TN STATE Rep. Keith Westmoreland Commits Suicide

WZTV Nashville ^ | 6/19/02 | staff

[GailA]

Rep. Keith Westmoreland Commits Suicide 06-19-2002 -- Kingsport

REPORTS OUT OF KINGSPORT SAY THAT REP. KEITH WESTMORELAND HAS COMMITTED SUICIDE. IT APPARENTLY HAPPENED AT HIS HOME IN KINGSPORT.

AS REPORTED EARLIER ON FOX 17 NEWS, THE KINGSPORT REPUBLICAN WAS CHARGED WITH FIVE COUNTS OF EXPOSING HIMSELF TO CHILDREN AT A HOTEL SWIMMING POOL. METRO POLICE SAY IT'S NOT THE FIRST TIME WESTMORELAND HAS BEEN ACCUSED OF INDECENT EXPOSURE. ON MARCH 13TH A MANAGER AT THE DAYS INN ACROSS FROM WESTMORELAND'S DOWNTOWN APARTMENT CALLED POLICE TO REPORT A MAN EXPOSING HIMSELF. A FURTHER SEARCH OF RECORDS BY THE DEPARTMENT'S SEX CRIMES UNIT TURNED UP ANOTHER CASE INVOLVING WESTMORELAND. THE CASE WAS REPORTED MARCH 26TH AT THE HOLIDAY INN SELECT ON ELM HILL PIKE. HOTEL PATRONS WROTE DOWN THE SUSPECT'S CAR TAG, WHICH SHOWED A CAR REGISTERED TO KEITH. WESTMORELAND. SO FAR THE WOMAN IN THE CASE HAS DECLINED TO PRESS CHARGES....TO PROTECT HER 13 AND 15 YEAR OLD DAUGHTERS FROM FURTHER EMBARRASSMENT.

[NautiNurse]

at least he ended it all by doing the honorable thing

I fail to see the honor of blowing your internal organs out for your family members to find and remember for the rest of their lives.

They can never step foot into that home again without that horrible vision.

[palo verde]

hi maximus
it sounds like he was upset
best thing to do is resign from Office instantly
take your family to resort in mountains out west
get back your peace in peace and beauty of nature
the problem with suicide, is it makes everyone else ''guilty''
which is not fair to them
Love, Palo

[Iowa Granny]

Can you post a link to the morning newspaper reports? TIA

[GlesenerL]

Yes, and a Dem wouldn't have comitted suicide, because they have no shame.

[fury86]

I caught the tail end of a radio report at lunch. I believe a Tennessee legislator was quoted as saying that the sort of pressure they're under makes people do strange things. I hope to goodness that supporters of an income tax aren't going to attempt to use this incident as some sort of lever.

[drjimmy]

Yes, and a Dem wouldn't have comitted suicide, because they have no shame.
Some Dems actually do commit suicide, but the tinfoilers always say it was murder. As for this guy in Tennessee, it wasn't the media's fault or the pro-taxers fault or anyone else's fault that he took out his weiner in front of teenage girls. Westmoreland is not a victim of anyone else but only of his own crimes.

[ValerieUSA]

NewsChannel 5 has learned he was the target of a TBI investigation for allegedly making harassing phone calls to a fellow lawmaker and his wife. Representative Zane Whitson wouldn't talk on camera, but confirmed he asked the TBI for help. Agents tracked the calls, some sexual in nature, to Westmoreland.
The agents themselves should have pursued the case, too, it's their duty to serve the people, not lick the boots of lawmakers. Whitson never pressed charges.

As a lawmaker, Whitson owed it to Tennessee to press charges, and not let himself or another lawmaker be set safely away from the reach of the law.

[ValerieUSA]

Oops, this was my comment, not part of the article: "The agents themselves should have pursued the case, too, it's their duty to serve the people, not lick the boots of lawmakers."

[vanna516]

Here's the link from the Nashville newspaper (liberal rag) this morning: http://www.tennessean.com/loca l/archives/02/06/18987028.shtm l?Element_ID=18987028

Haven't really heard anything new except something along the lines as fury about the "pressure" of being a legislator. Gee the guys was ALSO a pervert.

[vanna516]

Zane Whitson is also a Republican that voted FOR the income tax (curious).

Don't know how much you know about the TBI but they really don't have a stellar record as far as "catching criminals." There have been allegations on talk radio, etc., that the TBI is a good incriminating evidence collector. As best that I can remember and I may be mistaken but one of the higher ups in the TBI is (now maybe was) a BIG buddy of the Gores.

[GSWarrior]

Whatever happened to Lance Rentzel?

[Corin Stormhands]

It was cowardly.

