Your grandmother’s advice that “nothing good happens after midnight” should be updated for the 21st Century: nothing good happens when you fire off angry emails, particularly after midnight.
Lemoore Mayor Billy Siegel has found himself at the wrong end of a civil suit after sending a slanderous email to former mayor and city councilman Ed Martin, copying Acting City Manager Jeff Laws, Parks and Recreation Director Joe Simonson and Councilman John Gordon on the message.
In the email—time stamped at 3:43AM September 1 of this year—Siegel accuses Martin of “homosexual tendencies” and an “infatuation with young boys,” further alleging that Martin has considered “self-termination.”
The email goes on to suggest that Martin has a “serious chemicals imbalance.” Siegel proceeds to offer the City Council as a resource to help steer Martin back onto “a path away from your troubled journey.”
Siegel signed the email with “William Siegel, Mayor, City of Lemoore.”
In addition to his job with the Lemoore Union High School, Martin runs an online local news site called the Lemoore Leader where he reports on the activity of the council.
“Mr. Siegel, on behalf of the city of Lemoore, has made these slanderous statements as a leader of the community,” the claim says. “One can only deduce that neither Mr. Siegel nor the city of Lemoore want Mr. Martin to be a member of his/its community any longer due, in part, to his reporting of information regarding the city and its leaders.”
According to the lawsuit, Mayor Siegel contacted the Lemoore Union High School in June and requested that Martin be terminated from his position.
“I’m just disappointed,” Martin said to the Hanford Sentinel. “The citizens of Lemoore expect more from their mayor.”
Martin is seeking damages in excess of $100,000 for emotional injuries as well as a public apology from the City of Lemoore and Siegel’s resignation from his position of Mayor.
Lemoore is a city of roughly 25,000 residents located in Kings County.
Read the full article at the Hanford Sentinel.
View Martin’s legal claim here.