Alden Nellis spoke on the need for Single Member Districts during the Citizens Comments part of the Cleburne ISD School Board meeting January 11, 2010. Nellis has spoken four times to the School Board advocating Single Member Districts or at least letting people vote on whether or not they want Single Member Districts. Here's what Nellis said.

Stu Madison, president of the School Board, finally allowed it to be an agenda item three months after Board Member Wendell Dempsey requested it. Madison presented a statement squarely against Single Member Districts, but Board Members were not allowed to vote on the issue. After Madison presented his views from the podium, he launched into a vitriolic personal attack on Alden Nellis. Board Member Brent Easdon attempted to stop him.

Cleburne Politics obtained the school's official recording of the meeting and excerpted Madison's attack.

Hear what School Board President Stu Madison said from the podium during the School Board Meeting January 11. (Here is the same file in mp3 format.) Here is a written transcript of the file.

Here are two definitions of slander.

Oral defamation of the reputation or character of a person, which could be the basis for a lawsuit.
www.yourwebassistant.net/glossary/s14.htm

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Words falsely spoken that damage the reputation of another

• defame: charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone; "The journalists have defamed me!" "The article in the paper sullied my reputation"
• aspersion: an abusive attack on a person's character or good name
  wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Here are the facts about Alden Nellis:

He does not use Confederate Flags as draperies in an upstairs room. The curtains do have a stars and bars print. This coordinates with Nellis' collection of Civil War Flags which his sister hand-stitched for him while he was serving in the Army, and which were diplayed in the room. Nellis also has an extensive collection of Civil War books and artifacts. Mr. Madison has never been inside Nellis' house and is not likely to be invited.

He does stand and put his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance out of respect for the Flag of the United States.

Alden Nellis says he did not vote "against" anyone in the last School Board election. He did campaign for Wendell Dempsey because he felt he was the best qualified. For the record, all four of the School Board candidates were from the Southwest part of town. Also, how Nellis voted is not a matter of public record.

Furthermore, Alden Nellis did serve three years in the Army and was honorably discharged. He was on duty 24 hours a day as sole teletype and crypto repairman in Panama during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the first few years of US involvement in the Viet Nam war. We have been told that Mr. Madison never served in the armed forces. Please correct us, Mr. Madison, if you did.

He was accepted to SMU's law school (but studied geology instead). He is widely read in the law.

Questions:

Were Mr. Madison's words uttered with malice?

Did Mr. Madison intend to defame Alden Nellis' character?

Does Mr. Madison, who is an attorney and Johnson County's chief prosecutor, know the definition of slander?

Is this proper conduct for an elected official in a public meeting on school property?