On Tuesday, January 16, 2007, Dr. John Trotter, Chairman of MACE, simply showed up at the Clayton County Board of Education’s special-called meeting, and this apparently freaked out the embattled chairperson, Ericka Davis.  (Dr. Trotter also apparently surprised Davis and other school board members when he and a fellow MACE associate showed up at The Lodge at Amicalola Falls in the mountains of Pickens County on the weekend of January 5 and 6 to attend Ms. Davis’s orchestrated school board “retreat” in the mountains of North Georgia.)  Dr. Trotter arrived at the meeting about twenty minutes late because of his work at the MACE office.  He walked into the room and simply stood in the back.  A Jonesboro City police officer asked Dr. Trotter to step outside.  Dr. Trotter complied.  The Jonesboro City police officer confronted Dr. Trotter about a “Stalking Ex Parte Temporary Restraining Order,” asking Dr. Trotter if he were aware of it.  Dr. Trotter calmly pulled his copy out of his pocket and pointed to the Order’s salient features, which were highlighted in orange, to show the officer that the judge had not granted BOE member Yolanda Everett what she had petitioned for.  Dr. Trotter told the officer that no Court Order had been violated, and the officer allowed Dr. Trotter to re-enter the room, where he stood again at the very back.

 

     In reference to the so-called Order, on January 9, the Clayton County Board of Education members voted for the new Chair and Vice Chair.  In the two votes, it was apparent that there would no longer be a warm and fuzzy unanimity on the board.  After all, three incumbents had been defeated in the elections.  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Georgia Association of Educators had endorsed the incumbents, but they all went down in ignoble defeat.  Hey, what did Superintendent Barbara Pulliam expect – things to remain the same?  This election was a referendum on the superintendent and the school board.  Winning only one of four seats is hardly a ringing endorsement.  After the school board meeting on January 9, Board member Yolanda Everett purposefully engaged Dr. Trotter in a discussion, and he let her know that he would not be backing her in the 2008 elections.  In fact, he told her that people were already lined up to run against her.  Well, this politically-scorned woman tried to take out a restraining order against Dr. Trotter.  Perhaps she was worried about losing that $1,000.00 per month pay for being on the school board, as well as those nice, expensive junkets that board members often take advantage of.  Fortunately for Dr. Trotter, several witnesses saw and heard the verbal exchange between him and this two-year member.  Dr. Trotter let her know that he did not want to talk to her, but she insisted:  “Why, John?  What’s wrong?”  Dr. Trotter proceeded to tell her why he was dissatisfied with her performance on the school board.  One of the things that Dr. Trotter told Ms. Everett was this:  “I gave you a pass on Ericka because she is your good friend.  Did I ever ask you to vote against Ericka?  Did I ever ask you one time to vote against Ericka?  But now you’ve got your head so far up her ass that she tells you who to vote for Vice Chairman.”

 

     Now, returning to the January 16 meeting, at no time did Dr. Trotter say anything or address anyone on the school board or anyone in the crowd while the board meeting was being conducted.  Dr. Trotter quietly unfurled two picket signs (front and back) and simply stood there.  This evidently caused some of the BOE members to panic because Vice Chairman Rod Johnson immediately jumped out of his seat and left the stage.  The “Reverend” Rod apparently was hastening to call Sheriff Victor Hill so as to set Dr. Trotter’s subsequent unwarranted arrest in motion.  Shortly thereafter, Chairperson Ericka Davis abruptly left the stage as well and apparently proceeded to engage in a hissy fit with her fellow board members who had not voted for her to be Chairperson.  (After Dr. Trotter’s arrest, Davis publicly apologized to BOE colleagues Norreese Haynes and A. Michelle Strong for her unprovoked harangue at them.)  Throughout Rod Johnson’s and Ericka Davis’ on-stage histrionics, Dr. Trotter stood quietly and passively holding his First Amendment-protected signs – signs that were later deemed “offensive” by the dysfunctional Clayton County Sheriff’s Department under the comical “leadership” of Victor Hill.  Dr. Trotter later stated:  “Sure the signs were offensive.  I meant for them to be offensive to Ericka.  Her handling of the school board in matters like the Riverdale ‘land deal’ fiasco, the teacher-despised Kaplan Curriculum Program, the immoral Direct Instruction Reading Program, and the hiring of dozens and dozens of administrators from outside of the Clayton School System ranks have been offensive to me, to local teachers, and to the citizens of Clayton County.  I can assure you that anything that I put on a picket sign is one hundred percent legal, fully protected by both the Georgia and U. S. Constitutions, and sometimes quite offensive to the person who disagrees with the message.  I thought that both Ericka Davis and Victor Hill had at least a rudimentary sixth grade understanding of American Civics.  Perhaps Ericka did not learn this at Mundy’s Mill Middle School.  Perhaps Victor was playing Little Toy Soldier in Charleston when this was taught.  Perhaps both of these megalomaniacal characters prefer a more totalitarian type of government like the Soviets or Nazis enjoyed.”

