Tim Boyd
Judge Andrew Freiberg has signed an order dismissing a secondary charge against Hamilton County Commissioner Tim Boyd, 14 months after the judge threw out an extortion charge brought by Hamilton County District Attorney Neil Pinkston on behalf of former East Ridge Mayor Brent Lambert.
After a day of testimony in a jury trial on Oct 31, 2018, Judge Freiberg dismissed the extortion charge as Boyd attorney Lee Davis argued that the basis for the charge – three phones calls former mayor Lambert secretly taped in February 2018 – were part of a “campaign strategy” by Mr. Lambert and his supporters. The jury deadlocked on the secondary and lesser charge of attempted extortion, and Judge Freiberg, of Bradley County, declared a mistrial on Nov. 1, 2018.
“It took DA Pinkston 441 days to dismiss a charge that should have dismissed within weeks of the mistrial, but the district attorney didn’t act,” said Commissioner Boyd. “From the beginning, in my view, District Attorney Pinkston weaponized the judicial system for political purposes.
“The case never had any merit, the jury saw that it had no merit and the district attorney had many chances to do the right thing, but he didn’t. You can’t help by wonder why.”
Commissioner Boyd has continued to serve on the Hamilton County Commission. He said Brent Lambert "resigned from the Tennessee Railroad Museum, which my attorney argues was complicit in the political strategy, and he has moved to Townsend, Tn."
The secretly taped phone calls between Commissioner Boyd and initiated by Mayor Lambert occurred in February 2018 as Mayor Lambert was preparing to challenge Commissioner Boyd in the May 1 Republican primary for the District 8 commission seat.
Commissioner Boyd said, "Lambert’s plan to use the recordings as part of a strategy to defeat me began on March 19, 2019, when Lambert and his team used the Pachyderm Club weekly meeting to ambush me on the existence of the tapes."
Commissioner Boyd was indicted on April 10, 2019, one day after he said "Lambert used the local Republican Party to send out a fundraiser invitation. The sponsors of the event featured several high-profile members of the Chattanooga Convention & Visitors Bureau, an organization I had exposed for reckless spending of taxpayer dollars."
Indicted three weeks before an election, Commissioner Boyd said he used digital media, direct mail and earned media "to explain the orchestrated political strategy using the judicial system and the 'political payback' sought by Lambert’s financial backers.
"The orchestrated plan by Lambert and his team continued April 13 when Lambert announced that he would make the tapes public, and then followed with a press conference on April 16 to play the tapes for the media. More than a dozen Boyd supporters were barred from attending the press conference."
Commissioner Boyd said he "subsequently crushed Lambert in the May 1, 2018, Republican primary for the commission seat. The Boyd campaign routed the East Ridge mayor in all four East Ridge precincts and won 11 of 12 precincts in winning, 1,203-714, a 63-37 percent margin of victory.
“To this day, the overwhelming support that I received in that election is one of the most gratifying days of my professional and political life. The people saw right through what Lambert and his supporters were trying to do.”
He added, “It is an incredible relief to my family to have this behind us. My family and friends supported me for an entire year with the possibility of another trial hanging over us. The district attorney could have prevented that, but he chose not to act.”
Commissioner Boyd also said, “The weaponizing of the judiciary as a means for political gain is a dangerous trend in our country. In this case, sound political advice from a senior Republican elected official to an inexperienced local politician in a friendly conversation was secretly recorded.
“Then, the words were twisted and distorted by political forces to gain political advantage in an upcoming election, using the local judiciary as the tool. That should be chilling to anyone who is paying attention. I am very pleased, however, that voters could see through the charade.”
Neal Pinkston