Smith’s opponent comes forward to refute ‘set-up’ accusations

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One of the two men running against Vian city council member E.O. “Junior” Smith in the June 3 Cherokee Tribal Elections for the District 5 seat says he and his campaign have no knowledge of a “set up” targeting Smith and the controversy in the aftermath of his son’s recent arrest for driving on a suspended drivers license.

“I have not been involved in any of the events leading up to his son’s arrest,” said Uriah L. Grass. “I don’t appreciate him (Smith) using the airtime or local publicity to accuse myself or my campaign as the cause of the event”

Grass added that he does not believe the incident was a “set up,” despite rumors to the contrary and he resents the implication regardless of the source.

“I am not involved in any way with his or his family’s antics,” said Grass.

Individuals who live in the Vian area, who have asked to remain anonymous, contacted Inside Fort Smith on Friday and said chatter in the community was that references to “an investigation” of former officer Lindsey Green and former chief of police Ted Johnson was due to collusion of the officers with “Junior’s opponents” in an effort to make his run for the Tribal Council seat more difficult.

Smith, Grass and Dink Scott are all on the June 3 ballot for the seat which covers a district including Sequoyah and Muskogee counties.

In a televised interview with a local television station last week and in transcribed remarks from a local radio station’s website, Smith gave conflicting statements about how much and when he knew about his sons arrest.

Those statements have been disputed by Green, the former officer who resigned in the wake of the charges being dropped against Josh Smith and rumors that she would be fired.

Smith, in the televised interview, said he did not influence anyone to drop the charges and that Green was “telling different stories on different channels.”

In the the interview he gave the local radio station Smith’s only reference to a “set-up” was when he admitted Green called him after the arrest and “said she thought she had been set up.”

But Smith did make a veiled reference to “there may be something else going on, but I can’t prove it” in the same interview with thee radio station.

Green has moved on to another part-time position with the Webbers Falls police department and has taken a security job with the Cherokee Nation at the Cherokee Casino and Resort in Siloam Springs.