Anniston councilman arrested, charged in alleged City Hall fight

Anniston, Al.
Anniston City Councilman John Spain was charged with assault in the third degree following Tuesday’s council meeting, after an alleged fistfight with Mayor Gene Robinson in the hallway outside the council chambers.

John Spain

Spain emerged from the city jail about 9 p.m. after being charged, and said that he had acted in self-defense. He pointed to a swollen knot on his arm that was just starting to bruise.
“I grabbed his face just like this to push him against the wall to control him,” Spain said, holding his hands up to demonstrate. “I was trying to control him.”
The incident happened around 7 p.m. as the meeting was ending and the councilmen were giving their final state-ments. Robinson and Spain suddenly got up and left the meeting together, exiting the chambers through the door leading to a hallway to the administration offices. The door has a small window, and shortly after the council mem-bers left, police officers who were standing along the wall near the door ran through the door after them. Someone in the room shouted, “He hit him!”
Immediately there was chaos. People rushed the door to see what was happening.
Spain was the first to re-enter the chambers while the mayor, his shirt untucked, stayed in the hallway. Robinson was laughing.
When Spain came back in the chambers he said Robinson had hit him.
But Robinson denied that. He said Spain was choking him and shoved him against the wall.
“He’s saying I hit him first,” Robinson said. “If I were to hit him, I’d put him in another world.”
The meeting had been a tense one, with bickering beginning in the first fifteen minutes. It’s not the first time the two have leaned back beyond the reach of their microphones and had angry words, Spain said.
“Everybody on the council and everybody sitting out there watching, watched the mayor initiate this with me from the floor,” Spain said. “It certainly isn’t me. The mayor’s threatened me multiple times. The mayor’s asked me out to fight multiple times. This time I just got up and went.”
Anniston Mayor Gene Robinson and Councilman John Spain both went straight from the meeting to the Police headquarters to file charges. Robinson emerged from the station at 7:20 p.m. and said he was heading to the hospital for an injury to his shoulder.
Spain, who was waiting in the station after giving his statement, was called back to the locked part of the station and arrested.
Assault in the third degree is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. The case has been assigned to municipal court, said Lt. Fred Forsythe. The city prosecutor will decide if the venue should be moved to district court, he said. Spain was released on $300 bond.