 

     The sign that apparently affected Ericka so much simply read:  “Ericka’s brother criminally accused Clayton teacher of having sex with him. Hmm.”  The Clayton County teacher, who, by the way, because of MACE’s defense of her against Ericka’s brother’s criminal accusation, is still teaching in Clayton County, still holds MACE membership, and still praises MACE’s defense of her.  This teacher was found not guilty in a three-day trial in 1997 that was extensively covered by the national media.  Why would Ericka Davis have a problem with such a factually-based sign?  The other sign merely stated:  “Hey, Pulliam, Kaplan MUST Go!”   The Kaplan Program is a much despised curriculum program that places Clayton County teachers in straitjackets, thus stifling creativity in instructional design and delivery.  Why would Ericka Davis have a problem with a sign that conveys the feelings of an overwhelming majority of the teachers being forced to use such a program?  Both the Georgia and U. S. Constitutions protect this kind of speech.  They protect unpopular and offensive speech.  School boards and administrators often do not want to hear the truth.  There was nothing slanderous or libelous on these signs.  Dr. Trotter had every right to display them at a public meeting of the Clayton County Board of Education.  Wow, the power of MACE picket signs!

 

     Shortly after Davis’ abrupt recess of the school board meeting, Sheriff Victor Hill and his “storm troopers” arrived.  Dr. Trotter was still standing in the back of the auditorium, now chatting with different people, two of whom were members of MACE sitting on the back row.  At one point, David Ashe, District 7 BOE member, appeared at the top of the stage and peered into the crowd as if looking for someone or some group.  Dr. Trotter stated to him:  “David, y’all can’t be talking about me in executive session ‘cause I’m not one of the Exceptions under the Open Meetings Law in Title 47.”  At that moment, Clayton County’s Little Big Man, Piss Ant Victor Hill, showed up with his full entourage of tall, buff bodyguards, accompanied by the Swat Team.  You would have thought that Little Candy Ass Victor had found Osama bin Laden!  He jumped in front of Dr. Trotter with the now famous Court Order and asked Dr. Trotter whether he had seen it.  Dr. Trotter replied that he had a copy and that his copy was highlighted in orange, and he showed Itty Bitty how the judge had not granted Yolanda Everett’s request to keep Dr. Trotter a hundred yards from her.  In fact, there was no distance indicated at all in the Order.  Dr. Trotter kept stating:  “I can read, Victor.  Can you read?’  Apparently, the Little Tyrant could not stand being upstaged and made to look silly in front of his Goon Squad.  (He had already bristled when Dr. Trotter called him “Victor” and said, “I bet you won’t call me ‘Victor’ anymore.”  Dr. Trotter let His Smallness know that in Dr. Trotter’s mind, Victor would always be “Victor,” a small man with a big, inflated ego.)  Victor immediately told Etheridge, a plain clothes member of the entourage, to arrest Dr. Trotter.  Dr. Trotter audaciously blistered the ears of Walking Small, telling him that he had made a major mistake that night and that he was suffering from a “Small Man Complex.”  During this interaction, according to a published report in the Clayton News/Daily – but who can believe anything in that fish wrapper since they apparently just took what the school officials told them hook, line, and sinker without even using the word “allegedly” – the school system’s P. R. person, Charles White, along with “Reverend” Rod Johnson, maneuvered the press from the meeting room to an antechamber and then to the lobby so that they could witness Dr. Trotter being arrested.

