Suburbs

There’s been quite a lot of legal action in the suburbs lately.

And a lot of it this week seems to involve name-calling, accusations and public shaming.

North Mississippi reporter Aarron Fleming told us about DeSoto County Schools board member Michele Henley suing DeSoto District Attorney Matthew Barton for defamation after allegedly calling her a “pedophile sympathizer” and saying she was not fit to serve on the Board of Education. According to Henley, those comments were made on social platforms and to news media.

The alleged comments came after Henley defended Lindsey Whiteside, the former DeSoto County coach and youth pastor, who pleaded guilty in 2025 to having a sexual relationship with a teenager. Whiteside is now facing federal charges related to the incident.

On Thursday, Barton responded to Henley’s lawsuit with two filings of his own: One asked that Henley refile her complaint because it does not comply with court procedure. The other asked that the case be dismissed with prejudice, meaning Henley would not be able to refile it in the future.

A few miles north, the Collierville Chick-fil-A matter also took an interesting turn as David Halle, a prominent developer in the suburb, sued Bob Cartwright. Cartwright owns the site northwest of Poplar Avenue and Bray Station Road where Chick-fil-A had hoped to open a restaurant.

Readers may remember that the Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen did not approve the Bray Station site’s preliminary plan and, after a lawsuit, a judge ordered the plan be approved.

The aldermen instead appealed the court’s decision — leading Cartwright to sue the aldermen for contempt of court. In doing so, Cartwright’s suit alleged collusion between a few of the aldermen and Halle.

That brings us to the present, in which Halle sued Cartwright for orchestrating what he called a “smear campaign” against him.

I don’t know Halle well, but there’s no question he’s made his mark on the town. Collierville has even named some of its amenities — like Halle Park, where Town Hall is located; the Robbins-Halle Nature Preserve and the Halle Room at The Lucius E. and Elsie C. Burch Jr. Library — after him.

I also don’t know Cartwright well. He’s declined to comment on the stories we’ve written thus far. However, he sold his family’s land, once a tree farm, to Collierville Schools so they could build a new high school on East Shelby Drive.

So, where are we now? We all know the Collierville Chick-fil-A has to move somewhere because the town has gotten too big for the restaurant to continue at the site it’s been at for 27 years. Halle, who owns the land, even thinks it needs to move — but he doesn’t think the site Cartwright owns is right, either.

As both these court cases continue, we’ll be following them and reporting on how they unfold. - Suburbs reporter Abigail Warren

We hope you enjoy reading the latest news from our suburban reporters. If you’re a Daily Memphian subscriber, we appreciate your support. If not, please sign up for unlimited access to all of our local news coverage.