An 80-year-old activist was awarded a cash settlement from a small Alabama town nearly 18 months after she was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for sharply criticizing the mayor during a city council meeting.
The Tarrant City Council voted at its most recent meeting to approve the settlement with Novillee Williams, who had been cleared of all charges stemming from the incident. What some officials first labeled a disruption has now been held to be protected political speech.
The agreement approved Dec.1 ends a conflict that generated national headlines and illustrated dysfunction in a community bitterly divided by political feuds that crippled progress in the town just north of Birmingham.
“It reaffirms that an 80-year-old woman who merely came to a city council meeting to voice her concerns should be free from harassment and retaliation for voicing those concerns,” her attorney Jim Ward told AL.com. “She stood up for herself. She stands her ground and would not let anyone push her around, and she stood her ground here.”…