Candidate Busted: Dirty Politics Or Hot-Head Consequences?

A man running for one of three open seats on the Calhoun, Tennessee city commission has been arrested.

He says it's dirty politics by the people he's trying to beat. The police chief says Billy Nichols has no one to blame but himself.

It's a classic case of "he-says, she-says," but the stakes are high with a man going to jail and the reputation of Calhoun's police department in question.

Calhoun Police Chief Julie Tanksley said Monday "it is not politically motivated in no way, the officers were doing their job."

Chief Tanksley showed us where it all happened, right in front of city hall, where Corporal Josh Lyle stopped a pickup truck Saturday evening.

"Corporal Lyle had gotten a call about a suspect in a pick up truck that had been firing outside the vehicle at some motorcycles," Chief Tanksley explained.

While three police officers were handling the traffic stop in front of Hiwassee Meadowlands Park, North Main Street was blocked. Nichols said he was driving south on North Main Street after visiting a friend who happened to be on the other side of the police stop.

"They had the guy spread on the hood and I asked them if I could give my friend who was sitting right over there, trying to get home, a piece of paper," Nichols said.

His friend, Jim David Shelton, told us "he wanted to give me this piece of paper but he never got out of his vehicle. He held it up like this and pointed, that man right there, I'm trying to hand him this paper, been by his house three times."

Shelton said the officers used filthy and threatening language toward Nichols, who was later arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, disobedience of a police officer and interfering with government operations.

Chief Tanksley said Nichols heckled and taunted officers, then refused repeated orders to go away - orders she says were made to protect his own life.

"The officers had felt like if they had to return fire on the subject that Mr. Nichols would be in the line of fire," Chief Tanksley said.

But Nichols feels like he's the target because he's running on a platform of change.

"There ain't no doubt in my mind that it's not political," Nichols said. "Because they're out, they don't like me voicing my opinion up here at city hall, they're after me and been after me."

Nichols has a hearing in McMinn County Sessions Court scheduled for August 21.

The people in the pick up in the original traffic stop, Rodney Bright and Judy Everett, were arrested on DUI , public intoxication and weapons charges.