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As silly as it sounds, Haywood County and Congressional District 11 GOP official Ted Carr of Bethel filed an assault charge against Paul Yeager, claiming that…  wait for it… Yeager poked Carr in the chest.

No kidding.  Literally, Carr claimed that Yeager assaulted him by poking him in the chest while calling him and others liars in front of the HCGOP booth at the Haywood County fair back in August 2017.

Today after three continuances, none of which were requested by the defense, the case was tried.  The judge concluded that the state had failed to present sufficient evidence to support the charge, and Yeager was acquitted.

The proceedings were quite entertaining, starting with the testimony of Ted Carr himself.  Poor Ted looked quite uncomfortable when his own testimony demonstrated that Carr had approached Yeager to confront him regarding Yeager’s statement that the HCGOP booth was manned by a group of liars.

This was followed by the testimony of Carr’s wife Pat (also a HCGOP official), which was rather mundane, but notable in that it did not confirm Carr’s claim that Yeager had touched him.

Next we had Debbie King, HCGOP Vice Chair, whose testimony was long on emotional content and also a bit short on logical consistency.  King claimed that she first saw Yeager as she was heading towards her car to retrieve something and Yeager was entering the building.  She claimed that she was so afraid of Yeager that she decided not to go to her car, but to enter the same building Yeager was entering.  Let that sink in.  She was so afraid of Yeager that she chose to go towards him rather than away from him.  Several times during her testimony, King spoke of how “uncomfortable” Yeager’s behavior made her feel, but she didn’t leave the area.  King also had a cute story of an “in your face” encounter with Yeager that was not corroborated by any other testimony and is disputed by Yeager and other witnesses.  King also did not corroborate Carr’s claim that Yeager had poked him.

The Oscar nomination for Best Performing Actrees in a Supporting Role in the prosecution’s testimony must go to Lynda Bennett (another HCGOP official), who went on at great length about her heroic efforts to separate Carr and Yeager during the confrontation, event to the point of allegedly forcing a chair between Carr and Yeager to separate them.  This allegation was also uncorroborated by other testimony and is disputed by Yeager and other witnesses.  Bennett was yet another witness whose testimony failed to corroborate Carr’s claim of being poked in the chest.

Finally we had the testimony of a Public Information Officer from the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office.  A nice young lady, but all she had to offer was that she heard some noise, but could not make out what was being said, nor could she see what happened, and that someone came to her and asked for a deputy to be sent to the HCGOP booth.

One amusing part of the proceeding came when Yeager denied that he had yelled, and stated there is a difference between raising one’s voice and yelling.  The prosecution asked what that might be, and Yeager offered to demonstrate.  The prosecution invited him to do so, and Yeager yelled “THIS IS YELLING”, whereupon the judge threatened Yeager with jail if he did that again.

In summary, four of the five witnesses told significantly different stories about the same event. The fifth witness was not in a position to witness the event.  What does that tell us?

Readers of this story might be well advised to view it as somewhat of a cautionary tale.  Someone like Ted Carr can go before a magistrate, swear that you did something, and the resources of the State of North Carolina will be used to prosecute you, regardless of evidence or lack thereof at the time of the charge.  How much did the taxpayers of Haywood County and North Carolina pay for this attempt at legal slander?

Watch your six.  Some of those who perceive themselves to be in power will do all they can to malign anyone they perceive to be a threat to that power.

We have received the text of a recent email purportedly from Ken Henson, Haywood County GOP Chairman.  Anyone who knows Ken will realize that someone else had to have written it.

Below are excerpts from this email, with my comments interspersed.

There is massive confusion regarding a former Haywood County Republican Party Facebook page.

Really?  Who is confused and why?  People who think “Haywood Republican Alliance” sounds like “Haywood County Republican Party”?  If you can’t tell the difference, perhaps you should not leave home without competent supervision.

Several years ago a page was set up by the Haywood County Republican Party.

Actually, the page was set up by a volunteer.  Why are people surprised that when that person was electioneered off the HCGOP Executive Committee, they chose to keep control of what they had worked to create?

