TARRANT, Ala. (WIAT) - The legal process for the impeachment of Mayor Wayman Newton has begun following public outcry.
At a press conference Tuesday, Mayor Newton said the petition for impeachment against him was plagiarized and unverified.
“This is nothing new. The beautiful thing about it is that they actually have someone that has the legal knowledge and the know-how to fight back and that’s exactly what I’m doing," Newton said. "I’m fighting back. I’m fighting back for everybody that they’ve done this to in the past that were afraid to fight back. I’m fighting back for everybody that wanted to fight back but had a job and were afraid they were going to lose their job.”
The petition was signed by five Tarrant residents and filed by attorney Scott Morro on Monday. Newton says that lawsuit is nearly verbatim a lawsuit from 2019 filed in Tuscaloosa County against former Lakeview Mayor Paul Calhoun. Morro filed an amended petition for impeachment Tuesday afternoon.
Newton released a statement about the amended petition saying:
"The amended petition filed against me remains a blatant example of dishonesty and political manipulation, as it continues to plagiarize the 2019 petition filed against another Alabama mayor. These repeated tactics, rooted in misinformation and copy-paste accusations, show the lengths to which certain individuals will go to undermine my administration. My commitment to the people of Tarrant has never been stronger, and I will continue to defend the truth and our city against these baseless and recycled allegations."
Tarrant Mayor Wayman Newton
Newton has filed a bar complaint against Morro with the Alabama State Bar Association. Newton says that because the lawsuit is copied, there are many inaccuracies.
“That’s just their MO is to try to take your feet out from under you and stop you from exposing and bringing light to their wrongdoing and I’m not worried about it," Morro said. "The truth is an absolute defense.”
Newton says the residents who signed the petition are supporters of the city council, with whom he has a strained relationship. Newton says his goal as mayor has always been to move the city forward.
“I want to let the citizens of this city know that the employees, the staff that we have, that they’re fed up with it too. And not only are they fed up with the antics, they’re fed up with the fact that they have all of the skills and capabilities that are necessary to move this city forward but they’re being prevented from doing such by the council,” Newton said. “Citizens are actually paying attention to everything that we do. They know everything that’s going on, they know individual council members, they know the antics of the individual council members, they know everything.”
In the bar complaint, Newton says several of the allegations made in the petition for impeachment are not applicable to Tarrant and not supported by facts.
"A lot of stuff in there we don’t really know for sure because we have to get the evidence and you get that through filing something in court and doing discovery," Morro said. "So, let’s see what he presents. Maybe he has a defense for the way he acts, I don’t know.”
“This was a political stunt and once again, they did not do everything they were supposed to do and it makes the city look bad," Newton said. "Not only does it make the city look bad, it makes them look bad, it makes their supporters look bad.”
Some Tarrant residents say through all of the political drama, it’s the people of the city who are hurting the most.
"We’ve spent more time bickering, spent more time paying out taxpayer dollars, spent more time fighting, then we can’t grow the city,” Tarrant resident Angela Page said.
"[The mayor and council] should be able to work together for the community and for the people,” Tarrant resident Andrea Woods said.
Morro says he’s not concerned about the bar complaint from Newton and fully stands behind the amended petition for impeachment.