How are you, mayor? I'm good. It's good to see you. Well, I wish it was under better circumstances. I do not enjoy having this visit. He just stuck his hand out the window and waved to it. I I did see somebody who was like, "Welcome back to the Lackluster Channel." In August of 2023, the Athens Clark County Police received a 911 call. Clark County Police. Yes, ma'am. Um, I would like to file a police report. Okay. Reference to what? Um, a hit and run. Okay. And where did this happen? Um, I am right here. I'm not familiar with the area, but I am at the Texico at the Tula Avenue. Is that where it occurred at in the parking lot? Yes, ma'am. Okay. You'll have to file a report online. Just hold on one second. Okay. Okay. What kind of vehicle are you in? I'm in a 2017 Nissan Sentra. What color is that? Um, it is silver. Okay. So, what I'm going to do is send a link to your phone and you'll click on the link and you'll have 90 minutes to complete this um this accident report form and then you can send it to your insurance company. Okay. Um Okay. I I did go in and ask for surveillance from the store that I'm at. They will have where he is hitting my car and shaking my car. However, the store on the opposite side does not have cameras, so therefore they could not get his tag plate. I'm I'm sorry. He did. Okay. But it was his vehicle that hit your vehicle, right? Yes, ma'am. Okay. We just don't have anything other to identify the car as in the mail that got in it and what kind of car it was. We didn't get a tag number or anything. Okay. Um Okay. Well, just go ahead and um Did you get the link? I sent it. Okay. Did you get it? Um yes, I did. Okay, great. Just go ahead and fill it out. If you have any issues, you just give us a call back. Again, you only have like 90 minutes to complete it. So, just reference that case number that I gave you and we can send you another link if need be. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Bye. All right. Byebye. Afterwards, they received another call. This time from the store that had the footage. Hi. Good evening. My name is Charles. I'm the manager of J Bottle Shop. Um, I thought we might want to know. I have footage of Mayor Girtz coming into our shop, leaving our shop, backing out of our parking lot into another car, and leaving the Z. Okay, we'll get somebody out there with you. Okay, thank you so much. You're welcome. Finally, an officer was dispatched. Already heard Jay's bottle shop 1452 Prince Avenue be with Charles, the manager. He has footage of someone backing into another vehicle and then leaving the parking lot. When the officer arrived, he spoke with the store's owner and reviewed CCTV footage. Yeah, that one goes to Yeah. Hit that. That'll speed it up twice. Okay. And then I can just play it and it'll load right now. Yeah, we need it for the car in question will be right there. Okay. Yeah. And it wasn't huge damage or anything, but it was also just the fact that cuz she said he just stuck his hand out the window and wait. I got it located anyway. Like, so you know you're hitting and you just left. I'm just all the cameras if you wanted to look at like inside if you need. No, that's okay. I'm just going to kind of move this a little bit closer and get a little bit try to get a little bit better view of it. Okay. And um I don't know if you can zoom or anything. I don't know that I necessarily need to zoom. I just want to make sure I kind of see what I see. There is a full screen button. That'll work. The officer told the victim and the store manager that they could not assign fault as the incident occurred on private property. So the victim mentioned that she would take care of the damage herself as it was in fact minimal. However, the store manager knew that the suspect was Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz and the idea that he would be getting away with hit and run no matter how minor the incident bothered him. So he called to speak with a supervisor. In our parking lot, we have gas. Somebody was filling up at one of the gas pumps and another vehicle backed out of one of our parking spaces and swiped the front of the vehicle that was fueling. Now, the person who was fueling their car was present, but the person who swiped the front of that vehicle drove off didn't leave a note. didn't talk to the officer or didn't talk to uh the the the driver of the of the of the vehicle that was hit. Nothing. Just simply give a friendly wave and left. Mhm. Uh what what would that constitute? So that does constitute hit and run. Um but I do know that uh when you called previously um I believe my uh officer was able to get in contact with the vehicle that got hit and that driver said they were going to take care of it on their own. Yes. Well, see, um, the fact of the matter is I I happen to know who hit that person. Okay. And the fact and the and the fact that this person is more or less getting away with hit and run uh is disgraceful. Uh, and I have video of the incident occurring and I was able to positively ID the driver of the vehicle that hit the other vehicle. Okay. Um I thought you might be interested to know that it was Kelly girls. Oh, it was Kelly. Okay. Um that's something that's going to make you feel a little bit above my pay grade as well. um if it's something he feels like needs to be uh you know how he feels like it needs to be uh pursued from here and um we will and uh I'll uh I'll speak with him and figure out um what he believes the best next course next best course of action should be for us. Wonderful. So I will work on that here shortly. Thank you so much. Yes, sir. Cheers. Stop. After that call, Lieutenant Raymond von Anderson was sent to the mayor's home to ask questions. What's going on? How are you, Mayor? I'm good. It's good to see you. Well, I wish it was under better circumstances. I do not enjoy having this visit. Were you by chance up at the Texico station on Prince Avenue a little while ago? I was. I was. Yeah. Well, there's a person up there who claims that as you backed out of your parking space, you scrubbed against the side of his car. And they pulled up video and the owner I haven't seen the video, but the owner says he thinks it's you. Okay. I mean, it could have been I I did see somebody who was like who was at the pump and I was like, "Ah, sorry. Damn." And uh I I I didn't believe that I made any contact, but uh Well, I Were you driving that little gray car? That's right. Okay. When I got out of the When I got out of my car, I noticed just some extremely light scratches right at the rear fender area, and I was hoping that you would say that because you wouldn't have felt that. Um that being the case, I'm not going to call it a hit and run. Um, that would be silly. Um, but if you don't mind, we do need to go ahead and complete an accident report. It's just a simple simple private property action report. There's nothing to it, but I need to go ahead and complete that if you totally totally need my license to Yeah. Yes, sir. You want to come? That's all right. I'm If it's all right with you, I'm going to go out there and write some stuff down and I'll be right back with you in just a minute. 45. There's no need to look further for that. I've got what I need. We are going to be doing a set of six. This story appears to have been kept somewhat secret. The footage and calls only being released a month after the incident when the department was pressured by locals that heard what had happened. No major media outlets covered it and no charges were ever sought. It's no secret that public officials often receive preferential treatment when facing the justice system. And the next case of Athens Clark County Commissioner Ovita Thornton appears to highlight this disturbing reality. In February of 2023, Thornton was involved in a serious accident, crashing into a utility pole after allegedly driving under the influence. She is claimed to have fled the scene only to be caught shortly after. And despite resisting arrest throughout the incident and refusing to take a breathalyzer, her charges were eventually reduced to reckless driving after prosecutors dropped her DUI charge, failure to maintain a lane, and the hitandrun violation. Thornton pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of reckless driving and only paid $675 in court costs, escaping jail time. But that wasn't an isolated incident as just 2 months after Thornton faced another DUI charge after crashing her car again. Yet once again, that case was dismissed. But of course, she isn't alone, as her fellow commissioner Patrick Davenport was arrested for DUI just two years earlier. And in a plea deal, he received a sentence of 12 months probation and 40 hours of community service. It's hard to ignore the glaring fact that while average citizens face severe consequences for DUI offenses, those with the right connections appear to receive special treatment. Why is it that public servants are held to a lower standard than the people they're supposed to serve? Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below. And if you like this video, be sure to check out another one linked on screen. [Music]