In March 2017, disgruntled administrators of the page changed the name to reflect an extremist group using the name Republican Alliance.

Extremist group?  Really?  Is it “extremist” to expect that the Haywood County Republican Party conduct business according to the NCGOP Plan of Organization and the votes of the HCGOP Executive Committee?

The official Republican Party was not consulted nor informed regarding this change.

And why should they have been?

The official Haywood County Republican Party is not affiliated with the page that is now used to promote some of the far left extremist views of certain administrators.

Far left extremist views?  Really Ken?  Get real.  Please do share one of the “far left extremist views” promoted by Haywood Republican Alliance.  We’ll wait.  But we won’t hold our breath, because this claim is pure fantasy.  Readers are welcome to judge for themselves by examining what is now the Haywood Republican Alliance Facebook page at  https://www.facebook.com/HaywoodRepublicans/ or the HRA website at http://hayrep.com/.  We don’t find anything “far left” in either place.

Be very clear; the inflammatory remarks from page administrators reflecting vulgarity and baseness do not reflect the belief of the official Haywood County Republican Party.

Do Ken Henson’s threats of physical violence against individuals reflect the belief of the “official Haywood County Republican Party”?

Poor Ken Henson and his cronies.  They found it inconvenient that some members of the HCGOP Executive Committee insisted on the “rule of law” – conducting business according to the NCGOP Plan of Organization and votes of the Executive Committee – so they electioneered them off the Executive Committee.  They obviously did not consider the consequences.

Now, rather than moving forward with the resources they have available, they spend considerable effort attacking the folks they banished from the party.

On what planet does that make sense?

Wake up and smell the coffee, Ken Henson.  The people you screwed are not likely to roll over and play dead for you.  You made this situation, so go find your big boy pants and deal with it.  Move on.

Apparently he thinks a lot of himself:

Early in the conversation, he was asked to back one of his assertions with fact.  He responded with a question, and then later asserted that he had asked his question first:

He also appears to like insulting the whole Republican population of a county:

… and also individuals:

(if he was blocked, he would have a perfect excuse for failing to admit to his slanderous claims that Haywood Republican Alliance was not making proper and timely reports to NCSBOE)

Brian Talbert seems to think that if you fly a Confederate Flag, you are a Nazi.

(note that while he continually played the part of Grammar Cop in the conversation, he formed a plural using an apostrophe)

He likes to declare victory, absent any evidence:

…and he’s just a *bit* condescending:

Why would anyone have such a person as a spokesperson?

Our guess is that he was sent to harass HRA by one of the power seekers in NCGOP.

Astute readers might wonder about the full context.  In the interest of fairness, below are 28 screenshots covering the conversation up to the time of this writing.

Haywood County Republican Party Cahirman Ken Henson is such a classy guy.  Already known for voicemail threats, face-to-face threats of personal violence, disregard for Roberts Rules of Order, and falsely accusing others of felony activity, his general lack of manners was recently demonstrated once again.

At the recent Faith and Freedom Rally fundraiser for Congressman Mark Meadows (R NC11), Henson arrived late (as usual).  Notably, he was at least wearing a clean shirt with a collar.

As North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest took the podium to introduce Congressman Meadows, most of the crowd of hundreds present paid attention to one of the “rock stars” of conservative politics in NC.  Not Ken Henson.  He was seen bending the ear of Congressman Meadows, ignoring the Lieutenant Governor’s speech.

The disrespect continued.  When our fine Congressman Meadows took the stage, Henson was again seen to disrespect the star of the show by pigeonholing Lieutenant Governor Forest for a lengthy conversation.

What a shame that the Chairman of the Haywood County Republican Party cannot represent the Republicans of Haywood County with better manners.

Charles Douglas Wright is a Precinct Chairman in the Republican Party in Haywood County North Carolina.  But who is he?  He has what might most charitably be called a “checkered past”.

