‘F*CK YOU, F*CK YOU, F*CK YOU’

F-Bombs, Sucker Punches, Wife Taunts: This Alabama Town Is Having a Meltdown

The mayor of Tarrant is “spiraling out of control,” the city’s police chief said after yet another bizarre episode Monday night.

An Alabama town has reached a boiling point amid wild incidents involving city leaders exchanging blows, accusations of vile bigotry, verbal harassment, expletive-laced tirades, and at least one alleged threat by the mayor to service a local official’s wife with his “twelve-inch” genitalia.

Things finally came to a head when Tarrant Police Chief Wendell Major was suspended last week for what Mayor Wayman Newton said amounted to insubordination.

“On or about April 24, 2023, you refused to obey orders… made and given by [Newton],” states the disciplinary notice Newton hand-delivered to Major, who shared the document on Tuesday with The Daily Beast.

The notice goes on to accuse Major of having “failed to order Tarrant police personnel to comply” with Newton’s directive to release a pair of detainees at the local lockup.

“Your inaction caused the unnecessary retention of two inmates in the Tarrant City Jail,” the notice says. “Further, you incompetently placed the city in financial jeopardy by holding people under arrest who should be released upon execution of a bond[,] without legal footing to do so.”

One of the people arrested was there on a domestic violence charge, according to Major, who declined on Tuesday to elaborate further on Newton’s allegations. However, he has emphasized in public statements that no detainee can be set free without a court order, and that only a judge—not the mayor—can issue one. Major re-emphasized this point at a Monday night city council meeting, saying, “I will not obey orders that I don’t believe are legally justifiable.”

Mayor Pro Tempore Tracie Threadford said at Monday’s meeting that she and the others wanted Major back to work, and called Newton “paranoid.”

Newton told the city council members that he understood “you guys do not like me. I get that. I don’t like you guys. It’s mutual.”

“I think the mayor is spiraling out of control,” Major told AL.com. “I think the mayor is in crisis. He’s lashing out at everybody he thinks isn’t on his side.”

Newton, a conservative Republican who has railed against everything from aid to Ukraine to COVID vaccines, was elected mayor of Tarrant, a Birmingham exurb of around 6,000 residents, in Nov. 2020. Reached by phone on Tuesday, he told The Daily Beast that he is “not at liberty” to discuss the issue.

“Believe me, I would love to,” he said, quickly promising a new development in the saga “soon.”

The hostility between Newton and Major, who was appointed by Newton in 2021, can be traced back to an altercation in the Tarrant City Hall parking lot last November.

After a tense meeting, 78-year-old City Councilman John “Tommy” Bryant, a divisive figure Newton has called “an unapologetic bigot,” slugged Newton in the face.

Bryant was charged with third-degree assault, and ordered by a judge to stay at least 50 feet away from Newton. Newton, for his part, said at the time that everything had happened so fast, he couldn’t remember exactly what prompted the sucker punch.

But Major, who had escorted Bryant to his car and saw the entire episode unfold, told a different story.

In court filings, Major said Newton had approached Bryant in the parking lot and said something that he wasn’t quite able to make out. Bryant then allegedly said to Newton, “I’m cheap tonight—do you have a quarter?” According to Major, Newton responded, “I prefer your wife. She is cleaned out and I won’t have to worry.” At that point, Bryant hauled off on Newton, and Major placed him under arrest.

“I noticed the change shortly after I arrested (Bryant) where I had to give evidence that wasn’t very flattering of the mayor,” Major told AL.com last week after Newton suspended him. “Since then, our relationship has been almost non-existent.”

At Monday night’s city council meeting, Threadford told Newton, “You’re at this gentleman because he told the truth about what you said to Mr. Bryant. We all know that.” (Newton replied that he “could not care less about that.”)

The relationship between Newton and Bryant had already become frayed long before the parking lot episode. In July 2021, Newton apparently became upset during a council work session and cursed Bryant out, saying, “Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you,” according to an incident report filed by sheriff's deputies. Newton then allegedly said to Bryant, “I’m going to fuck your wife,” claiming he had a “twelve-inch [penis]” and would use it on Bryant’s spouse, as Bryant left the room.

Newton was arrested on a harassment charge, but later acquitted.

The mayor, a lawyer by training, was also arrested and charged with assault for allegedly slamming former Tarrant Police Chief Dennis Reno’s arm in a door amid a heated argument over hiring more Black officers.

In a bench trial, Newton was found not guilty.

Last week, Major, who is also an attorney, told AL.com, “It is unfortunate that because he is in a public position that his outbursts are being exposed in such a public manner.”

But as Newton told The Daily Beast in a 2021 interview, “My election kind of represented a transition from the old guard to the new. If you actually go and talk to most people that actually live here in the city, they actually like the things that I’m doing.”

Major’s suspension was overturned on Monday night, with the entire city council voting to bring him back—with the exception of Newton, the sole dissenter.

On Tuesday, Major was all business and ready to move on.

“The council has voted to reinstate me, I’m back at work serving the people of this city, and we’re going to do it without fear or favor for anyone,” he told The Daily Beast. “That’s all I want to say.”

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Justin RohrlichReporter

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