This week members of the McComb board of Mayor and Selectmen were meeting together. Not in the board room of City Hall, but in a courtroom in Magnolia, the county seat of Pike County. And, I was there to witness what has to be, so far, the trial of the decade. The lawsuit by McComb Mayor Zach Patterson against the selectmen of the McComb city board was played out over two days at the County Courthouse in front of Judge Michael Taylor.

I am convinced that the trial was a result of a “runaway freight train.” That runaway train is those four selectmen (Danny Esch, Wade Lamb, E.C. Nobles, and Robert Maddox) and their good-ole-boy network that includes their defense lawyer, Dennis Horn. What a show. What a picture. To see them all there, testifiying and being made to answer for all the mess they created at city hall. Tuesday and Wednesday, those selectmen had to answer, not only for their actions on August 26, 2009 when they held an improper and illegal meeting to authorize themselves to sign and issue checks to pay the city payroll and other approved city bills; but, they also had to take responsibility for their actions on June 9, 2009, when they stripped Mayor Patterson of his duties as mayor and gave that authority to themselves and their appointed city administrator. I’ve coined a statement that Mayor Patterson uses to describe what those selectmen did: “A nullification of an election.”

Yes, those illegal amendments they approved in June 2009 forced Mayor Patterson to eventually remove the use of his signature to pay bills and execute contracts. This normally falls under his normal duties. However, the selectmen’s amendments that were prepared by Dennis Horn, stated that they have expressly repealed the mayor’s duties in their entirety. They took his duties, his powers, by force!

After all of the testimony and evidence was presented, it was clear to me that something historic was unfolding. Mayor Patterson and his capable attorney, Carroll Rhodes, had exposed these evil and illegal deeds. Now the evidence is mounting that there was a conspiracy and “meetings before meetings” and plan actions to stop the mayor from being the mayor. The testimony and evidence from this trial of the decade will most certainly be used against the same four selectmen and commissioner Larry Dorr and others who are defendants in the federal lawsuit that Patterson filed. That will probably replace this trial as the new trial of the decade when it takes place.

Patterson said that he would bring about change. Well, that trial changed somethings. Of course, Judge Taylor will have something to say about all of this when he makes his ruling, hopefully by the end of the month. It can’t be business as usual. Not after this trial.