 

       Well, after Dr. Trotter was wheeled off to the Clayton County Jail and kept for twenty-five hours, denied his much-needed insulin for twenty-two hours (and given it only after his attorney Steve Frey brought this to the judge’s attention), and beat up by two deputy dogs at Victor’s Stalag on Tara Boulevard, the embattled Chair, Ericka Davis pushed hard to get two resolutions passed, which she apparently had created on her home computer.  The two resolutions dealt with the alleged stalking of January 9, which did not occur.  Dr. Trotter says:  “Yolanda Everett apparently realized that I was serious about working for her defeat in the next election and misused the judicial process as retribution.  She told several unmitigated lies on police documents.  She claimed that I called her a ‘fucking bitch,’ which I absolutely did not, as several witnesses are willing to testify. She also claimed that I followed her to her car, which is another unmitigated lie.  Several witnesses are ready to testify that that is also a bold-faced lie.  I never use the b-word.  I’ve never called a woman a ‘b,’ much less a ‘f***ing b,’ but I will say this:  Ericka Davis, Yolanda Everett, and Rod Johnson are full of bull!  And while I’m being so blunt, I’ll state this, too:  Rod Johnson has let it be known that he wants to run for Clerk of the Superior Court of Clayton County.  I believe that he’ll be defeated in that race, and I believe that Little Vic will go down in dismal defeat in his re-election bid for Sheriff.  In Clayton County, it’s always about politics. Clayton County is like the Wild, Wild West.  Anyone else who gets tainted by the unmitigated lies of this case is going to end up with doo-doo all over their political careers.”

 

     It was Ericka’s second resolution that specifically mentioned Dr. Trotter by name, and she created it in all caps.  It reads:  “THE CLAYTON COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION AGREES THAT IT IS IMPORTANT FOR THE BOARD TO TAKE ACTION TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF ITS MEMBERS WHEN THEY ARE ENGAGED IN OFFICIAL BUSINESS.  AS A RESULT OF EVENTS THAT OCCURRED AFTER THE JANUARY 9, 2007 [sic] BOARD MEETING, YOLANDA EVERETT HAS FILED CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST DR. JOHN TROTTER AND HAS OBTAINED A TEMPORARY PROTECTIVE ORDER REQUIRING HIM TO REMAIN 100 YARDS AWAY FROM HER AT ALL TIMES.  UNTIL THIS PROTECTIVE ORDER IS LIFTED, THE BOARD RESOLVES AND AGREES THAT WHENEVER MS. EVERETT IS ON SCHOOL PROPERTY, MR. [sic] JOHN TROTTER IS BARRED FROM THAT SPECIFIC PROPERTY, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE PARKING LOT OF THE CENTRAL OFFICE.”  This resolution was to be signed by Ericka as “CHAIRMAN [sic] ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD.”  In this resolution, sponsored by Ericka Davis, Ms. Davis falsely asserts that Ms. Everett “OBTAINTED A TEMPORARY PROTECTIVE ORDER REQUIRING HIM TO REMAIN 100 YARDS AWAY FROM HER AT ALL TIMES.”  This is patently false.  Judge B. D. Simmons never granted that.  Ericka Davis gave to the board members and to the media copies of Yolanda Everett’s petition to the judge as well as the judge’s response to her petition, showing that he did not grant her request for any distance between her and Dr. Trotter.  In fact, the copies that Ericka Davis provided included Dr. Trotter’s social security, his date of birth, and his address, thus violating federal privacy laws.  Those board members who voted for “Ericka’s Resolution” are now liable for going along with her illegal, vindictive, and false resolution.  They had knowledge that it was untrue – or, at least, “constructive knowledge,” as the courts would say, because the judge’s response was staring them in their faces, and they should have read it before they reacted to it.  The five (out of nine) board members who voted for “Ericka’s Resolution” were Ericka Davis, Yolanda Everett, “Reverend” Rod Johnson, Eddie White, and David Ashe.  Those who rightfully did not vote for it were Norreese Haynes, A. Michelle Strong, Lois Baines-Hunter, and Sandra Scott.  Much debate and argument took place over these two resolutions, and while the debate was going on, Ericka Davis apparently further slandered Dr. Trotter by boldly stating that Dr. Trotter had been banned from the Atlanta Public Schools and that he cannot attend an Atlanta Board of Education meeting.  This, too, is patently false.  Dr. Trotter and the whole MACE team are in Atlanta on a regular basis virtually every week.

