HAMMOND | Third District City Councilman Anthony Higgs and two members of a Jacobs Square neighborhood committee have filed intimidation complaints with police over a confrontation during a Redevelopment Commission meeting. (Watch the video.)
Tuesday, Higgs had engaged in a heated encounter with about a dozen Jacobs Square residents, particularly Sandra Kortage and James Robinette, in the hallway outside the City Council chambers.
Members of the district's Democratic precinct organization, Kortage and Robinette in the past have opposed Higgs and supported his opponents, who have included former Councilman McKinley Nutall and Carlotta Blake-King. Nutall currently is president of the Redevelopment Commission, and King is executive director of United Neighborhoods Inc., the agency overseeing the revitalization of Jacobs Square.
Waiting their turn in night court on Tuesday, dozens of people looked on as a number of redevelopment officials, including Patrick Reardon, executive director of the Hammond Urban Enterprise Association, attempted to intervene in the shouting match.
Earlier in council chambers, Robinette's wife, Nina, had presented a letter to the commission on behalf of the neighborhood organization asking for the commission's help in demolishing a number of vacant buildings in the neighborhood.
In reading the letter, Nina Robinette said the buildings conceal gang and drug activities.
"Mr. Higgs, the 3rd District councilman, told us he would not help us do anything," the letter says. "So we are asking for your help."
Higgs stepped up to the podium, heatedly defending his position as members of the group attempted to address the commission.
Higgs said only three houses have been demolished during his term because it can take six months to a year. In addition, he has only $50,000 left in his councilman's casino account, he said.
The dispute continued in the hallway, and police were called. Police reports obtained Thursday show Higgs, Kortage and Robinette each filed intimidation complaints.
Kortage is reported having told police the councilman "yelled at her at close proximity and 'bumped' her while doing so. She feared for her safety by the way Higgs approached her," the report says.
Robinette said Thursday his filed report contained some inaccuracies.
"I did not tell the officer that Higgs called me a liar," he noted in a fax sent to The Times. "I told the officer that I called Higgs a liar, and Higgs called me prejudiced and a racist."
Higgs' complaint is filed only against Robinette, charging him with threatening bodily harm.
Higgs on Thursday said the incident was just another case of political harassment by Kortage and Robinette, but Kortage and Robinette denied politics or racism played any role. They have supported Nutall and Blake-King, both of whom are black, they said.
