This is where the lawsuit stands right now. The Federal Court in Asheville will hear Defendants Motions and Motions to Dismiss as the Federal Court Calendar allows. Which will take some time. The lawsuit has NOT been dismissed and Shelby and Howell have NOT answered the Complaint. Meaning they have not admitted or denied their guilt. My conclusion is Shelby and Howell are stalling for time and running up Mr. Green’s attorney fees. I consider this an admission of guilt on the part of the Shelby City Counsel as well as Rick Howell.
Mr. Green, on February 26, 2019 made the following Notice to the Media that has been aired in part by WBTV TV 3 and now by this more expansive and researched article.
From Willie Green–2-26-2019:
Members of the Media,
It’s my understanding several of you would like to discuss my civil complaint against the City of Shelby and City manager Rick Howell. While I can’t discuss the specifics of my lawsuit and since they are now public documents, I can provide you with my complaint filed in December of last year, the email from the City Manager to the City Council and the City’s response to our complaint. (Please see the attached documents). And I would ask that you contact my attorneys at The Freedmen Law Group at 704-271-2048 or by email for further comments.
Most of you that have been following my efforts to build a sports complex to train our local athletes and to host weekend travel ball tournaments in Cleveland County, know through your communications with others, that there has been an ongoing effort by some of the powers to be and some elected officials to undermine my project. We all have heard the chatter, but could never validate those false claims until we were able to obtain the April 17, 2018 email of a City Administrator given his personal assessment in an email available to the public and our City officials supporting his personal assessment without any proof of my financial status, or showing a history of me engaging in criminal activity.
As a respected minority business owner, this should not be tolerated where a person is judged by the color of their skin, or because it’s not your idea and it should especially not be tolerated by our elected officials to demean and defame members of the community, who are trying to do business in that community. If this can happen to me, it can happen to other legitimate business owners.
Willie A. Green, Sr.