On Wednesday morning, Hugh King, a no-party-affiliated candidate for Escambia County Commission, District 3, asked the court to grant a restraining order against Lumon May, a Democratic candidate for the same post. Judge Thomas Santurri dismissed the request finding that King’s claims didn’t meet the state statutes.
On Friday, April 6, King was arrested for battery against May that stemmed from a confrontation on March 29 at Zion Hope Primitive Baptist Church at the end of a forum to help children and families cope with the shooting of Trayvon Martin.
At the April 11 hearing in Judge Santurri’s courtroom, King based his request on four points:
1) He felt threatened because May had filed charges against him,
2) The May family has a violent past and they impersonate each other,
3) May stalked him at the event and actually was the one who hit him, and
4) May’s claim that King had pulled a gun on May in a hallway of Zion Hope had put him at risk because now whenever King pulls his hand of his pocket someone might shoot him under the “Stand Your Ground†law.
Filing charges is not a violent act. Judge Santurri told King that even if May had struck him that was not enough to grant a restraining order. King has to prove that there were two separate violent acts committed against him. The judge said also told King that both he and May are political candidates. They both have the right to work the room so May talking to the same people at Zion Hope with whom King spoke was not stalking.
May’s attorney, Eric Stevenson, objected to King’s statements about the Mays impersonating each so the courtroom never got to hear what King meant by that comment. Surely, he wasn’t saying that the Mays all look alike.
On “Stand Your Ground,†the judge made no comment, other than to tell King that when the courtroom security told King to take his hands out of his pockets, they were following court policy. Everyone, even the attorneys, received the same instructions. Judge Santurri assured King that he was not being singled out.