DarreH Ratkbara
. . .M com meat on firing
Weaverville Police Chief F1
By BILL STL'DENC
Editor
A cloud of mystery surrounds last
week'* firing of Weaverville Police
Chief Darrell Rathburn, which comes
on the heels of the resignation of two
police officers.
Town officials aren't giving any
reasons why Rathburn, the fifth man
to hold the title of Weaverville police
chief since a departmental
reorganization in 1983, was fired
And Rathburn, promoted from
police officer to police chief a little
more than one year ago, says he
won't comment on the matter until
after a grievance hearing.
Weaverville Town Manager
Charles Horne fired Rathburn on Fri
day afternoon, and informed the
Weaverville Town Council of the fir
ing during a special called meeting at
5:30 p.m. Friday.
Home met with council members
for nearly an hour in a closed ex
ecutive session on "personnel mat
ters."
When contacted after the meeting.
Horne said he could not discuss the
firing of Rathburn.
"I cannot at this point comment on
it because of confidentiality re
quirements," Horne said this week.
The firing of Rathburn, 30, came at
the end of a two-week investigation
into the police department by town of
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BILL STUDENC PHOTOS
Banks Named New
S. Creek Principal
WiP'l i f v ? ? k
By BILL 8TUDENC
Editor
The Madison County Board of
Education last week appointed
Theresa Banks. assistant principal at
Marshall aad Mars Hill elementary
schools, as principal of Spring Creek
Elementary School.
The school board a4so approved an
interim budget of some W4.000 to
enable the county school system to
continue to operate through the
month of September '
That action was necessary because
county school officials have yet to
learn from the state controller's of
rice how much money they will
receive for the current school ymr.
Those two items were among the
rssstrsss?
tinued from its Aug. 24 meeting
Banks, who took over the new posi
tion effective Tuesday, replaces
former principal Larry Plemmons.
who resigned to take a position at
North Canton Elementary School in
Haywood Count)
The appointment of Banks, a first
grade teacher at Marshall primary
-Continued on back page
Feds' Decision Won't Affect Madison
th? ei bua?
* of J?n i ? one years
at age iBow? to c i
ufotk bus ii *.
That is ecai ? of Uj
of Lab (k laion as wi
ng to Madison !
ipel David Wyatfl
student driver*
Kh birthday b<
Scttool offi ill nay find i more
lifficult to tot ate adutt driw i for the
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wS?t hi ?* arte while sti
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Madison High is the only school in
the county with student drivers. The
high school his a total of M buses,
rith H) adult drivers and 14 student
idto We ll hate to lose them,' Wyatt
ficiais. Wetverville officials have
refused to dfccuss what prompted
that investigation
"Because this is a personnel mat
ter, I cannot ipake public comment
on it at this tliap,'' said Mayor Reese
Lasher "I believe he (Rathburn) will
file an appeal, as he is entitled to do
under our personnel policy. As for a
reason for the termination, until he's
bad a chance to go through the com
plete process, it's a confidential mat
ter and I cannot discuss it."
Rathburn, who lives in West
Asheville, said he was "not at liberty
to discuss the situatioa."
Rathburn has hired attorney
Devere C. Lentz of Asheville to repre
sent him during a yet-to-be scl
grievance hearing.
"I have retained an attorney]
he's handling the whole
3
Rathburn said this week. "I've been
instructed not to say anything now. I
would rather wait until they set up the
grievance hearing."
Lentz could not be reached for com
ment.
Rathburn, at press time, had not
yet formally requested a grievance
hearing, although Weaverville of
ficials say he has indicated that he
will do so.
During the grievance hearing,
which may be held as soon as next
week, Rathburn will have an oppor
department ana the firing or
Rathburn come after last month's
resignation of two other Weaverville
police officers But Home said the
termination is, at best, "only in
directly related" to those resigna
tions.
"If you can relate it to the resigna
tions, it would be very, very indirect
ly, and that's all I can say about it,"
he said.
Home said that the two officers -
-Continued en back page
Wallin Case Delayed;
92 Misdemeanors Listed
By BILL STUDENC
Editor
The trial of Madison County Tax
Collector Harold Wallia, charged
with failing to discharge his duties by
not collecting interest and penalties
on delinquent taxes, has been
postponed again.
