Tellico Village resident
acquitted in assault case tied to property owners' group
By Hugh G. Willett knoxnews.com
An assault case sparked by accusations of insults
on a Loudon County blog ended in a not-guilty verdict for a
Tellico Village resident last week.
Angelo Paul Leone, 69 was found not guilty of assaulting Tellico
Village General Manager Winston Blazer during an August 21, 2009
incident at the Property Owners Association offices.
Leone — who feels he was harassed in the days
before his arrest because he was among a group of residents who
requested documents related to the management of the POA. — said
he deserves an apology for being wrongly accused.
"It's terrible, what they tried to do to me,"
Leone said.
A spokesperson for the Tellico Village POA
disputed Leone's version of events leading up to the arrest. In
a written statement, Blazer pointed out that it was the district
attorney's office that brought the case, not the POA.
"This unfortunate issue is now in the past.
The District Attorney General filed charges in this case, and a
few employees were subpoenaed as witnesses. It has no impact on
our relationship with our residents. Our employees continue
focusing on providing outstanding service to our more than 7000
residents and property owners," Blazer said.
Assistant District Attorney General Frank
Harvey, who prosecuted the case, did not return requests for
comment.
Leone said he feels the POA needs to do more
to make amends, including reinstating his right to attend POA
meetings. A spokesman for the POA said that Leone's right to
attend meetings was only suspended for 30 days in 2009.
Life at Tellico Village was not always so
complicated, Leone said.
He and his wife, Patricia, moved to Tellico
Village from Long Island in 2007 after being drawn to the state
by the climate, the scenery and low taxes.
In 2008, he was among a group of residents who
began asking questions about the financial management of the POA
and requesting documents.
Another Tellico Village resident, Richard
Anklin, later successfully sued the property owners association
for access to those documents.
Anklin testified in court that he asked Leone
to pick up an application to run for the P.O.A. board of
directors.
Within days, Leone said he and his wife were
the subject of what he calls "the most vile and disgusting"
defamations on a local Tellico Village blog known as Topix. The
posts referenced Leone's intentions to run for the board and
also made references to his wife that he said were "of a sexual
nature."
"When I picked up the application, they
thought I was running for the board," Leone said.
Anklin testified that to his knowledge only
Mr. Blazer and his secretary would have known that Leone picked
up the document. Leone said he believes the only way for whoever
posted the defamations to have learned about his picking an
application was through Blazer's office.
"I never told anyone I was going to run. I had
no intention of running," Leone said.
A spokesperson for the POA said it was his
understanding that Leone picked up the application after a
public meeting attended by a number of people, not all of whom
are known to the POA.
Leone said he tried to contact Blazer at his
office to discuss his concerns. He also tried to contact members
of the board of directors. On August 24, he said he received a
phone message that Blazer wanted to talk.
"I went down to his office to talk with him. I
was totally calm at the time," Leone said.
After asking to speak with Blazer in private,
Leone said he entered Blazer's office, sat down and presented a
copy of the Topix posts.
"After a few minutes the conversation
deteriorated. He said I was bitten by the snake," Leone said. "I
reached over to pick up the papers, and he grabbed at them. His
stapler fell off his desk."
Leone claims that as he stood up and began to
leave Blazer's office, his passage was blocked by Blazer, who he
said began yelling, "Call the police!"
"I sat down and waited for the police," he
said.
A Loudon County Sheriff's Office deputy
arrived and, after speaking with Blazer and several office
workers who heard the argument but did not witness the incident,
arrested Leone for simple assault.
Leone said his arrest, the first in his life,
was an ordeal, but nothing compared to the troubles he and his
wife experienced in the aftermath of the incident.
During the time he was waiting for his day in
court, he said efforts were made to isolate him and his wife
from the community, including an unsuccessful attempt to force
him out of the Lions Club.
After requests for judicial diversion were
rejected by the office of District Attorney General Russell
Johnson, Leone said he had no choice but to go to trial. Despite
testimony from Blazer and several POA employees who were in the
office during the incident, the jury took about one hour to find
Leone not guilty.
"I feel I can relax a bit now. The whole
process has been stressful," Leone said.
Angelo
Paul Leone is “acquitted” by Loudon County Jury on Thursday, September
8, 2011
From Friends
Of Leone
Why is it that
nothing has appeared in the Daily Edition, The News Herald and the
Knoxville News Sentinel on the recently concluded assault case against
the defendant Mr. Angelo Leone, Tellico Village Property Owner, and his
accuser Mr. Winston Blazer, General Manager, TVPOA? Could it be that
the very same people who thought this would be explosive news about how
Mr. Blazer was assaulted in his office just may come back and haunt them
should Mr. Leone be found “NOT GUILTY”?
Why was it
that the Daily Edition produced “The Tellico Village Special Edition”,
on Monday August 31, 2009, that carried Mr. Leone’s mug shot of his
arrest on their front page and, then produced another “The Special
Tellico Village Edition”, on Wednesday February 16, 2011, by Dan Bell
about Mr. Leone’s legal counsel, Mr. Scott McCluen, not appearing in
court on February 9, 2011 for his trial? Could it all have been staged
by those with access to “friends” wanting to make Mr. Leone and Mr.
