Martin RingstaffBe proud of Cleveland again
Most of East Tennessee has been relieved not to live in Cleveland for the last few years.
That’s because an unseemly number of officials – in positions of public trust – in Cleveland have been accused and toppled from office of late under a cloud of crazy sex scandals. It’s all a bit hard to understand, seeing as this is a town (population 41,285) that is home to the international headquarters of the Church of God and the religious-minded Lee University.
Until recently, the most prominent and lurid case was that of a police chief who carried on a tryst with a local nonprofit director in a “love nest” in a climate-controlled storage unit, replete with pillows, blankets and half a bottle of brandy. Within months, the replacement police chief was caught in an affair with a subordinate’s wife and lied about it to investigators. Thereafter, several other Cleveland officers were accused in still more sordid tales.
Then came the recent bombshell news that Cleveland Schools director – ex-director now – and Tennessee 2015 Superintendent of the Year, Martin Ringstaff, was caught with his pants down.