CROWLEY, La. (KLFY) — A Crowley city council member is suing the local newspaper for $100 million. This comes after after the paper published photos of him and another council member involved in an alleged fist fight.
Vernon “Step” Martin says he and council member Lyle Fogleman were arguing about putting up digital billboards in Crowley during a council meeting.
The disagreement quickly got heated and Martin says he called Fogleman a term that could be offensive to the LGBTQ community, which he says he now regrets.
” I want to apologize to all the lesbian and gay community. That is not me. Anybody that knows me, it just happened and I apologize from the deepest of my heart. I will never use that phrase again. But anyways, I said the word and the next thing, I was told to leave, which i did.”
Martin says Fogleman then followed him outside.
“This guy comes and says where’s this MF at and all this other craziness, throwing his papers down.”
“He went over the chief and swung at me and kicked me because he lost this balance, but he kicked me going down. I immediately went down the stairs and I said this guy just kicked me.”
“He fell on his own. I did not hit that man. So I have been getting phone calls asking why did i beat this man? I did not beat this man down. I did not touch this man. He fell on his own swinging and kicking me.”
Martin says that’s not how the newspaper portrayed their story, though.
“I don’t go anywhere now because I don’t know what people are thinking of me. This newspaper made me like I’m some kind of monster.”
“We are looking at filing a $100 million lawsuit against all those involved in this, the perpretration of these lies in the paper, whoever it may be, whoever falls within it, starting with the person that wrote the article to the person that approved the article and anybody else that’s involved with the print of this type of trash.”