Horseshoe Bend, AR -- Judges on a federal appeals court, taking up a case involving local politicians and UFOs, say a woman's claim that she has a constitutional right to an elective office is alien to them.
Ruth E. Parks, the former recorder-treasurer of Horseshoe Bend, sued Mayor Robert Spear and others, claiming they conspired to prevent her re-election. But the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Saint Louis said voters turned Parks out of office, not the mayor and other defendants.
At a trial of a supporter of the mayor, Parks testified that she believed in UFOs, and said she had seen one. Her husband testified at the same trial that his wife had been abducted by aliens, and cited a scar on her neck he said was proof of the abduction.
The local newspaper, The News, published a story about the couple's testimony. Mrs. Parks did not challenge the article's accuracy but said it was defamatory and designed to make her look foolish. Mrs. Parks finished third in her re-election bid, and then sued the mayor, police, Perkins and the author of the article, claiming a conspiracy. The 8th Circuit said Parks has no constitutional right to be elected.
The Associated Press