McMillan trial date set Oct. 13

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SPANISH FORT – Spanish Fort Mayor Mike McMillan will go on trial Oct. 13 in Baldwin County District Court on a charge that he slapped former city employee Lyndsey Cooper in 2019.

The trial is scheduled to begin one week after the runoff for mayor between McMillan and challenger Rebecca Corneilus.

Cooper filed a complaint against McMillan stating that the mayor slapped her in the face around Oct. 1, 2019. The Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division conducted an investigation and she signed a warrant accusing McMillan of third-degree harassment. Harassment is a misdemeanor, according to the Alabama Criminal Code.

The case had been scheduled to go to trial in December. It was postponed while the judge considered motions involving the testimony of city attorney David Conner.

McMillan referred questions about the case to his lawyer, David Briskman.

“He didn’t slap her,” Briskman said. “It’s that simple. That’s what the case is all about.”

A video recording said to show McMillan slapping Cooper was released on social media in August. The video shows McMillan and Cooper sitting near a computer. McMillan appears to raise his hand and Cooper’s head turns.

Briskman said the video is inconclusive and several people who have seen it told him there was no sign that McMillan struck her. He said what happened would be determined in court.

“I don’t try cases in social media or in the media,” Briskman said. “We are certain that once the evidence comes forward that Mayor McMillan will be acquitted.”

Cooper’s attorney, Ed Smith, said in earlier interviews that the video that would be presented in court showed a clearer picture and would prove that his client had been struck by the mayor.

Cooper had been city magistrate when the video was recorded and the complaint filed. She was later reassigned other duties.

She was fired in May after being accused of refusing to take temperatures of people coming to the door as part of coronavirus precautions at Spanish Fort City Hall, according to statements during her termination hearings.

The City Council voted 4-0 in July to uphold her dismissal.

Smith said after the dismissal vote that Cooper was fired for reporting the slapping incident and that the termination was not related to her later activities. He said a letter from City Clerk Mary Lynn Williams on Oct 22 stated that Williams said Cooper should be terminated for “untruthfulness.”

“To me and I would think anybody with a reasonable mind would conclude that she set out to terminate Lynsey Cooper the day after the Sheriff’s Office came out here to investigate the mayor slapping her and today is the culmination of that action on her part,” Smith said.

The runoff between McMillan and Corneilius is scheduled Oct. 6. The runoff was scheduled after neither candidate received a majority of the total vote in a four-person race.

McMillan placed first in the Aug. 25 mayoral election in his bid for another term 545 votes, or 45.8 percent of the total. Cornelius received 344 votes for 28.9 percent. Two other candidates received a total of 302 votes.