3700
0
Newly reviewed law-enforcement documents and body-camera footage shed light on a series of confrontations between Brooks residents Lieze and David Harris and town officials over the past year—incidents that have now become part of the public conversation surrounding the upcoming municipal election.
Dispute at Town Hall
The Fayette County Sheriff’s Department reports confirmed that deputies were called to Brooks Town Hall on October 22, 2024, following a heated exchange between the Harrises and Mayor Dan Langford during a public tax hearing.
In a supplemental report, a deputy wrote that David Harris reported the mayor “slammed his gavel in a threatening manner while his wife was speaking” and that he feared the gavel “could have accidentally slipped from the mayor’s grasp and would have struck his wife and or child.”
Mayor Langford and Town Manager Maurice Ungaro told the deputy the gavel was used to regain order after the discussion strayed into an unrelated topic. The deputy advised both sides “to have law enforcement present in order to stay civil.” No criminal charges were filed.
What body-camera footage shows
Body-camera footage from that night, reviewed by The Citizen, captures the Harrises describing the same concern directly to the deputy. “He started screaming at me and pounding the gavel,” Lieze Harris said. “He threatened me that he’s not going to allow me to talk like that in a public setting.”
David Harris added that the gavel could have hit his family. “It could have flown out of his hand and hit my daughter or my head,” he told the deputy. The deputy responded that he would file an informational report, explaining, “It’s really kind of a civil matter… a paper trail for you all.”
Later in the recording, the Harrises also told the deputy they believed the Town Manager had trespassed on their property while attempting to serve an ordinance violation. Ungaro, in a separate interview, told the deputy he had been there on official business regarding the veteran memorials that sit on the family’s land.
Prior disputes over memorials
The meeting confrontation footage is part of an ongoing dispute between the Harrises and the town regarding ownership of Brooks’s World War I and II memorial stones. The couple, whose family property includes the small plot where the monuments were placed in 1950, removed them temporarily several years ago.
Town officials later filed a civil lawsuit seeking to establish ownership of the monuments themselves and move them to public land. That case remains active in Fayette County Superior Court.
Resident accounts of earlier interactions
Brooks resident Jennifer Robinson, who manages the Life in the Brooks Bubble community Facebook page, has seen many questions on her page wondering about why the sheriff was called.
She gave some history of her own relationship with David and Lieze Harris. Robinson said she first met the Harrises shortly after they moved to town and initially sought to support their small retail business. “I would go there at least once a month and buy something from their shop just to patronize a small business,” Robinson said. “I invited them to my New Year’s Eve party. Everything was fine then.”
She said the relationship soured after disagreements over her Facebook group’s posting rules. “She wanted to post every single day,” Robinson said of Lieze Harris. “When we told her we had to be fair to everyone and limit business posts to Mondays, she sent messages calling us names and saying we were dictators of the page. We ended up having to block her.”
Robinson said she later tried to speak with Harris about the issue in person but received no response. “She wouldn’t even open the door and denied ever sending the messages, even though I had copies,” she said.
She also described being confronted by David Harris while trying to find out about the missing memorial stones “He told me I needed to mind my [f-expletive] business and get back in my car,” Robinson said.
Anniversary event highlights civic participation
Robinson said the couple’s limited community involvement has also drawn attention during town events. She helped organize the 115th anniversary celebration of Brooks, which drew more than 3,000 attendees and extensive volunteer participation from town leaders and candidates.She noted that candidates Langford, Scott Israel, Bishop Watts and Sara Nelson were all involved in volunteering on that day.
“Mayor Langford sat in the dunk tank. Scott Israel and Bishop Watts were there all day checking on safety and helping vendors. Sara Nelson was running the dunk tank and getting things ready since Friday,” Robinson said. “The first time I saw the Harrises was around 6:07 p.m.—after we had already closed.”
Community tension grows
Robinson said public frustration over the memorials and the lawsuit continues to divide the small town. “The memorials are still a sore subject,” she said. “People can’t go see them, and that bothers a lot of long-time residents.”
Residents and town leaders have avoided further public confrontations since last year’s meeting.
The current footage going viral in Brooks now is from last Tuesday’s candidate forum, at 1:30 in the footage, as part of an aside about being a part of Fayette County, David Harris was caught on the live mike saying “Just because Brooks doesn’t mean s***.”
Looking ahead
The Sheriff’s Department documentation confirmed that no criminal findings were made related to the October 2024 meeting. The ongoing civil case over the memorials is expected to continue into next year.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.