District Court Judge Phillip Ginn
agreed last week to continue the trial
to Sept. 21 at the request of James
Baker, assistant district attorney for
the 24th Judicial District.
The postponement cornea as the
District Attorney's Office has filed
two misdemeanor statements of
charges listing a total of 92 counts of
alleged willful failure to discharge
, The statements do not represent
sew charges against WaiKn but list
the individual transactions question
ed by the original warrants.
The statements, filed last Wednes
day, allege that Wallin failed to col
lect interest from 92 overdue tax
payers in July 1965 and February
1906.
Amounts of uncollected interest
listed in the statements range from 5
cents to $49, according to the
statements.
"Each transaction, regardless of
how minuscule, should be considered
a separate transaction," said District
Attorney J. Thomas Rusher.
"Originally, we lumped together
the totality of what we alleged to have
happened in one particular month,"
Rusher said. "But we think the defen
dant is entitled to an indivdiudal
statement of charges."
Wallin has been charged with fail
ing to collect a total of $240.00 in in
terest from late taxpayers in July
1965 and $357.47 in interest in
February 1986.
In Madison County District Court
last Thursday, Baker told the court
that he simply wasn't ready to go to
trial when Wallin's case was called.
"To be perfectly honest, I am not
ready for trial," Baker said. "This is
a new case, and I am not totally
familiar with it. The SBI investigated
this case, and I haven't talked to the
agent to the extent that we're ready
for trial.''
It was the second time Wallin's
case has been continued - both times
at the request of the prosecution.
Wallin was originally scheduled to be
tried July 27, but the case was con
tinued to Aug. XI.
Wallin's attorney, Joseph Huff,
asked Ginn to deny Baker's request
for a second postponement.
"We're ready to go," Huff said.
"We were ready to go the first time.
-CoaUnued on back page
4 Missing ' County Tax
Records Located
By BIO. 8TV0BNC 7 ; *
The mystery of the missing
Mfdison County tax records is no
longer a mystery, according to 24th
Judicial District Attorney J. Thomas
Rusher
In fac^ county tax records more
than 10 years old were apparently
never "miaaing" in the first place,
but were simply misplaced during
renovation work on Madison County
Courthouse last year, Rusher said
That opinion comes after a State
Bureau of Investigation agent con
ducted a preliminary search in
August to determine if the records
were musing, as some Madison
County residents claimed.
"I don't think that you're going to
go through each and every box of old,
dirty records, but they are apparent
ly in existence, although for me to say
each and everyone is there would be
impossible," Rusher said last week.
"The butt of the records, including
some thought to be missing, have
I ?
been located," lie said "They are
now in storage in a public building,
and some of those we were par
ticularly concerned about are there. "
Rusher said he will consider the
matter closed, unless he received ad
ditional information concerning miss
ing records.
"If people know something to the
contrary, if they want to pass that in
formation on to me, we'll look at K
more than we ai ready have," he said.
Hie District Attorney's Office in
itiated a search for the records after
Betty Wild told the Madison County
Board of Commissioners in July that
Tax Collector Harold Wallin had ap^
parently destroyed county tax
records more than 10 years old - a
violation of state law.
Wild, an unsuccessful candidate for
tax collector in last November's elec
tion, told the commissioners she had
asked Wallin to see old tax records to
see who in Madison County had not
been paying their taxes. WalRn said
' -Continued on back page
Authorities Ask For SBI's
Help In Accident Investigation
Prom Staff Reports
Nearly two months after a Mar
shall woman died in a one- vehicle ac
cident, authorities in Marshall and
Madison County are continuing their
investigation jjf. ?
Municipal and county authorities
have now asked the N.C. State
Bureau of Investigation to look into
the circumstances -surrounding the
death if Diana Kingston
Mrs. Kingston, a Marshall real
estate agent, was killed July 15 when
the car in which she was a passenger
plunged 43 feet off the side of Roberts
Hill Road, landing on its top on U.S.
r
Richard Kinpton,
car at the time of the
He suffered slight injuries
the car M it
the imrestiga tioo.
"There's been some new evidence
in the case com* up recently," said
Sheriff Dedrick Brawn. 'I asked
(District Attorney) Tom Rusher to
ask the SB I to assist, and they haw
agreed to tend an agent in to help us
look into it." },* ,
Brown feouid not say what "at#
trical power I
lectrtc Mr:nl rship I
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rm f * road KMC Board
of a rial
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