The plot thickens in the drama brewing on the Rutherford County Commission.
Earlier this week, I received an anonymous email containing an ethics complaint filed against Smyrna Town Court Clerk Brittany Stevens, sister of Rutherford County Commissioner and Smyrna attorney Robert Stevens. You may remember that Robert Stevens is currently at odds with our County Mayor Bill Ketron.
RELATED: Week in Ketron: Election finance audit and questions about the Rutherford County Commission
The complaint was filed Aug. 13 by Tony Sees of Nashville with the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance. You can read the full complaint here.
Sees alleged in the complaint that Brittany Stevens has been illegally acting as a legal consultant within the jurisdiction in which she was elected, and she didn't tell anyone about the money she makes from it and that her brother helped her cover it all up.
"Brittany did not disclose her source of income at Stevens & Stevens PLLC on her 2019 statement of disclosure of interests (indecipherable). Her brother Robert Stevens certified this filing as true," according to the complaint.
In addition to concealing her illicit income, Sees specifically alleged that Brittany Stevens actively practices as an attorney in Smyrna by being "substantially or materially involved in cases, which she represented private clients within her own jurisdiction."
As evidence, Sees submitted Brittany Stevens' website and LinkedIn page (which marks the first time a LinkedIn page has been useful), along with unnamed clients and "information (that) is not readily available to the public." But he didn't actually provide the evidence.
In response, Robert Stevens wrote an angry Facebook post Aug. 22 calling the complaint "false, malicious and defamatory."
And there's more! Stevens questioned the authenticity of the complaint itself.
"We believe that this individual was acting as a third-party conduit for the actual author of the false complaint ..." he wrote. "It appears that this is once again more retaliation against me for asking questions of our elected officials and holding them accountable for their actions. Rest assured – I will not be intimidated, and I will not be silenced!"
He also wrote a letter to Sees demanding the complaint be withdrawn within the next five business days, the true author of the complaint be disclosed and who the information came from. Or else a lawsuit will be filed, meaning depostions under oath.
You can read his response letter to the Ethics Commission here.
What could happen next? I'm on the edge of my seat.
