THE 74-YEAR-OLD mayor of an Alabama city was attacked by an elderly man on Saturday over an alleged dispute about a sex tape.
Mayor Larry Barton was beaten up with a baseball bat by 71-year-old Benny Green, a former co-host of his TV show, who has now been charged with first-degree assault.
Barton told local news outlet The Birmingham News that he would likely have died had he not fought back against his assailant.
Ain’t no doubt about it. If I hadn’t kicked him twice in the balls I’d be dead. If he had been able to get me out of the car it would have been over.
The pair are believed to have fallen out after Barton reportedly slept with Green’s wife around the time they divorced – an allegation the mayor denies.
Stewart Springer, Green’s former lawyer, told The Daily Beast that their alleged liaison was caught on camera in Green’s liquor store.
From a personal standpoint, I wish he’d done it earlier. You take retribution on them. It’s just the way you do stuff here [in the South]. We like it that way.
No stranger to controversy
Barton, who is about to run for his fifth term as mayor of Talladega, was thrown out of office in 1994 after being convicted of fraud and multiple counts of money laundering.
The part-time barber was found guilty of cashing $5,000 worth of checks made out to a fake tree surgeon.
He served three years in prison before he was re-elected mayor in 2011.
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