A nullification of an election.”