Exactly. His family will now have to pay the price of his embarrassment on top of their grief.

[JDGreen123]

Absolutely! WorldNet Daily did a big story on corruption in the TBI and the Gore involvement. Tennessee is about as crooked a state as you will find. I think we could give Arkansas a good run for the money.

Tennessee Underworld

[bert]

This indeed a sad event. Kieth Westmorland was considered by me to be one of the good guys. I'm sure he is opposed by some on this forum who recoil by reflex at the word tax, but he was the only East Tennessee Legislator to articulate the budget problems and an income tax solution.

I have voted for him every time he ran and am sorry I Can't vote for him again.

He apparently had problems but he had a good mind and unlike most, actually led rather than follow the wind.

[archy]

Absolutely! WorldNet Daily did a big story on corruption in the TBI and the Gore involvement.

That would be TBI boss Larry Wallace. WND stories *here* and *here*

Tennessee is about as crooked a state as you will find. I think we could give Arkansas a good run for the money.

Both TN and AR have got a ways to go to catch up to Louisiana, though.

-archy-/-

[Iowa Granny]

Thank you vanna.

[archy]

Haven't really heard anything new except something along the lines as fury about the "pressure" of being a legislator. Gee the guys was ALSO a pervert.

He was also the chief deputy for the Sullivan County Sheriffs Department from 1976-86, and it likely would not have gone well for him in prison.

A few misdemeanor public indecency charges should not have generated much concern on his part about that possibility, however, so it appears that his pals helped him cover up more serious difficulties than exposing himself to teenage girls.

Rape? Child molestation? From one of our trusted public servants? I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked!

Keith Westmoreland

[archy]

"At least he had a conscience enough to kill himself..."

If only Clinton had been as honorable... but what am I saying?

Honor was unknown to that, that... person!

If only Juanita Broaddrick had been armed, and had shot the rapist who attacked her in 1978. It might have spared both her and the country a great deal of embarassment and shame, and might have saved the life of Little Rock UPI Statehouse Bureau reporter Judy Danielak six months later.

-archy-/-

[archy]

Anyone know if he's related to General William Westmoreland? http://www.uwm.edu/People/mbra dley/westmoreland.html

I don't believe so. General William Westmoreland comes from Spartengburg, SC, where his family is very well-known in the textile mill industry thereabouts. I believe the late Representative Keith Westmoreland had a family member in Memphis who was a very high ranking Army enlisted man, a Sergeant Major or Command Sergeant Major, as I recall.

[archy]

LAWMAKER FACING EXPOSURE CHARGE FOUND DEAD AT HOME

The death of Tennessee Representative Keith Westmoreland is sending shock waves across the state tonight.

Authorities say the 55-year-old Republican apparently took his own life at his home in Kingsport. Police Chief Mark Addington said he was found by family members around eight pm in a bathroom with a gunshot wound to the chest.

Addington told reporters Westmoreland had talked on the phone an hour earlier, the last time someone had heard from him. The chief said a note was left for family members.

The death comes a week after Westmoreland was arrested in Florida on seven counts of indecent exposure. And earlier today, Nashville police revealed other incidents of alleged behavior by the lawmaker.

Westmoreland, however, declined comment about the charges as he entered the House earlier today when the Legislature returned to session.

Lawmakers and others who knew Westmoreland are mourning his loss.

House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh described him as a "hard working, conscientious legislator."

And Governor Sundquist said in a statement that Westmoreland was, "an excellent legislator and a good friend who did so much for his constituents and his state."

6/20/2002 3:30:30 PM
Reporter: Associated Press Copyright
Story Feedback

LAWMAKER FACING EXPOSURE CHARGE FOUND DEAD AT HOME

The death of Tennessee Representative Keith Westmoreland is sending shock waves across the state tonight.

Authorities say the 55-year-old Republican apparently took his own life at his home in Kingsport. Police Chief Mark Addington said he was found by family members around eight pm in a bathroom with a gunshot wound to the chest.

Addington told reporters Westmoreland had talked on the phone an hour earlier, the last time someone had heard from him. The chief said a note was left for family members.

The death comes a week after Westmoreland was arrested in Florida on seven counts of indecent exposure. And earlier today, Nashville police revealed other incidents of alleged behavior by the lawmaker.

Westmoreland, however, declined comment about the charges as he entered the House earlier today when the Legislature returned to session.

Lawmakers and others who knew Westmoreland are mourning his loss.

House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh described him as a "hard working, conscientious legislator."

And Governor Sundquist said in a statement that Westmoreland was, "an excellent legislator and a good friend who did so much for his constituents and his state."

6/20/2002 3:30:30 PM
Reporter: Associated Press Copyright
Story Feedback

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