MEMPHIS, Tenn. — On Tuesday morning, Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert held a press conference in an effort to defend her name as the future of her place in local government appears uncertain.
It came one day after records show Halbert's attorney filed a motion to dismiss the petition to remove her from office — an effort spearheaded by Hamilton County DA Coty Wamp.
"I am not going to apologize for for not operating outside of the law," Halbert said at her conference. "I am not interested in that. I want to go by the book the letter of the law."
The motion filed by Halbert's attorney Darrell O'Neal has asked the court to dismiss the petition to remove Halbert from office because it contends DA Wamp failed to state a claim.
"The standard of an ouster proceeding is willful — number one — and then it's clear and convincing evidence, mirror, negligence or because you don't like how I run the office are normally not grounds for an ouster," O'Neal said.
DA Wamp's petition was filed on May 6 and asked the court to remove Halbert from office. The filing said that Halbert consistently fails to turn in monthly reports to the trustee in a timely manner and said there is no legitimate reason for the failure to do so.
"Ms. Halbert's monthly reports are consistently inaccurate with collected dollar amounts not added properly," the petition reads. "The inaccurate reports are impossible for Shelby County government to rely on for purposes of government funding distributions and budget requirements."
The petition alleges that Halbert's reporting became so "untrustworthy," that the Shelby County finance department had to stop submitting the final reports in a timely manner because the inaccuracies were jeopardizing Shelby County budgetary numbers.
"We are very concerned about the pursuit of something that never should've happened," Halbert said Tuesday.
A status hearing about this petition to oust Wanda Halbert is scheduled later this month in Shelby County Circuit Court. In that hearing, a judge could decide whether to suspend Halbert.