 

     Going back to Dr. Trotter’s incarceration in the Clayton County Jail on January 16 and 17, in the wee hours of the morning, an official with the Sheriff’s Department came to Dr. Trotter, stating that the charge had been changed.  Dr. Trotter laughed and scoffed at this official, like he had been laughing and scoffing at all the deputies throughout the night.  They obviously realized that they had engaged in a false arrest of Dr. Trotter.  Even when Dr. Trotter was in the squad car, one of the deputies kept insisting to the arresting officer that “he has not violated any Court Order – he absolutely did not violate any Court Order.”  Apparently, the Jonesboro police officer and one of the deputies went before the judge and stated that Dr. Trotter had not violated any Court Order.  So, the charges were changed to “public disturbance,” and they described this “public disturbance” thusly, in all caps:  “RECKLESSLY OR KNOWINGLY COMMIT AN ACT WHICH WOULD REASONABLY BE EXPECTED TO PREVENT OR DISRUPT A LAWFUL MEETING OR GATHERING OF THE CLAYTON COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD WHEN HE DID APPEAR AT A SCHOOL BOARD MEETING KNOWING HE HAD A STALKING EXPARTE [sic] TEMPORARY PROTECTIVE ORDER IN AFFECT [sic] AGAINST HIM IN RESPECT TO SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER YOLANDA EVERETT AND DISPLAYED SIGNS WHICH WERE OFFENSIVE TO A MEMBER AND WHEN ASKED TO REMOVE THE SIGNS HE BECAME DISRUPPTIVE [sic] TO THE POINT THE MEETING HAD TO BE RECESSED UNTIL HIS REMOVAL.”  [NOTE:  This charge was entirely dismissed by the Clayton County Solicitor's Office on February 6, 2007.  In fact, the Jonesboro police officer who was on duty at the Clayton County Board of Education meeting that evening apparently stated that Dr. Trotter did absolutely nothing wrong.]  This whole charge is legally laughable and would be laughed out of any legitimate courtroom in the country.  On its face, it is unconstitutional.  It is constitutional to hold up a sign that offends public officials.  Dr. Trotter cannot be held responsible for the “disturbance” that takes place in the mind of any public official.  In addition, the person who wrote this still included the aforementioned Court Order which, in fact, did not mention any distance concerning contact with Yolanda Everett, much less going to a public meeting.  Plus, Dr. Trotter was never asked to remove the signs.  He never disrupted the meeting.  He never said anything in the meeting.  It was abruptly recessed by Chairperson Ericka Davis.  This document, too, is full of lies and groundless gobbledygook, but this new charge came from the same hapless Sheriff’s Department under the misdirection of His Smallness. 

 

     On January 26, 2007, a hearing was held in the Magistrate Court of Clayton County concerning Yolanda Everett’s initial false charges against Dr. Trotter.  The courtroom was packed, especially with supporters of Dr. Trotter.  These included State Representative Darryl Jordan, who is a MACE member and the head of Clayton County’s nine-member legislative delegation; former Deputy Superintendent of Clayton County Schools Bill Horton; MACE Vice Chair Dennis Yarbrough; School Board member Lois Baines-Hunter; School Board member and MACE’s Executive Director Norreese Haynes; MACE members Alieka Anderson and Janice Scott; and a host of others who were willing to testify about what they saw and heard on that night of January 9 concerning the verbal interchange between Yolanda Everett and Dr. John Trotter.  Yolanda Everett was accompanied by two attorneys and an attorney with the law firm of Weekes & Candler, which represents the Clayton County Board of Education.  A custodian of the school system, who also drives for Superintendent Barbara Pulliam, was there as well as an unnamed person who might be Superintendent Pulliam’s niece.  The attorney with Weeks & Candler told the judge that a motion to squash Superintendent Pulliam’s subpoena to appear had been filed.  Dr. Trotter’s attorneys – Steve Frey, President of the Clayton County Bar Association; Preston Lee Haliburton; and Adrian Patrick – were geared up and ready to try the case.  Ms. Everett’s lead attorney, Dorsey Hopkins, immediately asked to speak with Dr. Trotter’s lead attorney, Steve Frey.  He indicated that Ms. Everett’s wish was to settle this case without a trial.  Attorney Hopkins had apparently been overheard asking Ms. Everett, “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”  Channel 2 News was covering the proceedings. 

