Martha (Marti) Hamilton, the newly elected Sevier County Commissioner, confessed to Greg Lundy, owner of Old City Pizza and Subs that she took all the copies of The Seymour Herald from the counter and threw them in the garbage.
“I was sitting in one of the booths working on the computer when I heard the front door open, then I heard the door to the garbage and then the front door again,” stated Lundy. “I immediately got up to see what had happened, only to find Marti walking away from the door. I said to her ‘Did you throw The Seymour Herald in the garbage?’ “Her response to me was, “You caught me”.
This was the second time that the papers were thrown in the trash. The first time it happened, Lundy called the Seymour Herald office to report what had happened, but the publisher Joe Karl wanted to give Hamilton the benefit of the doubt. “It was possible that she did it accidentally, though it wasn’t probable,” stated Karl.
Co-Publisher and Editor of the Seymour Herald Michele Karl stated, “There was a time when I went to Kroger’s to put The Seymour Herald where the store manager had instructed us. Hamilton’s tabloid was there so I moved them to a different shelf and put the Seymour Herald in the assigned place. As I was leaving the store, a couple of people came out and told me that Marti Hamilton, editor of the tabloid, had taken the Seymour Herald and shoved them on the bottom shelve and replaced them with her tabloid.”
“We have had problems in the past with people trying to hide the Seymour Herald either by turning them upside down or putting other papers on top of them. It’s an inconvenience for the consumer who comes in looking for the Seymour Herald more than it is an inconvenience for the Herald. But, in my opinion, for an elected official, a Sevier County Commissioner, to take another publication, any publication, and throw it in the trash is not only immature and childish, it is totally wrong, not to mention illegal. Vendors have to pay for their copies and when someone throws them in the trash, they are not only throwing something away that they have no right to but they are throwing away that vendors money. I believe the staff at The Seymour Herald deserves an apology from Ms. Hamilton. There is no reason why any publication that wishes to exist should not have the right to do so. That includes The Seymour Times, The Seymour Herald, the Tri County News and any other publication that would wish to throw their hat in the arena.”
At press time the Lundy’s were considering pressing charges. Ms. Hamilton was unavailable for comment.
As far as the Lundy’s are concerned, Hamilton broke the Law when she vandalized their property.

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