On May 15, a Coldwater (Mississippi) business owner who was found guilty in Municipal Court of assaulting one of her clients won her appeal.

According to Tate County Circuit Court Judge Andrew Baker, the prosecution failed to meet the burden of proof that Carolyn McDale, who owns Learning Tree Christian Preschool, assaulted Robin Ragsdale, whose three-year-old son had attended the preschool.

McDale told the Tri-State Defender she had been worried that she would not receive a fair trial because Coldwater’s municipal court judge and its prosecutor are partners in a law firm in Hernando, Miss. She said the charges filed against her were “frivolous and unmerited, to say the least, and the basis for the civil lawsuit that is to follow.”

“We are getting ready to file a suit before we go back to municipal court on June 13,” said McDale, who has since been cited for using a park for a walkathon to support her bid for mayor while running against Coldwater’s incumbent mayor, Jessie J. Edwards. Edwards beat McDale and five other candidates in the May 5 primary.

Edwards received 304 votes to McDale’s 104. He then defeated Gregory Means in the runoff election, 340 to 320.

McDale launched a campaign to unseat the five-term mayor because, she says, “He mistreats Coldwater residents.”

In an interview, the mayor noted that McDale’s attempt to unseat him just didn’t work. “I was re-elected mayor of the town of Coldwater,” he said.

The feud started in January when Edwards would not permit McDale and her supporters to address the Board of Aldermen following her altercation with Ragsdale.

A one-term alderman, Edwards said he didn’t have anything to do with the judge’s decision. He said, “The whole ordeal is about nothing.”

McDale collected 600 signatures on a petition to remove the judge and prosecutor. On Feb. 14, she and several supporters marched down West Service Dr. demanding justice.

McDale said her attorney also is representing two other residents – and 15 others – “who have been wrongfully mistreated in Coldwater.”