Editorial Warfare

Some factual and non-misleading information about what’s being spread around among Midlothian voters:

To the editor:

While I’m not a Midlothian voter, I’m being used by a group of malcontents in Midlothian to damage the candidacy of Bill Redding and Dr. Hank Miller.  Their information is an absolute lie, and your dissemination of the truth is appreciated.

They are a registered PAC for the purpose of promoting the candidacy of the two incumbents.  They claim to be for “unity,” but their methods appear hateful and divisive.  Their recent attack is an absolute lie, which demonstrates how desperate they are to maintain their control over the city.

I was a consultant for the RCAA group (www.rcaa.us) in their opposition to forced annexation.  This was the second group with whom I consulted.  The first group was not annexed;  RCAA was.

RCAA internal e-mails were being forwarded to the city manager.  It was difficult for RCAA to believe one of their neighbors was a “mole,” but that was the only explanation.  A Freedom of Information request revealed one of the e-mails was sent to the city manager from an e-mail that appeared to be owned by Jason Kyle, an attorney in your city.  It included a personal comment, “hehehehe.”  It was felt an attorney (a) would not divulge information and sell-out his neighbors, and (b) would never use such a juvenile term as “hehehehe.”  E-mail headers can be forged, so we wanted to know for sure.

I also wanted the city council members to think twice about forced annexation.  I decided to “kill two birds with one stone” by writing a fake e-mail that looked like it was being sent to all RCAA members to see if it would reach the city manager.  It included a “threat” of a lawsuit by a councilman – again, something to give the council members second thoughts.  The e-mail was sent blindly, so the recipients could not determine the distribution list.  It was sent ONLY to Jason@kyle-law.com and me, with a verification copy the communications agent sent to himself.

I knew if it were received by the city manager, it had to come from the e-mail that we sent it to, Jason@kyle-law.com.  Kyle-law.com is registered to “Kyle & Associates, P.C.”  The website indicates their office is at 411 W. 8^th Street, # 100, in Midlothian.  Therefore, RCAA’s “mole” has access to an e-mail owned by Mr. Kyle, so assuming it is Mr. Kyle himself is not too much of a stretch of the imagination.  The use of that fake information in a website owned by Mr. Kyle adds more credibility to that assumption.

This e-mail was a trap for the RCAA mole, but a MODIFIED version is now being used for political purposes, indicating Mr. Redding is responsible.  A partial excerpt from Mr. Kyle’s web site follows:

“While Bill was RCAA President, a letter was sent out to their members in which they stated that if they were annexed “ Midlothian will regret ever messing with us.”  The RCAA planned to “easily win any election” and after elected they planned to de-annex the entire city with the exception of the industrial tax base section.  That way they would not have to pay any taxes and they could get rid of the City employees.  A copy of this letter can be seen to the right.  Perhaps we should ask Bill if his campaign is really his way of keeping his promise to the RCAA members.”

Note it says the e-mail was sent to “their members;”  it was not.  It also presents as fact that RCAA planned to “get rid of City employees.”  That statement was not in the “trap” e-mail.  Since they published the e-mail on their own site, one would think they would know the difference.  Additionally, the wording of the e-mail has been modified from its original form.

I wrote the e-mail, and Rob Shields (their communications agent) sent the e-mail to Mr. Kyle and me.  No one in RCAA ever received the e-mail, and the only RCAA person who ever saw the content was Mr. Shields, who sent it at my instruction.

Dr. Miller knew nothing about the e-mail, and was not active in RCAA at the time.  Mr. Redding knew I was sending an e-mail, but was not shown the content.

From Mr. Shields’ “sent” box:

the vote

Sunday, November 23, 2008 6:22 PM

From:

“Robert Shields” <rob.tyda@sbcglobal.net>

View contact details

To:

“R A Shields” <rashields@sbcglobal.net>

Bcc:

mrwebsite@reliabledataservices.com, Jason@kyle-law.com

Message contains attachments

the vote.doc (25KB)

see attached

One can clearly see from the original sender that Mr. Kyle’s e-mail and I were the only recipients, other than the copy Mr. Shields sent to himself.

I know Mr. Kyle, and I’m amazed he would falsely publish an outright lie on his website.  I can understand he thought the e-mail was real;  that was what we expected him to do.  But, he should have verified the authenticity of the e-mail prior to publishing it.  To fabricate things that were not included and to modify the e-mail are unbelievable.  As an attorney, one would think he’d know better.

It should be noted Jason Kyle isn’t the only owner of the website.  R. Ted Howard, Gary Hensel, and Mark Fletcher are listed, along with Mr. Kyle, as “founding members.”

The Midlothian citizens need to know the truth.  And, if the two incumbents don’t immediately denounce that site, you will know even more about their moral fiber.

Thank you,

Ray L. Williams