 

     Judge Charles Floyd, who was brought in from Fayette County because no Clayton County judge apparently wanted to hear the case, also indicated his great desire to see the case go away.  Judge Floyd announced that all criminal charges were dropped against Dr. Trotter.  Dr. Trotter was magnanimous enough to state that he was willing to stay twenty-five yards away from Yolanda Everett for the next year as long as this agreement did not apply to his attendance at the Clayton County Board of Education meetings.  Dr. Trotter says:  “Why wouldn’t I agree to this?  I never go around the woman anyway.  Until January 10, 2007, she was a member of MACE and called me on a fairly regular basis, complaining about her situations at her different schools.  MACE represented her in a grievance hearing at the Fulton County Central Office on April 29, 2004, and I must say we did a jam-up job for her.  In addition, MACE picketed the administration at Hapeville Elementary School on her behalf on May 4, 2004.  I also did many other things for her in 2004, including recruiting her to run for the school board, raising her money to run for office, and running her campaign for the seat.  She was elected.  In the fall of 2004, Ms. Everett secured a job with Drew Charter School in Atlanta Public Schools.  Again, she had problems with the administration at that school.  Ms. Everett called the MACE office on a regular basis complaining about that school’s administration.  MACE picketed for her again, wrote letters, and represented her in a most aggressive way in a grievance hearing before the East Lake Foundation Board.  On a number of occasions, the MACE team visited Ms. Everett at her schools at her request.  Even as late as the beginning of December 2006, MACE responded to her call for help in dealing with one of her administrators at Drew.  So, I was somewhat bemused that she would engage in such dastardly lies, like claiming that I was calling her and harassing her to vote certain ways on the school board.  In fact, I neither mentioned to her that MACE’s Executive Director Norreese Haynes was running for Vice Chair, nor did I ever ask her to vote for him.  I did not even ask her to vote against her good friend Ericka Davis, who appears to have an intense hatred for MACE.  I’m pretty perceptive about politics, and I clearly perceived that Ms. Everett had long since been co-opted by Ericka Davis and did indeed have her head up Ericka’s ass.  It may sound crude, but it’s accurate while being descriptive.”

 

     After the agreement that was made in court between the parties on January 26, 2007, and wholeheartedly agreed upon by Judge Floyd of Fayette County, the latest episode in the saga of trying to keep Dr. Trotter out of the Clayton County School Board meetings comes from Harold Eddy of the Weekes & Candler Law Firm, which represents both the Clayton County Board of Education and the DeKalb County Board of Education.  DeKalb County’s legal bills have been the subject of a recent investigative news report dealing with the millions of dollars that DeKalb taxpayers have shelled out for legal bills.  (Of course, not all this money has gone to Weekes & Candler, but they probably have received the lion’s share of these millions.)  In the Clayton Fish Wrapper (News/Daily) of January 27, 2007, it is reported that “Charles White, after consultation with board attorney Harold Eddy, said because of the language used in the resolution, it is still in effect because the protective order was modified, not lifted.”  Could this interpretation be Mr. Eddy’s attempt to embroil the school system in further litigation with Dr. Trotter, thus earning the Weekes & Candler Law Firm even more cash from Clayton County’s taxpayers?  Dr. Trotter responds:  “What ‘protective order,’ Mr. Eddy?  The original Court Order signed by B. D. Simmons on January 10, 2007, did not put any distance between Ms. Everett and me.  So what 'protective order' are you talking about, Mr. Eddy?  Judge Floyd just signed off on a new agreement on January 26, 2007, wherein I agreed to keep a twenty-five yard distance from Ms. Everett for one year except when I attend a school board meeting, thus lifting the previous Court Order that did not mention any distance.  So, Mr. Harold Eddy, do you still want to engage in some fruitless and costly litigation wherein you, your law firm, the school system, and the taxpayers will eventually lose?  Do you want to disobey an order forthcoming from Judge Floyd based on an agreement on which all parties signed off  on January 26, 2007, and thus endanger your standing with the State Bar of Georgia?  Keep playing games, Mr. Eddy, and we will see who comes out on top!  This kind of foolishness might work in New York, but not in the Dirty South.”  Channel 2 News aired the agreement which Mr. Harold Eddy of Weekes & Candler Law Firm so wrong-headedly wants to dispute.  Dr. Trotter fearlessly stated into the camera:  “This is all about trying to shut me up, and it’s not going to work.  I have a right to go to a school board meeting and a right to hold up a picket sign – and I’m going to keep on doing it.” 

 

     On January 27, 2007, Dr. Trotter stated:  “There is not a more exhilarating feeling than to be shot at and missed.  In my career, I’ve been shot at many times, incarcerated several times, but never convicted any time.  It’s hard to convict someone who is innocent and stands on the Constitution of the United States.  The Constitution protects my kind of speech.  It protects unpopular and offensive speech.  Popular speech doesn’t need protecting.  School boards and administrators just don’t want to hear the truth.”  At MACE, we tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may.