CNN Story Tries To Tell Fairchild Tale

(Photo courtesy Delaney Studio)

Finally, CNN's story on the Donna Fairchild murder/suicide has hit the internet.

CNN reporter Ann O'Neill spent some time in Mesquite trying to figure out what many of us have been trying to figure out for months: what happened on the night of Jan. 24.

O'Neill found out the same thing discovered by those of us who were close to the Fairchilds...that while there is plenty of speculation and finger pointing in every direction, we will probably never know what caused Fairchild to think things were so hopeless that killing herself was the only solution.

In O'Neill's excellent story, a few people want to blame me for causing city councilwoman to feel she had no other option.

Did I have a hand in her death?

Of course not.

Donna knew, and I believe her friends did as well, that I was trying to get her side of the story out to the people.  There are two newspapers in our town, and the one I helped found was consistently the one to uncover corruption and political wrongdoing in Mesquite.

O'Neill was absolutely right, this community has had a mean streak for years, long before our newspaper started in 2006.  The difference is, the evil was covered up and glossed over until my partners and I decided that the wrongdoing had to be exposed and stopped.

In just the last 18 months, since our expose's on the local water board, there have been three indictments of high ranking officials, including one who was accused of taking more than a million dollars in bribes.  Had we not dug into the shenanigans, there's a good chance that the corruption would still be going on today.

The city government was also known for playing hide and seek with information, including a refusal to release video on an inmate in the city jail who allegedly hung himself in 2009, and a reluctance to share details and internal reports on a police officer who was fired for allegations of sexual misconduct in 2008.

When I first got wind that there was a move within the city to throw Fairchild off the council over a $94 travel voucher, I immediately contacted her to get her side of the story.  Donna and I spoke regularly.  She was one of only two people on the council I trusted, and I believe she trusted me.

When she explained that she turned in the travel voucher by accident, I believed her.  One thing the CNN story doesn't mention is that Donna was never paid for that voucher.  No check was cashed, no money changed hands, the taxpayers were never out their $94.  It doesn't excuse her error, but it does help reaffirm (in my mind, at least) that she wasn't a crook.  A lot of people would disagree with me.

I spoke to her just days before she killed herself.  In that conversation, she was very upbeat, fierce in her intent to fight the attempt to remove her from the council, and angry that what led to all the uproar was a negative statement she made about the Nevada Development Authority.  She was outraged that she was being targeted for speaking out about the NDA.  In the official council agenda, the $94 wasn't the only issue.  She was also accused of violating the city's Code of Conduct by making the derogatory statements about a board she was on while representing the city.  She felt the attack on her was a violation of her First Amendment rights, an attempt to shut her up. 

I agreed.  In fact, the Editorial I had planned for the coming Thursday edition was going to be about exactly that. 

In our conversation, she didn't sound sad, defeated, or even particularly worried.

I ran the story about the accusations and her response because that's what good newspapers do.  Even though I liked and respected her, I couldn't cover it up and pretend that she wasn't facing a possible expulsion vote on the following Tuesday.

As for claims by others that the anonymous comments which readers posted at the bottom of that story might have "driven her over the edge," I find the idea highly unlikely.

For starters, if you look at those comments (most of which are still online), you would see that most of the comments supported her.

As for the ones that attacked her...I always believed she was stronger than that.  She had withstood worse over the years, particularly after an unfortunate incident a few years before in which she told a citizen complaining at a city council meeting that, "if you don't like it, you should leave Mesquite" during a heated exchange.  (As was her nature, she later apologized to the citizen, and always felt bad about her outburst).

So, why DID she kill her husband and take her own life?

Some believe she was bullied into it.  Bullying often leads to suicide.  To me, it's the only explanation that almost makes sense.

Who did the bullying?  There are plenty of likely suspects, both inside and outside City Hall.  The CNN story hints at a few of them.  But without Donna here to specifically point her finger, we'll never know for sure.

The only thing I DO know for certain is that I wasn't one of them.  In numerous talks with Fairchild friends after her death, they have repeatedly expressed that she didn't blame me for running the story.  In fact, at least one from her circle told me that Donna felt I was "on her side." 

It's tough for any journalist to take a "side" in a story.  But I will say this: I believed her explanation, and I believe to this day that the vote planned for the Jan. 24 City Council meeting was a political move against a potentially strong mayoral candidate and an independent thinker on the council.

Another item that wasn't included in the CNN story:  In April, then-mayor Susan Holecheck received only 20% of the votes cast for the office of mayor in the primary, which meant she never made it onto the General Election ballot in June.

One last thing I wanted to address: I didn't lose my job as a result of the Fairchild death or story.

In fact, in a grand stroke of irony, it was one of the very few times while working for the large company that purchased our newspaper in 2009 that I felt my supervisor actually supported me and had my back.  When one of the individuals named in the CNN story called my boss (something he did with great regularity) and told him that "Fairchild's blood is on Workman's hands," my boss told me that he became enraged and basically told the gentleman to go pound sand.

During the two years I worked for that company, I was constantly in battles with my supervisors because they weren't happy with the controversial stories and hard news I continued to pursue instead of lighter fare and softer features.  I wasn't fired, my two year contract was up.  They wanted to go in a "different direction," and chose not to renew the contract.

Believe me, it was a blessing.

As O'Neill noted, the newspaper is now a much softer and gentler publication.

Which brings us to the final question: Does Mesquite have a "mean streak?"  Is it a wicked place filled with terrible people?

Quite the contrary.

It is a town filled with people who are mostly "from somewhere else."  Like ALL small towns, it has its share of corruption, collusion, "Good Ole Boy" syndromes, and gossip.  Plenty of gossip.   It is a town in flux, still trying to figure out what it wants to be when it grows up.  Part of that flux is the evolution from a small town controlled by a very small group of powerful people to a more inclusive place where everyone can have a say.  The new mayor and new city council have embraced that new approach.  They have eliminated the Code of Conduct, opened up previously secret "technical review" meetings to the public, started moving away from the "anti-business" approach which has hurt this town, and have welcomed input in ways we haven't seen in a long time.  I believe Mesquite is on the right track.

But that only happened because somebody dared to exclaim that the "emperor wasn't wearing any clothes"; someone spoke up and exposed the corruption; someone refused to cover up our ugly warts.

So if Mesquite really is mean, and someone must be blamed, then that someone is me.  I have always believed that you can't solve a problem until you admit there IS a problem.  Mesquite has had a lot of problems, and like every town large or small, will continue to have problems.  The only question is whether those problems will be covered up and hidden so our town won't look bad; or the alternative, which is that the problems will be acknowledged, examined, and corrected.  I always opted for the latter.  If that makes me "mean," I can live with that.

Most people agree, I'm the one who wouldn't shut up about the problems.  I'm the one who kept talking about them, and picking at them.  And I didn't always do it in a nice way.  I guess in some instances, I probably WAS mean.

But not in the case of Donna Fairchild.

The good news is that the former mayor is gone; the majority of city council members are gone; the police chief is gone; the city manager is gone; most of the officials at the water board are gone;

And I'm gone. 

Mesquite has a chance to start over, to resurrect its image as the "Diamond in the Desert" where visitors, daytrip gamblers, senior softballers, and vacationers love to "come for a day, stay for a lifetime."

I invite you to come and find out for yourself.  I'll warn you, the town has some flaws and warts.  But it is also filled with welcoming, wonderful people who are working to make Mesquite better and better.

It's once again becoming a place I believe Bill and Donna Fairchild would have liked.