We would never presume to tell our readers what to think about anyone.  We think presenting the facts is sufficient.  Charles Douglas Wright is formerly a resident of Padre Island, Texas, near Brownsville.  Let’s examine what the Brownsville Herald has to say about Mr. Wright.  Looking at the evidence, we think HCGOP could choose better company.  But you decide.

The images below are screenshots from archives of the Brownsville Herald obtained from NewspaperArchive.com.

Haywood County REALTOR® Bruce McGovern went on someone else’s page on Facebook to insult President Trump.  When politely asked to do so, Mr. McGovern declined to back his assertions with facts.

Did Mr. McGovern make allegations that he refused to substantiate?  We leave that to the reader to decide.  It all starts with a Facebook post by Paul Yeager, who has shared the following screenshots with us.

Note that Mr. Yeager’s post had nothing to do with President Trump.

Mr. Yeager and some of his friends took exception to this, and asked Mr. McGovern to substantiate his claim, as seen below.

Mr. McGovern had a curious reply:

So, Mr.McGovern thinks Trump is guilty because “There is an investigation”, and further alleges that Mr. Yeager is a REALTOR®.  We have it on good authority that Mr. Yeager has not held an active real estate license for at least 7 years.  We would think that McGovern might have noticed that Yeager wasn’t showing up at meetings of the local Board of REALTORS®.

Then we have what looks quite a bit like an invitation to physical violence.

And then, what looks like another threat.

The screenshot above ends with a question from Yeager, which was never acknowledged by McGovern, let alone answered.  It seems a fair question to us.  It also seems quite clear from the exchange so far than McGovern thinks that President Trump must be guilty of something, because there is an investigation.  We deduce from this that Mr. McGovern does therefore not believe in the right to due process.

McGovern is not done yet.

It seems that at this point, McGovern has crossed a line with Yeager.  We can’t blame him.  McGovern talks about lies, but has yet to mention one.

Not to be dissuaded, McGovern continues.

Yeager reports that he is puzzled by the claim that the original post (shown at the beginning of this post) reflects poorly on his character, and also on the apparent claim that hiring an attorney is a sign of guilt.

Now McGovern has alleged that Yeager lied, without actually explaining how.  He also illustrates his poor spelling.

We also wonder what “You have no idea how much fun mouth” means.

Now one might thank that at this point, one might know it was time to quit.  McGovern didn’t, which makes us wonder if he wasn’t at this point guilty of FUI (Facebooking Under the Influence).

It certainly does appaear that McGovern threated Yeager once again in the screenshot above.

Yeager reports that he is just broken hearted that McGovern wouldn’t allow him to be his customer.  We are happy to hear that the real estate business in Haywood County is doing so well that Mr. McGovern can pick and choose clients based on their political beliefs.

We wonder if people looking for a REALTOR® might not do just the same thing.  After all, if you like our President, would you want to give thousands of dollars to someone who so obviously despises him?

One final note:  One can observe from the timestamps in the screenshots above and below that Bruce McGovern was given plenty of time to sober up and apologize.  Mr. Yeager reports no contact with McGovern since this Facebook exchange.

In the interest of full disclosure, here are all of the screenshots of the exchange that were provided to us, so no one can claim that things were selectively edited. CAUTION!  The following screenshots contain adult language.

It is sad how some people change.  Or perhaps they don’t change at all, they just hide their true selves for a while, and eventually we find out who really they are.

This story might best be told by starting at the end, and then sharing the beginning.  The end of the story is that Haywood County Republican Party Chairman Ken Henson has called a meeting for Thursday June 22, 2017.

The agenda for that meeting includes an “closed session” for some undisclosed reason.  For those who don’t know, “closed session” is where all who are not members of the executive committee are excluded, and if minutes are taken at all, they are not made public.  In other words, this is where you do the  deeds you don’t want anyone to know about.

Now, the beginning of the story is Ken Henson objecting to just such a “closed session” at a NCGOP District 11 meeting.  First, we have a short video of Ken explaining how wrong it is to have a closed session:

For more context, view the video below, from which the video above was edited, which starts with a motion to go into closed session.  In it, you will hear a voice we have identified as Debbie King telling Ken what to say.

