District 8 Commissioner Tim Boyd asks a question of County Mayor Jim Coppinger. The Hamilton County Commission listened to a presentation and recommendations for short and long-term jail and workhouse overcrowding at the Wednesday meeting in the Hamilton County Courthouse on August 29, 2017. Recorded phone calls at the center of a Hamilton County commissioner’s criminal extortion case could be released early next week, East Ridge Mayor Brent Lambert said Friday.
Lambert said he hopes to have his “complete unedited phone conversations” with District 8 Commissioner Tim Boyd available at a noon news conference Monday at the East Ridge Community Center on Tombras Avenue.
Late Friday afternoon, Lambert stood with his family in front of the Hamilton County Courthouse and offered his first public explanation about why he went to the local district attorney with a complaint against Boyd, who he is trying to unseat in the May 1 Republican primary.
Boyd, who posted a $2,500 bond earlier this week and will appear Friday in Hamilton County Criminal Court, said he welcomes the public release of the recorded phone calls.
“We all look forward to hearing the tape in context,” Boyd said in a statement. “I am, and I know my legal team will. Court assures the truth will come out. Meanwhile, we have an election to win.”