Race for Russell County Probate Court Judge Gets Heated

Spirited competition between candidates running for the office of Russell County Probate Court Judge has spilled over into open hostility as supporters of Democrat Belinda Strickland and Republican Kristi Mott have hurled insults and lodged serious allegations against the opposing sides this past week. Strickland supporters have launched an intensive trolling campaign on the official facebook page for the Mott campaign, engaging in a wicked war of words in the comments section of posts where no punches have been pulled. In their zealous advocacy of her political bid, Strickland's supporters have derided Mott as an unqualified, inexperienced outsider who has avoided multiple debate opportunities as well as encouraging fierce attacks against her opponent.

Based on firsthand accounts, boiling points were reached during a campaign event supporting Mott and Republican candidate for Russell County Commission District 7 Brent Comer at Hurtsboro restaurant Mary’s & Mary’s at The City Grill which was held on Saturday, October 12th of 2024. In a post to her personal facebook profile, East Alabama Republican Club Chairwoman Peggy Blackshear recounted the events as follows;

I am sharing this post as a platform to begin my post. As Mr. Perry stated, the Republican Party sponsored this event to invite the residents of Hurtsboro to have lunch & meet Kristi Mott, Republican Candidate for Probate Judge & Brent Comer, Republican Candidate for District 7 County Commissioner. As people were enjoying the delicious food provided by Mary & Mary's, the door opened & in walked the Democratic candidate for probate judge. She walks in goes to the serving line & gets her food. The only reason I am even posting this is because of the bold lies being told by Ms. Strickland. I was informed yesterday that she is telling people she was attacked at this event, she included me by name. I am here to tell you that I have NEVER even introduced myself to her much less "attack" her. Now, did a few people engage her in conversation with some questions, absolutely, people tend to have questions when they cannot get 2 + 2 to equal 4. Also, yes the above poster did have some strong words for her. When you choose to run for office, you open yourself & your past for scrutiny, don't become defensive when some may have questions.

Mott supporter Rick Perry of Hurtsboro provided his own account in a facebook post as follows;

I have seen some ugly action in my time, but today takes the cake. Two politicians running for county election were having a rally at our local restaurant today. One of the candidates opponent walked right into the event and started their spiel to those attending.

I was polite and waited outside until they left and let them know what I thought about them, their heritage and their party.

And unfortunately I called her a Bee with an itch. I’m not proud of that, but I AM NOT apologizing ! Mainly because she is.........

Serious questions have been raised through a number of comments to posts on Mott's facebook page in regards to what has been characterized as Strickland's checkered past which allegedly includes an exhaustively voluminous rap sheet of arrest warrants, criminal charges, mugshots, civil lawsuits, bounced checks, moving violations scofflaw, expired tags, driving with a suspended license and bankruptcy filings which have spanned the past few decades across multiple states including Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Texas. Claims have been made that Strickland has been married three times, with most of these charges allegedly being filed against her under the married name of Belinda May Lang. Unless this is a case of mistaken identity, these legal woes could derail the Strickland campaign in the runup to election day or more ominously come back to haunt her if she is successful in being elected as Probate Court Judge of Russell County. Addressing these allegations should be an urgent priority for Strickland if she is indeed innocent of what she is being accused.

In the interest of vetting these allegations, pubic records from court proceedings in the aforementioned jurisdictions have been confirmed to largely corroborate what has been enumerated above. Below is a brief sampling of relevant court records which are all publicly accessible online for any citizen to see.

Prior to the incident at Mary's & Mary's and the ensuing recriminations exchanged between the supporters of each campaign which brought these allegations to light, the Examiner had been in contact with both candidates in the process of conducting interviews. Ms. Strickland, despite repeated ongoing reassurances of her intent to participate, has failed to respond as of this writing to the same exact set of questions that were sent to her opponent Ms. Mott. In contrast, Ms. Mott replied promptly and even answered a set of follow up questions later on related to her high school graduation and the upcoming election where she shared that she graduated from Meadowcreek High School in Norcross, GA in 1992 and plans on voting for Donald J. Trump as part of the straight Republican Ticket on election day.