Jeremy Stratton, Danville’s former economic developer, sent this email to SouthsideCentral today and I feel it’s something that you need to read.
SouthsideCentral has wiped the original article regarding Jeremy Stratton due to sourcing that has been retracted.
Again, this statement is from Jeremy Stratton.
I would like to take this opportunity to clarify a police report that Eric and Casey DeYampert filed against me, and was subsequently reported and published by the El Dorado News Times on the front page in its Thursday, December 10, 2015 edition.
Mr. DeYampert was a member of the Leadership Union County program. On his own volition, he quit the program midway through, and cited an inappropriate relationship with a fellow classmate. Mr. and Mrs. DeYampert requested that I remove four photos from the Leadership Union County Facebook page. I reviewed the four photos, which consisted of group shots of the leadership class. Based on the photos being harmless to the parties involved, I denied the request. The DeYamperts were furious with this decision. They sent me emails chastising me for that decision. I forwarded those emails to some members of the Executive Board, who remarked that “this is a crazy situation.”
I am very thankful for the state-of-the-art security system and well trained staff at the El Dorado Wal-Mart. The stores surveillance cameras and security staff can vouch that the following items did not happen:
• There was no altercation or any physical violence involved.
• I did not make any “terroristic or physical violence threats” to any member of the DeYampert family.
• I did not hit anybody with anything in Wal-Mart.
• I was never in the checkout line behind the DeYamperts as stated.
• I did not follow anybody to the parking lot and make comments as stated.
I am deeply saddened that this police report was filed and released publicly without all the facts in place. Please note that anyone at any time can file a police report against somebody. It is the job of the police to investigate these allegations.
Presently, I am determining the best legal action to take against the DeYampert family for filing a false police report. The editor of the El Dorado News Times has resigned his position within the last few days. I have talked to the El Dorado News Times, and they have taken the article off website searches. The General Manager of the newspaper understands the gravity of the situation created by the editor. I am requesting that Southside Central remove the article as well. Please let me know, if you have any questions.
Best Regards,
Jeremy Stratton
I’ve checked out Stratton’s story and the El Dorado News-Times has pulled the referenced article. No criminal charges have been filed against Stratton as of now.
In the spirit of fairness and in the ethical standards of journalism, I am clearing out the original SouthsideCentral article about this incident and replacing it with a link to this article. This is the only fair thing to do under these circumstances.
SouthsideCentral stands by the content of the original article as it was based on the original El Dorado News-Times reporting. Now that I have doubts about the original article’s sourcing because it’s been retracted, I’m doing what’s needed here.
SouthsideCentral will update this article as needed.
[…] Today’s Statement from Jeremy Stratton […]
Thank you Bruce! God speed!
The el do mayor made a huge mess making up this whole story and having his buddy at the newspaper report it to cover up that the mayor is a pathological liar and a psycho that chases residents around town to bully them. Residents didn’t know that the mayor was dating Rick Fahr and this clouded there vision of reporting the right things. Rick was fired for his conduct at the newspaper. The mayor is under threat for the past year to be recalled for his horrible behavior and antics. He has a history of trying to physically and mentally hurt people that get in his way. He reported an African American non profit to the FBI. The FBI raided the non profit and the mayor had the media at the scene of the raid. It was on the front page of the paper and the FBI came down hard on the mayor. No charges were ever filed against the non profit. It was another smear campaign. The incident with the chamber president at wal-mart was another smear campaign by the mayor and council woman Dianne Hammond because the business community elected the chamber president as the chairman of the transportation committee because the mayor *ucked up $58 million worth of grant funds to expand and clean up all of Highway 82 Business. The Mayor and alderwomen couldn’t stand an outsider taking control from them and threatened people in the community they were going to get them. By the way, there was never any charges filed against the chamber president so that should make everyone look really bad about reporting it.