Former Springdale Marshal Accuses Mayor Of Assault Woman Says Incident Occurred As She Was Cleaning Out Desk After She Was Fired

Former Springdale Marshal Brenda Blackmer says Mayor Dan Hite assaulted her in a scuffle while she was cleaning out her desk after he fired her.

Stevens County Prosecutor Jerry Wetle said his staff was reviewing a sheriff’s report Tuesday to determine whether a criminal charge should be filed.

The alleged assault occurred Monday morning when Blackmer picked up a pencil-holding cup from a desk set she said belonged to her. Hite said he told Blackmer not to take the pencil cup until he could determine whether it belonged to the town. “I never touched that woman,” Hite said. “It was a pencil holder. I said, `You’re not taking anything out of here,’ and I just pulled it right straight away from her. … I was just protecting town property.”

But, Blackmer said, “My finger, in turn, got bent backward, spraining my finger.”

Blackmer said she turned to reserve officer Chris Davis, whom she brought along as a witness, and said, “Call 911. I’ve been assaulted.”

She said she tried to make the call herself, but Hite “grabbed the phone out of my hand, scratching my arm.” Davis then reached for the phone, and “the mayor drew back his fist to punch my former deputy,” Blackmer said. She said she and Davis left at that point. Then she called an emergency medical technician to splint her finger and bandage her arm.

Davis was a “former deputy” because he and three other reserve officers quit when Hite fired Blackmer on Sunday evening for alleged insubordination and conduct unbecoming an officer.

“I gave her direct orders and she disobeyed,” Hite said.

Blackmer, 26, was hired as a police officer in January 1999, and took over as marshal this year in April. Her dismissal sprang from efforts to deal with vandalism of the picnic tables and restroom buildings at the town park.

Hite said he and a woman who lives near the park spotted youths spraying graffiti on the restroom building Friday night. They called a Stevens County sheriff’s deputy, who located the suspects and gave a report to Blackmer for action.

The mayor said he agreed to a plan in which the vandals would repair the damage if the city would provide paint and brushes. He said he told Blackmer to supervise, but not to help with the painting.

“I wanted them to paint it,” he said.

Hite said he checked on the weekend painting project and found “all the gang-bangers were down there watching Brenda paint.” He said he became angry when Blackmer said, “Well, I had to show them how to do it.”

“Then, when I got home, there was posters on every telephone pole - `Mayor oversteps his boundaries again’ - and I just blew,” Hite said. He said he fired Blackmer on Sunday, “and she said she would call all the gang-bangers and tell them there was no marshal on duty that night.”

Blackmer said she confronted Hite Sunday after hearing rumors that he intended to fire her Monday. She said she didn’t want to finish some reports if she was to be fired, and said, “Let ‘em sit, then.” It was after that, she said, that youths put up anti-Hite posters around town and Hite fired her.

As for helping paint over the graffiti, Blackmer said the group she assembled included youths and adults who had nothing to do with the vandalism as well as the suspected perpetrators.

Blackmer said she viewed the work as a civic project, and disagreed with Hite’s desire to punish the vandals.

“The mayor is not a judge, and he can’t enforce community service,” Blackmer said.

She and the mayor had other disputes before the painting project. One of them was over her association with convicted felons, including one with whom Hite said he saw her “in a full lip lock.”

Blackmer called those allegations slanderous and threatened a lawsuit over that and alleged workplace harassment that she declined to discuss.

“What I do on my personal time is my business and nobody else’s,” Blackmer said. “If I have felons come over and do my yard work, then I have felons come and do my yard work.”