McCluen appear in the wrong?
The News
Herald, on Monday August 31, 2009, ran a story, authored by Tammy Creek,
showing Mr. Leone’s mug shot with the accompany text quoting the TVPOA’s
Public Relations Manager, Mr. John Cherry, and the arresting Officer
Deputy Chris Jenkins. In statements attributed to Deputy Jenkins he
concluded that Mr. Leone was the “primary aggressor in the altercation
who came to the POA offices
"intentionally, knowingly and recklessly" causing "bodily
harm and contact" to Mr. Winston (Blazer), which was "extremely
offensive and provocative" and caused reasonable “fear of imminent
bodily injury".
Mr. Cherry was
also quoted in her article as saying “On Aug. 24, we had an unfortunate
situation in which authorities had to be called to ensure the safety and
security of employees within the POA offices". He was further quoted as
saying "We feel this was an isolated incident".
Then on
Saturday, February 26, 2011, the Knoxville News Sentinel ran their
article from Staff and Wire Reporters about Mr. McCluen not showing up
for Mr. Leone’s February 9, 2011 trial.
One has to ask
why weren’t these news papers and/or their Staff and Wire Reporters in
the Court last Thursday?
Mr. Leone’s
trial began in the Loudon County Courthouse at 9:00am last Thursday,
September 8, 2011, with the jury selection. The Assistant District
Attorney General Mr. Frank Harvey was representing the prosecution and
Mr. Scott McCluen was representing Mr. Leone. After a few pre-emptive
challenges to potential jurors the trial got under way at 9:45am with
the seating of the twelve jurors selected.
Testifying on
behalf of the Prosecution were Deputy Chris Jenkins, Mr. Winston Blazer,
Ms. Patti Robichaud and Mr. Kevin Alfont. Testifying on behalf of the
Defendant, Mr. Leone, were Mr. Leone’s wife Patricia, Mr. Richard
Anklin, Mr. Kenneth DeBoer and Mr. Chuck Bailey.
Mr. Leone’s
testimony centered on the fact that he went to see Mr. Blazer about his
suspicions that the posting on Topics (an online blog site) were
initiated by persons within the POA staff because the Topics posts were
up within days of his picking up an application for the TVPOA Board of
Directors position. He further testified that Mr. Blazer did not
investigate his concerns, in-spite of the POA’s Policy to do just that,
and that he was summarily “dismissed by Mr. Blazer as being bitten by
the snake”.
When Mr. Leone
got up to leave Mr. Blazer’s office a scuffle occurred as Mr. Leone
tried to retrieve the Topics posting he had brought to Mr. Blazer’s
office. It was at that moment that Mr. Blazer shouted out “call the
police” and restrained Mr. Leone from leaving his office.
Mr. Leone
believing he had done nothing wrong sat down and waited for the police
to arrive.
The
prosecution’s witnesses detailed how Mr. Leone was the aggressor and
that Mr. Blazer was the victim. While Mr. Leone’s witnesses were only
character witnesses except for Mr. Anklin; who testified that the
application for the Board of Directors, one of the subjects of the vile
Topics postings, was procured for him and not Mr. Leone. And, he
further testified that the only people at the POA who would have had
that information were Mr. Blazer and his Administrative Assistant Ms.
Sherry Snodgrass. Ms. Snodgrass was the only person at the POA
permitted to dispense the applications.
The only
sufficient thing that came out in the trial was that two men had a
disagreement; behind closed doors and that none of the witnesses for
the prosecution had witnessed the supposed altercation.
Upon closing
arguments, the jury was entrusted with the case and adjourned for their
deliberations. About forty minutes into their deliberations, the jury
asked the Judge Eugene Elben for an interpretation of “reckless”. The
Judge provided one to them. After another fifteen minutes the jury
emerged from the jury room and pronounced Mr. Angelo Paul Leone “NOT
GUILTY”. When each juror was poled by the Judge they each stated in the
affirmative to their conclusion of Mr. Leone being “NOT GUILTY”!
Again, one has
to wonder why we have not seen any of this from these three news
sources.
And, where
were the TVPOA’s Board of Director members during this trial? They were
sure to make it to every court date in the lawsuit brought against the
POA by Messer’s Hutcherson and Anklin.
Were they too
busy to witness, first hand, this outcome? Or was it because they too
had denied Mr. Leone an audience on his allegation? Or could it have
been that the TVPOA’s previous Board President during this time, Mr. Joe
Marlette, had earlier written to Mr. Leone that they did not find any
reason to investigate.
Maybe now they
will because they should have done so previously.
At the very
least the TVPOA Board needs to present Mr. Leone with a public apology,
rescind his suspension from attending POA meetings and they need to
remind Mr. Blazer that all of this would not have occurred if his
management style was that of a General Manager truly concerned about the
issues brought to him by a Property Owner of Tellico Village.
Can they now
be counted on to be as fair and impartial as the good citizens of
Loudon County that served on this case?
And, how will
Mr. Blazer spin the outcome of this case to his Staff, the Board members
and the rest of the Property Owners of Tellico Village? After all, his
complaint against Mr. Leone was proven false in the Court room. Will he
be able to apologize and make amends for his actions now? |