Updated with interview with Freddie Patton, Jr.
As the district attorney's runoff looms, challenger Robert Smith is combing the alleys of the criminal justice system, looking for people unhappy with Peterson's performance. One such foray produced a couple who claim in the footage that Peterson failed to bring to justice a drunk driver who killed their daughter in 2006—but now the father says he was tricked into doing the ad.
"The grandma told me to come down from Chicago, saying they were going to get something moving on the prosecution, but when I got down here, they already had the set ready at the station," Freddie Patton Jr. said, adding that Smith has done nothing on his daughter's death in the week following the campaign ad.
Peterson says that she could not prosecute that case because "no law enforcement agency" had brought a case to her for prosecution.
"The sheriff's department has never made an arrest in that case," Peterson said. "They sent in the blood toxicology information and it showed no alcohol in the driver's system and they said it was a very bad accident. … They haven't made any criminal arrest in the case so there is nothing for me to prosecute."
Patton said he was told that Peterson's office refused to prosecute the man who killed his child in a car accident.
"Now I have learned that it is all a lie. My child's murderer was never arrested. I feel that is is not fair to hold … Peterson accountable where no arrest was made and she never received the case," Patton said.
Peterson is firing back with her own campaign ads, releasing several radio commercials that won't exactly build bridges with Mayor Frank Melton. One commercial depicts Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon endorsing Peterson for her strength against Melton. Peterson caught hot grits from the mayor last year for her part in the five-count indictment against Melton for illegally demolishing a home on Ridgeway Street.
"Because of her strong belief in applying the law to everyone, she has been vilified and persecuted by our town bully, who has a deep dislike for independent, strong women. I, too, have felt his wrath, because I know, like Faye, our duty is to serve the people who elected us, not to be puppets for any out-of-control official," Barrett-Simon said.
Another commercial features the voice of an older woman, "Big Momma," saying that the reason for negative campaigning against Peterson is "because Peterson was trying to preserve the law in front of a crazy man running all over the city with a sledgehammer and a six-shooter. … If that puppy had'a been anybody other than (the mayor), he'd be wearing stripes today and walking with a shovel."
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