Former Gantt mayor arrested

Published 12:05 am Thursday, October 25, 2012

“Enough is enough,” said the Gantt police chief after arresting the town’s former mayor Thomas “Tommy” L. Glidewell Tuesday.

Glidewell, 78, is accused of pointing a scoped rifle at his Deer Run Road neighbor and his/her toddler and was charged with menacing and reckless endangerment, said Chief Wesley Snodg-rass. He was booked into the Covington County Jail and later released after family posted his $1,000 cash bond.

Glidewell

“I have made every effort to work with Mr. Glidewell; however, he has proven to be unreasonable, and he continues to antagonize his neighbors, as well as the citizenry of Gantt,” Snodgrass said. “Mr. Glidewell has repeatedly filed frivolous police reports and signed complaints and warrants against several of his neighbors.”

Snodgrass said since 2009, Glidewell has been involved in 11 misdemeanor cases in the town’s municipal court against four different neighbors. Of those, Glidewell was found not guilty in one; guilty in another; two cases are pending and the remaining eight were dismissed, Snodgrass said.

“Dealing with frivolous complaints of this nature is a tremendous waste of the town’s limited resources,” Snodgrass said. “Mr. Glidewell has also been served with an ‘order of no trespass’ to stay off city property that is adjacent to his, after he ignored repeated warnings of the same.

“I have done everything that I know to do to keep Mr. Glidewell in compliance with the law,” he said. “There comes a time when enough is enough.”

The case will now go before the town’s municipal court, he said.

Glidewell was elected as the town’s mayor in 2004; however, in 2006, he was banned from the town hall property for a year because of conflicts with town council members and town employees.

The decision came after District Judge Trippy McGuire heard testimony in six cases involving Glidewell, two council members and their family members, as well as the town clerk and a Gantt businessman.

During Glidewell’s absence from town hall, current mayor Missy Grissett served as mayor pro tem before being elected in 2008. She was re-elected last month.