ROGERSVILLE — Potential Rogersville mayoral candidate Carolyn Elder said Monday an assault allegation filed against her last week stemming from an incident at her grandson’s recreational league basketball game was “exaggerated” and “inaccurate.”
Thursday evening Elder attended her grandson’s basketball game with her daughter Amanda Silvers at Hawkins Elementary School in Rogersville.
After the game, another player’s mother, Stephanie Loudy of Rogersville, filed an assault report with Rogersville Police Department Officer George Henry alleging that Elder “grabbed Ms. Loudy by the arm and started yelling at her.”
“Apparently there’s been an ongoing deal with them for a while,” Henry told the Times-News Monday. “(Loudy) said Carolyn’s daughter Amanda screamed out at the ball game, ‘Your son needs anger management classes.’ It’s just a typical Little League ball game with parents feuding is all it is.”
The report states that Loudy’s husband, Kirk Loudy, told Elder’s daughter to apologize.
Henry added, “Apparently there were some words exchanged, and she (Mrs. Loudy) said Carolyn grabbed her by the arm.”
Elder, 66, was formerly the director of the Rogersville Heritage Association and is currently a reporter for the weekly Hawkins Today newspaper. She has picked up a mayoral candidate petition from the Hawkins County Election Commission for the June 1 election and has stated she intends to seek the office.
On Monday Elder said Mrs. Loudy’s statements in the police report are exaggerated and inaccurate, and that she didn’t even know an assault allegation had been filed against her until she received a call from the Times-News.
“I didn’t even know they (Mr. and Mrs. Loudy) had spoken to my daughter until after I went outside the building (after the game),” Elder said. “My daughter was standing out there, and that’s when I heard the story. This doesn’t surprise me a bit, and it’s just all completely twisted.”
Elder said she was walking out of the ball game when the Loudys walked up to her and started yelling at her.
“He (Kirk Loudy) was the one who started it, and he was yelling at me, telling me something,” Elder said. “There were people all around. I’m a 66-year-old grandmother, and I don’t accost people and yell at people at ball games, especially with little children around.”
Elder added, “I didn’t know she (Mrs. Loudy) was to my side, so I turned, and when I turned she started yelling. I just put my hand on her arm, hoping to calm her down, and she just yelled out, ‘Don’t touch me.’ When I realized what was going on, I just walked off and that was the end of it. I don’t have any idea how this reached this point.”
Henry said no criminal charges will be filed by the RPD because there were no marks on Mrs. Loudy’s arm. Any charge filed would have to be a private prosecution on the part of Mrs. Loudy, Henry added.
“You’re not allowed to lay hands on somebody, and that could still be considered an assault,” Henry said. “But, would it fly in court? I don’t think so. But I did an offense report on it because I told her I would, and she wanted something in writing in case it keeps on escalating.”
On Monday Mrs. Loudy didn’t return a telephone message by the Times-News seeking her side of the story.