We have it on good authority that Ken is still calling Debbie to find out if he can speak and what to say.

If she has been threatened, then why hasn’t she called her local police?  Or, perhaps she did, and they are still laughing.

As far as we understand, this nutcase has borne plenty of “false witness”, starting with her bogus charges of “sexual harassment”.  But we know she is just a parrot.  The folks who teach her what to say should watch out, as their allegations have now risen to the level of slander.  Real slander, not the fake slander that shyster Tom Stark likes to prattle on about.

“I can guarantee you there is no one named ToxHandler on any delegate list.”

Really?  What rock do you have to live under to not understand the concept of screen names?

“If you’re going to make an allegation, be clear about it.”

Now this is truly hilarious.  It’s true – you can’t make stuff like this up. Where is the “clarity” in her allegations?

“My comments are based on facts that I can back up and not personal attacks just because I don’t like someone”

So, why doesn’t she back them up?

“since they are not delegates…nor are you…why do you care about them being banned?”

Those who fail to learn the lessons of history…  Remember when Germans said “I’m not Jewish, why should I worry?”

“if this were only about Haywood County why is everyone making out about Robin Hayes?”

Who is “making out about Robin Hayes”?  I know when I “make out”, an old fart like that is the farthest thing from my mind.

“Y’all have started up your own opposition party”

Really?  Someone started an organization to oppose Republicans?  What on EARTH is this woman smoking?

“So, Focus your energies on your own party instead of trying to destroy others. ”

Who is trying to destroy anything, other than this nutcase who prattles on about things tat aren’t even in her county?  ANd who is this nutcase to offer advice to anyone?

You can’t claim the moral high ground while lying.

Michele Nix has been caught at it more than once. Her recent support of parties in HCGOP leadership and her laughable claims regarding Haywood Republican Alliance prompted us to do some digging.

Our sources have delivered evidence of one clear case of lying outright on Ms. Nix’s part.

We can see above two claims being made:

1. NCGOP took out a restraining order against Jeremy Davis.
2. NCGOP contacted the FBI

Let’s take the second claim first – they contacted the FBI.  Anyone can call the FBI.  What does that prove?  Nothing.

Now for the first claim – NCGOP took out a restraining order against Jeremy Davis.

A restraining order is a document that is issued and signed by a judge.  The party being restrained is then served a with copy.

Jeremy Davis reports that he was never served with a restraining order, nor has he even seen an order with a judge’s signature.

NCGOP’s hired gun Tom Stark did send Jeremy a letter of warning and told him he was not welcome at the 2016 NCGOP Convention.   That is not a restraining order.

Does the second in command of NCGOP not have an obligation to speak honestly and accurately?

Updated July 14, 2017

Recently Becky Johnson of Smoky Mountain News spent a lot of time interviewing people from both Haywood County GOP and Haywood Republican Alliance regarding recent conflict between members of the two groups.  Her research resulted in several articles regarding the two organizations and local Republican politics.

While Ms. Johnson didn’t overtly call anyone a liar, if you read carefully you will see at least one case where someone is caught in a lie.  The articles can be seen at the links below.

http://www.smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/19646-haywood-gop-leaders-overthrown

http://www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/19645

http://www.smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/19689-showdown-at-gop-gulch-tracing-the-origin-of-turmoil-in-the-haywood-republican-party

http://www.smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/19745-the-petri-dish-of-american-politics-homegrown-factions-wreak-havoc-on-mainstream-parties

And then we have Cory Villaincourt from Smoky Mountain News writing more good articles on HCGOP’s silly behavior.

http://www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/20326-local-gop-mum-on-closed-session-disloyalty-resolution

…which was followed by Ted Carr’s letter to the editor, attempting to claim that HCGOP had never passed a resolution charging five with “party disloyalty”, despite the existence of evidence to the contrary.

http://www.smokymountainnews.com/opinion/item/20354-story-on-party-disloyalty-had-inaccuracies