Madison Co. official involved in altercation during meeting
JACKSON, Tenn — A Madison County official is named in an altercation on the University of Memphis-Lambuth campus.
According to an incident report, an argument led to Linda Higgins being led out of a meeting of the Tennessee Historical Commission.
A police report obtained from campus police said Higgins got into a verbal altercation with several other board members and started waving her hands in fellow commissioner Loni Harris’ face.
When officers tried to separate Higgins from the group, the report reads Higgins unintentionally struck the officer and then stated he was not a real police officer and he needed to “shut up and get out of the way.”
WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News spoke with Ms. Higgins over the phone on Thursday.
She said that the report that was filed isn’t completely true and that there are two sides to the story.
Higgins offered to send WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News a response to the police report and then retracted that offer and said she no longer wanted to comment.
Mayor Jimmy Harris, who the report names as one of the initial people to ask for Higgins’ removal, sent WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News a statement on the incident.
It reads as follows:
“It was a great privilege and honor for the City of Jackson and Madison County to host the quarterly meeting of the Tennessee Historical Commission in our community last week. The Commission members expressed much appreciation and compliments of the hospitality and organization of their tour of some of our historical properties and the well planned meeting. The outburst, behavior and conduct of Linda Higgins, the Madison County Historian and a member of the Tennessee Historical Commission, prior to the meeting, was an embarrassment to Madison County, the City of Jackson and the Tennessee Historical Commission.”
The Tennessee Historical Commission said they could not release an official comment, but they did state that they’re not sure what happens going forward with the two commissioners involved and that they’ve never had something like this happen in one of their meetings before.
As a Tennessee Historical Commission member, Higgins is appointed by the governor.
WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News reached out to the governor for what may lie ahead but have not yet received a response.
