MARTINSVILLE, Va. – The Mayor of Martinsville responded in a press conference Thursday after a City Councilman was removed from a meeting last week.
As previously reported, Councilman Aaron Rawls was escorted out by a deputy after Mayor L.C. Jones asked him to fall in order numerous times.
“Had he not been making disrespectful comments. Had he not been slanderizing council members or making comments to individuals in the audience, we wouldn’t have got to that place. I would have not had to try to call order, and we could have kept the meeting going,” Jones said.
This response comes after Rawls held his own press conference last Thursday where he said in part:
“...The level of coordination to remove any elected person from a city meeting is absolutely criminal. Literally, it was unbelievable. It is an absolute civil rights violation.”
The mayor said he stands by the deputy’s action, while Rawls claims he was intentionally targeted and removed after he criticized pay raises.