Continued from PART 1
With the upcoming city election, a
number of candidates began to qualify for the race and the city
continued to take applications for the position of city manager.
Councilman Pete Souza announced he would not seek reelection to the
council. One popular place for political signs turned out to be the
property across the street from city hall that belongs to Wendell
Kerley, a former councilman and father to Jerry Kerley and
grandfather to councilman Jesse Kerley. Following the August county
general election, a sign popped up concerning Mr. Souza's run for tax
assessor.
Many of the 2016 city election
political signs were the kind you would expect
at the link here.
As the campaign continued, signs in
favor of J. H. Graham appeared in the yard across from city hall
belonging to Wendell Kerley. They were substantially different from
the signs at the same location only 2 years before when Graham was
defeated in election for mayor of Crossville.
Kerley property signs in July 2014
"Some things are meant for extinction"
Kerley property signs supporting Graham
Then, at the end of September, an
incident occurred that included the theft of political signs at the
Mockingbird Drive property. As the theft took place, a neighbor
caught part of the incident on video and was able to get a tag number
of the pickup truck involved.
Video capture of Mockingbird Dr. sign theft
The district attorney took over the
investigation and suspects were established that included Jerry
Kerley, the director of water resources for the city of Crossville
and father of councilman Jesse Kerley. The second man involved was
identified as William Harwell who works at the Crossville airport.
Investigation by this reporter discovered security video from the
airport showed just before and just after the sign theft incident
that the truck in question left from the airport and then returned to
the airport. District attorney Bryant Dunaway confirmed that the
stolen signs were recovered at the city owned airport.
In mid October, possibly the strangest
sign story of the year came about when city council candidate J. J.
Brownstead discovered several of his large political signs were
missing and when he reported them stolen he was very surprised to be
told someone else had reported them stolen. That person turned out
to be councilman Jesse Kerley who tried to claim that the signs had
come from his father's property off of Vanderver Road.
It turned out that the Cumberland Co.
Sheriff's department had picked up the signs until the matter could
be straightened out. This was surprising to Brownstead who knew that
the signs had been repainted after they came from councilman Pete
Souza's garage. Councilman Kerley had also submitted a list of
“suspects” who he suspected of stealing the signs that included
Mr. Brownstead, councilman Souza and this reporter among others.
It took 3 days, but the signs were then
returned to Mr. Brownstead who put them back up.
Just over a week before the November
election as early voting was coming to a close, an incident occurred
in Crossville on the courthouse lawn when a man who said he was tired
of the politics walked through the signs that had been posted kicking
them and knocking them down. The man was taken into custody and
charged with damage to the signs.
State Rep Cameron Sexton inspects sign damage
Then, just few days after the election,
the political signs got very ugly. Two signs were set up, one on
Lantana Rd, and the other in front of Kroger.
And after the election again, the case
against Jerry Kerley and William Harwell made it to court and both
men took pre-trial diversion on the charges and agreed to serve 6
months probation, pay fees and court costs.
In early December it was revealed that
the city had agreed to drop all charges against J. R. Blankenship for
his “unsigned fliers” and the removal of the section of the city
ordinances he was charged under was unanimously approved by the new
city council. The charges can not be brought back up and the $1500
fine assessed against Blankenship was set aside.
We may yet here more news about signs
in the new year. Stay tuned.
