The Martin Chronicles watched the first night of Villa Hills malfeasant Mayor Mike Martin's removal hearing with great interest. With the exception of a smattering of Martin's hillbilly lynchmob who were in attendance, the audience was paying close attention to the proceedings. Here is some of what they saw.
The malfeasant Martin is either one of the dumbest people on the planet or the most corrupt mayor in Kentucky's storied history of corrupt mayors. The Martin Chronicles chooses "C"-All of the above. In the grand tradition of the Watergate burglars, Martin repeatedly claimed he didn't recall key elements of his misconduct and neglect of duty. It also became quite clear that Martin has little or no interest in real governance or leadership but instead focuses on petty, vindictive politics. His face turned so red at one point that an attendee called for "a bus".
Defense attorney Toad McMurtry clearly knows he has been dealt a horrible hand representing the malfeasant Martin. He was also shockingly ill-prepared. Other observations? It is clear that Special Counsel Phil Taliaferro's style gets under McMurtry's skin. It is equally clear that McMurtry plans to roll out that tired, old Martin defense of the massive conspiracy to "get Shorty". Here is the key question. How can any reasonable person believe that police officers who have decades of experience and councilpeople with professional backgrounds would risk their careers, reputations, pensions and even freedom in some clandestine attempt to discredit an unintelligent, itinerant, "shoddy-at-best" handyman? It makes no sense. No "reasonable doubt" is created by such a ridiculous claim. None whatsoever.
Special Counsel Phil Taliaferro was superb. While some in Martin's hillbilly lynchmob found Taliaferro's performance "hilarious", there is nothing "hilarious" about the mess that the malfeasant Martin has created in Villa Hills through his misconduct and neglect of duty. After strutting to the witness stand giving "test pilot" thumbs-ups and winks, Martin became visibly upset as Taliaferro's questions closed a tight circle around Shorty. In the end, the megalomaniacal Martin had clearly "crashed and burned".
Temporary Clerk MARY HARDMAN is one scary dude. The malfeasant Martin has been claiming for months that MARY HARDMAN was brought in to assist with tax season. MARY HARDMAN exposed that Martin LIE, testifying that Shorty brought her in to spend several months organizing the paper piles on the unattended City Clerk's desk. Then she decided to defy Kentucky statute by illegally burning and shredding documents. MARY HARDMAN's justification? She read a book that told her absolutely every possible thing she could ever want to know about being a City Clerk that said it was okay. That begs a question. Has Interim City Clerk Sue Bree ever even bothered to page through that book?
Public Works employee Scott Smith's testimony about a mountain of shredded documents was devastating to Martin and Bree's wild claim that the Interim City Clerk was simply shredding outdated copies of her Atkin's Diet recipes.
Potentially the most explosive news? Witnesses say Jim Noll was busy inattentively playing with his hand-held device all night long. FOX 19 News has also broken a story that a Villa Hills councilman posted a tweet that he would not vote to remove Martin no matter how damning the evidence. If Noll did indeed post such a tweet, Taliaferro, McMurtry and Judge Foellger need to have a serious discussion before tonight's proceeding begins.
