TBI Investigating Lambert Complaint

East Ridge Mayor Brent Lambert has filed a complaint with the Hamilton County District Attorney’s office concerning Commissioner Tim Boyd.

Lambert is challenging Boyd in the May 1 Republican Primary for the District 8 Commission seat.

Melydia Clewell, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said that Lambert filed a complaint with the office more than a month ago. Clewell said it was forwarded to the TBI. She said the DA’s office was given no timetable for when the TBI investigation may conclude.

TBI referred any questions regarding the complaint to the Hamilton County District Attorney’s office.

Neither Lambert nor Boyd immediately returned phone messages seeking comment concerning the complaint.

Earlier this month, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that Lambert accused Boyd of threatening him, his family and his business during both candidates’ appearance at the Pachyderm Club. The “threat” apparently centered on Boyd telling Lambert that information could come out during the course of the campaign that could damage Lambert.

Lambert accepted $5,000 in June 2017, including $3,000 from developers of Jordan Crossing. The contributions came 12 days after the East Ridge City Council voted to commit to a $2.5 million bond to partially pay for the reconfiguration of Exit 1 that directs traffic from Interstate 75 into the development.

Lambert, records show, used the money to pay off a portion of a $9,100 loan he gave his own 2014 re-election campaign as Mayor of East Ridge.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.