To: Venice Police Chief Julie Williams
From: John Patten
Date: 09/12/07
Subject: Winston Wilmore
During yesterday's council meeting, a Winston Wilmore entered council chambers, made a beeline for me, and attempted to physically drag me out of council chambers.
I was standing in the back leaning against the wall when someone from behind me started jabbing me (not poking, it was much firmer than that) in my shoulder.
I turned around and an angry appearing man was standing close to me. He stuck his face close to mine and said, "You, me, outside, now!"
I didn't say anything as I was astonished and trying to size up the situation. He again jabbed me with his finger, this time in the center of my chest and said, "I want to talk to you outside, right now."
I replied, "That's not going to happen," and started to turn away to continue watching the meeting. He then grabbed my right forearm with his hand and started pulling me towards the exit. I took one unexpected step before resisting. I tried to pull my arm back, but he had a good grip and would not let go.
I stated loudly, deliberately loud enough to be heard through the chamber, "Let go of me!" He continued to pull at me, stating "You're going outside, now."
He appeared to be over 65 and all I could think of was that I was seconds away from a felony, * so I just stood there trying to figure out a way to get out of this without having to take a swing at him.
Assistant City Manager Mary Holcomb jumped up and came between us. She removed Wilmore's hand from my arm and asked Wilmore to leave. I walked around the corner to create a physical barrier, as by now several employees were surrounding Wilmore, escorting him out.
I resumed standing against the wall where I had been before. About a minute later, I again felt a jab in my shoulder blade. I looked back and Wilmore was back again, again demanding that I go outside with him, this time calling me a "chickenshit."
I turned away from him to walk away, but he then moved around in front of me, poked me in the chest again, and said "What's the matter, you chickenshit? You afraid of me? I ought to take you down right here, you chickenshit."
I said nothing in response, instead, I tried to move around him, but by then [City Manager] Marty Black and Mary Holcomb were beside us. Black somehow separated us and escorted Wilmore out of Chambers while Holcomb directed me to take a seat in the back row, this to separate Wilmore and I and to create distance.
After a bit, I asked Holcomb who the man was (I had never met him before). She informed me that it was Planning Commissioner Janis Fawn's husband.
OK, that suddenly made a bit of sense. Earlier in the meeting, a Margaret Miller and I spoke with Fawn about her involvement in Steve Albee and Ed Taylor's newly forming Venice chapter of the Tiger Bay Club. It's a bit of a contentious issue, as I had just caught Albee plagiarizing a couple of articles from national publications for inclusion in his fledgling newspaper, The Business Chronicle, which had caused the paper to be taken offline for a time due to a legal complaint by one of the copyright holders of material that he had taken liberties with.
Moreover, it appears that Albee was not truthful with a Venice Gondolier reporter when he stated that he had received the blessing of Marj Baldwin, chair of Sarasota's Tiger Bay Club. Fawn, as a charter board member of the Venice club, was being questioned by Margaret Miller and myself on these issues as well as the partisan makeup of the new club (all board members are Republicans, all but one are contributing members of the CQG, in what is supposed to be a deliberately bi-partisan organization).
According to Baldwin, Tiger Bay board members should not be political bigwigs or government officials (elected or appointed).
These were the questions that I was posing to Fawn, Fawn stated, "You are trying to suck me into something."
I responded, "No, you're already there -- I'm working on a story about Albee and the Tiger Bay Club, you're an appointed government official and you are on the board of the Tiger Bay Club, and it's an organization that is being founded by someone that I've just caught plagiarizing. You don't have an ethical problem with this?"
Fawn asked, "What would you have me do?"
I responded that she should resign from the Tiger Bay mess and run away as fast as possible (I think I used the phrase 'run for your political life').
Fawn then left the council meeting, although I thought little of it at the time. Margaret Miller and I shrugged at each other.
Within a half an hour or so later, the incident with Wilmore started.
At this point, I am undecided whether or not to pursue a battery charge against Wilmore, but as the police were not called, I thought you should know.
-- John Patten
* It is a felony to strike or batter a person over the age of 65 in Florida.
