Doug and Glenda Ellis, left, of Chickamauga, Ga., enjoy lunch at the Chattanooga Street Tavern in LaFayette, Ga.LaFAYETTE, Ga. – Michael Lovelady was welcomed when he returned to his hometown of LaFayette in 2010 and made substantial investments there. He opened a restaurant and a pub and restored a strip of vacant commercial buildings anchored by the burned-out Mars Theater.
Then his son, Gary Lovelady, exchanged explicit photographs with the wife of City Councilman Christopher Davis, according to details of a civil lawsuit filed in Walker County Superior Court.
That action spurred Davis to conspire with city police to ruin the Loveladys’ businesses and run them out of town, the lawsuit filed by Michael Lovelady’s Ringgold-based attorney Clifton “Skip” Patty alleges.
“Davis approached Lovelady and demanded that Lovelady make his son Gary leave town,” Patty wrote. “When he refused, Davis vowed that he would run the plaintiffs out of LaFayette and out of business.”
The lawsuit, which on Monday was reassigned to U.S. District Court in Rome, Ga., alleges that the Loveladys’ civil rights were violated in what Patty described as a “campaign of harassment.” It names Davis, LaFayette Police Department Chief Benji Clift and Assistant Police Chief Stacey Meeks as “conspiring” and “acting in bad faith and with malice.” The lawsuit says other “co-conspirators” may be named later.